This is there to give you an understanding of the target ability level for each board. This is one of the most important categories when choosing a board and the most important to be honest about.. The best analogy of snowboard performance is to compare it to other things, so taking motor bikes as an example. So, do you pass your bike test then go jump on a 200mph Hayabusa? No, you'd kill yourself. Snowboarding is the same - just because a board is £500 it doesn't make it better. It's £500 because the material going into it is more expensive because the designer needs to make it stiffer in a controlled way. This makes it harder to ride and more demanding. If you aren't an advanced rider, you'll hate it and all it will do is hold you back. It's important to understand that the more money you spend doesn't necessarily make a better board. The best board is the board that suits your current ability and a bit beyond.

This gives you an understanding of the design criteria for each board. Again, it used to be easy. You had freestyle, all-terrain and freeride but now so many lines are blurred and things cross over so many categories. Anything that is all-mountain or all-terrain can do anything and these can lean either towards freestyle or freeride. So an all-terrain, freestyle board will be a little softer, maybe more of a pure twin shape but versatile enough to go anywhere. The freeride leaning board will be a bit more directional, a bit stiffer through the length and in the tail but could still do a run through the park. Either side of those two categories you have freestyle and freeride. Freestyle can be divided into park and freestyle. Park boards will be softer, shorter and a little wider; they are aimed more at rail riders. Freestyle boards are more kicker and pipe orientated; they can still ride rails but are little more versatile than pure park boards. At the other end, pure freeride boards are stiffer and more responsive; they have longer noses and excel on the piste. These morph into big-mountain and powder boards which are aimed at riders that gun it everywhere.
Shape: There are generally 3 shapes used in snowboarding. These are twin, directional twin and directional. Twin is as the name says, totally the same at the tip and tail. This is in shape, flex and direction. A twin will come with a centred stance and will ride the same forwards or backwards. They are the normal choice for freestyle riders and are soft flexing for jib riders getting stiffer for big park riders and halfpipes. Directional twins are the most popular as they are the most versatile shapes. These are normally fully twin in shape but with a flex that is stiffer towards the tail and a stance that is set back a little. These give better performance whilst generally riding around without compromising freestyle riding. Fully directional boards are aimed more at freeriders who want the bulk of the performance on piste or in powder. They have a stiffer tail and a longer nose and the stance is set back towards the tail to let the rider drive the board into and out of the turn.

The board's profile is the subject of much debate. In the past boards all came with camber but over the past few years we have seen the introduction of more and more rocker boards. Last season the hype around rocker was huge. In the States, rocker boards now dominate the market, but it's not as clear cut as that. Rocker delivers some great advantages but it also has some massive flaws. You need to ensure that your style of riding suits your choice of profile. To help you understand which type to get, it is best to understand what camber does and what rocker does. When you turn a normal board the camber compresses, tightening the radius of the sidecut into the turn and helping the edge grip. As you come out of the turn the camber unloads and pops you into the next turn giving you a more lively and stable ride. Rocker on the other hand gives a far looser feel underfoot. This is the perfect characteristic for park riders as it makes the board more manoeuvrable at slower speeds but it then loses that dynamic feel as you increase speed. So, be honest. What you need is not what a marketing department tells you. If you spend the bulk of your time in the park then rocker rules. If you don't then camber is better. Then, to throw it all up into the air, you have Bataleon's stunning Triple Base Technology. This kick started the trend in new shapes by catching the entire industry napping. It offers the best of camber and rocker with little to no downsides.

The flex of the board is controlled by the combination of the core and the glass. The flex usually determines the performance of the board. Generally, riders who are learning want a softer flexing board. This will allow the board to flex under their feet and absorb the terrain allowing the rider to concentrate on their riding. However, as their skills increase a softer flexing board doesn't have the strength to hold the increased energy that will be put through it so will loose edge hold and will let go through the turn and feel loose. The opposite applies to stiff boards. These are designed to handle lots of energy so have to be ridden hard and aggressive all the time. They are too stiff to cruise around on as they are designed to respond to increased energy. The most popular flex is the mid flex which gives the perfect balance between performance and user friendly feel. However, certain types of snowboarding require specific flex. A jibber needs a softer flexing board to give control on a rail whilst an alpine rider would want a super stiff board, but we are all really recreational riders so it's important to get that balance.

The core is the board's engine room. It dictates the flex and the shape of the board and is controlled by the profile and density of the woods used. For entry level and mid-priced boards, the core is normally formed from a single type of wood which is manufactured from strips of wood normally glued together. This wood is usually aspen or poplar depending on where the core is manufactured. For higher specced boards, the designers can integrate different and harder woods into the core at specific points making the board snappier and more powerful and helping energy transfer. To make the board lighter, lightweight materials such as honeycomb and other composites can be introduced into the non stress areas of the core. These are normally the nose and tail shovel and strips between the edges and inserts. Generally, the main wood in all cores is still poplar and aspen. Once the core is manufactured, milling the profile dictates the flex. If you mill it thin it becomes soft, mill it thick and it becomes stiff. This allows the designers to create specific flex zones throughout the core to determine the riding characteristics.

These create the torsional flex and snap of the board, generally there are 3 types of glass, these are bi-ax, tri-ax and quad-ax. Bi-ax is normally used on entry level boards or in combination with tri-ax glass on mid range boards. Strips of glass are woven at 90º to each other which gives a softer torsional flex, however by increasing or decreasing the density of the weave you can vary the strength and resistance of the glass. Tri-ax glass is 3 strands in the weave, these are normally set at 45º to each other in an X pattern intersected at 90º. 45º is the optimum angle for tri-ax, go over this and it becomes uni directional and the glass loses its torsional strength. However you can go under this to create specific flex characteristics, so for example you wanted a softer freestyle flex you would drop the angle down to 30º, this would soften the flex without compromising strength. As with bi-ax, the density of the glass can be varied to add or remove stiffness. Quad-ax is four strands, intersected at 90° and 45°, this is the strongest type of glass and normally the stiffest, however again by reducing the angle of intersection to 30° you get super strong glass with a flex very similar to tri-ax. This type of glass is becoming more and more popular. Carbon Fibre Carbon fibre is added to the structural layers of the board. It has a faster rebound than standard glass so is used to give the board additional snap. Carbon can be used in a variety of ways; as fibres woven into the core or as pre cured sheets or rods that give even more snap. The beauty of using carbon is the designer can be very specific in where they want the flex enhancement to be. For example, bracing the entire board from contact point to contact point will make it torsionally more responsive whilst running carbon tip to tail gives more snap without affecting the torsional flex. It's this versatility that makes carbon such a popular material.
Kevlar Normally used on high end boards, this aramid material has superb dampening properties so is normally used to deliver a smoother feeling to stiff high end boards. However, is now becoming more and more popular on lower priced boards to help make them smoother and more forgiving.

There are generally two types of snowboard base construction; sintered and extruded. Sintered bases are normally found on higher priced boards as the plastic used is very expensive. It is created by compressing granules of plastic under heat and pressure, these bond together to form a hard porous block; this is then shaved to produce sheets of p-tex. The density of this material can be changed by using smaller granules; these create a harder material with more holes to give better wax absorption. The normal way to tell the type of sintered base is to look at the number, a 2000 grade being the lowest and 8800 the hardest. You can also add different additives into the source compound to give a faster glide. These are usually carbon, Gallium and Indium, and you can even integrate wax so the base needs servicing less often. Extruded bases are used on lower priced boards and boards that sustain a lot of damage, e.g. jib boards. It is produced by pushing melted plastic through a flat die. The density of the plastic can be changed by putting the melted plastic under very high pressure so more plastic is forced through the same dye. Extruded bases are easy to repair and are faster when compared with sintered if neither are maintained.