[dmoss]

Anybody know of good resources to learn more about snowboard technology? Trying to learn more about the differences in sidewall, sidecuts, what is fiberglass used for, etc... Just trying to get smart...

I just got the Arbor Alt, but what does it matter that it has a wood core, carbon-fiber strut, or tri-radial sidecuts?



Also, my wife is looking at the Burton Lux as her first board. She is 5 feet tall and 100 lbs and is considering the 143. Anybody have any thoughts on the sizing or the board itself?

[rite_of_passage]

good luck on your wifes first board

no I dont no any good sites to learn about the techincals of snowboards like you want, but i can help answer some of your questions.

a wood core has more "pop" to it and is more stable, absorbs more shock and rides smoother. the carbon strut is for light weight with strength and durability.

your wife should take her height x 2.54 x .88 to get a good idea on what size board to get, since she is so light go on the less side of whatever number you get from the above formula, and make sure the board has a good amount of flex to it(if she is still new to boarding) this will help her manuver and turn easier

hope this helps

cheers -stan

[Nivek]

for your wife, height matters much less than weight. get something soft and also look at ther boot size. as for tech spec knowledge, it took me about three years of looking at every retailer site i could find to gain my knowledge.
Heres the brakedown
Sidewalls:
abs is pretty standard now along with UHMW(ultra high molecular weight). some companies are doing things with with urethane sidewalls(ride, santa cruz?, salomon) it ads an amount of dampening that's really good for rails.
Sidecut:
it ranges from about 7.3 m radius to 8.4 m. not exact, i'm sure theres some smaller/bigger. as far as special sidecuts, as far as i can remember only lib-tech/Gnu/roxy and santa-cruz have something special. Lib/gnu/roxy use magnetraction which gives you 7 contact points instead of 2 allowing you to round off your edges for rails and still grip everywhere else. Santa cruz uses a tighter radius on the heelside of their TT boards. Everyone knows you don't turn as well heelside so thats what that is supposed to fix.
Cores:
all wood no composite provides consistent flex and dampening. added carbon stringers is usually for stability, lighterweight, pop. fiberglass it primarly used for topsheets cause its durable. Arbor's cool cause instead of carbon fiber or anything they use koa and bamboo. some companies are useing absolutely know wood in there super high end models, burton, nitro. The boards are near if not over a grand so...
Base:
Sintered is what nearly everyone uses. The higher the number (sintered 2001, 4000...) the more wax it will absorb=faster you go.
Basically every company has proprietary tech so browse their sites. Hope you enjoy my overview.

[dmoss]

thanks for the brief overview...

any additional information would still be helpful...

i ended up with the arbor alt

taking it out this weekend for the first time and am completely pumped