What do you need for snowboarding?
By: João R.G. Sampaio
Tags: Snowboard, Snowboarding, Winter, Tutorial, Sports

The 2019/2020 snowboarding season is finally on and it is time to get ready to hit the slopes again! And to do so, it is time to get all the clothes and gear that are stored on the back of the closet during the whole year to get prepared for my first snowboard riding day of the season.

But when I talk about getting prepared for the season, a number of friends of mine that are not into the sport yet but are quite interested on start dipping their toes on it ask me the same question:

What do you need to have to go snowboarding?

I have everything ready to enjoy my first day of riding of the season so the timing felt quite right to write down everything I bring with me to the mountains for it to serve as a reference for many other people around the web that might have the same issue.

This is going to be quite an extensive list so let’s get to it now!

First and foremost: A snowboard!

Well, that felt quite obvious but it had to be said, or else it wouldn’t be a complete list anyway! Technically, you don’t have to have your own snowboard to have some fun on the slopes since most of the resorts around the globe have rental services of snowboard for people that want to try it out (or for people that don’t want to/can’t carry their own equipment around to go to new places because of the costs of checking in sports luggage). But, if you do have a snowboard, don’t forget to have a pair of bindings as well so you can strap your boots on to it!

When buying (or even renting) a snowboard, be sure to get one that matches these three things: your weight, your ability level and what kind of ride you want to have.

Your weight will dictate the size of snowboard that you need to get. Heavier riders will need bigger boards because they need an extra area to be able to float over the snow.

Your ability level will be used to get the snowboard that will give you the most pleasure for your buck. If you’re a beginner, a playful and soft snowboard will do great for trying to learn how to make turns and be able to flex it easier for carving and maybe some basic tricks. If you’re already more experienced, you can get one that will match your riding style, more aggressive, more playful, you name it.

Finally, the kind of ride you want to have is based on which part of the mountains are you going to ride on. If you’re going to ride mostly on groomers, a regular all mountain snowboard will do it well. If you’re going to ride on deep powder or backcountry, a powder snowboard will be your best choice. If you’re planning to ride mostly in the park, park boards are the way to go.

There are many types available and a good chat with your store seller or rental employee can give you a better understanding of what to get.

My pick for my first day, since I’ll be running mostly on groomers to get my snowboard legs back from all this hiatus, is my 2017/2018 Burton Free Thinker 162W with a pair of Burton Step On bindings.

A good set of base layers

If you are going to do some snowboarding, odds are that you’re going to a place that might be quite cold. So, we need to keep our body warm during the day but, still, be able to have our bodies very flexible. To achieve this, it is quite important to have some good base layer clothing with you (or “second skin”, as some people like to call). They can be made of either polyester or thin wool and their sole purpose is to keep you warm through the day while not adding that much extra weight and leaving your body able to move freely. Just remember to get something that you can feel very comfortable wearing because you’ll have this on your body during the whole day.

My pick for the day are some polyester layers that you can find on any sports equipment store near you.

A nice pair of long socks

Another part of your body that you definitely want to keep warm during the day are your feet. Nothing is worse than having below freezing temperatures attacking your toes and, quite frankly, it can be very dangerous. So, a nice pair of long and warm socks are good item to have with you. The length is quite important because having short socks can make the inner liner of your snowboard boot rub against the skin of your shin which can cause a bit of skin irritation and pain throughout the day.

If the day is not that cold and you don’t want to have sweaty feet (which is also not nice), you can opt to use compression socks instead, that manage to keep your feet warm by hugging them nicely and tight, which can also help if your snowboard boot size is a bit too small for thick socks.

Just a small tip when wearing compression socks: don’t wear them over your base layer trousers or else it can press the sewing line of it on your skin during the day and cause lots of pain and discomfort (trust me, I’ve been there).

My pick for the day is a pair of compression socks from Stance. They are quite comfortable and come in a lot of different styles.

Crash protection

If you’re a beginner rider hitting the slopes for the first times, or if you’re an experienced rider trying to hit the features in the park, or if you’re just having any kind of snowboard riding day, having an extra layer of protection is never too much. Nobody wants to ruin a day (or a week or even a whole season) because of a broken tail bone or an injured elbow, knee or wrist. So, crash protection always come handy for a safe day. It is like that old saying: “better safe than sorry”.

My picks for the day are the G-Form elbow and knee pads (which are very flexible) and a pair of Burton Crash Pants, also with G-Form tech.

A cool T-Shirt

Snowboarding is not just about the sport itself but also about expressing yourself. This is a very optional item that you can go without but I always like to have my own style wherever I go. It can also be a nice ice breaker during the après-ski.

Just wear whatever makes you comfortable and whatever clicks with you. My pick of the day is not a piece of clothing but one of my favourite bands. Ladies and Gentleman, Joy Division:

Middle layer to keep you warm on colder days

Some days are warmer and some days are colder. Instead of packing heavy and sweating a lot or packing light and freezing all day, it is always good to bring with you a nice middle layer piece of clothing with you. It can be a flannel shirt, a fleece layer, a sweatshirt, a dawn vest, you name it. Just bring one (or more) with you to the resort and have it just in case the weather changes or you becomes too hot/cold. It is terrible to ride when the body is freezing from the cold and you can barely move from all the shaking and it is also terrible to ride when you’re sweating a lot by having too many layers, so take them out or put them on when needed.

Also, as a bonus, it is another way of expressing your own style throughout the day.

My pick for the day is my usual checkered blue flannel shirt (yeah, I have something about wearing checkered shirts that I can’t explain).

Proper snowboard pants

No matter how beginner or advanced you are, chances are that your ass will be hitting the floor at one point or another. It can be by sitting down to adjust your bindings’ straps; it can be by taking a break after a long ride; or it can be because of falling, amongst many other reasons. For that, it is usually recommended to have water resistant snowboard pants to survive the day without getting your butt wet.

Also, proper snowboard pants have an extra room for flexibility, since snowboarding requires a lot from your legs and knees, and also they come with features that are quite helpful for the day, like the zippers inside the legs for added ventilation on warm days, and like the leg skirts that we can use to cover the boot lacing/BOA so it doesn’t get undone during the day, while also preventing snow from entering from below it.

With that in mind, I deeply recommend a good investment on a nice pair of pants that feel very comfortable. For the occasional rider that will use it once or twice, it doesn’t matter that much. But, if you’re planning to progress, go for a nice Gore-Tex pair of pants and they will last you years.

My pick for the day is a pair of Burton Gore-Tex snowboard pants. It is already my 3rd season using them and they are still just great!

Proper snowboard jacket

Same thing as having proper pants, proper jackets are gold for a nice day at the mountains. Their main purpose is to keep you dry, protect you from the wind and, if the weather hits hard, to keep you warm. There are plenty of jackets on the market that can do that but proper snowboarding jackets have features that are quite important for a good ride.

Their size is pretty larger comparing to a same size ski jacket because of all the upper body motion required for snowboarding. Also, they have some nice features like an inner skirt to prevent snow from entering from below it during falls (or just during regular riding, to protect you from the cold), the ventilation zippers like the pants, and many others that vary from brand to brand.

My pick for the day is a Burton Gore-Tex snowboard jacket that I got two seasons ago. Maybe it is time to change for a nicer colour but I kinda like the combination of black-ish and red-ish of the jacket with the pants. ;)

A pair of quality mittens (or gloves, if you prefer)

Worse than having a frozen wet butt is having frozen hands. You’ll be touching snow basically all the time during the day, either to push you up from the floor or to remove snow from your body on every fall or sitting so you have to protect your hands from the cold. And you have to protect them properly. A pair of wool gloves can make your hands warm on the streets but when they get wet they can literally freeze your hands. A pair of leather gloves can look stylish on the daily life but they won’t be water resistant enough to not let snow enter inside it (and you’ll probably ruin them by using them on the slopes). So, get a nice pair before heading to the mountains.

The debate between mittens vs. gloves is just a matter of preference. Some people like to have every individual finger available for quick tasks like opening/closing pockets with ease and so on. I like the mittens because they keep all my fingers together, making them extra cozy and warm during the day. Which one is better? The one that makes you feel more comfortable.

My pick for the day are a pair of NEFF Digger Mitts. They have a nice fake leather material on their tips to help remove snow and ice from the bindings, a grippy palm for better grabs and a soft thumb back cover that you can use to wipe out the water/snow away from your goggles during the day.

Head/Neck/Face warmer

The same way you wear a scarf and maybe a beanie on a cold winter day, head/neck/face protection is here to keep the elements away from your head. The neck area is specially sensitive in my opinion. Your head is being warmed by your helmet (sometimes) but the neck will receive a lot of cold wind blowing on it while you ride down the slopes, and you don’t want to end your snowboard trip week early by getting a cold or a sore throat, do you? You can use any combination of beanies and neck warmers to keep you warm, or you can buy a balaclava that can surround your whole head in just one piece, avoiding the need for taking care of multiple things around your head at all times.

My pick for the day is the Anon Hooded Balaclava that can keep both my head and neck warm, while also providing some mouth protection when the weather gets cold (and, also, checkered patterns again.. yep, it is my thing).

Goggles

Visibility is key during a snowboard riding session. The speed makes the wind hit your eyes, the weather can be snowy and affect your view, and being able to see where are you going when bombing or carving downhill is quite important. So, for that matter, grab yourself a good pair of goggles. If you’re a beginner just learning how to snowboard on the beginners area with a nice sunny day, this won’t be an issue. But, if you’re planning on keep going with the sport, it is a good purchase for sure!

No two days are the same. Some days are sunny, some days are cloudy, some days are both! So, it is pretty common to have either an extra pair of goggles or an extra pair of lenses if your goggle accepts lens replacement on the go. Riding on a sunny day with a very light goggle can make it hard to see clearly thanks to the sun hitting your eyes, and riding on a cloudy day can be even harder with a dark shade of goggles turning the day into night. My tip is to buy one for each of these two scenarios and you’ll be good to go. For scenarios in between, well, just find the best combination of goggles and weather. Or, if you have the cash, you can go bananas and have as many lenses/goggles as you need. Why not?

My pick for the day is the Anon M3. Its magnetic clip-on system makes it easy to swap lenses when the weather condition changes without me even need to remove my mittens. Also, the Sonar by Zeiss polarised lenses add an extra level of contrast to your view during the day that help a lot during those extra sunny days or overcast afternoons.

Snowboard boots

Boots are a very important part of your kit. Since your feet will be stuck in there for the whole day, it is important that they match your feet size really well, so try them on on the store or, if you buy online, try them properly at home before using them at the mountains so you can return them in case they don’t fit properly. They are made to keep your feet warm and locked in place so you can manoeuvre the snowboard through the slopes, transferring the motion from your feet to the board with appropriate energy and precision. Don’t get a pair of boots that are too large for your feet or that make your toes curl back just because “it is the last one on the store and you like its style”. Boots will break in with time and your feet will feel more comfortable inside it the more you use it but it won’t make miracles of increasing sizes that much. And also, those days you’ll spend breaking in a tight boot will be torture to your feet and toes.

If you don’t have your own pair of boots, you can rent it at mostly any resort. Just try different sizes until you get it very comfortable on your feet or else you’ll have a very bad day. After all, who likes to spend the day feeling discomfort because of wearing shoes that are too tight or too loose on your feet?

My pick for the day is the Burton Ion Step-On. Since I’m using Step-On bindings, I have to stick with Step-On compatible boots, and the Ion is a pretty neat boot, with the speed zone lacing system combined with the “fake strap binding” tightened with the BOA system to enhance the stiffness of the boot and help preserve the original binding feeling.

Helmet

One of the most important items on this list is, without discussion, a helmet. Our head is a very fragile thing and these sorts of extreme sports can be quite dangerous, no matter which level you are. You can be the god of balance and snowboard and decide to not use a helmet to look cool, or think that since you’re going too slow it is not necessary, but it only takes one hard hit to end it all. I remember being a beginner and falling flat on my back because of slippery icy conditions with almost no speed and hitting the back of my head really hard on that ice. That day could be a very serious day, one that could impact my whole life, if I wasn’t hearing a helmet. Even pro snowboarders wear helmets, so don’t play around without it.

Also, there’s no need to worry about looking uncool by wearing a helmet because there are many brands in the market and one of them will really click with you and your style.

Same thing as the snowboard and the boots, helmets can be rented at the resort. Sometimes for free, and sometimes for a fee. But don’t let that fee shy you away from renting one.

My pick for the past seasons is the Scott Apic Plus with MIPS tech to sustain impacts better.