seattlelite

I thought I saw a video from sierra that for all mountain new boarder, I want a flat board (i.e No camber). I'm thinking about grabbing the K2 podium from evo for a sweet price as a beginner board. Opinions?

davis

Bad? No. Just different. Sorta like comparing 26" wheels to 29" wheels in moutainbiking. 29" are easy to ride over the super tech stuff, but aren't as "quick". Some argue 26" teaches better skills. Mostly it comes down to personal preference for specific trail conditions. I think one could make similar arguments for camber vs. rocker.

extra0

no, camber is not bad. The video says camber is best for more of an advanced rider.

Flat boards and reverse camber flip the tips contact points out of the way, so you'll catch less and fall less.

If you see yourself growing out of a beginner board quickly, Bataleon boards are a good option because they're cambered but TBT tech flips the contacts points out of the way.

wrathfuldeity

Camber is not bad...all the various tech/design stuff is just a tool for a job. Depending of the job you want to do...matching the tech will make it "supposedly" easier. For years, all mtn boards...in fact all boards had camber except the first few plywood boards.

Quit obsessing about the minutiae of the design and tech...at least 85% is about the skills...if you got or develop the skills you can make anything work...hell you don't even need bindings to snowboard.

You sound like my oldest son 33, who used to live in Seattle, was a dot com jockey...he would obsess about the tech and having all the right...expensive equipment...and the last time I rode with him he was blaming the board for his lack of skills. We (his sister 15 and I) ended up just ditching him...we just told him to keep up ... he couldn't and we didn't have to hear his bitchin.

Oops...sorry for the rant...its a family thing...you are probably a very nice guy...just get something at least intermediate or more ... and getting on the hill is the important part. And if you come north on a Sat., pm me and I gladly spend some time and get you going.

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seattlelite

I'm anal about alot of stuff. I read on sticky somewhere that I don't want an "advance" board to start off for x reasons. I just don't want to be the guy that drops $300 on a board just to find out that I bought the wrong board. That's all. A little DD on my part.

fredericp64

Look, your ''beginner'' phase will only last 3-4 trips max.

It's all smooth riding from then on.

My board is cambered cause it fits my style. I like to bomb down hills. Cambered makes it more stable at high speeds and you get more power out of turns.

DiscoStu

99.99999999999999999999% would be closer imho

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wrathfuldeity

Just drop $50-100 on a used board and use the other $200 for lift tickets...just get out there.

My daughter and I learned on advanced freeride boards...didn't know any better....it was a very steep and punishing learning curve. However the payoff is that it forces you you to develop good skills rather quickly or go home. My recommendation is to get a twin stiffer? park board with mag and/or not with rocker...it will be a fairly versatile board for pnw...maybe like an atomic hatchet or banana.

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linvillegorge

I'll tell you my experience and maybe that'll help you. I went a couple of times and rode rentals and knew I was going to stick with it. I picked up a used board on CL for $75. It was a park noodle. It was great to learn on! Super soft and really helped me to learn to turn. However, I was struggling to deal with speed and especially turning at speed. My buddy and I swapped boards for a run and he said, "Dude! It's not you, it's the board! That thing is SCARY at speed!" Being a park noodle, when you got it up to speed, there was a ton of chatter and it just did not feel comfortable committing hard to an edge when turning at high speeds. Basically, I'd come as far as I could in the freeride area while riding a park noodle. I bit the bullet and bought an '09 NS Heritage. Huge difference! I was able to progress and get a lot better. But, I still have my old noodle and with it being my first board, I'll probably never let it go. I still take it out occasionally, because while you can't bomb with it, it's still a super fun little board to tool around on.

In short, to begin with, a soft park board is easiest to learn to turn and link turns, but as soon as you feel comfortable linking turns, you'll be a lot better off with a stiffer all-mountain or freeride board. The good thing about picking up a used park board to start with is that when/if you want to start jibbing, you've already got a suitable board in your quiver!