Beginner board options

Can someone tell me which board would fit me better as a beginner? Will be doing mostly groomed runs on both powder and ice.

K2 Raygun
Rome Reverb Rocker
Yes trouble
Flow Era

Thanks!

Welcome to Boardworld, Rivers! ?

Those boards are all quite different; there’s essentially three different camber profiles you’re looking at. Personally, I would steer you towards the YES Trouble. I prefer the “CamRock” profile of this board over the others. I like the idea of camber between the feet because it forces you to ride with good technique. The rocker in the nose and tail still makes it forgiving and easy to learn on. This is just a general statement, though.

Any of those board should be OK to learn on, and it’s hard to say one is better than the other. What year are those snowboard models from? i.e. They don’t make the YES Trouble anymore, so it must be somewhat old.

Before we can get specific we need to know more about you:

Height?
Weight?
Boot size? (if not, shoe size)
Where do you live? Locations you are riding?
How much experience do you have? Have you done any days at all?

rider26 - 09 January 2016 11:05 AM

Welcome to Boardworld, Rivers! ?

Those boards are all quite different; there’s essentially three different camber profiles you’re looking at. Personally, I would steer you towards the YES Trouble. I prefer the “CamRock” profile of this board over the others. I like the idea of camber between the feet because it forces you to ride with good technique. The rocker in the nose and tail still makes it forgiving and easy to learn on. This is just a general statement, though.

Any of those board should be OK to learn on, and it’s hard to say one is better than the other. What year are those snowboard models from? i.e. They don’t make the YES Trouble anymore, so it must be somewhat old.

Before we can get specific we need to know more about you:

Height?
Weight?
Boot size? (if not, shoe size)
Where do you live? Locations you are riding?
How much experience do you have? Have you done any days at all?

Here’s more info:

169cm, 63kg, 7.5US
I live in south east asia, no riding locations here unfortunately. Will be going to niseko next month and Australia in future.
I have done a total of 3-4 sessions spanning maybe 12 days over the past few years?

I like the yes trouble 154cm but my only worry is that it is listed as an intermediate-expert board with the others on thegoodride shows up as a beginner-intermediate or beginner-expert board and that might hamper my learning rate. Any thoughts on that?

http://thegoodride.com/snowboard-reviews/yes-trouble-review-and-buying-advice/

The Yes trouble board is a 2014 with the rest mostly being 2014 or 2015 boards and running from 149-153cm long.

Rivers - 09 January 2016 07:56 PM

I like the yes trouble 154cm but my only worry is that it is listed as an intermediate-expert board with the others on thegoodride shows up as a beginner-intermediate or beginner-expert board and that might hamper my learning rate. Any thoughts on that?

You can ignore that classification completely. Actually, I think the whole idea of pigeonholing snowboards into these sorts of classifications should be revised, as there is often confusion based on the classifications.

What is it about this particular board that makes it only suitable for intermediate to expert snowboarders? Honest answer: nothing. It’s an easy board to ride, it’s versatile, plain and simple. It’s absolutely fine for a beginner to learn on a board like this.

And guess what, having done 12 days on the snow, I assume you can make turns down green/blue runs, and you aren’t a “beginner” anymore. Even if you were, is it a smart investment to purchase a real “beginner” board just for the first few days on snow? You’re going to outgrow it and be stuck with it for years to come.

Going off-track a little bit, this is how I would classify the extreme ends of the “beginner/expert” scale:

Beginner: soft flex, easy to turn (rocker, bevelled edges, nose/tail scoops etc.), forgiving (room for error).

Expert: stiff flex, camber, requires more precise (or stronger) technique, not as forgiving.

Even so, boards can still fall into the “beginner” category and be an “expert-level” board. My advice is look at the board characteristics to decide whether it’s suitable or not—not how someone has decided to classify it in regards to the beginner/expert scale. Most of the time I would say you can take these classifications with a grain of salt.

Cheers mate, just put in that order for the yes trouble snowboard!

Rivers - 10 January 2016 10:49 AM

Cheers mate, just put in that order for the yes trouble snowboard!

No worries, @Rivers. Enjoy your new board.  ?