How to Buy a Snowboard

Video Transcript

"Alright, so what we're going to do now is we're going to talk about different styles of snowboards, and, basically, what the difference is between, say, a Nitro, a Rossignol, to another Rossignol, which is a little bit smaller. First of all, what we have is a Nitro. It's a very good company. It all depends on what kind of company you want for a snowboard. Basically, you're buying their name-Burton, Forum, Ride, Nitro, Atomic, things of that nature. Basically, you've got to just do your homework and try and find one that fits your style of what you want to ride. What this is, this is more of a freestyle board. You can tell because it's got twin tips. What it is, is the nose and tail are basically the same shape. What that does is that helps you go either switch or regular. It doesn't even matter. What it is, it's going to help you with your control, with your directions. One of the most important things on a snowboard is its edge. This edge is basically your lifeline. What it does is it digs in the snow, and that's what's going to help you initiate your turns. The sharper your edge, the better it's going to dig in the snow. When it's really, really icy, one thing they started coming up with now is called Magne-Traction. Basically, if you look really, really close, you can see how the nose is kind of curved. If you want to think of it more like a steak knife, it'll cut through anything. You're not going to slip out. Your edge is going to be stuck in pretty much the entire time. Rossignol is very, very smart for making a board like this. It's just going to control-you're going to have so much more control with a Magne-Traction board like this. This is a 161. We measure snowboards in centimeters. This is 161 centimeters. This one, since it's a park board, it's a little bit smaller. Its 156 centimeters. The smaller you go, the smaller your board's going to get. If you weigh a lot, like maybe like me, you want to get a bigger, wider board. The wider your feet are, the wider your feet-or your board-is going to need to be, too. Right here is another Nitro. This happens to be a girl's model board. What it is, it's 153 centimeters. It's a little bit shorter. Girls usually don't need that big of a board. Little bit smaller. But what it is, it's basically the same kind of setup. It's twin tip. It's more like a park board. It's really flexible. You can tell flex by pushing on the snows and just pushing like that and you can tell. Another good kind of board, what a lot of people like to just mess around with, it's called a Mini. Alright, so what we're going to have now is a Rossignol Mini. Basically, what these do are they help you with your park riding. You can throw a lot of spins easier, just learn the basics with this Mini. It's 121 centimeters, so it's really, really small. One thing you've got to look out for is, when you're on this, is it doesn't have a nose and a tail. You can tell because you're centered pretty much over the entire board. If you lean back a little bit, you're going to fall out like that. If you lean forward, you're going to fall out like that because there's nothing really to push down on. These are really good tools to help you learn carving and switch carving because it's going to help you be centered over your board. So, basically, when you're buying a board, what you want to do is you want to do your homework. You're basically buying a name. You want to find someone like a Burton, a Nitro, a Rossignol, something that has made a name for themselves, and that they understand how to make a board."