When Are You Ready To Buy An Advanced Rider’s Snowboard?

Today’s reader question:

When exactly are you ready to move from a beginner snowboard to an advanced snowboard?

It depends who you ask, but personally I say you can get an advanced snowboard whenever you want. You don’t have to wait to hit some special skill level before you’re suddenly able to ride an advanced snowboard.

Sure you might not be able to use an advanced snowboard to it’s full ability, but that doesn’t mean you can’t buy a nice higher end snowboard that you’ll keep using when you become an intermediate to advanced rider.

Most likely we’re talking about the choosing between something like a cheaper all-mountain snowboard and a higher end all-mountain snowboard.

Honestly the difference between those two for a beginner snowboarder isn’t huge in the grand scheme of things.

What is an advanced snowboard anyway?

The question is what even classifies as an advanced snowboard these days. If you say a beginner snowboard is one of those cheaper priced snowboards, advanced would still include a HUGE amount of snowboards.

The difference is usually to do with cheaper materials used in building what people would refer to as an entry level, beginner snowboard, and these days that doesn’t even necessarily mean it would be easier to learn on… just cheaper to buy.

The way I look at it is this: If you intend to keep working on your snowboarding and you intend to keep this snowboard for a couple years (or more if it lasts) then go for it, buy the mid to high end snowboard that you want to get.

Don’t go crazy and buy some $1k pipe only snowboard if you haven’t even learnt to ride pipe yet, but that’s a different issue altogether. I see no reason you can’t buy a nice mid to high end snowboard that fits the type of riding you enjoy.

At the end of the day, I started off on a mid to high end all-mountain snowboard myself, so it’d be odd for me to say you can’t do the same as well.

- Jed

ps – do note, you don’t have to spend major bucks to buy a nice snowboard. There are plenty of decent mid priced snowboards that offer high end performance, so don’t feel you need to pick an advanced snowboard by price.

Pick a snowboard by performance and what independent reviews say, not solely by price.

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