Here you will find help and advice on selecting the right snowboard equipment for you. Recommendations on snowboard waist widths and help with choosing the type of snowboard perfect for your riding ability and style.You can also get advice on which snowboard is right for you by using our filters in snowboards

Advice Centre

Which Snowboard Is Right For Me?

Here is a simple 4 step programme to help you decide which snowboard is going to have you tearing up the mountain in no time.

Step 1 - This will help you decide which type of snowboard is going to match your style of riding, whether your a seasoned park monkey, or a beginner looking to buy your first set up.

Step 2 - Here you decide which size and width board is best suited to your weight and height.

Step 3- Choose your colour & graphics

Step 4- Buy and go ride!

Step 1 - Type of Board

Freestyle, Jib & Street
Rails and man made obstacles are your playground. You need a short, flexible, twin tip board with soft edges for sliding, jibbing and hitting boxes.
These boards tend to be smaller, lighter and nearly always with a true twin tip shape to make it easier riding both switch and regular. Specialist edge constructions such as brass and plastic help to avoid catching edges on man made obstacles. Super soft and forgiving flex patterns allow a greater margin for error.

Freestyle, Park & Pipe
Spins, grabs and riding switch are your thing.  You line up kickers and jumps for maximum air.  You’d rather spin 360 than fly down the mountain at speed. 
Twin tip shapes and centered stances these boards are not too dissimilar to the jib and street specific range. They hold their edges better at speed allowing you to boost of jumps and kickers with ease. They have soft flex characteristics but yet stiff enough to maintain full control when landing tricks. This also makes them an excellent choice for beginners, especially if you anticipate doing a fair amount of freestyle riding once you get more experienced.

Freestyle, All Mountain
You want to ride the whole mountain in style, switching from piste to park to powder with ease.  Air off a few kickers, occasionally riding switch and at speed whenever you can.
Just when you thought you understood all the differences.....
All mountain freestyle boards are a bit of a hybrid between freeride and freestyle. They may well abandon some freestyle features such as Twin tip shape, symmetrical side cut, centered stance or soft buttery flex pattern instead adopting some of the characteristics more associated with freeride boards, such as a directional shape and side cut, slightly set back stance, sharper rails/edges and a stiffer core profile. This basically means you are going to get a board that will take you everywhere and do everything without being too specific to one area. Another type that is perfect for beginners looking to move into freeride.

Freeride
Cruising the pistes and powder, covering the entire resort as quickly as you can.  Cutting sharp edges into the piste, then blasting off into the powder at every opportunity, dropping cliffs if you dare but speed rather than air is your thing.
At first glance, the shape of an All Mountain board appears to be identical to a freestyle board, but there are some subtle differences not visible to the untrained eye. The arc or curve of the sidecut (or waist) is slightly directional i.e. the front and back of the board are not identical. The nose of the board may be slightly wider than the tail and the bindings will usually be set back from the centre point by about an inch or 25mm. These boards perform best going forwards. All Mountain boards are fine for riding ‘switch’ (backwards) too, only they are not dedicated to the task. The tail rocker (or curvature) may also be a fraction less than that of the nose of the board. The lay-up of the board – i.e. the construction of the wood core with a variety of epoxy, carbon fibre or kevlar laminates – is stiffer than a freestyle board, which promotes greater speed. The tail areas are stiffer than the nose sections so they can both float through powder and carve tight turns on compacted snow

Big Mountain
Powder hound.  You live for riding off-piste in the deep soft white stuff.
Specialist snowboards for back country and off-piste riding in the fresh powder snow. Bindings tend to be set well back on the board to minimise rear leg burn, the nose rocker (curvature) is slightly more extreme to prevent burying and the forward surface area will be more than on most other boards, to encourage float. The board be slightly wider in the nose area for the same reason, but narrower in the tail. Stiff flex characteristics are also important.

Women's Specific
Most manufacturers now produce snowboards especially designed for the ladies. The main differences tend to be the colours, the graphics, the board width – they tend to be slightly narrower for smaller feet - and the weight of the board. These boards are slightly lighter, taking into account the fact that most women are lighter than men of an equivalent height.

Step 2 - Size of Board

Length
You should start by picking a snowboard which is proportionate to your height. Most riders find that a board which comes up to their chin, when the board is stood on its tail, is ideal. The longest board most people tend to ride is one that comes to eye level and the shortest is one which comes to shoulder level. The following illustrates typical sizes for typical people.

Snowboard Size
Your Height		Snowboard Length - cm
Feet & Inches	CM	To Shoulder	To Chin	To Eyes
4’	122	106	109	112
4’ 2"	127	110	114	117
4’ 4"	132	115	118	122
4’ 6"	137	119	123	126
4’ 8"	142	124	127	131
4’ 10"	147	128	132	136
5’	152	133	136	140
5’ 2"	157	137	141	145
5’ 4"	163	141	145	150
5’ 6"	168	146	150	154
5’ 8"	173	150	155	159
5’ 10"	178	155	159	164
6’	183	159	164	168
6’ 2"	188	164	168	173
6’ 4"	193	168	173	178
6’ 6"	198	172	177	182

To determine whether your board should be shoulder, chin or eye level, you need to consider a few factors, the most important of which is your body weight. If you are heavier than average for your height, you will want a longer board. If 4 or 5 of the following factors apply, pick a board at the extreme end of the range.
Ladies please realise that these averages are based on male body weights so if you are light for your height, it is more important to pick a shorter board

Go Longer	Go Shorter
I want a Freeride board	I want a Freestyle Jib & Street board
I want a Big Mountain board	I want a freestyle park & pipe board
I am heavy for my height	I am a girlie girl
I am experienced and want to go faster	I am a novice
I want to ride off piste in powder	I am light for my height
I like to go as fast as I can on-piste	I want to learn to jump and spin
I am fit, athletic and strong	I am a couch potato with match stick legs

Width
Some people need to consider the width of their snowboard. For most people this is not an issue because snowboard widths tend to be proportionate to their length, but if you have particularly small or large feet for your height you need to factor this in. If you have large feet, UK 11+ you will need to consider a wide style snowboard , This will prevent your toes and heels dragging in the snow when leaning over hard in the turns.

The following tables have been created as a rough guide.

If you know your boot size, but want to check the waist width suitable for you, then please use this table:

UK Boot Size	Board Width (cm)
	Minimum	Maximum
2	20.8	22.5
3	21.3	23
4	21.8	23.5
5	22.3	24
6	22.8	24.5
7	23.3	25
8	23.8	25.5
9	24.3	26
10	24.8	26.5
11	25.3	27
12	25.8
13	26.3
14	26.8

If you know the waist width of the board you fancy but want to check the suitability of your boot size, then this is the table for you:

Please note that these are the very limits of sizes

Board Width (cm)	Uk Boot Size
20.5	2
21	2
21.5	2 to 4
22	2 to 5
22.5	2 to 6
23	3 to 7
23.5	4 to 8
24	5 to 9
24.5	6 to 10
25	7 to 11
25.5	8 to 12
26	9 to 13
26.5	10 to 14
27	11 to 14

We also stock PLS shocks which raise your bindings off the board allowing you to have bigger feet whilst using a narrower board, without toe or heel drag.
The danger in selecting a snowboard which is too wide is that you might find it difficult to transition smoothly and quickly from one edge to the other. If you have particularly small feet for your height, you will need to make sure your board’s waist is narrow enough. By buying a women’s snowboard , you should be able to achieve this.
BargainBoards.co.uk website has its length and waist width listed in the description, making it easy for you to compare and contrast. Riding style and the angle you set your bindings at can affect the width of board which would be ideal for you. If you crank hard turns and/or ride with shallow angles (<10 degrees), you will be more prone to heel or toe drag. If you ride off piste, a wider board will give you more float.

Step 3 - Colour

OK, there is more to it than colour! You can also check out the graphics, the brand, the price and the technical characteristics of the board. You need to consider whether particular characteristics are right for you and whether they are worth the extra money. This will depend on the amount of snowboarding you intend to do, your snowboarding ability and your budget.

Beginners should not be put off by some boards saying ’intermediate’ or ’advanced’. When investing in a snowboard, you want one that will last and help you progress to the next level. The features that make these boards ’advanced’ are what make these boards more expensive. They don't necessarily make them more difficult for a beginner to ride. In fact, in most instances, they make the board either easier for a beginner to ride or at worst a beginner simply will not notice the benefit. If you go for a board with more advanced features, you will really appreciate the benefits as soon as your riding improves. The reason most manufacturers do not categorise their more advanced boards as being for beginners is because a) They would have nothing left to promote to intermediate/advanced riders!!) They rather mistakenly assume most beginners would not be prepared to pay the extra money until they are sure they like the sport. How wrong can they be! In all my years of snowboarding it has become blindingly obvious that people want to buy decent kit and for good reason - it works! We do have some advanced boards, which are not suitable for beginners but these are always clearly labelled on our website.

Step 3 - Buy & Go Ride

Stick your new board in your shopping basket and it could be with you the very next day! Remember, everyone who buys a board gets a free padded snowboard bag, and if you buy board boots and bindings from us you can get another 10% off our already super low prices!

If you would like further help or advice please just drop us an email: