So you’ve gone snowboarding a few times and you know it’s an activity that you like, and that you see yourself doing in the future. But you’re sick of shelling out $30 or $40 to rent a crap snowboard and dirty boots for the day. Probably time to buy yourself a board, but there’s so many of them out there, you don’t know where to start. You’re going to drop a few hundred dollars on boots, bindings and a board, but it beats renting. A snowboard can last you a long time, my old board probably has 100 riding days on it since I bought it in 2005, and I think it has a lot of life left.
I’ve previously written about how much you should spend on a snowboard, this time I want to talk a little more detail about what type of snowboard to get if you’re just starting out.
The old problem used to be “freestyle” vs. “all mountain”, but now you’ve gotta worry about whether to go traditional camber, reverse camber, rocker, FK, v-rocker, camber+rocker etc. There’s like 10 different shapes available right now!
Freestyle vs. All Mountain
As far as board types are concerned, for beginners I normally recommend going with a “freestyle” board, as opposed to all-mountain, freeride, or powder specific. Freestyle boards tend to be a little softer/flexible and are more forgiving when you are starting out.
If you’ve gone more than a few times, and are comfortable carving and going moderately fast, you could probably get away with an “all mountain” board, too. They ride a little firmer, handle fast speeds better, but they’re a tad harder to learn on. But if you’re already doing pretty good, that might be a route to consider.
Camber vs. Reverse Camber
I’d recommend sticking with regular camber, if you’ve been renting anything other than high-end demos, you’ve been riding regular camber for now, and there’s no reason to screw with what works for you already. This is the traditional design; when flat on the ground the board’s tip and tail will touch, but the center of the board is slightly elevated. However, some people do think that reverse camber boards are easier to learn on and more forgiving in terms of avoiding the dreaded “catching an edge”. Reverse camber has the board touching the ground in the middle, whereas the tip and tail are elevated. There are many variations on this theme and I can’t cover them all.
A note about “flex” and “damp”
Two terms that you’ll see often when researching snowboards are “flex” and “damp”. “Flex” is the board’s ability to, well, flex, and “damp” refers to the board’s ability to absorb vibrations and chatter, which gives stability at higher speeds. A board that is very damp will be more stable at high speeds and in choppy conditions. Usually there is a tradeoff between flex and dampness. Most freestyle/park oriented boards will have more flex but they won’t be as damp. A free-ride/all-mountain board will have less flex and be more damp.
When to get closeout prices on snowboards
There are still some ’08-’09 boards floating around the interwebs at pretty steep discounts (40% or more). Check the clearance/closeout sections of sites like The-House.com or Dogfunk.com. There will probably be some sales later in the season.
However, I’ve been reading some interviews with a few of the board companies, in 2008 when the economy tanked, most of the companies had produced their 2008/2009 products already, not expecting the recession they overproduced. This year, they all really tried to reduce the quantity of boards they made this year so there will be fewer available on closeout at the end of the season.
If they don’t sell out of this year’s stock, from past experience, some sites will probably start discounting this year’s stuff in March, but if you’re looking to get a board and be able to use it now, that’s probably too long to wait.
