FIND YOUR SHAPE! Confused by the tonnes of different snowboard shape descriptions? Let us help! Here are some general explanations of the fundamental snowboard shapes:
The classic camber shape is often favoured by experienced riders, as it typically provides a strong edge hold, heaps of pop, and power through your turns. At times however, it can be quite unforgiving and thus demands a reasonably good riding technique. Definitely the right choice if you’re at home on large kickers and fast lines, or just love a good piste burner.
Over the last decade, the snowboard world has witnessed the rapid rise of rocker boards. Rocker boards are also known as reverse camber boards, because that is exactly what they are. This design raises the contact points up off the snow, making for a much more forgiving ride than camber and giving you a bit more float in deep snow. It also makes jib tricks and presses a lot easier. However, experienced riders often find they miss the pop and stability at high speeds of a camber board.
Flat or zero camber boards are built to combine the advantages of a rocker (forgiving, good for jibbing) with those of a camber board (more pop and control at high speeds). Soft flat-camber boards are particularly suited to beginner riders, whereas a harder flat-camber board would be better for advanced freestyle riders looking to hit kickers or make the most of the backcountry.
To successfully combine the advantages of rocker and camber boards is the Holy Grail of the snowboard industry, so to speak. Alongside flat camber boards, there are also, roughly put, two other styles of hybrid snowboards. These are often given different names by different companies as they often involve slight differences in design. Basically, hybrid boards can be split into two groups, those with a camber section between the bindings, and those with a rocker section between the bindings. The corresponding boards will then have rocker or camber sections respectively at their tips and tails. On boards with camber between the feet the earlier rise of the tip and tail lifts the contact points from the snow, whilst the camber in the middle gives you more stability and pop. On the boards with the opposite set up, the rocker in the middle makes for more float and a forgiving ride, whilst the camber sections under the bindings give you that pop and stability you’re looking for. Which of the two shapes you go for is pretty much down to personal taste.
In order for you to make the most of untouched powder faces, almost every company has developed powder boards with a specific powder rocker. A long, strong, bent nose, gives you effortless float, whilst a light camber, flat, or lighter rocker section under the back binding gives you that little extra stability at high speed and enough edge grip through powerful turns.