How to choose a snowboard? Choosing a board together with famous riders

While winter spoils us with snow, we don’t miss the opportunity not only to stand in endless traffic jams, but also to ride down the mountain on a snowboard. You need a lot of equipment for this, you need to take into account the temperature conditions and comfort, but still the most important element is the board itself. Moreover, the main snowboarding festival Quiksilver New Star Camp will be held soon at the resort “Rosa Khutor” in Sochi.

这很有趣： from March 29 to April 7, 2019, #newstarcamp will gather mountain, music and sports lovers for the 10th time! Buy participant packages at www.newstarcamp.ru and join the cool atmosphere of one of the country’s largest sports and music festivals. Learn more.

To find the right snowboard, you need to decide on your style of riding first.

Freestyle

This style is for those who love tricks, jumps and riding on the halfpipe. Boards for it are soft and short. The length should be chosen according to the formula “height – 8-10 cm”. If you have a small weight, we take away another 5 cm, if you have an impressive build, we add on the contrary.
The ends of the freestyle snowboard are symmetrical, so that after jumps you can continue skiing both face and back to front.
Another important parameter is flex. For freestyle snowboarding, the “rocker” variant is suitable. The center part of this snowboard touches the ground and the ends are curved upwards. The board becomes more docile and easy to control.

Freeride

Freeride is suitable for those who want to combine skiing from the mountain with some extreme elements. A freeride snowboard should be 10 cm shorter than your height. The previous formula with weight also applies here. The whole center of gravity for such a board is a little bit from the back end
Ideal deflections for freeride are the already known to us “rocker” and “zero deflection”, in which the center part of the snowboard is absolutely flat, and the ends are slightly raised above the ground.

Evgeny Joon Ivanov, Quiksilver rider: This season for park riding I chose Gnu Head Space snowboard – it’s a real classic: twin-type camber with moderate stiffness and unreal design!
As a universal board I choose Gnu Riders Choice – thanks to its lightweight construction and hybrid flex this board is suitable for both park and freeride. This season I’ve already had a chance to ride this snowboard in Siberia, Japan and the Alps.

Eugene Joon Ivanov

Jibbing

The shorter the board, the faster you rotate around your axis. The longer the board, the more stable you will land. Most beginners take soft boards, they are easier to learn on. When the level becomes higher, you can switch to a medium hard camber for a more confident exit from the kicker, as well as a clear hit on the rail.

Artem Pichkhadze, professional snowboarder: “Usually, a board for rails is shorter than the others in the collection. With my height of 186 and weight of 75 I use the following sizes: 151 jibb, 156 park, 158 pipe and big jumps, 159 backcountry, freestyle, 162 freeride and carving”.

Carving

The shape of a carving snowboard is narrower and longer, and the bindings are at an acute angle. A stiff board is ideal for the fast downhills with steep turns that are characteristic of this style. Choose boards with a classic (raised center) flex. The size of such a snowboard should be 15 cm shorter than your height.

Often snowboard manufacturers have special tables where you can find your height and weight and find out what board length you should choose. It can be found on the website or even on the snowboard itself.

The main characteristic of a carve board is cornering grip, and this can be achieved in many ways:

a rigid narrow board, with plastic boots and a special type of binding, where both feet stand approximately +45º (such boards are also used for slalom and boardcross). Due to the narrow board and a special platform – an elevated boot, the leverage on the board is greater and it cuts deeper into the snow, and due to the angle and platform, the boots do not touch the piste in a steep turn;
a board with an extended base and soft bindings: directional boards, dovetails, short and long. They are well suited for freeride and can be a great carve board in spring snow, but on icy piste, they will lose out to all other boards.

Artem Pichkhadze, professional snowboarder: “On classic geometry, for carving, it is better to choose a long board. At low speed, a short board with a combined flex can cling to the spring snow very well, giving you the opportunity to pinch jumps right out of the carve arc”.

But the defining parameters are not limited to board length and stiffness. What else should you pay attention to?

Width

According to this parameter, snowboards are divided into narrow (up to 250 mm in the waist), standard (250-260 mm in the waist, ends up to 300 mm), medium (250-260 mm, from 300 mm in the ends) and wide (waist from 260 mm).

The width is best chosen according to the size of the foot. For owners of a foot larger than size 44, medium and wide versions are suitable.

Materials

As a rule, the core or core of the snowboard is made of wood (beech, ash, poplar, oak, spruce, pine). But with the addition of different materials, it acquires additional properties. For example, due to foam snowboards become lighter and cheaper. And thanks to carbon and aluminum, stiffness is added.

The sliding surface can be made of extruded or sintered polyethylene. The first option will cost you less, but it requires special care and expensive repairs.

Construction

The two main options are cap and sandwich. In the former, the core is covered with a cap at the top and a sliding surface at the bottom. To see if it’s your sport, this board is perfect, but for frequent riding it’s not the most durable option – it can easily split.

A sandwich, on the other hand, will be stronger and more expensive. It consists of several layers, which can be guessed by the name. However, in case of breakage, it will be more difficult to repair it.
Often snowboards combine both options.

Bindings

The most convenient and common options are Strap-in and Step-in. In the first case, you need to unbuckle two straps, insert your foot and fasten the straps, in the second case – just step on the binding. Step in is not very suitable for beginners, as the boots for them should be stiffer and rougher, it will be quite difficult to manage with them.

When choosing a snowboard, you should realize that all these parameters are important for professionals or at least for those who are already confidently standing on the board. For the first skating is enough to use the services of rental, especially in Moscow it will cost you an average of 500r./day. This will save not only your budget, but also time.