Snowboard Questions

[khill12]

Ok, I know absolutely nothing about snowboarding, but Im thinking about taking it up since snowboarding is the closest thing to wakeboarding you can do in january in wisconsin. I was just wondering what are some good makers/brands of snowboards. Also any other tips would be greatly appreciated.

[smwilliam2]

i actually am getting out of snowboarding. so i am selling everything i have for the most part. I have good stuff and its in excellent condtion.
The board is a forum which is one of the higher grade brands.. i have had a burton and rode a k2. and this forum i have has been by far the nicest board i have rode. if your interested in buying anything let me know i have pics of everything.

[prior40]

Don't wanna be a jerk, but there is a Snowboarding forum for topics like this.

[khill12]

yeah i know theres a snowboarding forum, i already put a post about this topic there but nobody answered my question so i figured i'd have better luck here.

[Roos]

Hi!

I've been snowboarding for about 10 years and would say that off-pist snowboarding is about 10 times more fun than wakeboarding so I would most definitly go for it! (Note, my personal opinion and I don't have a 50 G's wakeboard boat, actually just a small bassboat with some ballast and a pylon.)
I ride a Burton Splitboard (perhaps little bit to much for you ), it's a board that you can transform into two randonee-ski's so that you can walk up the mountain to untuched powder. It is also 170 cm's so it's a long ****** board.
This board is the stuff!
Before this I rode Burton flowter 154 cm, not the same but a wide ass board so you really flowts on top of the powder, great feeling.

If I would by a board today to have as a allroundboard I would go for a Burton Custom X, my friends has it and it's great! My brother has the Burton Custom which if I don't remember wrong is a little softer (more flexible) and therefore easier to ride, my brother is very happy with this board.

I would personally never buy a used snowboard since you never know how well the previous owner took care of it. You should wax your board every 3 days of riding and at least every 5 days. Then you should wax your board before the end of the season so that it stays "wet" with wax until next year. Otherwize the core could dry out, which is hard to tell when it does and if it does the board looses it's flex and gets softer and won't flex back as hard, therefore don't buy a used board unless it is less than a year old or so.

Buy a old iron (if that is what the thing you iron shirts with is called) that isn't using steam (so that it has no holes under it and at the same time costs like nothing) and bulk pack of switch wax that is rated for you normal riding temperature. Then just melt the wax with the iron so it drips on top of the board and then smooth it out with the iron. Keep one hand under the board, if you can feel the board getting just a little bit warm your ironing to warm and will soon hurt your board. After applying wax take a hard sharp plastic object (like the one's used for removing ice from car windows) and remove as much wax as you can. The core of the board will have absorbed enough wax and won't dry out, and also keep better glide to the snow!

I would go for a burton, the only other board I have owned was a Nitro and it sucked in comparance to my 2 year old rental snowboard I bought used which was trashed. And it was my burton flowter. (oh yeah... actually you could rather buy a used rental board, even if it will be trashed and you must make sure there are som edges left so that you can sharpen them a couple of times more you can trust the board to have been waxed between everytime a customer has rented the board.

Well well, I would say buy a Burton Custom as a first board! You can evolve with it and trash it for a couple of years before you need a harder more expensive board.
Also get the hardest flow bindings and boots you feel you can afford. Flow is the stuff! I've used everything and everything else sucks but flow rocks!
Remove the shoe lace from the number 2-4 holes at the bottom. (keep it at the bottom and then from your heels and up.) This way you can keep super hard pressure at you heels without your foot falling asleep. Then get another shoelace and tye it in number 2-4 holes and you can get the right amount of pressure there aswell. I was actually told this from one of the guys who developed the flow bindings...

Well well, now I have spread my opinions and as you may realise I have no problem with sharing my experience and knowledge. If you want to know anything else just ask...
Well one more thing. Get a diamond (whatever it is called) to sharpen your edges with and do this at a 89 degree angle (buy a little tool for this). Sharpen every day or so, it really makes a difference and you will have super nice edging grip.

Cheers!
Mike

[Roos]

oh yeah... your board should be like chin high... Go for a little longer if you will be boarding alot so that you can progress longer with the same board. But just a couple of cm. So like 1 inch above chin. Shorter to be able to do more tricks and longer to be able to ride faster and in powder.

Good luck!

Mike

[khill12]

Roos

Thanx, that helped me a lot. I don't have a 50 Gs wakeboard boat either, i actually use a jetski. lol well anyway, your help was greatly appreciated!
I'll keep you in mind for future snowboarding questions.

[PMart]

yeah roos is correct ive been boarding my whole like and ive been boarding Burton, Salomon and also Rossignol....those are all great boards, have fun with it.

[Roos]

I would also agree with PMart (according to what I have heard) that Salomon also makes good boards, but I never really checked them out since I'm like a "All board guy" and it somewhat seems wrong to buy a board from a company that produces ski's and just started making some snowboards to make more money.
Well well, silly reason, but hey..

Mike

[PMart]

i know but rossy boards are really well made....my instrutor teaches in colorado and he only sells and rides rossy and has taught many people to board. but anyways roos and i agree on either salomon or burton....have fun man.

[Roos]

Just to make clear..
I don't dissagre on Rossy... I just don't have a clue, since no one I know have ever ridden a Rossy, might be less common here in Sweden.

[khill12]

ok thanx guys that helped a lot.
one more question, is the sizing the same for snowboards as it is wakeboards? i ride a 134 wakeboard i'm 4ft 11in and 95lbs.

[PMart]

well i dk....snowboards might run a little bigger...like go to ur nearest shop and grab a board and measure it up to like ur chin and that should be a good board....and if ur more like a half pipe and go to the terrain parks...smaller boards are better...but freeriding in powder and cruising should be around chin high.

[khill12]

alrite thanks!

[jake the great]

a board shouldnt nessisarily be chin high. thats just a standard that everyone goes by but its not really that great. it more depends on your weight than your heigth. my board goes up to about 6 inches below my chin. im 6 foot 1 and i ride a 157. if you go to the official sites of like burton, nitro, forum, etc.
(please dont go to soloman or rosignol cuz i agree with Roos that you shouldnt ride a ski company) on their sites they will have all the boards that they sell and they will say what weight and heighth recomendations they have. so your 4'11 and 95 dont take this offensive but you somewhat sound like a stick so your probably gonna wanna buy a kid board (that doesnt mean that its a bad board.) when you go to buy it you should talk to the people working at the store and tell them what kind of riding you like and what you want to do, that way you will get a board that is better for you cuz the people that work at snowboard shops usually are snowboarders.

you want to buy your boots before you buy your bindings. most important thing is comfort cuz you dont want your foot getting cramped up or cold while you ride, it will be no fun, but second most important thing is the size that you get. remember that shoes are totally different than boots and their purpose is totally different, boots arent made for walking they are made for being straped into a board. so when you are getting your boot dont walk around and see if its comfortable get your feet about the distance apart that your stance would be and lean forward like you were on your toe edge and see if the boot flexs good for snowboarding not for walking. if your feet have stopped growing, which mine have, then your toes should graze the end of your boot. snowboarding boots are made so that when they get warmed up they mold to your foot so the right boot size for you might feel uncomfortable when you first put it on then it warms up and molds to your foot. and when you buy a boot it will grow about a half size bigger as it molds to your foot. my shoe size is a 12 and my boots that i wear now are 10 and a half. so shoe size has nothing to do with boot size.

bindings are the last thing to buy. make sure your boot fits into yourbinding well. it is very important that you dont have a medium sized boot and a large sized binding. your foot will obviously move around alot. and make sure your bindings will work well with your board. they usually will unless you have burton board and not a burton binding or a burton binding and not a burton board. burton makes their bindings different than everyone else. its like some weird triangle thing rather than a square. no one knows why they do it they just do. kinda like hyperlite boots. thats why i dont have burton anything cuz i dont want to every have to go buy another pair of bindings cuz my burtons arent compatible with my new board. that would suck.

i think i covered pretty much everything and if you wanted to know i have the great board in the world: board: nitro T2 157; bindings: drake czars; boots: DC park boot. which i dont recomend for a beginner cuz it would cost like a million dollars and you dont even know if you are gonna like the sport or what kind of riding you will want to do after you start. i never thought i would wanna be a park rider but its all i do know. have fun snowboarding is the greatest

[Roos]

Well your weight is really inportant as jake said and the style you ride is by far the most important thing.
I mean... I ride a 170 cm board and I am 179 cm. Now 170 obviously isn't chin high.

When it comes to bindings from burton and so on that is no problem.
There is a little round plate that you fasten your bindings with on all bindings. This plate (and obviously also the board) will be made for 3 screws if it's from burton and 4 holes otherwise. But hey, how can I go Flow bindings on a burton then??
Well I just went and buyed a burton-plate for a couple of bucks, problem solved.
The plates will fit any binding and it would really make more sence to sell the plate with the board than the binding and you won't missunderstand it as jake seems to have done...

I would still go with burton custom, and probably a really short one since you seem like a small guy. How can you board a 134 cm wakeboard???
Then buy the hardest flow boots and bindings you can afford.
Bindings you should be able to buy used if you want. They wont get worn out that easily.

Cheers!
Mike

[fish6942]

[jake the great]

yeah you could get the plaste i guess i never thought of that. but i like my bindings alot they are really light. i wasnt trying to bag on burton they are a good companythey have some god riders like heikki sorsa, jussi oksenen mads jonson jeremy jones blah blah blah they ahve a lot of them. but i would have to say that i would go with a burton dominent rather tahn the custom.

[heroldmike]

i would say go for a sims or forum, burton is overpriced for wat ur getting, i would suggest u get somthing with cut sidwalls it will last alot longer and ull get better all around edging and performance, i got the 06 forum destoryer and its the best board ive ever had.

[ShAkAjAcK]

RIDE boards arent bad either i have the ride theory 154 and i love it

[khill12]

ok im a little confused on the sizing....so if i was a 134 wakeboard would i be a 134 snowboard? or do snowboards run bigger? a 134 wakeboard is a little big for me but i figured i would grow into it.

[khill12]

and also about the sizing i was looking on a website and like a 143 board said the rider weight was like 60-85 lbs or something.

[heroldmike]

the height of your snowboard has nothing to do with how tall you are... its all about how much u weigh... u can play a bit with it but not to much, dont let anyone say it about height because thats totaly wrong and there clearly dumb, i would suggest going to a board shop and talking to someone there

[jdmcivicman]

well i've been snowboarding for about 12 years, i ride a k2 fatbob, i'm not sure if they even make them anymore, but i love it.
it is wide for my size 12's. i've always riden k2 boards. my board is a 155 which is recomended for up to 200#'s i believe. i weigh 240 and i have no problem riding it cause i'm a good rider. the size of the board depends on your size but also how good you are at riding, and style of riding. my 155 is not good for me to do big mt. carving. cause it's too short. i have a hard time riding in powder cause i'm too fat, or the board is too short. but most of the time i just ride around and jump off of stuff, not jumps though. i ate crap once and i've been kinda sketchy on getting back into jumps.
have fun and i recomend taking a class. most hills have packages where you take a class and get a free rental/lift ticket. so check around

[Roos]

Hi again... =)
You will go bigger in snowboarding than wakeboarding.
I have a 170 cm snowboard my 152 I had before this wasn't close to be big enough. A 162 cm would be ok for a allround board or a 156-158 for a fun-park kind of board.
I go rails and such with my 152 and go offpist with my 170 cm (which is allmost the only thing I ever do).
I have a 138 cm wakeboard. I will go for a 140-142 cm wakeboard til next season but anyways, go bigger!
First figure out if you wish to be a rail + jump rider, a bigjump + pipe rider, an off-pist rider or a pist rider (don't be a pist rider, riding pists sucks...).

Riding fun-parks are fun, but riding off-pist is the best thing you can ever do.
But also, you should know that there are some things you will need to be a off-pist rider.
Like reciever/transiever/beacon, sond, shovel, back pack (I recommend DaKine).
And for riding parks, especially rails, I recommend using a pair of crash pads. It saves your ass.

How old are you?
Don't buy an expensive snowboard while you are still growing like weed. I would recommend you to rent a board + boots + bindings the first couple of times you go riding. Well still, if you are going to ride the mountain every day the entire season, buy a board. Buy something cheap if you are growing since you will need new stuff allmost every year.

Mike

[Ride DH]

i was too lazy to read those super long posts but, BACK THE TRUCK UP, you are definitely not gonna get away with riding a 134 snowboard! Snowboards are alot thinner than wakeboards and therefore need to be longer for the same kind of support. And man if you wanna have some fun on a snowboard go for low to mid 150's, i would never buy anything longer than a 159. 170 is a long board! however i don't ride backcountry, only park.

As for brands- Jeenyus, Capita, K2, Burton, Ride ,Forum(now owned by burton for all of you who didn't know that already),Option, Technine, Sims, Nitro, Flow.. all very good brands.

And Roos is correct in that snowboarding( in general) is far more fun than wakeboarding in my opinion

[khill12]

Roos,
I am 14. I'm not sure which type of riding i would be doing, i don't know what riding pist or riding off pist means....lol. I dont think i would be riding back country, probably just in the ski/snowboard park that we have locally, cuz there aren't many mountains or big hills in wisconsin.....

[Roos]

ok
Pist is everything except parks that is prepared for you to snowboarding/skiing in. Off-pist is back country..
For park riding when you are 150 cm long even a board that is 150 would be a really long board, extremly long even.
And you only weigh about 43 kg? ... that isn't alot.
You will probably have to go with a kids board to be able to spin it and ride with in the park.

If you will be snowboarding alot, then buy a cheap kids board or at least a very short board. Let's say about what you are wakeboarding with. If you only plan on snowboarding like 10 days I would rent a board instead.

Bottom line, go talk to the guys at your local snowboardstore. They will help you, though they might not tell you not to buy a board from them but go rent one instead.

Mike

[jake the great]

[khill12]

Roos,

So you're saying that i should go with a snowboard in the 130s? im 95 lbs..idk if thats 43kg or what but i was looking at some boards that were like 142-145, but idk i havent even stopped at a board store yet so ill talk to the people there....just thought i should have some background knowledge so i don't look like a complete idiot. I really appreciate all the help you guys have given me.

[heroldmike]

if your not sure on wat type of riding your going to do then i would suggest a good all around board.. a very good board for somone like yourself would be a forum recon its about 300-350 cnd. and its a solid board. to get the sizing figured out i would go talk to someone at a shop your not gonna figure your sixe out talking on this thread.

take care, mike

[Roos]

khill12

Yes you should have a board in the 130s but you are 14 so you will probably grow 10 cm each year a couple of years from now and then your board should grow with you.
The thing is that when you are a beginner you will want a shorter board and even a softer board since they are easier to ride.

You still need to answer how much you think you will be snowboarding each year.
At this age you can have a snowboard for about 2 years and they are worth sh*t when they are used. So say you buy a board with bindings and boots for $500 which would be cheap you could probably get like $200 for it after 2 years if you are lucky. That is 150 bucks a year. So you should figure out how many days you can rent a board for 150 bucks and then figure out if you will be boarding more than that. If you won't, don't buy a board, if you will, buy a board!

And as I said, you are probably growing like 10 cm (4 inches) each year now so you could get a board that is a size bigger than you should get according to sizing charts.

Well, good luck finding a board! Talk to the people at the local store!

Mike

[khill12]

Roos,

I would say I would board around 15 times this winter, maybe more, i'm not really sure, but i would go more than like 8 times. I don't think I'm ever going to be taller than about 5ft 3in so yeah...ill just go to the local store sometimes soon.
Thanks again for all the help!!! ( I bet I'm really starting to get on your nerves with all my questions....lol)

Kristen

[gotama176]

khill12, look over in the Snowboard forum. A couple of post that might help you out. One of yours about brands, and another someone posted about their girlfriends board size.

IMO, I would put you on a 141 to a 147 depending on what you were doing. My GF rides a 146 and a 148 in the Midwest, 151 if she is off piste out west.

And just a small clarification, in the US, BC would be terrain that is not within ski area boundaries. Off Piste would be lift accessed terrain that might resemble BC, but is still within ski area boundaries. Plus, find a board that fits your price range, has a flex pattern you like, and looks the way you want it too. Brand names only go so far, if you can ride it and it stays in one piece, nobody will care if it is from a snow blower company and if they do, then they aren't the kind of people you want to be riding with. My GF has ridden K2 for 8 year now and had great luck. I don't think too many people are down on Gretchen Bleiler for riding for a company that also makes skis

Now lets take this to the snowboard forum!

[Roos]

khill12 it's really no problem.
As you might see on my first post this is the first time I ever had a snowboard-question on a online forum so I actually thought it was kind of nice...

Go for a low 140 cm board and you will be able to have it for 2-3 years if you won't grow that much.

Mike