Women's Snowboarding

Find the right length

As a general rule, if you stand a board on its tail, the nose of the board should reach somewhere between your nose and chin. You can use brand size charts and recommended rider weights to get more precise.

Choose between different types of snowboards

The right type of board depends on what type of terrain and snow conditions you plan to ride in. Your choices include all-mountain, freestyle, freeride, powder and splitboards.

Understand camber and rocker

Camber and rocker describe the curve of a snowboard when you look at it from the side. There are many different profiles.

• A cambered board rises up in the waist (midsection) while the contact points rest on the ground near the tail and tip/nose. These grip well on hard snow, provide control at high speeds and deliver a lively, stable ride. Experienced, speed-oriented riders favor cambered boards.
• A rockered board has upturned tips and tails. The design excels in powder or when jibbing or riding rails in the park. They tend to have a surfy feel that offers easy turn initiation, making them popular among novice riders.

Understand lens shapes

• Cylindrical lenses: Lens curves left-to-right across your eyes and face, but the lens surface is vertically flat. These are lower priced and work for most. The flatness can cause more glare and slightly reduces peripheral vision.
• Spherical lenses: Curves across eyes and face and vertically. You get better peripheral vision, less distortion and less glare. They cost more than cylindrical lenses.
• Toric lenses: Newer to the market. Curves both horizontally and vertically. The vertical curvature is more subtle than the horizontal. These tend to be the priciest.

Consider the lens tint and visible light transmission (VLT)

VLT is the amount of light that passes through your lenses and reaches your eyes. A 0% VLT lets no light pass through while a 100% VLT is clear.

• For bright sunny conditions: Look for a VLT less than 25%. Darker tints—like black, brown and copper—usually have low VLTs.
• For partly cloudy conditions: Aim for a VLT of 25%-50%. Tints in this range vary tremendously in color—green, blue, pink and red.
• For overcast, stormy or low-light conditions: Look for 50% or higher VLT. Consider light tints, like amber, gold and rose.
• Riding at night: Look for clear goggles, or ones with 80%-100% VLT

Other features to consider:

• Many higher-end goggles come with two lenses
• Interchangeable lenses let you to swap lenses depending on the conditions.
• hotochromatic lenses automatically lighten or darken depending on conditions—but there is a lag time.