Adequate clothing to protect against the elements is essential.

Make sure your jacket and pants (or salopettes as they are also called) are waterproof and warm. Layering with proper base layers, along with gloves and a face mask or balaclava, will help keep you comfortable throughout your lesson. For guidance on additional safety equipment, please see safety equipment below.

When we talk about safety equipment, that includes a few things.  Having the correct snowboard, boots and bindings is very important and that also extends to having the correct clothing to keep you warm and dry too.

After that, it can be more subjective.  But we strongly advise that adults, and insist that kids are wearing helmets on all of our sessions. It’s just the sensible choice!

You can get additional protection in the form of things like impact (padded) shorts and kneepads. We don’t think having this stuff is a bad idea, especially if you are just starting out as a snowboarder.

When looking at more specialised equipment, like for off piste days, it is a requirement that you are equipped with the following three things:

– An avalanche rescue beacon, also called a tranceiver
– A probe
– A shovel

Check this link out on having the appropriate avalanche safety kit, and why it’s so important.

Choosing the right length snowboard is an important equipment choice. It mainly depends on your height, body weight, and what type of snowboarding you want to do.

A good rule of thumb finding the right snowboard size was as easy as standing next to a board and seeing if the top hits your chin; if it did, it’s the right size ish.

While that’s a good place to start, it’s important to understand your weight and your style of riding plays a large part too.

Generally:

If you’re a beginner, aim for the shorter end of your size range.

If you’re mostly riding all mountain including powder and piste then aim for the longer end of your size range for stability and speed.

If you’re above average weight, aim for a longer snowboard for better control.

If you’re riding in the park or freestyle, aim for the shorter end of your size range.

Any snowboard can be used on any terrain, but most snowboards are designed with a specific terrain or style in mind. For example, powder boards are designed to help keep you afloat so tend to be wider, have a strongly directional stance, and have a more tapered shape.

Take a look at these descriptions to see some of the differences you can encounter in the equipment.

BEGINNERS
If you’re new to snowboarding, you want something that’s going to be forgiving and not hard work to ride.
Beginner boards are just that. Softer flexing, and usually a balanced shape, they are designed to make those first few hours on a snowboard as easy as possible as you discover what’s going on.

ALL MOUNTAIN
Designed to go anywhere and perform decently in most conditions, all-mountain boards are ideal for that jack of all trades master of none type setup.
Definitely an ideal choice if you’re only going to use one snowboard.
They are usually slightly directional in shape, with the nose set slightly higher than the tail and a medium flex enables all-mountain boards to adapt to most situations adequately.

FREESTYLE
Freestyle or park boards tend to be a little bit shorter and softer flexing for increased agility. From rails to boxes to jumps and more, park boards are often a true twin shape which means whether you ride left or right foot forward the board is balanced the same.

FREERIDE
More for riders who aim for the off-piste and in varied and steeper terrain, freeride boards tend to have a stiffer flex and are a little longer for stability at speed. They are usually directional, as riding ‘switch’ and going between left and right foot forward is less relevant than a park board.

POWDER
Powder boards are specific to the deeper softer snow, but share a lot of traits with freeride boards. They are often wider in the nose and tapered towards the tail and are very set back to allow for a much bigger nose profile to help the rider float through the powder. Quite often they are wider to give more surface area and therefore more float.

SPLITBOARDS
Splitboards are a more specialised type of snowboard. They are designed so you can much more quickly and easily access terrain away from the lifts. They split in half to walk up the hill, and then you put them back together when you get to the top and ride down. In practice, there’s a little more going on than that, but that’s the basic premise!

Another really important piece if equipment. Generally, the flex of your bindings should be the roughly the same as your boots and snowboard.

If you have a snowboard and binding that have a similar flex they tend to complement each other, improving board feel and control. There can be exceptions to the rule, and the more experience you have, you’ll tune into what you like.

See some info on the general catagories below:

SOFT
The highback, baseplate, heelcup are made from softer materials. They flex more, and because of this the binding is less sensitive to movement and they can give you that forgiveness you need to stick a not so perfect landing.

Also, they are more forgiving for beginners who are making more mistakes.

MEDIUM
More jack of all trades who want a binding that won’t feel out of place anywhere they go with it.

STIFF
Stronger materials provide a more responsive ride for when you are going fast and need that control. Good for the more freeride specific, agressive snowboards and also splitboards.

Hands down, the most important part of your snowboard setup, a comfortable and correct fitting pair of snowboard boots can be the deciding factor between an amazing day on the mountain or a miserable one. It doesn’t matter how good your board and bindings are, if your boots aren’t fitting properly then that’s all you’re going to notice.

Simply put, understanding how snowboard boots should fit is an essential element for a proper snowboard set up.

Choosing the boots that are best for you and your riding style is something any shop should be able to help you with, and it’s the one bit of kit we’d say you should definitely try on first… It’s an easy mistake to grab a good deal online, and end up with a pair that just don’t fit you properly!

Check out the ‘useful links’ tab on this page for more information.

Check out this link for a buyers guide from one of the biggest brands out there.

Here is another link for a proper breakdown of different binding types.

Read here for a good article on snowboard boots.

There is another buying guide here for clothing.