Should I get a Camber or Rocker/Hybrid snowboard

There are a few boards around now that have both a camber version and a rocker/hybrid camber version.

The Burton Process, Custom and Feelgood all have camber and Flying-V models.

Basically a camber board gives you:

• Pop
• Good edge hold
• Stability at speed

While a rocker board is:

• Easy to learn on
• Forgiving ride
• Loose feeling

While rocker boards were popular when they came out a few years ago, they lack in a lot of areas. The shape of the rocker means that they can never have the same amount of pop as camber. They can’t have as much edge hold as a camber board, and as a result are harder to carve on and less stable at speed. If you are into buttering and jibbing in the park, a rocker board is perfect.

They are really good to learn on, as the contact points are raised out of the way, and make the first few days learning much more fun than learning on a camber board.

The problem is a rocker board has a lot of weaknesses, so almost every company now has hybrid camber versions. The one thing that these board designs are trying to fix are the problems that you get with rocker boards. They try to add camber sections back in to add pop and stability back it, as well as specially designed edges (magentraction/frostbite).

All the board manufacturers will claim that they have hit the perfect balance of stability/looseness with their hybrid camber designs, but it can’t really happen.

If you are a beginner, or only ride a couple of weeks a season, then you will probably have more fun on a hybrid camber board, as it is going to be a middle of the range board that isn’t on any extreme ends of the scale.

BUT

If you want to go fast, go big off jumps, have strong aggressive turns and lots of pop, get a camber board. It will teach you to be a better rider, you will be able to carve faster, cleaner and pop higher than you could on a hybrid board.

Also, you might notice that each year almost every brand has less rocker boards than ever, they are all moving back to the proven camber designs.

If you know what type of board you are after, you can search for it on this page, and it will show you all the retailers who have it in stock, and show if any of them have it on sale.