What is the difference between an extruded base and a sintered base?

There are two major types of bases used for snowboards, Extruded and Sintered.

Extruded Base

Extruded bases are cheaper to make, and are found on lower end boards. The material is made by melting polyethylene pellets together which are then forced through a machine to make a sheet of the base material.

They don’t need much maintenance, so you don’t need to wax them as often as sintered bases. They are slower than sintered bases.

Often you will fine extruded bases on snowboards made for kids, beginners and jib boards where it is important to keep the overall cost of the snowboard down.

View boards with Extruded Bases

Sintered Base

Sintered bases are made up of the same polyethylene pellets, but they are not melted together, they are crushed. It is a more expensive process, but it leaves “pores” in the base, which means that the base material can hold or soak up wax.

Sintered bases can soak up a lot of wax, which means that you will be able to go faster than on a board with an extruded base.

Sintered bases are normally found on higher end, expensive boards.

View boards with Sintered Bases