Simon Gruber. Cab 5 in Vars. Photo: Matt Georges.

If you’re in the market for a new snowboard this season, be sure to check out this board buying guide where we break down all the technical waffle and explain how you should best navigate the myriad of options out there to get the best steed for you and your riding…

CHOOSE YOUR WEAPONS

You’ve been riding a few times, renting some dog-eared hardboot spear from 1989, and have now decided you deserve better. You do. Snowboarding’s grabbed a hold of you like an nympho hottie, you like what you see and you need to make sure your weapon works.

Many of those guys claiming some Obi-Wan shred cred know, in reality, precious little past what pro rides what board and what’s got the most legit graphic, so to point you in the right direction we’ve assembled this guide to help you get the most from your cash splurging.

LOOKING AFTER NUMBER ONE

It doesn’t matter if you’re into Torstein’s triples, Shaun’s pipe runs or De Le Rue’s Alaskan hairballs. What does matter is you, and what you do, or want to do, when you strap in. This is where you need to get realistic. Don’t lie to yourself about your riding aspirations or your skills: though switch back lips on death kinks might get you hyped, if you’ll mainly be sticking to the marked runs or speed blasting you want to make sure what you opt for is suited for your riding. Same goes if you’re gagging for first descents but most of your shredding is based in domes or the park at the local hill.

TERRAIN

First up you’ll want to identify what kind of riding you’ll be doing most, and then look at the boards that fall into these broadly defined categories.

Freeride

Designed for gunning it in one direction in powder, throwing house-sized roosters and handling manly pillows and drops. These are directional in shape and flex, more often with an oversized nose and shorter, stiffer tapered tail to enhance float and prevent you going over the handlebars.

All Mountain

If riding everything is what you’re after, focus your attention on this category of boards. These will tend to have a directional flex with either a directional or twin shape (though even if they have directional shapes they will be twin-looking) meaning that hauling forward should be your primary agenda but switch takeoffs or landings will be no problem either.

Freestyle

Stunt sticks of this variety are built for jumping, spinning, sliding and bonking, be it in the park or pow. It’s a broad category, this one, but the most common traits are a true twin shape and flex to make it ride the same regular or switch. If you’re more after mini-shredding or riding the park jib line look for a softer flex, while those wanting to send it deep or boost out the pipe should aim for a stiffer model, and with traditional camber. Blunt or pointy tips are currently popular but mostly cosmetic.

Jib

This division of boards is all about riding rails, boxes, walls, nipples… when you’re into hitting anything that’s not snow check out the jib sticks. Such boards will be true twin in shape so you can attack whatever way you want and softer in flex so pressing out is easier. They can sometimes come with reinforced edges, often have low-maintenance bases, shorter effective edges and not a great deal of sidecut to improve stability ‘cause, let’s face it, if you buy one of these you ain’t gonna be euro-carving.

Guide yourself through the deck-selecting process with this flow chart we found in the old West. Click to go BIG.

RIDING LEVEL

Be honest; which of these sums you up best?

Beginner – From first time strapping in to mastering the initial act of riding, turning, stopping, and even some baby jumping. You want to make learning easy so these boards are softer and use less expensive construction to keep the price down so you’re not paying for performance you don’t need. Bear in mind that the initial learning curve is steep so if you’ll be riding regularly it’s worth considering a higher spec board (though not an advanced board) as you’ll be improving on a daily basis.

Intermediate – You can ride a snowboard and are comfortable at moderate speed on most runs. You’re starting to do tricks and dip into the powder and want more of that. Boards aimed at this bracket tend to be a little stiffer to cope with the more aggressive riding and the construction specs will be upped to reduce weight, add pop and liveliness, and speed.

Advanced – Such riders are comfortable blasting around wherever – from backcountry to terrain park – and know how to work a board to their advantage. You ride aggressively and with precision so the construction reflects this with materials to give ultimate response, pop and generally epic performance, though to get the most out you’ll have to put in the effort.

LENGTH

“The board should come up somewhere between your chin and nose” is the old school rule of thumb, but doesn’t take into consideration what the board’s intended for, its effective edge, stiffness, camber, your mass… a lot of factors, in fact. Manufacturers therefore put suggested weight ranges for their lengths and, ideally, you should be somewhere around the middle to get the best out of it. Most brands will have these weight ranges on their websites, and they will certainly be on the sticker on the board in-store.

WIDTH

To get the best performance you should have your toes and heels overhanging the edge by approximately 1.5 cm. Much more than this and you’ll get toe and/or heel drag when turning (which sucks and saps performance), but much less than this and you won’t be getting the edge control you should – again compromising your ride. Wider boards float better in pow and give a more stable platform to land on; narrower are quicker edge to edge. If you have big feet (or even bulky boots), you should consider a Wide board. Usually if you are a size US 11 and above you should look to go wide. There are also Mid-Wides now too. Take your boots in to the store with you.

IS THAT A BANANA IN YOUR POCKET?

Reverse camber – it’s the industry’s new obsession. Is it the best thing ever? Does it make snowboarding more fun? Is it just a gimmick? The general consensus is if you ride super aggressively, go huge and want maximum liveliness, then regular camber is still the way to go, however, if you’re a jibber, pow stomper or a fun time cruiser then reverse camber boards make snowboarding way more fun and allow you to get away with things camber would punish you for. There’s now heaps of different base profiles offering different advantages but here’s a brief rundown…

• Reverse camber between the feet: Looser surfey, skatey feel.
• Reverse camber from the feet out: Locks on to jibs easier & improved response.
• Combined regular camber/reverse camber: Combining reverse camber’s easy ride with the pop and livliness of regular camber.
• Zero camber: Even pressure distribution with broken in feel.

More on this at a later date…

Compare the stance insert setup on the fully pow-focussed Lib Tech Birdman (left) with their true twin, all-mountain freestyle board, the TRS (right). The Birdman’s set way back with a huge nose and short tail to give lift in deep snow, while the TRS has a nose and tail of equal length for equal performance regular or switch.

BOARD SHAPES

Twin

Twin boards have a symmetrical shape and core, and a centered stance. They are most likely your choice when you’re into riding parks, or maybe even the marble ledge at the suburban shopping mall. Being symmetrical in both shape and flex they are perfect for riding switch.

Directional Twin / Twin-Like

When you hold a twin and a directional twin board next to each other it is sometimes hard to tell the difference. In fact, it is a little tricky to define this category as directional twins come in a large variety of stance setups and core types. Basically, directional twins have a true twin shape and a directional flex and are made for a very freestyle-oriented riding in the park, as well as the backcountry. As a rule of thumb they have a softer nose and a stiffer tail and could have a bit of a set back stance, but don’t rely on it. Because, as we said, this category is a bit of a bitch.

Directional

Are you a 30something? Then these boards are mandatory. Just kidding, even though a lot of older snowboarders do ride directional boards. They have a longer nose and a shorter tail, which means they concentrate a lot of pop in the tail and are floaty and stable in powder. Depending on the model the core can have a flex that’s anything from a close to twin-like flex to a full-on soft nose/stiff tailed directional powder model. Backcountry in the morning, carving the corduroy afterwards and big park kickers in the arvo? Directional boards are your kind of thing!

Tapered

A tapered shape means a directional board’s nose is wider than its tail. The nose will stick out of the deepest powder and the tail will sink in enough to make for good control (and great faceshots). Some manufacturers throw in a swallowtail or some other sort of deep snow-specific shape, all of which are designed to make you ride even more effortless through snow. Since they are quite stiff you can charge them down a slope without the slightest chatter, too. On the downside, riding switch on a tapered board, while possible, is not going to be great but if you choose such a shape this should not be your every day concern.

Hopefully this guide helped clarify a few points and has made your decision-making process a little easier. However, it can’t be overstated that if you can get yourself to a test centre and demo a few decks then you most certainly should. We’re cooking up some more tech-related product stuff on things like reverse camber, edge technologies and base profiles, so stay tuned for that… 

Risto Mattila gives his outerwear some machine loving. Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi.

TLC For Your Shred Threads

You wouldn’t expect your board to keep on ticking without a service from time to time, so why would it be different for your tech outerwear? Here’s the whys and hows of keeping your jackets and pants up to scratch.

WHY

As you’ll no double know, a technical fabric consists of two parts – a waterproof/breathable membrane, and a face fabric coated with a durable water-repellent (DWR) treatment. The membrane allows sweat to transpire through it while preventing water droplets getting through, assisted by the DWR treatment that makes water bead and run off the fabric. The result: when your outerwear’s new you’re kept dry and comfortable.

Over time, though, dirt, oil, and regular wear and tear have a negative effect on the DWR causing the outerwear’s outside to absorb water – known as ‘wetting out’. This messes with your jacket or pants’ performance as breathability is reduced which can lead to your inner layers becoming wet and clammy. You might think it’s ‘lost its waterproofness’ but in fact it’s more accurate to say it’s lost its breathability (the clammy feeling within is from your sweat not making it out rather than water leaking in). Semantics aside, this doesn’t mean you have to trash your threads – a little bit of TLC should breathe new life into your outerwear. How often will depend on how much you use it and in what circumstances – a weekend warrior who sticks to trails will need to wash less often than the devoted park rat pushing their limits on a daily basis. The rule of thumb is if your outerwear’s wetting out it’s time to give it some love.

This is what you want your outerwear to do. Photo: Matt Georges.

HOW

There are a variety of tech wash products out there that are made to clean and/or re-waterproof  tech outerwear – ask at your local outdoor store. You can use a regular detergent but it must be a non-bio, mild, and have no scents or conditioners as they’ll wreak havoc with the DWR; in short to be on the safe side you’re best off using a proper tech wash. If your gear’s dirty and wetting out you should definitely wash it and, if the wetting out persists, re-apply a DWR coating.

First and foremost, check your garment’s washing instructions and adhere to them. Then do up all the zips, poppers and Velcro, whack it in the machine with the tech wash and follow the instructions – generally they say to wash it warm (30-40º) with a good rinse cycle. Now for some shazam shit. If the label says it’s Ok to tumble dry, do it. Why? 30-40 minutes on a medium heat will re-invigorate the DWR and give your jacket’s performance a new lease of life.

If, after doing this, the fabric still wets out, get yourself some spray-on or wash-in re-waterproofing product to give your outerwear another coating of DWR. There are combined cleaning/rewaterproofing liquids to consider, too, but we’ll leave that ease vs effectiveness discussion between you and the store guy.

DOWN JACKETS

These are trickier to clean yourself, but not impossible. If in doubt take it to a professional recommended by the manufacturer, but for the DIY-types you can again buy specialist cleaning products – you either spray clean it for cosmetic dirt or hand wash (or machine wash if the label allows) if its been used a bunch to clean the down feathers. If you hand wash, luke warm water and slow, gentle cleaning motion are what you need to remember, and to never scrunch the jacket as this could damage the feathers. Then (again, if the label says Ok), it can be tumble dried slowly – this can take several hours. A handy tip is to throw in a couple of tennis balls to puff up the feathers and prevent them clumping.

REPAIR

Should your outerwear get ripped or punctured, you can either contact the manufacturer to enquire if they have a repairs program (many do for a fee) or drop in to your local snowboard or outdoor sports shop where you should be able to pick up a fabric repair kit – pre-cut adhesive shapes of waterproof/breathable fabric – and follow the instructions. These are not intended to be a permanent solution, though.

Let French freestyle boss Victor De Le Rue walk you through one of the steeziest jib tricks in the book – the frontside boardslide. 

Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi

BOOT FITTING ESSENTIALS

Boots are the most important part of your riding rig to get right – they can be the difference between an epic time on the hill and a frustrating one, or even an agonizing one where you’re considering cutting your feet off to ease the pain.

While it’s not rocket science, there’s a few things you should be aware of. First up, the shape and fit of boots from different brands – and even the different models from within the same brand – can be wildly different, so trying a few on until you find the right ones for you is imperative. With that in mind, here’s what you should look out for…

FIT

Foothold and comfort are the key words here, though it’s worth bearing in mind that a boot’s liner will pack down over time and take the shape of your foot – if they feel the tight side of snug in store then it’s not the end of the world.

- A good starting point is to take the insole out and place your foot on it. The insole should approximately match the length and width of your foot – your toes shouldn’t be overhanging, nor should they be way back from the end.

- If this is all looking good put the boot on. Lace that mother up tight as you would to go riding. A boot can feel pretty tight lengthways unlaced, but when you crank it up you’ll find you foot slips into the correct place and they feeling more comfortable.

- With the boot laced, your toes should be just touching the end of the liner when you’re standing up straight. As no one rides like this, it’s important to bend your knees and flex forward – this should bring your toes away from being flush with the end.

- Flex back and forward as if you were going from your heelside to toeside and back. You want to have as little heel lift (your heel rising up off the sole) as possible – a little is acceptable, but any more than a couple of millimetres and response and performance will be compromised and you should try another boot.

- Many brands’ boots have heat mouldable liners which speed up the ‘breaking in’ process so you have the optimum fit from day 1 on the snow. If you’ve opted for one of these you can do this at home with a hairdryer, but take advantage of the store’s facilities and get them to do it for you.

MEN’S OR WOMEN’S?

While there’s a chance that men’s boots will fit a woman’s foot, women’s-specific boots will take into account the higher arch, lower calf and narrower foot and heel that are characteristic of ladies’ plates o’ meat and therefore will tend to be the best option if you’re of the fairer sex. Once again, try a bunch on and see what works best for you and your feet.

In this latest of Relentless’ trick tips series, Tyler Chorlton walks you through this so-hot-right-now knuckle trick. Check it out and give it a shot next time you’re on the hill…

If this trick’s been giving you the run around, let homie Elias Elhardt give you some solid advice on how to make it yours in the latest of Relentless’ Pro Tips.

Shot in Les Deux Alpes, Relentless Energy’s Elias Elhardt talks us through how to do a Nollie Tailslide 270.

Miller flips are sick. Have bossman Tyler Chorlton show you how to do ‘em over an obstacle or off a knuckle. 

In case you were wondering, the trick gets its name from skateboarder Chris Miller (who also founded Planet Earth, don’t you know). Miller skated a lot of vert in the days when street skating was embryonic and Rodney Mullen still wore knee-length socks… anyway, we digress. He was the first to start pulling frontside invert 360s to fakie on vert and the trick, from that day forth, bares his name.

Of course, us snowboarders have a long history of bastardizing skate tricks to fit our own strapped in, truckless, kicker hitting heathen needs, so we’ve taken to calling any frontside 360 inverted handplant a Miller flip. /geekmode

Anyway, Tyler’s got a nice ‘tash and offers up some good tips in this. Check it…

With a growing desire to seek new lines away from the resorts the demand for Splitboards has risen massively in the last couple years,

In this video Xavier explains how to transform your regular board into a splitboard.
For tips on how to use your splitboard, xavierdelerue.com

Like us on facebook tinyurl.com/​xavierdelerue
check as well timelinemissions.com and terorepo.com

Our homies over at Planet Sports have been pumping out the trick tips videos of late. The freshest one is this one from team rider Eero Ettala as he walks you through how to pull a front board. Can’t think of a better duder to show you the ropes for this, Ettala’s front board is one of the best in the business. Check it out…

Shooting tips from Onboard’s Photo Editor.

We posted this last year, but with winter getting closer many of you will be looking forward to busting out camera and snapping your buddies’ bangers, so we decided to re-post this How To… Shoot Snowboard Photos to give all budding sharpshooters out there the 411 from our photo ed.

How To… Shoot Basic Snowboard Photos

Sami Tuoriniemi is Onboard’s photo editor. Each year he reckons he will have looked through 20,000 photos and monthly, he has to make the call on hundreds of epic shots. In short, he has bags of experience of snowboard photography. Here he gives a quick 101 on the basics of shooting the shred.

Basic Equipment Needed to Shoot Snowboarding

You should invest in an SLR (film) or DSLR (Digital) camera, plus lenses and, of course, film and/or memory cards. When I was young I tried to shoot snowboarding with point-and-shoot cameras, but they turned out really bad as you can’t focus in the right spot and the quality is crap as they generally have automatic- or semi-automatic settings that have little scope for adjustment. If you are thinking about shooting anything other than tourist snaps, you’ll need an SLR or DSLR camera.

Film vs Digi

It’s much easier these days to start with digital, but if your photography becomes more serious you should definitely shoot film as well. With film there is a certain feeling that I think is still lacking in digi, and you can create different kinds of effects and emotions with film. You can also achieve similar things with digi in Photoshop, but I think that’s lame. In the end, that makes you a computer nerd, not a photographer.

Kicker, dude getting wicked, landing. First rule? Check. Mark Landvik. Photo: Cole Barash.

First Rule of Snowboard Photography

You need points of reference: the shot must give you some kind of idea about what’s going on, where the rider’s come from and where he’s going. There’s nothing worse than the ‘guy in the sky’ shot that mainstream people think is so rad. However, on very rare occasions you can break this rule.

How Important is Good Riding?

There’s an old saying that your shot is only as good as the rider, but I don’t think that’s entirely true. If the quality of the riding is epic it’s easy to get good shots, but if the riding is not so good then it is more of a challenge to make a shot work.

Composition?

Whatever kind of photography it is, if the subject is bang in the middle then 9 times out of 10 it won’t work. Google the ‘rule of thirds’ but remember rules are there to be broken. When shooting a photo it’s kind of like a film set – to some extent you have control over everything in the frame, so think of what looks interesting, or complements your angle, or gives depth and so on. If you don’t like it, move.

Rider in one third, Russian bird in the other and the rail's depth shown by the angle. Epic composition jazzed more by a tilt-shift lens. Kareem El Rafie. Photo: Matt Georges.

How to Make a Trick Look Bigger or Better

You can make a trick look bigger and better with different angles and lenses. For example, a fisheye in the pipe can visually increase height – go close and low. Telephoto lenses have a sweet spot where the distance of a jump can be maximised. For example, if you shot the Onboard issue 99′s Travis Rice cover from any lower, the landing would move closer to the kicker and made the gap look smaller; higher and Travis looks closer to the knuckle, again making the gap less impressive.

Choice of Lens

If you can only afford one lens, the money-maker for snowboarding is the 70-200 f2.8. There’s a cheaper f4 version that would work just as well image-wise, but it’s not so good in low light.

Depth of Field

Depth of field is important: with messy background you can use a shallow depth of field to make the rider stand out better, therefore use an f-stop of 4 or bigger. But sometimes you’ll really want to show the background, in which case you will have to opt for a small f-stop.

Shutter Speed/Film Speed

If it’s bluebird, 1/1000 second and f5.6 with a film speed of 100 ISO should see you right. When cloudy, it’s more complicated and you’ll need to measure the light. If shooting snowboarding from the side of the kicker, when you really see the rider’s speed, you should try to keep to 1/1000 second. If it gets darker or cloudy you can just increase the ISO or open up the aperture. Shooting at a rider or behind them, you can use a slower shutter speed and still freeze the action.

Lighting

When you’ve dialled the basics of ambient light, you can buy flashes and radio slaves. Bear in mind that on-camera flashes rarely work in snowboard photography.

Dressing Your Rider

More often than not, the rider is the most important element in your photo so it is important to see them clearly. Make sure they dress in bright, distinctive colours. Shooting action in the backcountry with trees and rocks in the background, with a rider in camo or dark clothing rarely works. However, if you want a silhouette shot, then go dark. Also, if you’re shooting in town and there are nice colours in the architecture, you might want to think about having the rider don some outerwear that complements it.

Imagine this dude in all black and you'll see how a great shot can be ruined by bad clothing colours. Trevor Jacobs. Photo: Cole Barash.

Shooting For a Magazine

If you’re thinking of getting shots into mags, be honest with yourself and think whether your shots are up to standard. Consider the title you’re submitting to – regional mags tend to feature home-grown talent with a smattering of international A-listers. Think of what section of the magazine your shots suit. If you’ve done a trip, don’t just shoot action: shoot portraits, lifestyle, potential openers and so on. If no-one buys the whole story you’ll still have portraits and singles that might be used for something

How to Get Your Shots Past a Moody Photo Ed?

If you submit to a magazine, only send in new shots. Make a tight submission – 20 max – and tell the photo ed you have more. It is better to send 15 good shots than a rough edit of 200. Every single shot should be labelled with Rider_Trick_Location_Photographer. This should be in the file name, but in the metadata is also OK.  Get your submissions out early as the first issue of a regional magazine gets put together in July, while our first deadline is in spring.

Most importantly, enjoy shooting!

For some good examples of shred photography from our seniors and more, check out our latest snowboarding photo gallery.