Board Lengths

What length to buy?

We've all asked a 'knowledgeable' friend for snowboard buying advice, but the problem is that they've probably been given bad advice themselves, before passing it on to you.

Case in point is selecting the right snowboard length. Many people claim the ideal length for a snowboard is somewhere between your nose and chin. This seems to make sense, but the problem is that it's a load of rubbish. The most important important factor to decide the length of board is how much you weigh.

Simply put, your snowboard responds to the force you put into it through the camber, sidecut, torsional flex and longitudinal flex as you drive through a turn. How much you weigh directly affects how much force you put into your board.

Let's take Rider A, who is 5ft 9" and weighs 12 stone and put them on a 159cm all-mountain snowboard. Generally speaking, that is a good sized go anywhere board for that weight of rider. This combination will optimise the sidecut shape as they compress the camber into the turn and will store the energy in the tail to pop them out into the next.

If we put Rider B, who is the same height, but weighs just 8 stone on the same 159cm all-mountain snowboard, things change quite drastically. As they go into the turn, they don't have the weight to compress the camber fully, so the sidecut geometry can't work to its maximum efficiency. This means that they will only be turning on the first and last thirds of their sidecut, while the middle third won't engage the snow at all. This sequence of events means the board doesn't hold the turn and feels dead under their feet. It also feels twitchy because the board is too stiff and denies total control.

To complete the circle, let's repeat the scenario with Rider C, who is also 5' 9”, but this time weighs 16 stone. As Rider C puts energy into the board, they overload it – its flex wasn't designed to handle that amount of force – so the board is unable to hold its edge through the turn. The board will go into the turn easily and be quite stable through the first part, but as soon as you get to where the board stores the energy for the turn exit – their extra weight translates into more force, which overstresses the board and the back end 'washes out'. Annoying and tiring as constantly picking yourself up from the floor is, it also prevents you improving your technique.

It's oversimplifying things to say that a 5' 9", 12st rider should always ride a 159 as there are other factors that affect the choice of board size – jib boards tend to be shorter than the average, big mountain boards tend to be longer – but for the common or garden all mountain or progressive board, these guidelines are good.

Always take time to look at recommended rider weights in the manufacturer's specs. Granted, there's a big difference between lower and upper weights (which accounts for the number of length models in the range) but it gives you a good starting point.

If a snowboard store is switched on enough to ask you the weight question, they'll more than likely ask enough questions about your riding preferences for you to narrow down the number of snowboards in the shop to the model of your choice – and a range of sizes that are suitable for your weight. At this point, it's time to choose the one that best fits – and away you go!