In another attempt to aid in the process of purchasing a snowboard, here are the breakdowns and definitions of flex and snowboard categories...
Categories: In years past, the breakdown of board categories was pretty easy, you either had an all mountain directional, a twin freestyle, or an alpine with a few hybrids mixed in. Now there are many more sub-categories to take into account. One term that has largely disappeared is the "All Mountain" snowboard. I personally don't like this term, all snowboards are "All Mountain" no matter what their main design is for. To explain a little bit further, here are the basic details to the major categories of boards currently.
Park: This type of board is very popular right now. With the increase in popularity of
rail riding and
park riding overall, this has caused most, if not all companies, to bump up the number of park specific boards they manufacture. The classic definition of a "Park" snowboard is twin (nose and tail are the exactly the same) in shape and flex (evenly distributed flex from the center of the board), and generally softer in longitudinal flex. That is the broad spectrum of the "Park" category, but there are a couple other sub-categories that I will now get into.
Jib boards: The "Jib" board is generally very basic in design, rarely having anything more than just a wood core and biaxial fiberglass. This equates to a very soft flexing snowboard which is ideal for pressing on rails and boxes. There are many boards in this category including the
K2 WWW,
Ride kink and the
Rome Artifact. Most have a blunted off nose and tail, to allow the effective edge to be much longer than it normally would be with a board of their respective size. The advantage to this method is that you are able to size down a considerable amount, as much as 5 cm. If you were looking for a
"Street" board, this would be the category to look under. These boards can be taken off jumps, although I wouldn't necessarily go hit the 60 footer at
Loon with a 52 WWweapon, go for the 30 footer instead. (price range: $300-$400)
All Park: I'm not really sure if this category is definitive, but the way I look at it is that these are boards with a little more to them than jib boards, yet have a little more flex than the more jump specific boards. The general make up of these boards is a composite wood core possibly with some carbon fiber inserts, triaxial or reinforced biaxial fiberglass, and a sintered base. There are many variations in technologies from company to company, but the overall objective for these boards are to make them soft enough to press out on rails, yet stable enough to take on some harder jump landings. This is a very big category for many companies, such staple boards as the
Burton Custom (ICS shown),
Lib Tech TRS, and
Rome Agent all fall under this category. (price range: $400-$600)
Jump/Pipe Boards: This is a category that you're not going to see on the cheat sheet on the back of a board, and is not all that different than the "All Park" board. The main difference will be in the flex, these boards are a little stiffer both torsionally and longitudinally. This aids in giving you a stable platform to land on when hitting the big jump line. Pipe specific boards do not officially exist, but most of the big name guys use boards that would fall into this category. The
Ride DH 2,
Forum Pat Moore, and
Burton Un-INC are all great examples of this type of board. (price range: $450-$700)
Freeride: This is the term that has replaced "All Mountain," a freeride board is generally a directional shape (nose is longer than the tail), this allows for ease into and out of turns. The differences in "Freeride" boards come mostly down to stiffness and base material. The softer the flex, the cheaper the board is going to be, also the easier it will be to learn on. The more expensive boards in this category generally have the most technically advanced features, for example the
Burton Vapor, which has a completely aluminum core, stainless steel edges, the highest grade base available, and every other possible belle and/or whistle. If you are the type of person who wants to go fast, a higher end freeride board is right up your alley. (price range: $250-$1000)
Powder: Lib Tech has a board that explains this perfectly... It's called
the Mullet, but in this case it's long in front and short in back. All "Powder" specific boards have a very set back stance to allow you to float as much and as easily as possible in the powder. Some even have what's known as a
swallow tail, which is a tail that splits into two, this allows you to have the tail sink into the snow allowing the nose to float freely above the
powder. A good alternative to having a purely powder specific board is to set back a "Freeride" board more than you usually would on those big dump days. "Powder" boards are amazing inside their own element, however, when taken to groomers or anything other than powder these boards become excessive. The extremely large nose as well as some unusual shapes tend to make these boards terrible on hardpack. If you get the chance to ride something like the Travis Rice
Banana Hammock in 2 feet of Vermont's finest, do not pass up the opportunity. (price range: $500-$1200)
Flex: Perhaps the most important characteristic of a snowboard, the flex is what determines the type of riding the board is designed for. There are 2 main types of flex to concern yourself with: torsional; which is the horizontal flex of the board (edge to edge) and longitudinal; the vertical flex of the board (tip to tail). So now that you know the differences in terms we can start to explain what to look for in each category. The flex that you feel the most is going to be the longitudinal flex, this is the factor that generally determines the "flex rating" of the board, although torsional flex has a great deal of impact upon "turnability" and edge stability at high speeds. To make this even easier, I am going to break down the different flexes in the way every company does... on a scale of 1 to 10!!! OMG!!!
1-3 rating: Does not exist. If you find something this low it's too soft. Probably not a full wood core.
3-5 rating: This is the category that the majority of all boards under $400 fall into. This flex is ideal for beginner to intermediate riders, as well as low to mid level park boards. Most Jib boards fall into this rating.
5-8 rating: This range of flex encompasses the "All Park" and Jump board categories, as well as the mid to upper mid range freeride boards.
8-10 rating: If a board has this high of a rating you can be sure of two things, it's expensive and very fast. The majority of all high end freeride boards can be included in this group.
Hopefully this plethora of knowledge can further assist you in the purchase of a new snowboard. Check many of these boards and more out at
EasternBoarder.com. Thanks for reading. -EB Natick-
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