How to buy new gear.
This topic is inspired by all those questions we want to answer but never get enough information so that we can give a good suggestion.
The question about “what should I buy” requires some necessary information from the person asking the question.
Lets try to come up with a list of questions that must be answered in order for such a question to be answered most effectively.
I’ll start.
What equipment are you currently using? (board make model and size. Or binding or boot if the questions pertains to that).
How long have you been riding? (number of seasons, and number of days on snow each season).
What style of riding do you do mostly?
What types of snow, or what mountains do you ride at?
What else needs to be answered before good advice can truly be given?
How much money do you have?
Are you male or female?...(It`s not always obvious on the intrawebs)
how big or small are you?
and what size are your feet?
how big or small are you?
and what size are your feet?
Duh!, I missed the obvious ones with not mentioning that!
Keep them coming.
I always want weight, height, boot size for sure. Good call boman.
Budget for sure.
I think not only what is your current style of riding, but what riding style do you hope to achieve with your new setup is important.
I will also suggest telling us where you live so we can recommend a good store in your area to visit.
how big or small are you?
and what size are your feet?
Duh!, I missed the obvious ones with not mentioning that!
.
you mentioned size of Boots….in a kind of obscure way, but it was there..
are you willing to support giant conglomerate international publically traded mega corps (k2/ride jardin, quiksilver/mervin, amer sports, nike, northface) or would you rather prefer small privately held companies? (burton, unity, c3, rome, arbor, 32)?
Ok so here is the list so far, and this may be a complete list - it seems that it sure could be to me.
I like the idea of responding to a question about “what should I buy” with a group of questions like this, so we have all the info we need to answer them. I think this would be the most helpful, because personally it is annoying to gt the same question over and over - and then see the blind lead the blind… and people only having experience with one board or one company suggesting that the person use or buy from that company. There’s too many options out there to get so narrow minded.
Of course each of us will make suggestions of our favorite items, but ive just seen this taken too far.
Any other thoughts on this?
Jeremy…. is this a direction you’d like to see the advice go for the forums here?
Are you male or female?
How much do you weigh?
How tall are you?
What size are your feet?
What equipment are you currently using? (List the board company and model and length. List the binding or boot you are using if the questions pertain to that).
How long have you been riding? (Number of seasons, and number of days on snow each season).
What style of riding do you do mostly and what riding style do you strive for?
What types of snow, or what mountains do you ride at?
How much money are you willing to spend.
What company’s product would you like to buy? (Are you willing to support giant conglomerate international publicly traded mega corporations (k2/ride jardin, quiksilver/mervin, amer sports, nike, northface) or would you rather prefer small privately held companies? (burton, unity, c3, rome, arbor, 32)?
Where do you live? (perhaps we can recommend a good store in your area to visit).
I think it’s a good idea for sure. Before we can help someone properly we need to know those answers anyway. We might as well hit them with those questions straight away. It’s good to get them thinking a bit also. We can remove the question ‘which companies products do you want to buy?’
We maybe could rephrase it, because I sense Doc’s sarcasm in his question, but I think a question asking what company they want to buy from may be a good one to ask, because fr a lot of beginner’s a Burton would mean more to them than a Capita, whom they may have never heard of. and yet vice versa for someone who has been in snowboarding for a few years.
People have opinions about certain companies and I wonder if we can just rephrase that question somehow.
Ok so here is the list so far, and this may be a complete list - it seems that it sure could be to me.
I like the idea of responding to a question about “what should I buy” with a group of questions like this, so we have all the info we need to answer them. I think this would be the most helpful, because personally it is annoying to gt the same question over and over - and then see the blind lead the blind… and people only having experience with one board or one company suggesting that the person use or buy from that company. There’s too many options out there to get so narrow minded.
Of course each of us will make suggestions of our favorite items, but ive just seen this taken too far.
Any other thoughts on this?
Jeremy…. is this a direction you’d like to see the advice go for the forums here?
Are you male or female?How much do you weigh?
How tall are you?
What size are your feet?
What equipment are you currently using? (List the board company and model and length. List the binding or boot you are using if the questions pertain to that).
How long have you been riding? (Number of seasons, and number of days on snow each season).
What style of riding do you do mostly and what riding style do you strive for?
What types of snow, or what mountains do you ride at?
How much money are you willing to spend.
What company’s product would you like to buy? (Are you willing to support giant conglomerate international publicly traded mega corporations (k2/ride jardin, quiksilver/mervin, amer sports, nike, northface) or would you rather prefer small privately held companies? (burton, unity, c3, rome, arbor, 32)?
Where do you live? (perhaps we can recommend a good store in your area to visit).
Does this apply to buying new boots as well?
I would think so.
Of course not all those questions would apply, but answer then anyway.
Start a new topic about what boots to wear and list the answers to those questions, I am sure you will have many to help you.
already started a new topic about that, now all i have to do is answer those questions
Some good ones to add i think are:
What are their future plans? Trips overseas, 1 weekend a year etc etc
Who do they ride with? Are they better than you? And do they push them to improve?
Those are good questions for informational and conversational purposes. Things that are nice to know.
But I dont see how they would change what I may suggest for them to buy one product vs another.
I think both are valid questions, especially in Australia.
Australian conditions are quite different to overseas. Nearly all riders would ride a bigger board overseas. Working in a shop I always ask if they are going overseas, because most the time I would suggest a different board.
The second question is valid. I would never suggest a board with an extruded base if they are trying to push their riding.
They wouldn’t be the first questions I would ask, but they are worth adding to the list. The more we know about someone the better we can help them.
Some good ones to add i think are:
What are their future plans? Trips overseas, 1 weekend a year etc etc
Who do they ride with? Are they better than you? And do they push them to improve?
I can answer those questions quite easily
My future plans are to ride at once a week and the person I ride with is an amazing boarder, I have never seen a boarder keep up to skiers so easily and often pass them.. He does push me to improve and that helps a lot