Buying advise for women’s snowboard

Posted: 06 March 2012 06:21 PM

Well, as the title already says, I’m looking to buy a new board.

I’m a woman, 175cm (5’9”) tall and weigh around 63kg (138 pounds). My feet are pretty large, I’m currently wearing size 9 boots (European 41).

I’m an intermediate/advanced rider. I love powder, though I don’t get to enjoy it that often because the snow conditions have been horrible whenever I had time to snowboard during the last years. So far, I haven’t spent much time in the park, but I got a good taste of it this winter and am planning on going there much more often.

I’ve looked at a couple of boards so far like:

Never Summer Infinity
Gnu B Street
Arbor Cadence

The problem is mostly the size of my feet. I feel like whenever I find a board that sounds nice, it’s too small for my boots. I’ve used the Snowboard Boot Size Checker. It does spit out the sizes in US male sizes, right? So when it spits out ideal size is 8, then that equals a 9.5W, right? Sorry if that question sounds stupid, but as a European, I’m always confused when it comes to American show sizes. Plus, I’m confused by my boots which say US 9/ Europe 41, even though according to all converting tables I found, Europe 41 equals US 9.5.

Anyway, I’m looking for some advise on which board to buy where I won’t drag my toes through the snow ;). I’m open to all kind of recommendations. Thanks in advance for your help!

Posted: 06 March 2012 07:36 PM

I am also a larger-footed female rider, currently rocking a pair of Thirty-Two Lashed FT’s in a US 9.5, or Euro 41 (so the box says).
I’ve been riding shorter boards for years - my usual size for all mountain is around 145, and shorter boards tend to have narrower waist measurements. However, I’ve not ever experienced a problem with toe/heel drag. The biggest issue I ever had was with a board I was given to demo, which had bindings on which were a size too small for me. That caused a massive amount of toe overhang and basically made the board feel shocking. You can adjust heel cups, toe straps and footbeds on most bindings, and I find I can rarely take bindngs out of the box and use them straight away. The general rule with bindings is to try and make sure you’ve got an equal amount of overhang for both the heel and toe of your boot.
Also, your binding angles will make a difference to the amount of overhang you can get away with.
To give you an idea, I can happily ride a 144 with a waist width of 238 with no issues.
If you do fine you’re getting toe/heel drag issues, have a look at boots. The physical size of boots can vary massively, and if you’ve got a pair of chunky boots combo’d with a slim board, it might be something worth changing.

I owned a 149 B-Street from a couple of years ago. Now, I don’t particularly like magnetraction (just personal taste & riding style), but the added banana profile makes it feel quite loose at speed. So having come from a camber board onto this, it felt like I was either wobbling around on the rocker, or locked into my edge because of the magnetraction. If you can, I’d advise trying a board with the magnetraction & banana combo before you buy it.
I’ve tried my partner’s NS Proto, which is very similar to the Infinity (although a bit longer than ideal!). Really stable, really floaty with lots of pop. They’ve done a really good job with their boards - the sidecut keeps the board gripping the snow without having to make the board overly stiff, so it’s possible to take a board all over the mountain while still being able to go through the park trying new tricks. I also rode it for a short time in powder - it was OK up to a couple of feet deep. It just about coped with that, but anything more and it was sinking.
I haven’t tried the Arbor, but I’ve heard really good things about it.

If you’re still worried about waist widths, have a look at the Rome Lo-Fi - even the 146 has a waist width of 245. Their boards tend to be wider through their whole range for women. The Blue is great for all mountain but not going to be so forgiving in the park, whereas the Lo-Fi will be better for park but overall is softer.
Nitro boards are the opposite - they’re skinnier than most. a 149 Runaway only has a 238 waist.