Snowboarding has come a long way in the last two decades. Once a niche sport taken up by misfit thrill-seekers gliding down snow on plywood, snowboarding has become one of the most popular winter sports, taken up by millions of enthusiasts around the world. The sport’s growth has brought with it a large influx of new board designs over the years, bringing in different shapes, sizes, and materials. Some are wider, some are lighter, and some have more flex. Some offer better stability, some absorb shock better, and some are so absolutely unforgiving that no one but the most skilled snowboarders should be taking them out to the mountain.
There are plenty of excellent snowboards in the market, giving you a wide selection of capable choices, whether you want an all-mountain explorer, an aggressive freeride blade, or a smooth powder cruiser. If you’re new, you can go for beginner boards that prioritize stability, flexibility, and maneuverability, such as shorter boards that are easier to control and more forgiving soft-flex models. Suffice to say, beginner boards are typically designed with ease of use in mind, which is far from the case with intermediate and advanced designs. Once you go past the beginner stages, chances are, you’re looking to go hard, fast, and catch plenty of air. As such, your range of board choices will require more skill to handle, maneuver, and keep upright, although advanced models also tend to be lighter, more stable at high speeds, and put together using more advanced materials.
These are the best snowboards for your backcountry adventures this winter season.
Burton Ripcord Flat Top Snowboard
An excellent snowboard for beginners, this one delivers an all-around easy and catch-free ride with its flat camber profile, twin design, and very flexible build. It feels loose and playful on the snow, all while handling bumpy, uneven powder exceptionally well. There’s not much edge hold, so you want to stay clear of icy patches unless you want a challenging ride, while the very soft, very easy flex makes it a forgiving board that will help beginners gain confidence, so long as they stay on soft powder.
CAPiTA Defenders of Awesome
The DOA has made a name for itself over the years with its versatile all-mountain performance and precision handling. There’s good reason it’s won innumerable awards season after season. It has an aggressive shape that will be intimidating to newer snowboarders, but absolutely exciting for late intermediate and advanced riders, while the hybrid camber design combines the snap and pop of a cambered board with the predictability of a reverse camber. The board carves with the best of them and actually feels best when it’s one the edge, while being quick edge to edge for excellent maneuverability and providing a stable glide when riding at speed. It’s a fun board to get if you want to hit jumps, as it does very well in that regard, all while feeling really good on landing, so this is one board you can have a lot of fun with on the ice.
Yes SBBS Pyzel
A collaboration between a snowboard outfit and a surfboard company is supposed to produce a “surfy” snowboard – one that delivers the wave-cruising feel of traditional surfboards. As it turns out, that’s not what this collaboration board is about. Instead, you get a versatile board with a directional twin shape and tapered midbite outline that enables tight turns, stable landings, and excellent edge hold, while the combination of a wider nose, narrower waist, and beefier tail allow it to bite into hardpack as capably as it floats on powder for all-mountain versatility. It’s very predictable to ride, too, so you won’t ever have to second-guess your moves, although the flex might still prove a little too soft for those who like charging hard.
Burton Custom Flying V
Another good board for beginners, this model’s is soft, forgiving, and playful characteristics have made it continuously popular throughout its many years of existence. It has a narrow waist, though, which could present some difficulty for absolute novices, as it’s pretty easy to slip out because of it doing a tight turn. Shouldn’t be much of an issue, though, once you get the hang of it. Among all snowboards here, this one is the most focused on fun and ease of use, so if you’re looking for something that’s hard-charging and aggressive, that’s not what this board is about. It feels loose at speed, which can be fun, although it loses much of the stability once you go a tad too fast, since this isn’t designed for that type of riding. Still, if you have absolute newbies in the group who want to actually enjoy their time in the snow, this board is easily the best way to make that happen.
Ride Deep Fake
That is one beautiful snowboard. Just look at that thing. Beyond its drop-dead good looks, though, this freeriding specialist excels at both floating in powder and charging in crud, while delivering a lot of pop that allows riders to bust out tricks while cruising their lines. It’s stiff enough to handle the deepest straight lines, while offering excellent maneuverability for exploring all-mountain style. The stability at high speeds is downright impressive, allowing you to just catch speed with no worries about losing control. There’s a lot of fancy tech here, from the aspen, bamboo, and paulownia core to the widespread carbon stringers and double impact plates to the slim metal sidewalls, making for one undeniably impressive creation.
Never Summer Swift
While it’s not something you’d want to ride on hardpack and ice, this powder surfer can handle everything else the winter can throw its away with aplomb. It’s just such a fun snowboard, able to rip, carve, and float in powder, with incredible edge hold during turns. You want that cruising “surfy” feel that makes it feel like you’ve caught on to a wave of snow? This thing is your best bet to capture that feeling. Need a board that’s quick and responsive when you’re riding through steep pow amidst tight trees? This thing delivers on that, too, and more. While Never Summer describes it as mid-flex, we’ve actually found it to be one of the stiffest boards we’ve ridden, so it’s not the most forgiving, but if you want a capable all-mountain board that lets you surf in powder, it’s hard to go wrong taking this on your next adventure.
Jones Solution Splitboard
When you’re uncertain about what backcountry conditions you’re going to face, it’s best to go with a versatile snowboard that can handle even the most advanced terrain. That’s exactly what you get with this splitboard, which performs consistently and steadily in nearly every setting we’ve taken it on, all while being extremely reliable in big steep lines and low-angle powder turns alike. It’s a stiff board, making it extremely reliable and stable when riding fast and hard, with a light weight that makes it equally comfortable to ride slow in tree-covered patches and low angle powder. It’s also one of the best climbing splitboards, thanks to its lightweight build and comfortable shape, making it good all-around touring equipment.
Lib Tech Apex Golden Orca
Yes, it’s expensive as heck. If you want the best hybrid of freestyle and all-mountain snowboard, though, this ultra-responsive and impressively lightweight all-terrain conqueror absolutely stands on its own. It reprises the shape of the original Golden Orca, taking on the same cutaway nose, mid-width profile, and serrated sidecut that delivers a superbly-crafted balance of grip, pop, and float, albeit with all-new modifications that leave it more aggressive, more responsive, and better at riding switches, making it an overall more capable board. It’s incredible in steep terrain, with a firm bite that keeps the ride feel controlled, no matter how fast you’re going, while feeling very natural in the air and clearing even tricky landings without much trouble. Suffice to say, this is a board designed for aggressive riding, with features tailored to unlock peak performance for those who like to push it on powder and ice alike.