Snowboard
Buyer's Guide

Now we're getting somewhere. You can ride all over the mountain, comfortably and with skill: either carving on-piste, hitting jumps in the park or searching out powder stashes. Look for a snowboard specific to your style - you can pick whatever you like.

Hopefully now, you'll spend less time on your knees or backside and you'll spend more time enjoying snowboarding. As you venture further around the mountain, you'll see and experience more. Now all-mountain snowboards are great for you, as are freestyle shapes, which will let you ride in the park but also are forgiving.

Shorter and softer boards are suitable for beginners as they make your first turns and tricks easier. An all-mountain snowboard will help you ride across the hill and learn quickly. You can always take a course at the Blue Tomato Snowboard School in Obertauern to progress.

The shape of a directional twin snowboard is symmetrical but other aspects of the board design are not. It could be that the binding inserts have a setback position or that the flex pattern and profile are for riding forwards. A directional twin snowboard will work in the park but you have the versatility for all-mountain riding. If you like to throw tricks when you’re freeriding, this shape is for you.

As the name suggests, this shape is for riding forward. The binding position is moved backwards for a longer nose. This allows better floatation in soft snow and more power carving on-piste. A directional shape is found commonly on all-mountain and freeride snowboards.

A tapered board narrows towards the tail. This shape is particularly suitable for freeride snowboarding because it gives the board more buoyancy due to the greater surface area in the nose area.

The human body is not symmetrical, why should snowboards be? This shape counteracts the natural imbalances in your body for easy turning with a shorter sidecut toeside to heelside. You can find asymmetric freestyle, jib, all-mountain and freeride snowboards.

Rocker is a smoothly curved profile from tip to tail. The contact point is between the bindings and the tips and tails are raised. With a central pivot point, rocker snowboards are catch-free, floaty and easy to turn.

Engineered for deeper snow. This profile has a more pronounced rocker in the nose of the board to help you float in powder. This profile an S-shape with a camber or flat area before or under the back binding. Often combined with a directional or tapered shape for the most fun freeriding in powder snow.

This type of board lies flat on the snow. A zero profile combines the benefits of rocker and camber giving a zero snowboard more edge grip than a rockered snowboard and making it less aggressive than a camber snowboard. Because of this balance, you find zero profiles on freestyle and jib snowboards.

A hybrid rocker has a rocker between the bindings, with camber towards the tip and tail of the board. The rocker allows the snowboard to pivot easily and float in soft snow while the camber guarantees grip. A snowboard with a hybrid rocker performs in all conditions.

A hybrid camber has camber under your body and bindings with rocker or flat section at the tips. This profile works particularly well with freestyle and jib snowboards. You get the grip and power of camber for going fast into kickers and jumping high onto features. The rocker or flat sections add just a touch of forgiveness so if you don’t stick the landing perfectly, just ride out!

These snowboards are not flat! A 3D base profile takes shaping to new levels. In the tip and tail of a 3D shaped snowboard, the sides are bent up to create a 'spoon’ shape. This means you get a greater surface area in the tip for more float in powder. The 3D base ensures catch-free turning and landing on hard snow and a new level of agility in the park.

Similar to beginners, jib riders benefit from shorter snowboards. They are easier to spin on and off rails and they too are more forgiving.
If you are jumping big kickers rather than rails, go with an all-mountain length for your snowboard.

This chart below is a guide for jib snowboard length:

For freeriding, when you need the best control and float, go a little longer. A longer snowboard will naturally have a larger surface area than a shorter one, so will float better in powder. Also, for better response and control, a longer snowboard will have more effective edge so will turn aggressively. One big exception is very short freeride snowboards, which are very wide. These snowboards have massive flotation because of their width and can turn because of an adapted sidecut. Check the product descriptions of these snowboards and check against the all-mountain length chart.

The chart below is a guide to freeride snowboard length:

Most riders prefer medium flex. They are the most versatile snowboards – forgiving for everyday riding but also stiff enough to hold an edge when you want to carve. Perfect for all-mountain riding. Also, if you’re riding bigger features in the snowpark; you’ll appreciate the added support.

The stiffest snowboards are best for freeriding, splitboarding and riding very fast on the piste. In all three of these instances; you need the ultimate control. The stiffest snowboards offer the highest response and support. Be careful though – these boards need strong riders too!

A very commonly used term when describing snowboard performance is sidecut, radius or sidecut radius. Simply put: the sidecut is how your snowboard turns on the snow. A longer sidecut radius (~7,5-9) is better for going fast with long carves. A shorter radius (~6-7,5) is easier to handle and turns quickly.

To turn your snowboard you need steel edges, but there’s so much more than just that. For extra grip, some snowboards add serrations or extra contact points to the edges. These work like a serrated knife would cut into food, with the serrations biting into the snow for a stronger grip. Some boards have strengthened edges, which either use thicker or tempered steel. For jib and freestyle snowboards, these edges take the abuse from rails and boxes.

At Blue Tomato we divide out snowboard bases into three categories: sintered, extruded and premium. An extruded base is typically the cheapest, but the lowest maintenance: An extruded base is straightforward to repair and will run even when it isn’t waxed as often. A sintered base is harder and faster but requires a little more work. If damaged, repairs can be a bit tricky. A sintered base should be regularly waxed to keep running fast. The top level is the premium base. This is made from World Cup standard base materials and is the fastest available. You will find extruded bases on beginner level and jib boards, as they need little maintenance and jibbers can quickly fix any repairs. Sintered bases are often found on freestyle, freeride and all-mountain snowboards to go faster. The top splitboards, freeride and all-mountain snowboards use premium bases for the utmost speed.

What's inside my snowboard? There can be a lot squeezed in that 1 cm thick snowboard. Wood is the main ingredient to nearly all of the snowboards which we offer. Wood is often complimented by fibreglass which add torsional rigidity and flex when laminated at opposite angles to the grain. Other materials include carbon fibre and basalt for stiffness and titanal, cork and rubber for dampening. All of these materials are laminated and glued together using epoxy. ABS plastic is used for the sidewalls of the laminated snowboard and is both waterproof and shock absorbent.

The setback is where the bindings are on the snowboard. On a twin tip snowboard, the bindings should be centrally positioned to ride the same forwards or backwards. In directional twin and directional shapes, the bindings can have a setback. This means that the bindings are mounted towards the tail for riding powder snow. The more of a setback, the more powder-centric the snowboard is.