# Powder boards vs Park Boards



## Oze boarder (Jan 23, 2012)

At the moment i have a 157wide salomon drift which I love for the park. Im 6ft 195lbs so its possibly a bit on the short side but thats how I like it?? Great to turn and still heaps of fun in powder but not sure if there is a specific type of board for riding powder??

Just thinking about getting a new board and not sure if its worth buying a longer and completely different board to ride on the powder days. Wouldnt of got too much use this year but fingers crossed next season there is plenty of powder days


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## grafta (Dec 21, 2009)

You want something with rocker... oh hang on that deck has rocker right?

There are specific pow boards, but keep in mind your riding style and how much you actually (realistically) ride pow... and what kind of terrain you ride said soft stuff on.

I ride a NS Evo and get to ride pow a bit and have no real desire for a dedicated pow stick


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## Lamps (Sep 3, 2011)

Powder boards are tapered, wider at front to float in pow, have rocker, and have stance set back. 

Consider burton Sherlock, designed for park dudes who want to play in powder when it's there.


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## Nivek (Jan 24, 2008)

Oze boarder said:


> At the moment i have a 157wide salomon drift which I love for the park. Im 6ft 195lbs so its possibly a bit on the short side but thats how I like it?? Great to turn and still heaps of fun in powder but not sure if there is a specific type of board for riding powder??
> 
> Just thinking about getting a new board and not sure if its worth buying a longer and completely different board to ride on the powder days. Wouldnt of got too much use this year but fingers crossed next season there is plenty of powder days


Drift rocker or camber?


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## ETM (Aug 11, 2009)

To me riding powder is what it's all about, everything else is what you do when there's no powder. If you arent riding powder on a really well suited pow stick then you are missing out on the absolute best, most pure stoke that snowboarding can provide.
Now finding what works for you in a pow board can be a challenge, at first you will be reluctant to deviate too far from the style of board you currently ride elsewhere but in reality your pow stick should be a very different beast.
The following is my experience learned from riding in Japan where it can be chest deep no problem.

The biggest factor that will make your pow experience the best it can be is not coming home with a rear leg full of lactic acid from being half bent all day due to having to lean back to keep your nose up. There are various methods used to overcome this but in the end they all rely on the same principal, sinking the tail. By sinking the tail your rear leg can get into the same position it normally is when you ride hardpack.

1. Set back. Setting back your stance works by placing more board surface area on the nose, less on the tail. A little setback will help your rear leg a little, a lot will help a lot.

2. Taper. Throw some taper into the mix and things get even better, the wide nose adds surface area to the front, the skinny tail reduces surface area in the rear adding to the effect you achieved by setting back your stance.

3. Swallowtail. Basically a swallowtail is a normal tail with a big section of material removed from it. Think flying V guitar. In my opinion by far the best feature you can have on a powder board. It works the same way by reducing surface area at the rear allowing you to stand straight up, there will be no pain for you riding a swallowtail. The swallowtail has an added bonus of allowing you to literally stomp on the tail when you need to which allows for radical changes in direction and the ability to wash off speed when you need to to avoid hitting a tree or some fool trying to walk out of a powder stash on his park board. Once you go swallowtail you will never go back.

4. Big nose. You want a much longer more gradual rise in the nose to keep it ontop of the powder. A more pointed shape works a lot better than your traditional rounded nose and more total nose height helps a lot.

5. Rocker. Rocker or reverse camber works by not pointing the nose down like traditional camber does which helps keep the nose on top of the powder. Personally I do not like rocker as you lose too much ability to hold an edge and carry speed on the groomed runs which you generally spend 50% of your time on getting to the powder. If you do not spend any time on the groomed run you want rocker 100% but I am not willing to trade off edge hold for a few cm of nose height in the pow. Extra nose height can be achieved by having a higher nose as described above. A lot of pow specific boards now have camber to the front foot and rocker from the front foot forward which is a good trade off.

6. Board size. Go big, it helps you float at the front.

You do not need to combine all of those features to get a good pow board but the more you do the more fun you will have and the less pain you will feel ranging from wanting your rear leg amputated due to riding a twin or having no pain at all riding a setback, tapered, swallowtailed, rockered, oversized board.


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## d15 (Jan 12, 2012)

Taper, taper, taper.


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## sm0ke (Mar 21, 2011)

interesting comments made
just to give you an idea of what my setup is see below - im 5'10 175ish
all around board (pow, hardpack, park): ride dh2 157
strictly park: arbor draft 153
backcountry (obvioulsy strictly pow): rossignol scope 161 - i turned this into a splitboard and it has traditional camber, some say its not perfect for pow but i cant really tell a difference...yet

so really it all comes down to preference


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## Dub (Feb 8, 2012)

Just got this Libtech model 1986 skate mullet for pow was so pumped after pow crashing all day thing floats and butters pow like nothing else ive played with hooked on libs...


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## Oze boarder (Jan 23, 2012)

Snow mullet looks awesome, do you know of any good places to check out prices and stuff on the net?


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## Dub (Feb 8, 2012)

evo.com .. dogfunk.com .. solsticessupply.com .. i got from evo for good deal.. the mullet rules the pow is gone took it up and loved it on groomers and crashes ice spots with no worries libs rule


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## Rufus (Nov 7, 2008)

If you expect to get many powder days then a pow board is a great investment. Most days I ride a 155 K2 Parkstar but on big pow days I bring out my 166 Burton Malolo, it's a blast riding that board when the snow is deep. Unfortunately the Malolo hasn't been out much this season.


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