# All Mountain vs. Park I understand.. Where does Free Riding fit in?



## P-Ride (Jan 29, 2012)

Ok, in buying my first two boards and currently shopping for bindings I'm trying to build a model up of the different characteristics of snowboard setups.. (Naturally nothing will beat experience)

So here are the two extremes as I understand them..

- At one end is a long, fairly rigid all mountain board (probably cambered) with stiff bindings (highbacks I think) that one would use for bombing down mountains.

- The other extreme is a smaller, softer board (probably RC) with looser bindings, that you'd use in the park for responsiveness and forgiveness.

Where does free riding fit into this?

I see people saying some bindings are fine for all mountain, but not free riding? I'm assuming as there is powder, it should have softer bindings, but perhaps a long board?

Would appreciate some help here!


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## Irahi (May 19, 2011)

"All mountain" isn't either extreme, most boards that call themselves "all mountain" really mean: Good at groomers, decent at powder, decent at park. They're often twin or directional twin.

"Freeride" usually leans more to big mountain stuff, a freeride board will be bigger, fatter, stiffer. Most pure freeride boards will be directional with some built in setback in the binding inserts.


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## grafta (Dec 21, 2009)

Let me blow your mind: park boards can be very good pow boards too :thumbsup:








...I mainly just hang out here being as unhelpful as I can be


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## IdahoFreshies (Jul 9, 2011)

Irahi said:


> "All mountain" isn't either extreme, most boards that call themselves "all mountain" really mean: Good at groomers, decent at powder, decent at park. They're often twin or directional twin.
> 
> "Freeride" usually leans more to big mountain stuff, a freeride board will be bigger, fatter, stiffer. Most pure freeride boards will be directional with some built in setback in the binding inserts.



bingo. great summary :thumbsup:



grafta said:


> Let me blow your mind: park boards can be very good pow boards too :thumbsup:


yes and no :cheeky4: i know exactly what you are saying though. park boards are decent at a mild amount of powder, but thats because you arent usually technical and doing alot of little quick movments in powder, so the flex of the park board is not that much of a hindrance. too little snow and you will be working too hard to move the noodle around with all your little adjustments and it will wear you out. too much snow and the park aspects of the board will start to hold you back; like the flex, instability, the narrow width, and the lack of over all board length


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## lonerider (Apr 10, 2009)

IdahoFreshies said:


> bingo. great summary :thumbsup:
> 
> 
> 
> yes and no :cheeky4: i know exactly what you are saying though. park boards are decent at a mild amount of powder, but thats because you arent usually technical and doing alot of little quick movments in powder, so the flex of the park board is not that much of a hindrance. too little snow and you will be working too hard to move the noodle around with all your little adjustments and it will wear you out. too much snow and the park aspects of the board will start to hold you back; like the flex, instability, the narrow width, and the lack of over all board length


Bingo. Great summary :thumbsup:


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## grafta (Dec 21, 2009)

IdahoFreshies said:


> yes and no :cheeky4: i know exactly what you are saying though. park boards are decent at a mild amount of powder, but thats because you arent usually technical and doing alot of little quick movments in powder, so the flex of the park board is not that much of a hindrance. too little snow and you will be working too hard to move the noodle around with all your little adjustments and it will wear you out. too much snow and the park aspects of the board will start to hold you back; like the flex, instability, the narrow width, and the lack of over all board length


Sorry I should have been more specific, I meant that R/C and rocker boards are great in powder. I keep thinking my evo is a park board when it's really not quite at that end of the scale in reality. My knowledge of 'real' park noodles is pretty much zero :thumbsup:


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## lonerider (Apr 10, 2009)

grafta said:


> Sorry I should have been more specific, I meant that R/C and rocker boards are great in powder. I keep thinking my evo is a park board when it's really not quite at that end of the scale in reality. My knowledge of 'real' park noodles is pretty much zero :thumbsup:


Evo is basically as park as you can get [for Never summer boards], but I agree it is not a park noodle. R/C and rocker boards are "better" in powder [compared to traditional cambered freeride boards which tend to be narrower].


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## P-Ride (Jan 29, 2012)

Hmm.. So my 158cm RC park board may float nicely in a little powder, but will struggle with lots..

And my 161cm cambered mountain board will probably handle deep powder better, although it won't float as well?

If I was serious about powder, then at some point a long, stiff, RC board would be my third board?

In deep powder, do you want tight or loose bindings?

For big jumps do you want tight, or loose bindings?

Thanks for your patience!


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## lonerider (Apr 10, 2009)

P-Ride said:


> Hmm.. So my 158cm RC park board may float nicely in a little powder, but will struggle with lots..
> 
> And my 161cm cambered mountain board will probably handle deep powder better, although it won't float as well?
> 
> ...


Hard to say as not all cambered boards are the same.

If you were serious about powder, your third board would be a tapered, set back board like my 161 Never Summer Summit (drawback is that a tapered board generally terrible for park, and only so-so for freeriding although I still have quite a bit of fun on my Summit on groomers). A compromise would be something like next year's Never Summit Cobra, which has reverse camber, a blunted tip (meaning it is flat on the edge), AND supposed still has a drawn out nose for powder.

For deep powder... it is preference, but I think flexy bindings (loose and tight are no the proper descriptors) would be preferred to help with the floaty feeling and you don't need much response/powder in powder.
For big jumps... it is also preference, I prefer medium stiff to stiffer bindings to give more more control riding up to the jump (riding C60 in this jump)... but some people like flexier bindings that let them tweak their grabs more.


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## nzshred (Jun 3, 2009)

IdahoFreshies said:


> bingo. great summary :thumbsup:
> 
> 
> 
> yes and no :cheeky4: i know exactly what you are saying though. park boards are decent at a mild amount of powder, but thats because you arent usually technical and doing alot of little quick movments in powder, so the flex of the park board is not that much of a hindrance. too little snow and you will be working too hard to move the noodle around with all your little adjustments and it will wear you out. too much snow and the park aspects of the board will start to hold you back; like the flex, instability, the narrow width, and the lack of over all board length


uhg. No.

It's all relative. I'm 60-65kg and I have a 152 WWW, rockered. It's super soft, and really not that long. The word "park" means nothing. I've seen stiff park boards, and soft park boards. Then there's wet powder and dry powder, and of course you can have a shorter board the drier it is.
I also use this board in the park, easy to spin, and press. What it doesn't handle well is chop and groomers.

I've seen 65kg people floating on super soft 148cm boards. Rockered, of course.
That being said, my 52 WWW handled a lot better than the stiffer rockered 56 rome I once used.

So no, park boards are not "decent" at a mild amount of powder, some are very good in all powder. It's all relative.


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## jdang307 (Feb 6, 2011)

P-Ride said:


> Ok, in buying my first two boards and currently shopping for bindings I'm trying to build a model up of the different characteristics of snowboard setups.. (Naturally nothing will beat experience)
> 
> So here are the two extremes as I understand them..
> 
> ...


You have that mixed up. On one end you have park/jib/street, at the other end freeride/big mountain. In the middle is all mountain.

Then you can get into the different cambers


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## linvillegorge (Jul 6, 2009)

grafta said:


> Sorry I should have been more specific, I meant that R/C and rocker boards are great in powder. I keep thinking my evo is a park board when it's really not quite at that end of the scale in reality. My knowledge of 'real' park noodles is pretty much zero :thumbsup:


RC or rockered boards will be better in powder than other similar camber boards, but it's not a true statement across the board.

My 158 RC'ed NS Evo doesn't have anywhere near the float of my older cambered NS Heritage, but then again, they're not very similar boards in terms of flex, shape, and stiffness.


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