Boards

When it comes down to it, there’s a variety of different snowboards you can choose from and it occurred to me that although this is a snowboarding blog I haven’t talked about the most important aspect of snowboarding…the snowboard itself.

Depending on the type of riding you’ll execute will largely depend on your style and how you ride will also affect the type of board you will be using. If you’re looking to go down in the snow pipes and parks, a freestyle board will be your board of choice. This rigid, light board is designed for use in twin-directions, meaning you can ride it from the front or the back and no difference will be seen.

The racing/alpine snowboard is a longer snowboard and is rather narrow and rigid. These types of boards are designed for with a directional shape, meaning they are intended to be rode in one direction as opposed to two with the freestyle and all-mountain boards. The best conditions to use a racing/alpine board in is when the slopes are freshly groomed by machines. This helps eliminate any imperfections that may otherwise injure or throw a contestant off his course which would totally suck at high speeds.

The swallow-tail board is generally a wider board that has a split running down the tail (backside) of the snowboard. They split tail design allows the tail to sink into the snow lower than the nose, allowing for optimum control of the snowboard and your direction. By sinking the tail end of the board into the snow, the control significantly increases because you no longer have to worry as much about weight distribution as you did before with either the racing board, or the freestyle boards, it’s pretty fun to ride but finding the snow for it can be difficult at times.

Going along with the swallow-tail board, the fish shape board plays a similar role. Although the fish board is shorted and wider, it also has a tapered tail which is designed to eliminte leg fatigue in deep powder. This board is beneficial for when there is almost too much snow to go snowboarding in. As the snow rises, it gets more difficult to manuver your snowboard and you become fatigued more quickly. The fish shape allows for proper weight distribution but again, is usually used for back mountain riding.

Figuring how you wish to snowboard can be a difficult task. For beginners, I would recommend a freeride or freestyle board. These boards are very generic and can help you learn rather fast because they do not have one set function. I have been snowboarding for six years and I still use my freeride board mainly because of it’s versatility. Once comfortable, drop that baby in the half pipe and take it for some tricks. If you’re successful move up to the harder boards and show me up.