Hi! This is Mike from Ski Chalet in Arlington, Virginia. Today, we are talking about how to choose the right snowboard for you. In this segment, we are going to talk about how to decide on which snowboard you should purchase. If you are a novice snowboarder, you want to make sure that you get in a snowboard that's right for you. An entry level or novice snowboarder is going to have a softer flex and it's also going to have a shallower side cut and a more durable base. This will allow you to enter and exit your turns a lot smoother and easier and to learn how to link your turns together and progress to the next level. A more advance snowboard is going to be a little bit stiffer with a deeper side cut and a faster base. This is going to make the board more lively and more stable when you are traveling at high speeds.
There are three basic kinds of snowboards. The first one is a Freeride snowboard. It's going to have a softer tip and a stiffer tail, it's also going to have the stance set back further into the board and it's going to have a taper shape, meaning that the nose of the snowboard is going to be a little bit wider than the tail of the snowboard. This is to allow the tail of the snowboard to sink down in powder and the nose to ride up. These boards are great for riding on the groom trails and great for riding in the back country and on steep slopes. However, if you want to do tricks, this is not the snowboard for you. If doing tricks is what you are into, you need a board that's designed to ride in the park, like this one here.
A snowboard designed to ride in the park is going to have a twin shape which means it's going to be the same on either side. It's also going to have a centered stance meaning your feet are mounted right in the middle of the snowboard and it's going to have a softer flex through the middle of the snowboard that lets the board ride rails a little bit easier. The third kind of snowboard is the largest group that is on the market and that’s your all mountain free style board. This is the board that design to do everything from powder, to riding in the park; to riding in the half pipe this is the boards that allow you to conquer the entire mountain. That’s covers how to choose the right snowboard for you. Next stop, we are going to talk about how to choose the right boots.