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Snowboard Breakdown
Breaking Down A Snowboard: Explaining the Terms
August 24, 2000
If you checked out Snowboard Lifes Top Twenty-Five Snowboards of 2000/01, you noticed the differences in boards are the length, width, effective edge, and sidecut radius. To demystify these terms (or not) and help you to figure out which board is best for you, we asked five experts from five different snowboard companies to each break one term down to the basics or as basic as they could get it. - J.H.
Length
"Board length can mean several things: it could be the material length, which represents the length of the base material and/or topsheet; it could be the cord length measured from tip straight to tail without the curvature of the kick. Or it could be the actual board length which could mean just about anything. Any of these measurements will get in the ballpark, but the most important of them is the effective edge or contact length the tip and tail of the board are just there to make sure the board stays on top of the snow. Without them, it would dive into the powder, or stab into the wall of the halfpipe or kicker, and resorts would have to use Zambonis instead of snowcats."
Steven Cobb
Technical Engineer
Mervin MFG.
What Length Means To You
"Board length defines the size of the board and is measured from tip to tail, either in a direct line or, more correctly, along the running base. But there is more to this number. Many people feel comfortable with a certain size and uncomfortable with another. Let your feeling and experience guide you, but keep in mind that, on average, board sizes have been going up over the past few years. You'll do fine with a board that's two to three centimeters longer than the one you bought two seasons ago."
Thomas Delago
Co-Owner
Nitro Snowboards
Effective Edge
"Effective edge is the widest point on the board, including the sidecut. It is the difference between the blend radius [the shape where the sidecut turns into the nose/tail shape] and the contact length [the part that is on the snow]. If you have a greater difference between the effective edge and the contact length, it will make the board feel more forgiving; less difference and the board will feel edgy. Freeride boards, generally, have a bigger difference between the contact length and effective edge, giving a slower, smoother response. Freestyle boards have less of a difference, giving a quicker turn response and allowing the board to stand up more, which helps with landing spins so you don't keep spinning after you land."
Tucker Fransen
Head of Product Development
MLY/M3
Waist Width
"Waist width is the measurement of the width of the board at its narrowest point. It has a direct influence on several characteristics of a snowboard’s performance: edge-to-edge quickness a narrower board will be faster edge-to-edge; floatation a wider board will float better in powder; comfort a wider board will better accommodate riders with big feet. For freeriding, a wide board will generally be anywhere from 26.5 to 28 centimeters at the waist, a medium board, 25 to 26.5 centimeters and a narrow board, under 25 centimeters."
John Moore
Director of Hardgoods Development
Sims Sports Inc.
Sidecut Radius
"Sidecut radius is the radius of the board between the two points of snow contact. If a board has a running length of 1000 millimeters and a sidecut depth of twenty millimeters than its radius would be 6,260 millimeters or 6.26 meters.
If a board has a bigger sidecut depth, it has a smaller radius. The radius along with longitudinal and torsional flex and waist width helps determine the radius of the turn on snow. The rule of thumb is that the smaller the radius, the tighter the turn the board makes, and the less stable the board will be at speed. If the radius is bigger, the larger the radius turn and the more stable the board at high speed."
Scott Barbieri
Senior Design Engineer
Burton Snowboards
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Top 25 snowboards
It doesn’t seem that challenging a job, at first. That is until you consider the sheer number of boards on the market, and the fact that judgment calls take a direct stab at the heart of a magazine’s subsistence—advertising. But we’re editors, not advertising sales people.
So because you seem to appreciate an inkling of truth now and then, we rallied the forces, stockpiled the boards, and dove headlong into a whole industry’s offerings—again.
Companies were asked to first pare down their lines, singling out what they deem their top all-around/freeriding models, and then send them in—tuned, and hopefully waxed. The number of boards a company could submit was determined by the size of its line: it varied from one to three boards for the Top 25, but no one was permitted more than three.
Neal Drake testing the limits in the park.
In all, over 40 companies enlisted, and considering they chose the best boards from their entire lines, and then we selected the cream of that crop, the Top 25 represents the picks of a many hundreds-of-boards litter.
Mammoth Mountain, California, always a late-season sure-thing, again provided the perfect stage for all-mountain riding and finger-pointing. There, testers poured over the boards, riding and then coming in for a change-out while holding their tongues as to not influence other testers, and riding again.
Over the course of the week, morning pow turned to hardpack, the park only got better, and testers guarded their stashes of good snow with staunchly sealed lips. Changing conditions affect how a board performs, so the test team rode each board at different times of day and on different days.
Lisa Kosglow off piste and testing.
By week’s end, every board was given a fair shot, and the testers had spoken—giving some the nod and others the axe. An average of the testers’ scores—high and low cards thrown out—left us with what you’ll find here: The 25 best all-around snowboards for 2000/01—the boards we’d recommend to friends, and the boards we’d buy ourselves.
The winners of the test appear in alphabetical order, not the order they ranked. We don’t rank ’em because, first of all, everyone would buy the number-one ranked board. Second of all, because every rider is different, that would be stupid.
What we did do this year (because a lot of readers wanted to know "the" winner last year) is list each tester’s top-three scoring boards. That way you can surmise which boards really high-marked, and which ones particular testers liked most.
For more insight to the test team, click here. By associating with them (scary), you’ll be able to better decipher the board reviews. Also, check the specs and make sure they jive with your foot size, etc. (all specs are for the boards pictured), and inform yourself by going to the Web sites we’ve provided.
As you dig in you’ll notice that we seem to have miscounted. There are 26 boards in the Top 25 and six women’s boards. No, this wasn’t a last-minute advertising coup, it’s just that there were ties in both tests—we’ll have to string it out another decimal point next season.
Enjoy.
Board Tester Bios
The Top 25
Airwalk A-1
Arbor Woodie
Atlantis Mirage
Burton BMC
Burton Cascade
Burton Custom
GNU Carbon High Beam
Gnu Choice
Lib Tech Joey Maguire
MLY Bi-Polar
MLY Variable
Morrow Blaze
Nitro Natural
Nitro Team
Palmer Circle Carbon
Random Icon
Ride Control
Ride Profile
Ride Timeless
Rossignol Levitation
Rossignol Premier
Salomon Fastback
Santa Cruz TBX
Sims Daytona
Sims Descender
Winterstick Severe Terrain
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G-Shock Air & Style Finals
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