Advice for Beginner on Board/Binding size and selection

[jayjayjay123]

I have gone snowboarding about 5 times now and can kind of carve now, but it's still not that smooth. I am expecting to go a lot more this season and hopefully will improve quickly

I've read about a lot of beginner boards that allow you to still grow into them and I think I'm going to go with the K2 Raygun. If I am 5'10" which size board should I go for? I think the applicable sizes that it comes in are: 159 or 161

Does it matter if I get the 2013/2012/or 2011 version? I'd like to minimize costs as much as possible

I've tried these boots on at Sports authority and they were a good fit so I got them: SIMS Men's 1112 Caliber Snowboard Boots - SportsAuthority.com

My basketball and running sneakers are both size 11, but size 11 in snowboarding boots were too big so I got the 10. Is it normal to run a size smaller when getting boots?

Now I'm looking for bindings that will fit the boots and are ideally < $100

When I tried looking for info on what size bindings goes with these size 10 boots, size 10 was on the fence. Should I get medium or large?

Thank you for all the help!

[jayjayjay123]

bump. any help at all would be greatly appreciated!

[gabe]

hi,
first of all, not your height but your weight is important to determine the right size for you. on the board manufacturers' homepages there are always size charts to find out the right size for you (go with the size chart on the manufacturers website, because some boards are ridden longer than others).

size chart raygun: http://k2snowboarding.com/snowboards...ins#size_specs

i have never ridden any k2 snowboard but the raygun does not seem like a beginner board. firstly it's quite expensive. secondly it's flat in the middle and rockered at the tip and tail and it has setback. this seems like a freeride board to me and not an all-mountain do-it-all-board. don't know if k2 has anything like magne traction, but you would perhaps like to go with a camber board for more edge hold.

it basically depends on where you are going to ride: parke, piste or pow?

gabe