I've been snowboarding for a while now but only ever indoors. I've got a holiday booked for the end of this year and then hopefully away again early next year and I'm contemplating taking the plunge and buying a board, would also use it every week on the fake slope. Would like some advice on what to look for, what size would be best (I've been riding a 160 plank of wood and I'm 6'1") and is there a snowboard equivalent to STW? Any other advice would be well appreciated

i have a 161 gnu and flow bindings for sale, where are you based as we can do a trial if you fancy it. sale is 100 all in

I'm in Leeds but ride in Casvegas, what model of board/bindings are they?

Hello

http://www.goneboarding.co.uk/

is a good site

I thought snowboarding was expensive until I got into bikes.

A 160 is probably about right. You could go shorter if you prefer park style stuff and spinny tricks.

Have a look for last seasons boards. You won't get any good deals in Europe due to the exchange rate.

Around a 160 is about right for someone your height. A couple of cm's more is fine depending on your weight, don't go above that whilst your learning and don't drop below a 158 unless your a freetyle guru and want to throw your board around.

As for forums try http://www.goneboarding.co.uk …

Enjoy.

Depends… I would always ride a shorter board inside, about a 154. But my big mountain board that is used each year is a 161 and im only 5ft9…

Depends how you take it…

Snow and Rock catalogue usually has a lot of good advice too for different levels.

For what its worth I ride a Rome Anthem 161 and absolutely love it.

Width is just as important as length especially is you have a fairly symmetrical stance and big feet. Don't want your toes and heels dragging do you.

http://www.snowboardclub.co.uk/ has good forums, plus if you pay to become a full member (£15) then you get very decent discounts that quickly cover the cost. (10% off gear in boards shops like TSA, BoardWise and SS20; 20% off slope time at Sno!Zone, plus muchos discounts for holidays etc)

If you're buying a board + bindings + boots from a shop then 10% off will be quite a significant saving!

Width is just as important as length especially is you have a fairly symmetrical stance and big feet

I've got size 11 feet and I'm okay on a normal width Bataleon Goliath (stance angles +12/-9 I think).

have a look on http://www.snowboard-clearance.com for some great deals on previous season's boards. they're the snowboard asylum's outlet and if you're anywhere near manchester you can pop down and have a look at the board before you buy. some really good bargains to be had. there's a sweet lib tech for £250 but it's a massive 165cm!! the forum scheme looks sweet, i ride a forum destroyer and i love it.

depends what you want the board for really; if you've been going to castleford weekly you must be into park no? if so maybe a smaller board for tricking on perhaps, but seen as you have never been to the mountains before i'd imagine you'll want more of a freeride/all mountain board so you can thrash it all over the hill, in which case going smaller would be a bad choice. if you get a smaller board and you get a good dump whilst out there you'll just end up sinking in the powder. if you are riding powder you want a board where the bindings are set back a bit so you can put all your weight over the back which will sink your tail and keep your nose on the surface. so your choices might be between a true twin tip board, where the bindings are centred (no set back) which will be better for jibbing and tricking off stuff, a bit of park, a bit of back country OR a directional board (longer nose/bindings set back) which will be better in the powder, faster & more stable. like with bikes, there's nothing to stop you riding a board in the environment it's designed for, they just wont be as good as some others.

so, in conclusion, you need to buy about 4 boards.

lank45 – Casvegas, my local slope. Speak nicely to TSA (or whatever they call themselves these days) and they'll let you ride demo board after demo board. Literally. Book a 3 hour slot on a week day and you can try anything up to half a dozen boards – let them know which in advance obviously. They aren't even that picky about deposits or knowing you're going to buy. My board was out of commission for some reason and I wandered in told them I didn't like the hire boards and could I borrow one, including explaining I wasn't going to buy, and the answer was here you go, do you need bindings too?
To be honest though the only actuial advice I'd give you is don't buy a beginner board. They have no feel, and if you've done any riding you'll be past it anyway

My 2 pennies –

When I started out I bought myself a 158 burton 7 park board and looking back it was a big mistake for a beginner to proper piste riding. After 3 years I bought a second all mountain board 161 Ride prophet and all I can say is the difference in actually riding the board down the mountain at speed is amazing. It is so easy to ride fast and safe. I take both boards with me on hols now and usually do 2 days or so per week on the park board, and I still find it twitchy and it unnerving (due to it's flex it 'chatters' at speed)

My advice would be go for a proper piste board if you new to mountain riding unless you really are going to spend all your time in the park.

Oh – I'm 5'11" so maybe ride boards a bit bigger than the above advice, I was told to size a board roughly by holding it against you and it should be just below your nose. Works for me.

I am 5'8"" and have a 160 Ride concept UL, just upgraded mrom my 156 begginners board

hmmmm… Are we headed for a show us your snowboards thread….

haha, why not…

my first board: burton A-deck 149cm. way too small but still good fun.

then there was the burton clash 158cm. not bad for a cheap board, but it didn't like the park much.

then the board i bought in NZ the burton powers 158cm pipe board. brilliant fun, very stiff and had lots of pop. wish i could get it repaired

and my forum destroyer i bought last year. only used for a week and a half and i ruptured a rib on the third day so haven't really used it properly yet, but it did feel really responsive…

love the detail on it

sorry, bit excited – i booked my flights to geneva today 😀 😀

Got my Palmer pulse from Chaineaction (Yes THAT Chainreaction)….. very good deal at the time. i'm 5'9" and ride a 158cm – Imperial & metric eh)!

Off to Austria in January and could do with a more "advanced" board now…. & i did like the look of that 1.5k Burton on the gadget show…. and there is a great review on the Whitelines website on a new transparent (aerospace grade)plastic board from the states.

i got all my snowboard gear end of season from CRC. usual great service and huge discounts.

Book a 3 hour slot on a week day and you can try anything up to half a dozen boards

yep, demo is the way to go. I rode four boards at the snowboard show, then demo'd another three through TSA (at Braehead) before I decided on my Goliath.

You're obviously a mountain biker, so what bike have you got and what terrain do you like riding? If you ride trail centres on a jump bike, buy a freestyle board. If you try to get air on your all mountain bike, get an all mountain board……. Your attitude to mountain bike riding, will reflect what you try on a board, when you hit the hill. Post your bike/attitude to bike riding.

Is that why I'm slow and unfit, but fairly chilled on a board then?

in DX stylee, Decathlon own brand boards are cheap as hell, but turn out to be rebranded Salomon kit (which isnt amazing I know) but rides quite nice, loads of pop, and at the price I have no qualms ripping the hell out of on any and all occasions (60 quid 3 years ago and has been ridden on and off piste all over Cham, 2Alps, Alpe D'Huez, Scotland and a couple of carry ups in the lakes when its been too snowy to ride bikes).

Avoid the Decathlon bindings like the plauge and get some nice second hand ones. I managed to get some Burton Cartels of a mate for very little (though they are in Chav White 🙁 )

I still think that snowboard kit makes bike kit look reasonable, I would reason that a snowboard is essentially a hardtail frame, and bindings are a crankset. Stickers are the same in any language.

The surfer in me is still confused as hell about putting wax on the bottom to make it go faster, though I do stick surfwax on the top, rather than using a stomp plate, and it seems to work fine, and makes my board smell nice 😀

unless you feel the specific need to _own_ a board though, a sage man once said the best brand of ski for rocks is "Hire Skis". good advice unless you have a specific urging or are going to use it a lot. don't use your own board on a dry slope!

meh

I would say a burton custom and burton fish are going to cover what most people will want to/are capable of riding

or a malolo if you want to combine both the above boards, though I don't truely love my malolo in the way I love my fish

Plum

Have been snowboarding for about 17 years, I am 6ft and 85kg and have ridden boards from 149cm up to 169cm. As I have got older the boards I have ridden have got longer, probably as I used to do a lot of jumps and spins, but now I like to Freeride and ride Powder.
Small boards are easy to manouever but twitchy at speed, where long boards are a bit slower but a lot more stable.
I reckon something about 160cm would be best, also if your feet are big I would consider something a bit wider as there is nothing worse than trying to decend a steep icy clope, and catching your toes/heels. Although a wide board will feel a lot less manoueverable at slow speeds.
The other thing I like in a board is for it to be quite stiff, as this makes it more stable and gives you more control where you are riding through crud.

I'm 6ft 1 and currently ride a 164cm Palmer Carbon Circles which I find the perfect length for deep powder and traveling at high speed on the piste.

I learned to ride on an awful combo of a 172cm(!) Town and Country with first generation Switch bindings which in hindsight provided no control over the board at all. The shop quite literally saw me coming. I replaced that with Burton boots and "proper" bindings and a 159cm K2 Eldorado. It was like swapping between a Supertanker and a Jet Ski in terms of manouverability.

Snowboarding is ace.

As suggested already, the type of riding dictates the board.

For UK indoor snow you want something shortish and easy to spin, reasonably soft for forgiving landings, blunt edges for rails. Basically a freestyle board.

For the Alps it depends what you want to do. If you ride loads of park in the UK and find you like to cruise about spinning/jumping off things or hitting a bigger park then a freestyle board will be grand, but you will want to sharpen your edges. If you start to go off-piste or get a taste for speed you will want a stiffer board, possibly with a directional shape and/or core.

Don't get too hung up on an expensive "do-everything" board, something mid-priced and multi-functional from a big manufacturer is a safe bet. I would also try and find the boot manufacturer that best fits your feet. Let the boot dictate which binding you go for, they are designed to work together and it reduces your chances of foot pain.

The final and most important bit of advice would be to try and save money to get some lessons or at least a sharpening-up session out there. You can work on technique much better on proper pistes. Its very easy to get to the stage where you can razz about and stay upright but you'll need good fundamentals once you try anything more technical. Avoid the ESF like the plague, some of the stuff they teach is about 20 years out of date – look for UK/N America/NZ/Oz qualified instructors if possible.

Get the right advice from more than one source. Get the right board for your height, riding style, and importantly your weight. Youll absolutly love it on "real" snow – its a totally different experience. I'm sooooooo jealous cos i cant go this year due to new business commitments.

DO NOT hire a board in resort unless you know what you are getting. Friend of mine hired in Morzine last year, first board was only fit for the bin, so paid an extra 50 euros for a "premium" board – actually got a lump of sh*te, i was shocked they hired it to him in the first place, all set up completely wrong too, spent the next hour setting it up right for him.

Knowledge IS power !!

Peachos – WTF…. never seen so many trashed boards. Are you a frequenter to the park or is it down to rider technique/incorrect weight board?? Sorry dude – dont mean to critisize a fellow boarder but it is alot of trashed boards.

Strip is right about hire outlets fobbing their customers off.

Mrs B went off to hire a board and came back with a smashed up plank of wood which was as long as she was tall. Back to the shop we went.

You haven't mentioned whether or not you have good boots and I'm guessing if you've only ridden indoors in the UK then you've never spent all day in snowboard boots. To be honest the choice of what board isn't as important as your boots. You'll be able to board all day in good boots and a bad board but you'll be a cripple if you have bad boots and good board. This is where you should be spending your money.

That being said the advice on demoing boards is a good one. For what it's worth I ride a 158 Rome Anthem which British Airways kindly bought for me and I'm 5'8".

Good point Stripe, its probably best to take somebody with you to the shop if you are unsure of anything, my 6'5", 17 stone mate came back with a 157 one year.

Peachos I feel your pain, the Volkl Wall Pro I bought in NZ lasted about a fortnight. Too many rocks out there!

Avoid the ESF like the plague, some of the stuff they teach is about 20 years out of date – look for UK/N America/NZ/Oz qualified instructors if possible.

The ESF regroups self-employed instructors that have reached a higher minimum standard in competition and undergone more rigorous training than anywhere else in the world. If you want to you can board with some of the best boarders anywhere, even olympic gold medalists from the last two games – hardly 20 years out of date. Just make it very clear what you are capable of and what you want to do, and the ESF will find you somebody – obviously boarding with olympic champions costs a little more than a beginners group class.

Don't forget that if you want to do something properly out-there-man (sic) you'll need a mountain guide rather than an instructor, if you feel the need for anyone at all of course, suicide is legal in France.

To be honest the choice of what board isn't as important as your boots.

+1 buy boots (and decent socks) first if you don't already have some.

My current board (just bought a few weeks ago, only ridden it twice, third outing tonight):

http://www.bataleon.com/en/boards_goliath (probably not a great beginners board as the TBT base will mess you up!)

Oh and if you are riding at Casvegas every week then definitely get the SCUK membership: 20% off slope time!

My experience of boarding lessons with ESF is that, whilst not dreadful, they certainly weren't the best and the technique they taught was miles behind what was taught in North America.

The ESF regroups self-employed instructors that have reached a higher minimum standard in competition and undergone more rigorous training than anywhere else in the world. If you want to you can board with some of the best boarders anywhere, even olympic gold medalists from the last two games – hardly 20 years out of date.

Being a great boarder does not make you great instructor.

Edukator if you wind me up on every snow-related thread its going to be a long winter, but anyway, reasons to dislike the ESF…

The ESF have recently been forced by EU competition laws to recognise other countries professional instructor qualifications. Prior to this they had a cosy brown-paper-envelope relationship with the local politicians, justified by the assertion that any other schools would be a safety hazard.

For years their qualification included a speed test, on skis. Obviously you have to be pretty tidy on skis to pass the speed test. This ruled out a lot of out-and-out snowboarders and means that ESF's instructor base is full of ex-skiers with and emphasis on euro-carving, hard boots and dodgy pony tails.

You will still see plenty of their instructors teaching people to turn their board by swinging from the upper body. This is fundamentally wrong and causes all kinds of problems with progression.

I know that the ESF is improving and there are a lot of very good instructors, especially on skis. For snowboarding you are better going with one of the newer schools as their instructors will be more likely to teach you sound technique from the start.

The ESF regroups self-employed instructors that have reached a higher minimum standard in competition and undergone more rigorous training than anywhere else in the world. If you want to you can board with some of the best boarders anywhere, even olympic gold medalists from the last two games – hardly 20 years out of date. Just make it very clear what you are capable of and what you want to do, and the ESF will find you somebody – obviously boarding with olympic champions costs a little more than a beginners group class.

I went on a group holiday and one of the people we were with had lessons with ESF – she was in a beginner group, but was told to give up as she would never be able to do it, and left alone on the mountain to find her way back to where we were staying. This was on her very first time on snow/in the mountains – and on a lesson she had paid for in advance!!! She was pretty humiliated and upset and it nearly put her off completely.

After her boyfriend went in to the ESF office and kicked off big style, she was assigned another tutor, and she got on just fine. The other guy should have been sacked for that imo, but wasn't even told off from the sound of things – was certainly leading other groups later in the week.

Being a great boarder does not make you great instructor.

Nope, it's the rigorous pedagogical content in the training that does that. Check out the respective training manuals and sytems for instructos from different countries.

The French system of instruciton is very structured and methodical which is a reflection of the education system. If you're patient and don't want to end up in hospital it's a good system. I've met Brits that have moaned about the ESF and I felt it was because that wanted someone to teach them to run before they could walk. I have nothing bad to say about American boarding BTW.

If you're patient and don't want to end up in hospital it's a good system.

Unless they sack you from a beginner class for not being good enough.

Weight is more important than height. I would say 160 max for general riding unless you ride powder lots. I'm 5.11 and ride 156 – 158 boards for everything.

Test ride boards from TSA then make your choice, boards prob cheaper here than Europe at the mo anyway.

Grumm you will only get that level of arrogance with the ESF. I used to process anywhere up to 3000 sets of lessons a week and they had by far the worst record for customer service and refunds.

I would say those kind of instructors are a dying breed though, some competition has made the ESF much more forward-thinking and there is a new generation of instructors who don't have the same sense of entitlement and are a lot more patient and focussed on having fun.

I used to book a lot of lessons, ski hire, and lift passes. I would advise anyone wanting to book in advance to go direct to the provider. Everybody from tour ops to transfer companies is offering pre-booking services these days, they make healthy kick-backs on it all. The providers have got wise to this and will offer decent discounts on direct business rather than paying a middle man.

A sad and interesting tale with a happy ending for your friend grumm. In any profession there are some that are better than others and invariably some that you wonder how they survive. Creating a stink to get what you want is a national passtime. 😉

The ESF knows whom the best instructors are and dishes out the work to them in priority. In busy periods there simply aren't enough to go around and anyone with the qualification who is available gets pressed into use. It's then that you get the bods that have a normal job and use their paid holiday to instruct at Christmas or in the February holidays to earn a bit of extra cash. Among those are the ones that are 20 years out of date. It's pretty much the same in every country AFAIK.