Board for my kid

Posted: 13 February 2011 11:36 PM

We are new to snowboarding, don’t understand a lot of the lingo yet, but need help.  My 10 y.o. son took to snowboarding, took some lessons, and his instructor says he’s never seen anyone master it quicker.  In 8 weeks he is now considered an advanced intermediate, and on a rental.  So of course, he wants a board.  He is 65 lbs. and 4 1/2 feet.  He has not done rails, I don’t think, and hasn’t really been to a park yet, just on ski slopes, but his instructor says he’s already doing ‘tricks’.  Not 100% sure what that means.  He found Burton TWC Smalls to his liking, but his instructor said he might like the K2 Weapon better.  I don’t see the latter in an appropriate size.  I was wondering as a total novice what this forum might suggest for him, board and bindings.  Also, I understand that some manufacturers lock you into a particular type of bindings, so I need to learn more about that as well.  Any suggestions? :gulp:

Posted: 13 February 2011 11:46 PM

Just realized this is a European forum, so I’ll estimate his weight at 30 kg., and his height at just under 1.5 meters.  thanks for any help.

Posted: 15 February 2011 09:36 AM

Welcome…

The K2 WWW (World Wide Weapon) is what we call a jib stick.  That being the board is designed mainly for jibbing obstacles (sliding, tapping, bonking, etc).  For the instructor to offer that he must think you’re son wants to progress his riding more in that direction.  Also, it was a very soft board and beginners tend to love those boards as they are easier to turn.

A K2 board that is probably more appropriate is the Vandal.  It has the same profile as the K2 WWW but designed for kids.  It comes in 132, 137 and 147 lengths.  His weight puts him under all those lengths so the best length would be one that is around his nose…  that will give him some growing room so don’t get a board much shorter.  If he is up to the challenge an even longer board will push him to go faster however it will sacrifice some manoeuvrability so keep that in mind.

Posted: 15 February 2011 09:56 AM

We’ll I’m a Euro, but most of the people who use the Forum are from the US and Canada and deal in ft and lbs… All I know is 200lbs is heavy and 100lbs is light. Although Britain uses Metric for food weights and volume we still use feet and inches for height and stone for weight.

Burton have a binding system called ICS which means that there is an adjustable slider through the centre of the board. This technology isn’t used on their kids boards they use their older 3D hole battern, most bindings have mounting plates that feature the 4screw and 3D insert pattern so oyou won’t have a problem there. As far as Burton goes, I’d look at the Custom V-rocker. Another brand that is worth a look is Flow, they’ve been producing boards for kids for a while and they have a range of 3 different boards. The Micron series features twin shapes and rocker profiles, your son will find these boards extremely easy to progress his freetyle on.

Rich