What is a good beginner snowboard setup?

Buying your first set of beginner snowboarding gear can be hard, working out what flex, camber, shape and materials of everything can be a pain.

As a general rule, a good beginner setup will have soft/medium flex boots, bindings and board.

1. Soft/medium flexing boots are the best to start out on, you want something that is comfortable enough to wear all day, but still give you enough support.
2. Soft/medium flexing bindings that give you a good connection to the board, but still let you flex them without being overly restrictive.
3. A soft to medium flexing board, with a reverse camber or hybrid camber shape to help you avoid catching edges and make the learning/progressing stage as easy as possible.

One important thing to keep in mind is what type of snowboarding you want to be doing in the future. Do you want to spend your time riding all over your local mountain, through the trees, groomed runs, off piste, or want to spend your time in the park learning new tricks?

You want to make sure that you buy gear that you aren’t going to grow out of too quickly, and that is going to be suitable for learning, as well as the riding you want to be doing.

All-mountain setups

These setups are going to be good for someone who wants to ride all over the mountain, from the groomed runs, through the trees, off-piste as well as occasionally through the park.

Boards

We are going to be looking at soft/mid flexing, probably directional boards that aren’t going to cost a fortune.

Men:

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Burton Clash
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Arbor Foundation
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Ride Agenda
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All 3 of the boards above have some sort of hybrid/reverse camber shape, which is going to help riders starting out in a few good ways.

They are going to be easy to turn, the are all going to have a loose and catch free ride, and they have a soft enough flex that you can easily move them around.

Women:

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Burton Genie
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Arbor Poparazzi
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Ride Rapture
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Similar in choice to the mens, these are all going to have a nice easy flex, and make riding easy and fun.

Bindings

Similar to the boards, the bindings show here are simple, lightweight but will do the job without breaking the bank.

Men:

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Burton Freestyle
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Union DLX
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Ride EX
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All soft, basic and flexible bindings. If you have a few more dollars to spend, look at the Burton Missions, Union Forces or Ride Revolt.

Women:

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Burton Citizen
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Union Rosa
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Ride LXH
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Boots

The most important part of anyones snowboarding setup, getting the right boots will make all the difference. Ideally, you would want to try them on in a store, but if not, all the big online stores have really good return policies so you can still make sure you get the right size.

Men:

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Burton Moto
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ThirtyTwo Prion
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Ride Orion
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All soft to medium flexing boots, they give you enough support, but are going to be comfy straight out of the box. If you can spend a bit more on the boots (which I really recommend that you do) upgrade the Burton Motos to Hails, the Prions to Lashed and the Ride Orions to Anthems.

Women:

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Burton Mint
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DC Karma
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Park Setups

Boots and bindings are the same as the all mountain setups, soft/medium flexing boots and bindings work just as well in the park.

Boards

Men:

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Capita Horrorscope
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Lib Tech Skate Banana
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Lobster Jibboard
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All of these boards are twin shaped, so they can be ridden regular or switch with no problems, and have a soft and fun flex, that is going to be forgiving and easy to progress your riding. They are all on the lower end of the price range. If you have some extra money, upgrade the Horrorscope to the Ultrafear, it is the same style but has a better base and uses higher quality materials. The Jibboard can be upgraded to the ParkBoard, which has a slightly stiffer flex and a faster base. The step up from the Skate Banana would be the GNU Park Pickle, made of better materials, has more pop and an asymmetrical sidecut to make turning feel more natural.

Women:

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Capita Space Metal Fantasy
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Burton Social
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If you know what snowboard gear you want, you can search on this page to find out who is selling it for the best price.