Choosing Your First Snowboard: A Guide For Beginners
As a new snowboarder, your ideal snowboard will not be the same as one for an experienced rider.
For example, while we love all our boards at Telos equally, we would never recommend a DST Carbon for a beginner—as it’s a high performance product that commands a hefty price tag.
On the other hand, we do have a handful of boards that would make a great start to your new hobby.
In this article, we won’t be giving specific recommendations for boards. Instead, you’ll learn about the basic features and specs you should look for when looking for a beginner snowboard.
Getting Value for Your Money
One thing that makes a board expensive is the number and quality/type of materials used to make it. For example: if a board has both carbon-fiber and aluminum in its construction then you know the company must have put some thought into making top notch snowboards.
Hence, our DST Carbon comes in at $899, and has a carbon fiber fiber top. Carbon-fiber provides high performance whereas aluminum, featured in the board’s core, provides dampening and stability at higher speeds. A best-in-class board, but perhaps the standard DST (starting at $579) would be a better option for beginners as it would provide the same value for someone just starting out.
Buy a Versatile, All-Mountain Board
If you’ve recently got into the sport, you should look for all-mountain or freestyle snowboards since these typically have a centered stance and a soft-to-medium flex that’s ideal for beginners. We always recommend the former for beginners who’re still exploring and learning different terrains so they don’t get boxed into a particular riding style. All-mountain snowboards are extremely versatile, and work well on virtually any terrain.
For example, the Lemurian is a great board for deep powder but also has a playful freestyle feel to it. However, the swallowtail design makes it tricky for beginners to take to the park. Instead, we’d recommend the Adit for a board for all uses.
Picking The Right Length
When choosing your first snowboard, one of the most important factors you need to consider is the board’s length. So, how does the length of a snowboard affect the way it rides? Well, a longer snowboard provides a more stable ride but requires more effort when it comes to initiating turns. Consequently, linking your turns smoothly is more difficult. A shorter board, on the other hand, is a lot easier to turn but doesn’t offer the same stability at high speeds.
So what’s the ideal board length? Well, as a rule of thumb, you should select a board that reaches somewhere between your nose and chin when you stand it upright. However, that’s simplifying things. Most manufacturers offer a sizing chart for their snowboards.
The width of the board also matters. If you’re a little on the heavier size, consider a wider board as it will provide more stability when riding.
Male Or Female: Does It Matter?
Women’s snowboards generally have a softer flex and a narrower waist. Men’s snowboards, on the other hand, have a stiffer flex and wider waist widths. The narrower the snowboard is, the lesser effort it requires to initiate turns and makes heel edge to toe edge transitions easier. On the other hand, wider snowboards offer more stability, but controlling them requires more effort.
Generally flex is something that is scaled based on a rider’s ideal weight for a specific board so and waist width is something that scales based on the length of the board and is assumed that a bigger person riding a bigger board will have a larger boot size and likewise a smaller rider riding a shorter board may have smaller boot size. Don’t hesitate to try out and experiment with boards of different sizes.
Being of the leading manufacturers and suppliers of premium-quality ski equipment, Telos Snowboards offers a complete range of snowboards. Whether you’re looking for a surf series snowboards, an all-mountain snowboard, a freestyle snowboard, or want a snowboard built to your custom specifications, we offer everything you need online. Get in touch with us to learn more.
