Ippy's Snowboard Buying Guide

HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE



A king wanted to teach his advisors a lesson, so he had them blindfolded and brought before them an elephant. He placed them at different parts of the beast and asked them to tell him what it was. Feeling his tusk, one remarked "its a spear!" Feeling the ear, another remarked "Its a fan"... And so they quarreled endlessly, until the king in his kingly wisdom asked them to take their blindfolds off and declared! "You were all right, but you were all completely wrong because you didnt understand how it all works together". The king was a bit of a jerk though so everyone laughed at his stupid and obvious gag in case it angered him and he had their tongues cut out. The moral is this though: if someone with an army makes you look like an idiot, whoop and clap for joy at how witty they are. Anyway...

Introduction:

"Now look at their answers. Some will say that this is a fascinating and touching allegory of the presence of God. Others will say that it is showing people how stupid mankind can be. Some say it is anti-scholastic. Others that it is just a tale copied by Rumi from Sanai – and so on."

Bit pompous for a guide about snowboards eh? I'm not beyond it. I actually enjoy a bit of pretension. But here's what I want to convey about this guide:

If you read it all the way through you will understand how the whole works together. No part of this guide is stand-alone. The reason is very simple: flex for example can be taken as some kind of abstract statement objectively related to the board, and you can go on understanding it like this, resulting in a decent deck for your trouble, but it only tells part of the story. Throughout this guide I will continually drop this line. Not because it's an "out" so I can cover every possible eventuality, but because any one part of this guide impacts on every other part.

Understanding what a directional board is, or whether it has a progressive or radial sidecut, whether it's a camber or hybrid camber deck, or whether its base is extruded or sintered, or if its a stiff deck or a noodle, or whether it has a taper or not, or how you've personally sized it will all tell you a great deal about where this board is going to give you an easy and difficult time of things.

But then again, this 'only tells part of the story'. The quote at the start is thus a warning; even once you understand the metaphor of the blind men/advisors and the elephant, it's still just one perspective :)

The Unified theory of Everything: 90/10

What does 90/10 mean exactly? It means that when you are a beginner, you're going to suck just as much on a $1500 deck as you are on a 10 year old rental deck. It means that when you're very very good, you can just as easily take a tapered powder board in the park and hit some features as well as someone on a specific park board. But don't get hung up on the language. It's not a scientific formula, the numbers indicate only that one side of the equation is maybe a little more important than the other side. It's just a number pulled out of the air after all. Getting the right gear for the job is definitely something you want to be aiming for (and it is of course the very reason you're reading this), but although it helps, understand it doesn't guarantee anything. It just maybe gives you an easier time with the stuff you want to be doing, is all.

For example, riding a rail on a horrorscope is a doddle, but riding it on a fish isn't easy and requires a lot of skill, technique and power just to get on the damn thing... nevertheless it can be done. Riding a noodle on an icy steep will likely have most people washing, but if you're good, you'll have enough skill to pull it off. Sure, you won't be beating your mates down the hill on their freeride sticks, nor will you be winning any rail jams on your fish, but you'll be still pushing the board well beyond what people assume it is capable of (and looking good doing it). The right gear, for the right job helps of course, but it doesn't mean that it's a guaranteed solution to all your problems.

I've mentioned several times that it was through learning on a freeride board that I tightened up my riding. This is only partially true. It was actually learning on an FK board that improved my carving... (And if this is the second time reading this you'll be screaming at me right about now to make some bloody sense and not contradict literally EVERYTHING I've said about reverse camber). But let me explain:

My reverse camber washes. It washes a bit more than I'd like. My freeride doesn't. When I throw out a carve on my artec, it locks in beautifully and rides it all the way to the end with absolutely no problem. I honestly never worry about it sliding out even if the terrain is a mess and I'm being bounced all over the mountain (not that I would be, it just blasts through chop). On the other hand my sierrascope will wash when it's going reasonably quick and hits terrain it doesn't particularly like (it hates chop).

"So how could your sierrascope teach you about carving then?" i hear you sort of ask...

With my freeride, I can do almost ANYTHING and still get a carve from it; no matter what I do, that board is going to lock in on its edge and burn through it. My sierrascope on the other hand, is going to struggle. And it's precisely because it struggles that I stay much more focussed on my technique while I'm riding with a bit of speed. Since I know it will wash if I'm sloppy, I had to tighten my technique and learn new ways to overcome things which I maybe took for granted on my Artec.

Which brings me naturally to the term 'forgiving'...

A Note on thee Perils of Language



You will see this word crop up a lot, and you'll see it specifically within the context of raised contacts and not getting dropped on your face from edge catching. Of course this is important, no one likes to scorpion when they land a bit wrong, or when they get tired and lose concentration. When you drop a 360 and you don't quite hit it, theres no better feeling than knowing you just cheated a face full of mountain and can happily ride away.

But this is only one type of forgiveness. Its specifically the one new people want when they need to try new stuff that involves edge transfer. But, just like everything else, it's only a part of the picture.

Consider what I wrote above about carving. It may sound like I'm laboring the point here, but in fact the more forgiving ride when you are carving is obviously going to be the freeride board. Yet if you took a random poll and asked people to tell you which deck was more 'forgiving' - a soft reverse camber deck, or a freeride, I will take out a huge mortgage to put money on it that people would say the soft buttery reverse camber stick.

Pull back and reveal the "for what" clause (in this case carving and riding chop) and the people you just polled all look like idiots. Whenever you see any universal claim made by anyone understand that it comes with an implied context. 'Forgiving' is certainly useful, but yeah, it only tells part of the story.

Ultimately, every snowboard is forgiving at something. The freeride effortlessly locking into its carves is incredibly forgiving in this area. I don't have to concentrate or work on retaining that edge (though I do when I start to change egdes). It will lock in, I can bounce up and down on the damn thing and it will still lock straight back in. I can pretend to fly like superman on a 70 degree edge and so long as I'm not transitioning to the other edge, I'm going nowhere. It is effortless to get a carve out of it and because of that it is in effect, incredibly 'forgiving'. Try that on a reverse camber deck, and chances are you'll be picking mountain out of your teeth.

Consider then the counterpoint to forgiveness: Stability. Again this guide spends a lot of time suggesting that freeride decks are stable and rocker boards aren't. Understand it's talking about a specific thing even if it does not outright say it. You are going to be much less stable on a rail with razor sharp edges and no real flex than you are with a soft flexing deck with detuned edges. Hit a nick on the rail on a freeride and, technique or not, you're probably in for a painful catch. Again... "stable for what?"

Beware then, of the language and claims made in almost every guide(or person advising you. They are less concrete and universal than they often imply.

I say this not to have you utterly confused, or to make you feel like you're stuck in some kind of relativism loop, but because words like 'forgiving' are seductive, (just like "endless fields of powder" are seductive), and such a seduction may trick you into buying a board that doesn't suit the style of riding you want to do. Everyone wants a forgiving deck, but not everyone wants it be forgiving in the same way. The trouble is, forgiveness carries the implied idea that it is always forgiving compared to the other deck (regardless of what you want to do). Understand that people who build, talk about, review, and describe snowboards are unintentionally lazy and don't necessarily think about how the language can be accidentally misconstrued.

Like 'flex', 'forgiving' is an incredibly useful short-hand term to describe how a board will maybe feel when you ride it, but it is very context dependant. Confirm the context and you will have no problem in establishing if it is the board you really want for the type of ride you want. Indeed this is a great lesson to take with you about all of the language of snowboard marketing. Much of it is very precise and incredibly effective at describing how the board should feel so long as you understand the context. The aim of this guide then, is to give you that context and make sense of the language so you can get the very most out of those technical descriptions.

Conclusion:

- This guide can be read in many ways. You can dip in and out however you see fit. Indeed, there are many summaries (and summaries of summaries) allowing you to bypass a great deal of the detail. However, it is obviously best read through at least one time so you can understand how the whole picture works. - The main intention then is to have you understand your snowboard to help you understand for yourself precisely what you want. - Consider two further things though: Firstly, all boards have something they can do really well, and stuff they can't do so well. There is no such thing as a real genuine do it all board out there, nevertheless, prioritize what you want to do, and you'll find there is a board out there that will help you do it well. - Second: Boards have their dark side. Things which feel effortless don't necessarily make YOU a better rider. Your limitations will become apparent if you sit on a deck that doesn't like that type of riding as much. Nothing improves your technique faster than pain, so boards that aren't forgiving will actually help your riding so long as you can persevere. - So do beware playing solely to the boards strengths. It is very easy to take a rocker on small jumps and try and pull off some 180s because if you screw up the landing it's no big thing, the rocker will probably carry you through. But because it lets you get away with sloppy form, it can hinder you with learning the basics of your spin and how to land on point which can hamper your progression and leave you hitting a wall. - Finally, beware of words like forgiving and stability. They apply to specific things. Sometimes the writer/reviewer will specifically state what they mean, other times they won't. Because no snowboard does everything well, always ask yourself this question "forgiving/stable for what?"

Ippy's Genuine Final Thoughts

I have broken this guide into 11 parts. The introduction and final thoughts are personal interpretations to try and make the information meaningful. This section for example focuses on the 'ninety' part of the equation (the diversity of your gear), whilst the final thoughts focuses a little more towards the 'ten' side of things (the right tool for the job). The rest of the sections are attempts to describe what boards are available and how everything works together to give you the exact ride you want. Finally, because the camber section is very very long, there is a short intermission so you can switch your brain off for a few seconds before dealing with it. I hope you find this guide useful and more importantly, I hope you realise above all else these 2 things:

First this guide should be used really as a SUPPLEMENT to trying stuff out for yourself. If you are lucky enough to have access to different boards, riding them for even 5 minutes is going to give you a far better idea of how they feel than the 4 million hours it takes reading through this guide.

Secondly, (and this may seem a little perverse for a guide that calls itself a buyers guide), but when all is said and done you don't have to buy new gear. Even if a deck gives you a hard time of it, that hard time is still going to be improving your technique. At the end of the day, it's not about the gear, but the time and snow-miles you put into riding. Get on the hill and have a blast and stop thinking too much about your gear. Remember, getting the right gear only accounts for the 'ten' side of the equation. Nothing is more important than strapping in and trying stuff out for yourself.

Guide Contents:

1. How to Use the Guide
2. Step 1: Types of Board
3. Step 2: Sizing your Deck
4. Step 3: The Miracle of Flex
5. Step 4: Board shapes
6. Step 5: The Sidecut
7. Step 6: The Base.
8. Step 6.5: Intermission.
9. Step 7: Camber profiles
10.Final Thoughts
11.Glossary and links.

STEP 2: SIZING YOUR DECK

Introduction Summary:

I could tell you quickly what size board you want by pointing you to a size table, but that would of course be too easy. Instead, I want to explain how size works, and how you can tinker with it to get what you want from your ride. The aim of this section then, is to show you what kind of changes you can expect by shifting your size away from your default all mountain size, and how you can utilize this to get the exact ride of your dreams.

Size Matters

Arguably, what size board should I get? is one of the most commonly asked questions on this site... and with good reason. It's a complicated affair, and more often than not, you'll get more than one answer. This hasn't been helped by the impact of reverse camber and a lot of myths surfacing ('you can ride these shorter than a camber board' for example) going completely against common sense. It creates an unclear and confusing picture for the first time buyer, so not only will this section give you a nice handy size chart to work out your deck size, it will also explain the consequences of sizing up and down so you can understand what assumptions the person advising you is making.

There is also a strong trend to sizing down. If nothing else, I want to get you on your right size and give you reasons why this trend is based on only one side of the equation so YOU can decide for yourself if riding a 158 when your 175 is "too much board for you". (it's definitely not by the way :)).

One last thing: if anyone tells you that the right size board for you is one that comes up to your chin, then ignore everything else they say. Height is not the basis of finding the correct size board for you - it's impact is way off. Really, it is based almost entirely by your weight.

The SPENSER principle:
(i'm fairly sure he's going to hate the name :))

When I was trying to buy my new board, Spenser made this point about the indoor FK: He uses the 158 for his all mountain freestyle size (category 4), and was thinking of dropping the deck to a 152 or 154 (I believe) for a nice stable park deck (category 2). I however put the Indoor FK in category 3 (all resort decks). None of this is incorrect, and you may be thinking "well, which one is it? 2, 3 or 4? And you would be misunderstanding the point I'm making. It can be ALL THREE depending on the size you go for. This is why people size up and size down all the time. It's also why even something in category 5 (freeride) like the BSOD can just as easily be put in category 4 or hell even category 2 if you like a nice aggressive park ride. You can tailor boards in a hundred different ways to get the precise ride you desire, and even decks you wouldn't even think of, can be turned into a completely different type of deck purely based on the act of sizing up or down.

The important thing to realise then is that size can play a crucial difference in tailoring your ride to get the precise performance you want from your deck. EVERYTHING is just a starting point at the end of the day, and that's why buying a snowboard is a more complicated business than it might seem initially.

To be on the safe side though, pick the deck style you want (you want category 3 by the way :)), and find the size that puts you as near to smack bang in the middle of the weight limit on the following table. This way you'll likely get the type of ride suggested in the previous post without worrying that maybe you're making a mistake. So without further ado, here's the table.


What size board should you ride?

Well, Ive spent a great deal of time trying to find an image I could nick that would give you some idea of what size to ride. I HATE trying to line things up manually, so this is the best (and possibly only) one I've found. It also conveniently comes with an addendum on your foot size and its relationship to waist width answering the question on whether you want a wide board.

As it says though, the height thing is just a general outline, really it's ALL about your weight.


(image borrowed from http://www.basenz.com)

But lets confuse matters a little.


(NB: 2 more sizes that were cropped:
210lb (95kg)     166cm     161cm
220lb (100kg)   167cm     162cm)

This chart gives you a more ballpark figure between your freestyle and freeride size. As you can see then you have a bit of scope to play about with. Ideally, your freestyle size is a little smaller than your all mountain size and your freeride size is a little bigger. So we can use the two charts in conjunction to get a general sense of where we should be.

Now take me for example: I am 160lbs (and 175cms).

The first chart puts me somewhere between a 155 and 158 for all mountain, and the second puts me somewhere between 156 and a 161. I reckon that gives me a size somewhere around the 158 mark. If I'm on a reverse camber deck, I'd probably add a couple of cms as well just to give me a bit more edge (more on this later).
From this I can add or subtract a few cms to give my freeride and freestyle sizes. I'd say it's around 154 for freestyle (again, i prefer stability over spinning and pressing), and about 160-162 for freeride. Pretty straightforward eh.

Just use the two charts in conjunction and you'll have a fair ballpark figure I think that you can work with for your all mountain size. Then its just a case of adding a few cms for more stability, or dropping a few for a park ride.

A Brief note on Reverse camber:

In truth, I genuinely believe that when you factor in reverse camber into all this, things start getting even more murky.

You're riding with less effective edge and this creates stability issues when you're charging. The strange thing is, I often see people talking about sizing down these decks, and to this day I don't understand why. As I say, if you're all about park, sure, size them down. But if you want to have a versatile jack of all trades deck, if anything you should be sizing these decks up a smidgen (just a centimetre or 2, nothing huge), or at least keep them at your exact size.

Sizing down means 1. Less area to weight which alters the flex pattern and hence stability; and 2. Less effective edge which alters stability. This is why reverse camber decks tend to wash. They aren't really built for grip in the first place, but when you factor in that people think they should size down on these decks, it naturally pushes you a little down that category list a bit :)

I think this myth comes direct from the days you'd size up for powder and freeride and down for park on your camber deck. What I think happened was that the advantage of powder riding with reverse camber led people to the conclusion that you no longer need to size up for your freeride stick. the trouble is that stability kind of fell by the wayside in teh equation. So people accidentally came to the conclusion that because you had a powder board that was also great for park, you no longer needed to size up. Throw in some of the tech on sidecuts (vario, magnatraction, frostbite), which allow the board to 'grip' by adding more contact points and things become more complex. If the board has a generally normal sidecut (progressive or radial) with no fun kinks to it, and your deck is reverse camber, my advice is you size up a cm or 2 for stability.

You know what they say about people with big feet? ... big shoes!

Here is an an invaluable piece of advice someone gave me, (i wont mention his name unless he doesn't mind) and I'm going to pass it on verbatim (not least because it means I can stop typing :)):

Men size 8 to 10. Waist width between 24.8 and 25.5 Men size 10-11.5 25.3 to 26cm Men 12 and larger 25.9cm+ Reverse Camber Boards: I have found that waist width is not as important on these boards for a couple reasons: 1. They do not offer the same level of turning performance than a board like the custom x. Therefore riders are more prone to slide tuns instead of carve turns on extreme edge angles. 2. You see than most reverse camber boards are wider than their cambered counterparts. In summary, a rockered board with 25.5 waist works for many more shoe sizes, like 8 to 11. If a guy has a low profile or small footprint boot, like a burton ion, you can assume it is 1 size smaller. Ex: size 11 ion= size 10 32 boot.

If you're below a size 10 US, chances are you're going to fit almost every board out there. But we don't all have pixie feet, some of us have proper feet, and this is a little outline of what kind of waist widths those people are looking at. That being said, understand this really is the vaguest of guidelines. If you have larger feet and can ask someone to measure the board at the INSERTS and including stance options to check for possible overhang.

Anyway, i think that's pretty much everything on the second part, so hopefully we can pop on to the other bits now. I possibly wrote a great deal more than I expected... not exactly a surprise when it's me though.

Final thoughts on Size: TL;DR

- finding your all mountain size opens up many possibilities for you. - By adding or subtracting 2-5cms from your all mountain size you can find your 'freestyle' size and your 'freeride' size. - BUT understand this is really just a guideline. Again, don't get hung up on the terminology. To know why you add and subtract, you need to understand how sizing up and down impacts the ride. - Altering your board length has two consequences: 1. It alters the flex of the board by changing the weight/area ratio AND by changing the stance width and thus the turning force required (shorter boards usually have smaller maximum stance widths) to get the board pressing and on edge. 2. It shortens or lengthens the effective edge (the edge making contact with the snow in a turn), which impacts on the boards stability at speed. - Size MATTERS. Grasp how it works and you can understand how to turn your category 3 board into a faster turning, pressier park rat deck or into a big mountain freestyle shredder.

STEP 4: BOARD SHAPES

Introduction Summary:

There are primarily four different shapes you'll find on most mainstream snowboards. In this section you will learn how the shape of the board works to provide a specific set of advantages and disadvantages. Shape is CRITICAL to your final ride and is a really strong contender for one of the most important decisions you can make. A true twin won't really ride like a directional board and hence it won't be your main go to if you're all about charging. Likewise, you'll rarely find a directional board in the park. The interesting thing is that the section 3 decks don't really have a dominant shape. You'll find all shapes covered and though this is true for the other sections, its really only here that no shape dominates. The all mountain freestyle decks (section 4) are more often than not directional twins, and the section 5 and 6 decks are often directional. Finally, the park boards (sections 1 and 2) are almost always true twins. This means that understanding your board's shape really is a great way to deliver the ride just how you want it.

Of all the sections this is possibly going to be the shortest and also the simplest to follow. Effectively there are 4 types of deck out there so it's not too big a deal to grasp. (I'm going to steal the images from the one place because nothing explains things better than a picture).

Type 1: True Twin/Twin



Imagine if you will, there is a line going north to south through the centre of the deck. If you measured from the far left tip to the centre it would be the same distance as the far right tip to the centre. It would also have the same flexibility in the tail as the nose, and the inserts would be equidistant from the middle. Basically each side is the mirror of the other. And that's pretty much the sum of it :) The big advantage of these decks is you can ride them in switch just as you would in regular. Obviously then these are the best boards for anything involving spins in the slower/smaller features in park - such as rails/boxes, and small jumps (category 1 and 2). It's also a really nice shape for cruising the resort and just mucking about on natural features. Thus, a great many of the decks in the ALL resort section (3) are also true twin.

Type 2: Directional



Cut one of these in half in the same way (smack bang between the inserts) and youll find a few things: first, the tip-to-centre is likely longer than the tail-to-centre. These decks usually have what's known as a 'set-back'. A set back means the front of the board has a bit more area than the back. This provides the board with a bit more float.

Second you'll find the tip is often softer than the tail and the angle at the side (the sidecut) is often more extreme at the tail than at the tip. These two things combined result in two things:

1. little resistance at the start of a turn. You can get on your edge easy to change your direction.

2. An AWESOME transfer of power at the end of a turn. Think about it this way: when you go into the start of a turn you want a soft resistance, but as you're moving through the turn your force is getting pushed into less and less area. The stiffer tail plus a *progressive* sidecut (the sidecut is designed for the progression in a turn) helps absorb that pressure allowing you to have a smooth perfect turn without things feeling bulky or washy.

This means that directional boards perform better riding in one direction rather than the other, hence they aren't really the best for tricks or park features and landings. These things are ultimately for big long turns, stability, and speed. You won't really find them so much in categories 1, 2, and 3. But you will in the others.

Type 3: Directional Twin



The central aim of the directional twin is to allow the versatility of the twin shape, with the power of the edge transfer from the directional board. They are usually twin shape and more than likely will have a soft variation (symmetrical) of a progressive sidecut, but for more freestyle focus, they will have a deep radial cut. Also likely the tail will be a little stiffer than the tip. Naturally they'll ride a little more effectively one way, but for the most part won't feel too different. If you want a deck then that handles speed, carves, take offs and landings on either foot, then likely this is what you want. These decks are for bigger feature freestyle action and for the most part sit in category 4 (though you can also find them in 2 and 3).

They are aggressive rides for people who want to get a bit more performance and speed in their run ups, or want a bit more power coming into a spin leaving the vert of a pipe.

Type 4: Directional POW:


(tiny image :))

Take a directional board, add a taper (more width at the nose than the tail), give it a bit of a setback, and make the sidecut gigantic (but progressive) and you have your tapered powder stick. Pretty much all the decks in category 6 are tapered powder boards. Their single reason for being is float in powder. You ride these things for the most part in one direction and you get buzzed off it. That's about all there is to say on them. They have one function and they are built almost entirely to deliver that function in spades.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

As you can see the movement pretty much goes from true twin through to directional Pow. Which one you should buy is pretty much restricted to what you want to do, but in summary. Hence if you want a simple easy forgiving ride that gives you easy switch riding and an easy time on the smaller park features (as well as cruising the resort), you probably want to go with a twin. On the other hand if you want to open up the mountain a bit more and fancy hitting up a few of the larger lines out there, and don't mind the deck feeling a little different in switch than regular, then grab a directional twin. Like twins these are pretty forgiving rides for the most part, but they can be a little spikier than their counterparts the true twin.
Finally, If you want to progress into carving and back country and don't care all that much about tricks or riding in switch, then obviously you're looking at a directional board.
Really, if this is your first deck, you can't go wrong with any of the shapes (other than pow of course), but if you want something a bit more technical and aggressive then verge towards a directional, and if you want something looser, more playful, and forgiving, head towards a twin.

Final thoughts on Shape: TL;DR

- There are 4 Primary shapes to your snowboard. - They are: True Twin; Directional Twin; Directional; and Tapered. - True Twin boards ride the same in either direction, regardless of which foot you lead with, thus they are great for all aspects of park riding as well as also cruising the resort. - Directional boards often come with a more complex flex pattern (with a softer nose and stiffer tail), a setback, AND a progressive sidecut. These boards are great for stability and powering through your turns so make great charger decks when you want to blast through less than perfect conditions. - Directional twins cover the midway point. There is a lot of variation, but they're often twin in shape, but have flex patterns and stance options of directional decks. Naturally they make great decks for when you want to hit some of the bigger features, like the great unknown, or even the more sedate 30 foot kickers and pipe. - finally, if you want a powder board, you want a taper. It's the top of your considerations. If your pow board doesn't have a taper, you're doing it wrong.

   

STEP 6: THE BASE

Introduction Summary:

The base is often one of the last considerations when you purchase a deck. But really it should be right up there at the top. The reason is simple, each base comes with a different level of maintenance and cost associated with it. Even if you don't really care about how it rides or how fast it bombs the snow, both price and maintenance are important considerations. If you're lazy you may find sintered bases, even if they end up costing the same, end up being more hassle than they're worth. Though you'll likely get a great ride regardless of the base you choose, the reason this section exists and isn't just a glossary note is because maintenance really is something that people might overlook when they run out searching for "the best!" tech. Stop for a moment and answer this question honestly: "can I really be bothered spending ten to twenty minutes scraping my wax off and buffing my board every second day i go riding?" Your answer will definitely tell you about your priorities and what base you want on your deck.

There are effectively two types of base, and although you don't need to know how they're made I'll tell ya!:

Extruded Base:


Capita Stairmaster

[Tech]Extruded bases are made via a rapid process of melting polyethelene and then squeezing it out a press creating a thin film which is attached to the base of your deck.[/Tech]

Because of the speed of the process the molecules don't fuse and bind so well, so although it is cheaper (and quicker) to make on a massive scale, the result is less impact resistance, less water resistance, and finally, extruded bases have very poor wax absorption properties. They are however relatively cheap and easy to repair.

Sintered Base:


Capita Stairmaster Extreme

[Tech]Sintered bases on the other hand are created by a much slower low pressure melting process which fuses the molecules creating a more rigid, durable material out the other end.[/Tech]

This technique results in small microscopic gaps which absorbs, holds, and then ultimately release the wax while you ride. This creates a super fast, semi-frictionless surface. It also creates a much harder surface able to withstand a greater diversity of impacts and gouges. It is however more expensive to repair.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT TO YOU?

The reason I mention the base at all is because it is a significant decision for anyone thinking about buying their first deck. It's not just for the obvious reason of performance though, Sintered bases outperform extruded in every way. If it was a straight choice based on performance alone, sintered wins hands down: they're faster, they hold more wax, and they are less prone to core shots and taking serious damage. It's no contest. And don't be fooled by the conventional notion that park = extruded. It's not. Park, just like anywhere else on the mountain requires performance. No matter where you are on the mountain, sintered is better. So why is there even a debate here? It's pretty clear cut? :?

Well, naturally, no. It comes down to two other things: Cost and Maintenance.

Sintered bases are obviously more expensive to manufacture, and because the technology and performance is usually more desired by advanced riders, a deck with a sintered base IS going to run at a premium compared to its comparable extruded deck (such as the stairmaster and stairmaster extreme above). Also if you're new, you probably don't exactly require a sintered base to fly off your baby jumps or slide on those big flat boxes in the park. Obviously you'll find a year or two down the line you'll be glad you grabbed a sintered deck, but then again in a year or twos time your snowboard might be down in your basement behind two years worth of crap never to be seen from again (kinda like my freebord and mini-mal).

So that leaves the big one:

Maintenance:

I've already mentioned one crucial thing: extruded bases are easier to damage, but they're also incredibly easy to fix. You can do it yourself.

Although sintered bases can be repaired in the same way, it's often a temporary fix. To really fix a decent gouge on sintered deck, you'll likely need someone to do it professionally for you. So very simply: Extuded bases are easy to damage but very easy to repair; Sintered bases are tough to damage, and more difficult to repair.

The second thing to consider though is WAXING.

If you want to hit the slopes without any bother, buy an extruded deck. They are really low maintenance. Give them a spray wax every now and again and you're good to go.

Sintered bases on the other hand EAT wax (or rather they leak it). The pores store the wax, and with contact with the snow at around the right temperature, the wax slowly releases out from those pores giving you that speedy awesome performance. The difference between an unwaxed sintered base and a waxed one is staggering. You simply cannot ride a sintered deck when it needs a wax, you'll just get really frustrated. Thus, they require a wax around every two or three days you go out. And not just a quick wax, no no, that's just a stopgap. They want a good solid proper hot wax. And this means one thing: SCRAPING. At 8am before your coffee, every 3 days at least. A sintered base requires a LOT more TLC.

Final thoughts on the Base: TL;DR

- There are two types of base: Extruded and sintered. Sintered bases offer better performance, but require more effort to maintain, (as well as coming with a higher initial price tag and possible higher repair costs). Extruded bases require much less maintenance, and also are quick and easy to repair, but they often give a poorer level of performance. Decide what your priorities are and the question pretty much answers itself. - If you're inherently lazy and want a low maintenance, easy to throw around and repair, and above all cheap deck, go with extruded. - If on the other hand, you don't mind a bit of graft in the morning, don't mind spending a bit extra, and if you want the fastest, strongest performance from your base, go with a sintered base. - If you want a REALLY high level of performance then go with a graphite infused base. But I'm not getting into that one!

STEP 7: CAMBER PROFILES

Introduction Summary:

It's funny to think about camber. The reason why is this: If i wrote this guide a mere 3 or 4 years ago, this section would be about, ooooh... [--------------------------yay big----------------------]. I would have told you about how camber creates pop through loading, and maybe a bit about contact points, and that would have been pretty much it. Instead it's one of the longest sections of the guide. Is it justified? Well maybe not. Camber is clearly in fashion right now. And yet, it's no more or less important than the shape, sidecut, or flex pattern of your deck. You could easily be forgiven for believing that once you decide your camber profile you will end up with the board of your dreams... It might of course be true - just as it might be true that if you measure the size of your board according to whether it comes up to your chin you'll be on the correct size - but you shouldn't count on it. Thus the aim of this introduction is to offset the huge discussion of camber with a bit of common sense. Obviously you want the right camber for your deck, and I want to help you get it by explaining what your options are and how to choose amongst them, but you shouldn't be sacrificing everything else for a specific camber profile. Every camber profile will bring advantages to your ride, but they'll also bring problems you'll need to overcome. There is no one camber that does it all, they all have drawbacks... even bataleons TBT might possibly suck at something (though I'm honestly not sure what :)). I guess the point is this: do keep a healthy does of scepticism. Sure, your camber profile will often provide a totally different feel to your ride, but so will every other decision you make in buying a snowboard at the end of the day. Camber isn't everything despite how much the hype machine might suggest it is. (PS. Paid up member of the hype machine!)

   
Camber and You

Of all the sections of the guide, this is going to be filled with the most accidental errors. Even suggesting that reverse camber is loose or 'skatier' in its feel will result in a few people bashing me on the head to say it feels perfectly fine thanks. The trouble here is that when I come to explain the pros and cons I'm dealing with not entirely objective facts, but rather a difference in 'feel' for the ride. This is why this section can not be answered by reading this thread alone. As the two time Olympic Halfpipe silver medalist, Soren Kiekegaard remarked 'you just have to try it out and see if you like it'.

Actually this applies to really everything in this guide, but nowhere is the debate as furious and polarizing as it is about reverse camber so I throw in the qualifier now. If you want to really know if camber (or reverse camber) is better for you, you strap in, ride it and see how you like it.

That being said, this won't stop me trying to stoke you on switching to reverse, (nor will it stop me from reminding you why camber is awesome). This is a guide, and the point is to give you as much information as I can, even when the subject matter is furiously debated. Take heart though, I am nothing if not as undecided about it all as you probably are :)

Regular Camber


(images borrowed from transworldsnowboarding).

What is camber and how does it work? Well, it's rather simple: the board arches up in the middle at rest, then when you stack your weight on, the pressure is pushed towards the point where the arc pivots at the tip and tail of the board. These are your boards contact points, and the shape of camber is designed so that the pressure goes directly onto these contact points. This results in your boards grip when riding on edge or turning. Most boards have 2 contact points on each edge caused by the curve which keep you locked in on a turn.

A second feature is something called 'loading the camber'. If you push all that weight onto your back foot, the contact stores all that force in that one spot (the pivot point - the contact). Thus, when you release this pressure (for example in a jump), the board springs back to its original shape. How powerful that spring is, often determines a boards' 'pop'.

That's pretty much it. Camber boards have two big things going for them: stability and pop.

Reverse Camber



Rocker boards come in many variations, indeed my sierrascope (capita indoor FK), is zero camber (flat between the inserts) but then kicks up raising the contact points off the snow. In a sense then its a reverse camber board, but it looks only a little like that picture; though functionally its reasonably similar.

Some key things to note is that when you step on one of these, your weight is spread from the central pivot across the board, but unlike with camber, there is no real resistance at the tip and tail creating your contact point. It wants to snap back to the pivot in the center of the board. This means 2 crucial things: you do not have the same grip you have on a camber board because pressure is not forced into your contacts and secondly, you cant load it. When you jump then, a lot of the force comes from YOU and the power of your own two legs.

But that's not why you want one of these. Imagine if you will 2 decks. They have the same shape, same flex, same everything, but one is camber and one is reverse camber.

What you will find is that because the reverse camber has raised contacts, it doesn't feel as 'catchy', so its a lot more forgiving. If you are a little off on your landing, or your weight isn't quite where it needs to be in a turn, (or you're just happy bombing the mountain on the flat part of your base), the lifted contacts mean you'll likely get away with it. This means one very important thing: no more edge catching and no more scorpions (well, not exactly true, but let's just say the threshold for them is much less than on a camber board).
For a person new to snowboarding a more forgiving ride means a less vicious learning curve, less broken wrists (why aren't you wearing wrist guards!!!!), and quicker earlier progression. All of this spells one thing: F.U.N.

The second thing is that the board is in a pre-press position. This has three effects. The first and most obvious one is that you don't have to work so hard at presses making them great for rails and boxes. The second effect (mentioned briefly above) is that instead of riding your edges ALL THE TIME, you can just cruise on the base of the deck without fear of a catastrophic edge catch. You just don't have to be on point so much (which is why a lot of these boards have the subtitle "hangover friendly").

The third effect is the impact it has on flex. Even though these two imaginary boards are the same in every detail, including their 'flex'. The reverse is just going to *feel* a lot more flexible. EVEN THOUGH IT ISN'T!!!
This is really important for one reason. Reverse camber boards have stability issues (you can probably see that already just from reading the part on effective edge, flex, and it's design), stiffer boards naturally offset that. But reverse camber offsets the lack of forgiveness with a stiff board by being in that pre-press position. It's almost having your cake and eating it.

But it isnt. :)

Camber Versus Reverse Camber?

Well now you can probably see for yourself the advantages and disadvantages of both. Camber offers more stability, it feels more locked in on turns and ESPECIALLY turns at speed, it also can be loaded so you can use the board to get spring (something you can't really do so well on reverse camber). This means if you LOVE jumps and the pipe for example, you might want to hit up a camber deck.

But if you aren't on point, you're likely screwed. SO if you love jumps, you probably want to be on a reverse camber because these boards are forgiving, offer quick fixes to progression issues, and they give you buckets of confidence to try new things. And did i mention?... Throw in the raised nose and you have a POW machine as well. These are the noob friendly all resort killers! You get an easier time of it EVERYWHERE. Its fun on a stick. Sure they have stability issues, and sure they can't charge as well, or leave beautiful pin like tracks behind them (for most people), but well, that's not what they're about. They are about you having a stab at everything and not feeling bored or hemmed in.

But let me tell you a story.

All last year I was on my sierrascope. I LOVE that deck, sure it washed, and yeah, it hates chop, and sure it does get thrown around a lot from the terrain, but oh, the fun we had!

On my last day of the season, as a nice present to my mate riding his lame ass head true deck (151 i think) with his crappy bindings, I wanted to let him get a feel of what a fun board was like, so we swapped out. Naturally he loved it. But the surprise was, so did I.

I'd spent a year on reverse camber, so I expected coming back to camber was going to involve twitchy edge catching, and an all round lame ride. I was completely wrong. I got this sudden (and rather novel) feeling that I was completely locked in on my edges. So as an experiment I started opening it up expecting a disaster (remember, this board is WAY too small for me). It was honestly incredible to have camber under my feet again. Turns felt springy and fun, and my edges felt completely locked in. I was seriously bombing.

The biggest thing was this though:

I never realised I was holding back on my scope. A few too many washes meant that I'd (without realising it), decided where the boards limitations were, and rode it up to that point and no further. Well naturally the first thing I did when I got back on my scope was to open it up... And so, I spent the afternoon washing.

I tried sitting lower, I tried being less feisty, but it kept bringing me back to that same conclusion. It was the design. Sure, an extra few cms would have made all the difference and I'm sure that would have given me much more stability, but I didn't have that. I was on a 156 and even this 151 budget camber deck with AWFUL no name brindings just rode way cleaner. Don't get me wrong, the scope outperformed it on almost everything else, but this one thing stuck with me. So the next day, I went out and bought the Quiver Killer because I knew what I really wanted was a much more aggressive ride at the end of the day.

I tell this story to not only illustrate the differences between the two styles of ride, but so you can understand this: If you never get on a camber deck in your life, you will never feel what you're missing and vice versa. There is no right and wrong answer at the end of the day. Each board comes with its own plus points, and its own minus points. There is no quiver killer out there... well, except the quiver killer. :)

Every board you buy will trade off some things for other things. When you take your scorpions like a man, you learn from the sheer memory of screwing up not to screw up again. This in turn makes your riding tighter and the confidence from this allows you to ride that edge more aggressively. Your turns will be longer, your control will be sharper, and you'll feel more on point. Finally you will smash through almost all terrain. You are not nature's bitch. Hence these decks encourage you to go into steeper, gnarlier terrain because you are completely in control of your edge and thus the ride.

On a reverse camber deck, you'll get bounced around a bit more, and you'll get thrown about a bit, and you'll wash, and you'll ride with a looser edge and shorter radius turns. At speed you'll likely sit lower down than a camber deck just because you'll have to and you'll likely reign it in a little bit more because you likely have to. But when you find that sweet spot of what the board can do, and how you can control the board, again, you can ride anything you like. Amazing isn't it :) Fancy charging that ridiculous line up there? Likely you're not beating your mate on his freeride down, but you'll look more stylish doing it :)

Understand though, its not necessarily because reverse camber automatically makes you stylish. But because while your mate was putting his snow miles in to doing what his board does best (charging big lines and launching off kickers), you were also likely putting your snow miles into what your board does best - namely a bit of everything with a freestyle lean. You'll have been hitting boxes and trying your ground tricks long before your mate will have, and you'll have been encouraged by your successes (way more than your mate will have), to do it again and again. It's just the way it works.

Ultimately, it doesn't really matter. Neither is better at the end of the day. Both offer good points and both have weaknesses that you, the rider, will learn to compensate for. Indeed, it was learning to charge on a washy board that taught me invaluable techniques for getting even more out of my camber ride. It is in fact the weaknesses of the deck that teaches you how to overcome them and get the absolute most of it. No matter what the drawbacks are, you will overcome them and be able to ride anything you like no matter what you learn on. You'll learn to carve faster and control your edges on a camber board, but you'll get a faster initial learning curve on almost anything you try outside of that on reverse camber.

So if we pop back to the schemata on the first post we have an idea of where this stuff sits. Camber boards, because they are for longer lines, more aggressive feisty springy edge movements, and all round unknown terrain dominator's, tend towards freeride (categories 4 and 5). You will however find them EVERYWHERE in the line because it is tried and tested for performance all over the mountain - the stairmaster being a great example of camber still flying the flag in the park.

On the other hand reverse camber tends to die out after category three. They are awesome soft jibby boards, they also make incredible 'do it all' boards which is why you'll find many of the decks in category three (all resort freestyle), are reverse camber. They offer a forgiving, gentle, varied, and above all fun ride, which is why they are fantastic choices for people who don't really know what they want to do. They complement the jack of all trades boards fantastically.

But why do they die out at section 3: There is a reason for that though and we haven't touched on it yet.

Hybrid Camber

Much like a directional twin, sometimes you want to have your cake and eat it too. Sometimes you want a nice deck you can load, but thats still capable of gliding across some nice fresh pow. Well, this might be what you're after. I, however have no real life experience of this, so if I mention anything about the 'feel' of this, know I'm purely making a conjecture.

Actually, let's not make a conjecture. Let's add the direct opinion of everyones favourite tech-guy, spenser on the matter:

youve got two basic kinds of rocker/camber combos.

Mervin:C2 Banana Power; NeverSummer:R+C; Burton:Flying V; Nitro: Gullwing

   

The first is what you described with neversummer, flying v, and c2. rocker between the feet, and it goes back to camber around each binding, but overall the tips are still lifted when the board is unweighted. riding-wise, i personally like this style more for a true performance hybrid. They still feel playful like rocker in the middle, but you also get full edge contact with the cambered areas because they press into the snow when you stand on the board. Finally, you also get pop from camber on each tip like normal. it nails all the aspects, in my opinion.

Nidecker, Yes, and Jones: CamRock and Capita:Freeride FK

The other main hybrid is the exact opposite: camber in the middle with rocker after the bindings. I have ridden this as well, and while I do like it, I don't feel it offers as much as the other design. You get camber in the middle for carving, but without full edge contact, also the camber does nothing for pop. Overall i feel like c2/NS/flying v/etc offers more than the other design. [In summary], if you just want a loose playful board that floats well and you just want to mess around on, the camber-middle/rocker-tips hybrid [camrock] might be for you... but if you want a performance-oriented hybrid with the power, pop, and edge hold of camber, AND the float and playfulness of rocker, then rocker-middle/camber-tips [C2/R+C] is probably for you.

This is a very neat comparison on how those two feel which I honestly couldn't give you from my own personal experience. It should not only help illustrate the performance you can expect, but also how successfully the two styles achieve their goals. It should be noted, their goals aren't necessarily the same. The C2/R+C design seems built for more aggressive riding across deeper and more complex terrain and in a sense overcome the limitations of both camber (float and forgiveness) and rocker (stability and pop). The camrock design on the other hand, seems to be more akin to a slightly aggressive rocker design. Rather than trying to give you a board that solves the cmaber/rocker problem like the R+C design, camrock attempts to give you a standard raised contact surfy feel rocker design, but with a bit of camber to complement it. In a sense then, they aren't trying to deliver the same thing, so it would be unfair to judge them based entirely on their capacity to create a true hybrid design.

With that in mind, hybrid camber decks extend across the entire flex range and shape range, so it would be nothing short of bizarre for me to say that a twin with a 4 for flex and C2 is going to ride more aggressively than a 7 on the scale directional Camrock deck. The camber profile isn't the final word on how the board rides after all. As with everything else, it's only a part of the picture.

If you are looking at a hybrid though, naturally they are going to work pretty well in category 3 and 4. But also a lot of decks in freeride are moving towards hybrid camber precisely because they do give that perfect combination of float, stability, pop, forgiveness... and well, fun. Sure, it's not at a point that it can beat a camber deck for solid control (I assume, of course), but we are still in the first couple of years of all this, and the tech has gone crazy in that time. Sit tight and you might find hybrid moved out of the high end charging type decks, and into beginner decks. It's radical times and if the price (and flex) starts falling, expect hybrid to be at the forefront of the game in the next few years with rocker and camber consigned to the niches. (Hehe, why not say something controversial after 6 pages?)

Powder Rocker



I love explaining powder boards, and the reason for that is they are so EASY. Everything in a powder board is built to maximise float and make you glide over the top of 10 foot stashes. Just look at it. Did you? Now you know everything there is to know about it. :) Mad float at the front, and a tail at the back for your weight to get a grip of the snow. There you go: powder rocker. Camber at the back. Rocker at the front, f*** yeah bro!

Zero Camber



Last but not least (because rook reminded me I didn't mention it), is zero camber. Again, I haven't ridden one of these (Flatkick raises the contacts so although its a flat base I assume it's nothing like it) so it's hard to give a genuine account, but from research the idea is that when you load a deck in camber you're creating a heavy downward force on the contacts which both grips and slows the board down. This puts a great deal of pressure on your legs to compensate and drive those turns through. Zero camber counters this by distributing your weight neutrally throughout the board (the edge is also good and long meaning it won't suffer the same problems of washing as reverse camber). With a reinforced tail and nose you can still kind of load the board for a bit of a pop when you want it (though truth be told this is the part of the design I'm struggling to understand).

The result is a kind of mellow camber: you lose a bit of pop, you also lose a bit of grip, but in turns, your edges still hold up far better than on a reverse camber, you don't entirely sacrifice pop, and more importantly your edges won't catch so much and feel quite so twitchy and dug in as they do with camber. Finally and possibly above all, because you're not constantly having to be on point with loading/unloading, things are a little more loose and playful. What this amounts to then is a great half way house that retains many of the benefits of camber, whilst gaining some of the loose playful feel of rocker.

The revenge of Camber: Triple Base Technology



Camber isn't finished. Not by a long shot. In 1997 some crazy Norwegians looked at snowboards and thought "hang about, why are they flat? Shouldnt they have three parts? A bit to ride flat in the middle, and the edges raised slightly at either side so they are released when you don't want them, but can be locked in when you do?" And so they invented Triple Base Technology.

How does it work?



If you look at the picture you see the middle is nice and cambered, but as you move to what would be the contact point on a camber deck, the edge starts lifting much like in a Flat kick deck lets say. Only Its still camber rolling through the middle of the deck. So what you potentially have is a deck that has the pop of camber and the forgiveness of a reverse camber deck. The edges stay out of the picture until you actually need them and because they are raised, getting on your edge is a piece of cake. I haven't ridden one, but if there's one positive i hear over and over again, is that edge to edge is LIGHTNING fast.
Anyway, because it's such a radical tech and you really really need to see what it does to understand it, (and because these guys have an awesome sense of humor), I'm going to give you something to watch for a change:



So is this it? The reverse camber/camber/hybrid camber killer?

Unfortunately no. It's one of those tech's that absolutely divides opinion, and unfortunately the decks aren't cheap so it's hard for someone who hasn't already ridden one to justify dropping that much cash on it. Really, aside the float, I can't see a single flaw in it. But then again, I've never ridden one, so my opinion means jack.

From personal experience though I want one. I really really want one, and the day I see a 2009 evil twin (the greatest board graphic in history btw) in a second hand store for about $150, it's mine. But for you, the person thinking about buying a snowboard, or just trying to get your head around them, just understand it's definitely a tech to check out if you ever get the chance.

The nice thing is that these decks actually run the entire gamut, from jib right through to big mountain. So no matter what your preference, there's a TBT out there that might suit you. Definitely get on one of these if you can and try them out, but don't hand over your cash until you know its definitely for you.

And I guess that's sound advice on every single tech this section has talked about. Camber isn't for everyone, reverse camber isn't for everyone, hybrid camber isn't for everyone, and TBT isn't for everyone. Before you lay down your cash, see if you can hit up a demo because no matter what I write here, it's still just an outline. You have to see for yourself if you like the deck and if it suits your style.

Final Thoughts on Camber: TL;DR!

- Camber decks dominate the entire range from jib all the way through to powder, but they are increasingly being pushed into section 4 and 5 (the big mountain sections) with the hype on reverse camber. You will also find them in section 2 because they offer great performance jump decks. Primarily though, they suit riders who want perfect edge control and a really aggressive fiesty ride. They're also for guys who LOVE loading up and launching. - Reverse Camber boards are really fun forgiving, and playful decks. You will find them primarily in the first three sections though because they start to lag behind a bit in aggression and stability once you get to big mountain stuff. You can find them in 4 and 5 but it's not really their strongest suit. Really they're for people who want to play on teh smaller park features, or who want to hit a bit of everything but haven't quite decided where they're going. They also make excellent cruiser boards which makes them really suited for the entire resort. - Hybrid camber decks are closing in on all the ranges. They offer stability, performance, forgiveness and control in a single package. They also make exceptional all mountain decks. The trouble at the moment is that the tech is pricey, (but I expect it to come down in the next few years). When it does it will likely challenge camber as the dominant style of deck with most people. As I say, the price and tech means you don't have too much choice and diversity at the moment, so they tend to be in categories 4 and 5 restricted to a companies higher end line. But this is likely to change. - Powder Rocker decks are very specific for powder boards. If you're buying 1 deck for all mountain/resort, avoid this! it's a quiver deck for a very niche type of riding. This is not the rocker profile you want because it's very singular in its function. - If you find camber too catchy and a bit like hard work, but also think rocker is a bit too loose and lacking in bite, then Zero Camber might be a good alternative to the straight hybrid cambers out there. It's a bit inaccurate to call it a "mellowed down, loose and playful camber" but screw it, that conveys what it's trying to do more than any other phrase I could use :) - Finally, TBT is worth keeping on your radar. You may find it horrible, or you may love it. It seems to be the whole package but opinions vary on the matter. Indeed, if it was the whole package, Bataleon, and not Burton, would be the number one name in snowboarding. They're not, so advertising budget notwithstanding, it probably isn't. Still, take it on a demo and find out for yourself if you can. But know that it is a significant tech out there and well worth checking out. What's more, it crosses all the ranges so there is already a board out there for you regardless of what you like.

STEP 9. LINKS + GLOSSARY

Jargon Watch: Section by Section

the aim of this section is to give you a breakdown (and reminder) of some of the key terms used in this guide. the key terms are things which relate DIRECTLY to the central material of each section. The key terms are then organised according to sections rather than alphabetically.

The secondary terms, are the terms which round out most of the discussions, although they aren't essential to it. They are nice to know, maybe crop up several times in different parts of the guide, and offer a handy quick reference if some of the language is tripping you up a little.

Key Terms:

Section 1: - Freestyle board:Freestyle does NOT mean park. It means boards that are often twin shaped and are thus, capable of being ridden switch and regular with little change in feel. They cover ALL the flex ranges, so although some are great for jibs, many of them aren't. Freestyle boards are the best boards for beginners and intermediate riders. - Freeride board:Often directional shaped, these boards are very stiff, very unforgiving, and provide very twitchy response. They are usable in the resort, but their best use is outside the resort in gnarlier more complicated terrain. - All resort board: A board that feels comfortable in all the areas of a standard resort: groomers; park; and side-country. - Big mountain board: A board that feels especially comfortable outside the resort. Although capable of dealing with the more complex features within the resort bounds, these boards are best for riding through difficult and unexpected terrain. Within the resort they may feel a little dull and uninspiring. - Park Board: Park includes small features like rails, boxes, and small jumps, but ALSO includes big features like kickers, huge jib features, and of course the halfpipe. Boards advertised for park riding tend to emphasise the SMALLER features. The boards for larger features tend to be sold as all mountain/big mountain freestyle boards. Section 2: - All Mountain Size:Your most basic standard size. This is your optimal size for hitting everything the mountain has to offer without sacrificing too much. - Freeride Size:This is a few cm's longer than you're all mountain size. It offers more stability and more float than your regular size, but also makes the board feel a little stiffer and bulky. - Freestyle size:A few cm's lower than your all mountain size. It allows a softer more forgiving flex, as well as faster turns and spins. It sacrifices stability and float to achieve this. - Waist Width The width, edge to edge, at the narrowest part of the board. Section 3: - Longitudinal Flex:The board's capacity to bend from the tip to the tail. A high number indicates a stiff board. A low number indicates a very soft board. - Torsional Flex:The board's capacity to bend from edge to edge. - Flex:The actual way your weight impacts upon the boards length to cause it to bend. Sizing up or down, obviously changes the weight to length pressure and so causes the flex to change. Section 4: - Twin Shape:A board that is shaped exactly the same from the centre to the tip as it is from the tail to the tip. It has the same flex pattern, same shape, same everything. Thus it can be ridden in either direction exactly the same. Great for freestyle. - Directional: A board that is built specifically to ride in one direction. It will usually have a progressive sidecut, a set back, and a different flex at the tip and the tail. These boards are BUILT to create the strongest ride possible so long as you go in one direction. turn the board around though and it will feel very catchy and uncomfortable. - Directional Twin:A combination of one or all of the features of a directional board (flex pattern, sidecut, and setback), but with a twin shape. - Taper:A change in the width at the widest part of the nose compared to the tail. A 30mm taper means a board that is 30mm wider at the nose than at the tail. Its sole purpose is to create float in powder. - Set back:On some boards the inserts are not put smack bang in the center of the board. Sometimes they are placed offset from the center towards the tail. Centering your bindings will naturally result in you riding with a longer nose than a tail. Section 5: - Sidecut:An arc cut into the side of the board from contact to contact resulting in the hourglass shape of your snowboard. - Sidecut Radius:The radius of the total circle established when the curve from contact to contact is extended to infinity. - Sidecut Depth: The difference in size from the widest point of the snowboard to the narrowest point. - Radial Sidecut: A sidecut with a single consistent arc from contact point to contact point. - Progressive Sidecut: A sidecut with multiple radii. Often it simply means a sidecut that moves from a shallow radius at the nose to a deep radius at the tail. This makes turn initiation comfortable, whilst making the exit of the turn swift and powerful. More generally though it refers to all multiple radii sidecuts. Section 6: - Extruded Base:Polyethelene rapidly heated and pressed out in a thin film. It creates a semi-decent frictionless surface so your snowboard can shoot down a mountain. They are cheap and easy to make, but don't offer great performance. - Sintered Base:Polyethelene slowly heated until the molecules fuse. it is then pressed together to create the base shape. Inside the material structure are small gaps which hold and absorb wax. It is also far more durable than an extruded base. These are much higher performance than extruded bases. Section 7: - Camber: If you lay a cambered board on its base flat on the floor, you will see it raise up in the middle. This is its camber. It's great for stability, grip, pop, and loading. - Reverse Camber: Instead of raising up in the middle of the board, it inverts the camber with a pivot at the center like a see-saw causing the tip and tail to raise up. Reverse camber is great for forgiveness, float, pressing, spinning, and cruising. - Zero Camber: A flat camber profile that does not raise up in the middle. Nor does the middle pivot the board. Instead it lies completely flat. This is a great middle option for people who want a bit more forgiveness, but aren't convinced that reverse camber can deliver the performance of regular camber. - Hybrid Camber: A board designed with features containing both camber and reverse camber. Obviously a strong contender for the do it all quiver killer. -Powder Rocker: A hybrid camber profile that places a lot of weight at the tail for control with turns, but also lifts the contact points at the nose for extra float. Ridden in one direction and specifically for powder. - Camrock: Camber between the inserts but then kicks up slightly at the contacts. - R + C: Reverse camber at the center, then curves back around the inserts to create a potentially strong camber point when engaged. If you press forward to initiate your turn, you lock in the camber. But when you don't need it, you gain the non catchy floaty feel of reverse camber. - TBT (Triple Base Technology): A base design that works torsionally to raise the edges and thus the contacts for when you don't need them. However when you do require them, they lock in just like regular camber... for good reason: TBT IS REGULAR CAMBER. It is called triple base technology because the base design is in three parts: a central regular part for movement and transferring to the edge, and 2 gradually raised edges keeping the contacts from catching when you don't need them.

Secondary terms:

- Backcountry Off piste terrain. Areas that are not covered by resort safety patrols. - Base Gouge: A deep and noticeable scar in the base of your snowboard. Usually easily repaired with a spot of ptex on an extruded base, but can be more complicated to repair on a sintered base since the ptex may not bond. - Bumps: Bumps in the edge that act to grip into the snow, but also slice through it like a serrated knife slices through a tough piece of steak. - Buttering: A combination of various presses and spins on the ground in a fluid series of movements. - Catching an edge: When running the board flat or moving between edges, a rogue edge makes contact with the snow pulling you suddenly off balance resulting in a tumble down the mountain. - Catchy: When the board contacts lock into the snow usually when you don't want them to, or when it feels a little too aggressive. - Charging: Point the board down that hill and BOMB it. - Chop: Snow that has been broken up through people riding it, quite often hardening through the day to create a very uncomfortable and bobbly ride. - Contacts: The part of the board (usually the widest part of the board) that locks in to the snow. To find a boards contact, just lay it flat and slide paper under it. Where it stop will be your contact. - Core shot:A very deep scar that cuts through yoru base exposing the core. If you get one of these stop riding and get it repaired immediately. If left exposed the core will end up wet, which will rot the wood and destroy your deck. These will need to be repaired professionally unless you really know what you're doing. - Deep Sidecut: A strong indent in the side of the board. This is good for short sharp turns and explosive movements - Drag:When the board grips the snow a little hard causing the deck to slow down. - Edge: The metal strip at the side of your board. - Effective Edge: The part of your edge that ACTUALLY makes contact with the snow during a turn. - Flex:The actual way your weight impacts upon the boards length to cause it to bend. Sizing up or down, obviously changes the weight to length pressure and so causes the flex to change. - Goofy:Naturally leading with your right foot (I'm goofy for example). - Hooky: When a board enters the turn a little more aggressively than expected or desired. - Inserts: The holes where your bindings screw in. - Jibbing: Hitting various features like flag poles, trees, branches etc, with the snowboard. You don't ride it, you just smack it. - Kickers: Big Jumps with a large take-off and a landing slope. They usually have a gap of some description and it's very important you carry enough speed to clear it. - Kinks: "Indents, you really got me gripping. You got me gripping so i can ride all night. Ah yeah! you really got me... <cough>" Caused by not smoothing out the changes in two radii, but dramatically switching from ne radius to another. When weight is applied on the edge, it creates kinks which lock into the snow more effectively than a smooth curve would. - Leverage:Turning force caused by the distance from the central pivot of the board to the inserts. The further from the center, the easier to pull the board away from the snow. - Loading: Directing your weight and energy into the contacts of your board. You use loading to create the boards pop. More resistance from the board creates a higher loading capacity and thus more pop. - Longitudinal Flex:The board's capacity to bend from the tip to the tail. A high number indicates a stiff board. A low number indicates a very soft board. - MTX: Magne-Traction: A system of 7 bumps designed by Mervin manufacturing to lock in to the ice offering multiple contact points instead of the standard 2. - Noodle: A very soft, super bendy and flexible board. - Pop: The board wants to get back into its natural shape. When you load the tail you are pulling it in a way it doesn't want to go. When you release that force, the board springs back into its natural shape. And this throws you into the sky :) This is its pop. - Pre-press: When you lean back on a camber board and pull on it you raise the tip. This gets you into a press. Reverse camber boards are said to be in pre-press position because you don't need to pull that board to lift up creating the effect. Instead you simply lean forward or back and the pivot causes the board to press. - Pressing: Lifting the tip of the tail from the snow and riding on one part of the board. - P-Tex:A specific brand of polyethelene. Although there are other companies producing polyethelene pellets, the industry uses the shorthand p-tex in much the same way as you might use the word tylenol. - Quiver board:A snowboard that is particularly effective as a second or third board, but not really as a primary board. - Quiver Killer: A snowboard that does EVERYTHING POSSIBLE ON A SNOWBOARD. You'll find it next to the leprechauns and unicorns. You'll maybe also find it at capita as well. - Regular:Regular has 2 meanings: Firstly it means your most confortable riding style. If you prefer leading with your right foot, this is your regular riding style. BUT it also means a specific style of riding when contrasted to goofy: in this case it means leading with your left foot. - Scorpioning: When you catch an edge and land on yoru face sometimes its so violent and sudden that your board kicks up up behind you like a scorpion tail. They HURT. - Shallow Sidecut: A very shallow indent. This is best for long stable carving and gentle turn initiations. - Stance Width:The width between your bindings. This impacts on leverage. - Switch:Leading with the opposite foot you are most comfortable with. In my case that would be leading with my left foot. When I ride with my left foot at the front, I'm riding in switch. - Torsional Flex:The board's capacity to bend from edge to edge. - Urban Rails: Features outside the main resort, like banisters or rails around the shops at the resort, or even in teh center of the town. The stuff skaters LOVE riding. - Washing: Caused by your boards contact losing grip with the snow resulting in the board sliding out under you. It involves you usually falling up the mountain so it's not so bad.

Helpful Links:

These are the sites I strongly recommend you check out for their clear and no-nonsense explanations. I've personally found them really invaluable in one way or another.

Angry Snowboarder - A great site for reviews and the latest industry going ons. Helped me quite a lot in certain parts of the guide (particularly on sidecuts). Also does fantastic reviews, (though I can never find the damn things myself unless I type the specific deck and angry into google). :)

Shay Boarder - Super friendly advice, great unbiased reviews and totally attitude free. Shay does answer your daft questions (believe me, I've asked her and got nice helpful replies). She seems to really enjoy everything about snowboarding and always sends out great positive vibes.

Shay's incredible list of camber and sidecut tech out there.

Snowboard-review.com - This site is slowly building into a fantastic reference source. Even a year ago it was paltry compared to what it is now. I'm genuinely liking their innovations, and the board selecta tool although not extensive and sometimes offering up a few bizarre selections is for the most part pretty effective to give you some ideas. Obviously we'd like to see more reviews rather than product descriptions, but over time that ratio is going to change.

Goodride.com Before starting this guide I had never heard of this site. I was genuinely impressed with how much detailed and sound info they have. Right now it seems a little borked, but when it's working it has an astonishing level of detail on most of the decks out there as well as offering sound basic info. Genuinely a site worth checking out.

Snowboarding forums.com - A great site (if a bit slow) for getting very good straightforward answers to your questions.

Easy Loungin - The best place to find out the latest industry information and chat about it. The people there aren't as dickish as you might have been led to believe, but nonetheless its probably a good idea to shut up, listen and learn unless you actually know what you're talking about or have something to contribute, (or have a very thick skin). A little more acerbic than many of the other sites out there.

Rei.com Some great pictures and explanations.

Boardworld.com.au I used a lot of their images, so i reckon they should have a bit of credit. The site seems to have a few useful spots of advice, and certainly covers many things I don't.

Snow Japan - If you are ever thinking about a holiday in Japan, this is your first stop. I don't think there's a more detailed and comprehensive snowboarding site on planet earth. This place has reviews on every single resort you could think of hitting; mad accurate weather reports; accommodation options; back country advice; lift ticket giveaways; and finally a forum with people who will answer any of your daft questions about japan and how to get around without even a hint of fatigue or attitude.

Finally, a couple of sizing guides:

Frostyrider Sizing Guide
Burton Snowboard Sizing Guide

It should go without saying by now, but use carefully and try and get confirmation. Machine sizing is decently accurate and should give you a decent ballpark in conjunction with other tables out there. Also remember, rider preference and all that :)

Snowboard Reviews on Sierra:

ARTEC Artec 2.3 06 - Ippollite BATALEON Bataleon Jam 09 - Shakazulu12 Bataleon Airobic 09 Kaptn Krunch Bataleon Riot 09 - Kaptn Krunch Bataleon Jam '11? - exastronaut Bataleon Airobic 10 - ippy Bataleon Riot '11 - ippy Bataleon Funkink '10 - MikeD13559 BURTON General Custom X advice to newbies thread :) Burton Custom VRocker 10 - )(nfinit)( Burton Method 10 - Dice Sierra Crew 10 - Shakazulu12 Burton Hero 09 - Goride Burton T6 09 - Dice Joystick '10 - BFBF Custom V '10 - 808Grown Fish LTD. '09 - BFBF Fish LTD. '10 - giftedhands Burton Supermodel '09 - Snakehockey2 (mini review) CAPITA Capita IndoorFK 10 - Spenser Capita Green Machine FK '10 - )(nfinit)( Capita Sierrascope '10 - Komrade Myke Capita Sierrascope '10 - Krazylegz1485 Capita Sierrascope '10 - ipps Capita Midlife Lost 09 - akmx824 Capita Charlie Slasher '10 - jeri534 GNU/LiB TECH Gnu Park Pickle 10 - Eyedolon LiB Tech Sk8 Banana 09 - BFBF Lib Tech - T.Rice HP/Pro '12 - JBburton 18 JEREMY JONES Jones Flagship '11 - BFBF Jones Flagshjp '11 - Not BFBF but posted by him Jones Hovercraft '11 - BFBF NEVERSUMMER NS Evo-R '10 - BFBF NS - SL-R '09 - NeoPlasm, Alistair, and Verdin31 NS SL-R 09 - amadeus303 NS Evo-R 09 - Scorer099 Neversummer 2011 p-review - Scorer099 NS Titan TX 09(?) - Dice NITRO Pantera LX 2010 - goride Subzero '10 - )(nfinit)( Nitro Haze '10 - Dice Nitro Misfit '10 - BFBF O-MATIC O-matic Awesome 09 - Kimchijajonshim RIDE Ride Machete '10 - Dice + update further down thread Ride Concept 09 - Mogulman Ride Berzerker '12 - ippy ROME Rome Mod 09 - fata1err0r Rome Agent 09 - Hoon Rome Artifact 1985 '10 - benjiradio Rome Anthem '11 - Magicweed3 (mini review) Rome Reverb Rocker '12 - )(nfinit)( SIGNAL Signal OG 09 - Hoon Signal Park 09? - Dice Signal Park Rocker 09 - gsrrr Signal Matt Hammer 09 - gsrrr VARIOUS various '11 boards - scorer099 Various '11 women's boards - ShredbettyZoe

haha. its no problem.I might just build the guide around it for a larf, or hell, you can write up a half time analysis :)

<<< Holder slot for Post Post-Breakdown!

ippy, you really have to change the title so people can find it, otherwise whats the point, it's not perfect, but it is pretty damn good, and just what some people tuning in need, so title it so they can find it.

hehe, i dont want people to find it until ive finished its second pass :)

Dude, this is such a great guide... I've been snowboarding for a few years, doing only intensive research this past year, and this is still crucially useful. All relevant information in one giant guide. Props bro, seriously.

Do you think you can add another subsection on boots/bindings? Those are something I had issues finding out about in the past :) Just a suggestion.

its all good, ill just wait till the other thread kinda dies, and then i'll switch it out to this one.

Originally posted by eldolocal68 bump, needs to be at the top of the forum page at all times...

agreed + stickied.

Originally posted by fostpaint c--c-c-c-c-c-c-combo breaker!

Buzzkill. 

You could always edit it, and make it something more useful. Or ask Ippy what would be best? haha

Lol. Aite then. Sounds peachy. :P

haha! hear what you wanna hear eh eldo :p He said "peachy".

thanks man, incidentally are those intro and conclusions allowing you to skip the waffle? That's their intention. I almost finished them last night but pulled out my net cable just as i submitted the post for camber. Couldnt be assed to write it out again. Might finish it today.

After that i need:

1. Sidecuts.
2. The nice big intro summary of all the summaries :)
3. Some links.
4. A glossary.

Jesus, i thought i was nearly finished the second pass until i just wrote that.    Ah well... guess i still got a bit to do then

(oh, and then its the third pass where i trim out some of the fat and rewrite some of the parts. Oh, and if anyone fancies throwing up some more recommendations for some boards i've blatantly missed, please do.)

It looks good, you need to change the title now. 

Everytime I read this post I find myself too drunk to ride a proper comment. So I've been giving up again and again. :) Lemme try once more...

This is a great reference for anybody especially a beginner who wishes to learn more about snowboard mechanics. Learning all of this will not make you a great rider but it'll put you one step closer to become a complete snowboarder.

You can ride all of your lifetime without knowing any of this. And probably it won't hurt. But if you learn all of this and combine with your natural talent of riding, then it might give you a much better insight of snowboarding. Who knows?

So thanks for your effort ippolite. I might know all of this but it's mostly disorganized, and full of occasional holes here and there, probably like most of the other members who frequent here.

So please keep on writing, and you can be be sure it's being read more than you might know.
Well I'm drunk again and I'm not sure if it was what I wanted to write here, but it's better than not writing at all. Cheers mate!..

bump, really, sidecuts? thought this was for beginners, but we need to get the name changed now....then, is there some way we can keep ppl from leaving post?

i think i gave this guide a read about 3 weeks into joining this forum. i've gone snowboarding for a day pass and a half day pass.  i obviously learned what camber and rocker meant (although intially i thought it was always called vrocker) through just kind of getting the feel of the lingo people were using. i also decided on purchasing a board before this guide was up (signal og).  however. damn. this guide opened my eyes a lot. i never would have thought getting a capita board would be able to teach me to carve as a beginner. i thought , "oh i'll get a horrorscope or stairmaster when i want a jibstick" but i guess the forgiveness of flex never really hit me. 

Hey ippolite, thanks for the time and effort to put up such a dope post. I got quite a bit out of it and especially enjoyed ur views on board length. maybe this thread can be locked to try and keep it the way it is without people like me posting at the end of it?
Anyway great job and I appreciate what you've put up!

Ippolite is killing it.  I wish this would have been around when I was first looking for a board.

thanks dude, im also appreciating your own particulr style in posting :) And thanks marumm, i hope it helps folks not make my daft mistakes as well :)