Womens Snowboards - Why They're Different From Men's

In the early days of the snowboard craze, snowboarding was dominated by men and  snowboards and snowboarding gear were made specifically for men with women's apparel made as an afterthought. With women becoming a growing percentage of active snowboarders, manufacturers begin to produce womens snowboards designed specifically with an eye to appeal to this demographic.

Their first attempt at making womens snowboards were to make them all with bright feminine colors and flex patterns so soft that, while forgiving, it didn't allow women to do the tricks that the stiffer men's boards did.  And while it may be true that beginning women snowboarders prefer these softer womens snowboards, the women who are really into the sport, as well as the professionals, don't feel that they should be pandered to. They were attracted to having more of the same snowboarding features that were popular with the men.

Now, after a number of years, some common traits have been acknowledged for womens snowboards. Recognizing that men and women require differently designed boards, women's boards are specifically designed with these factors in mind. Basically, boards designed for women have the following common traits:

1) They tend to have more narrow waists. The width of a snowboard is directly related to the rider's foot size. Since women's feet tend to be smaller than men's, it makes sense that the average width of a woman's snowboard would be smaller as well. At most shops that sell snowboards, you can find charts that correlate your weight and foot size with the suggested board length , width, side cut, and type of snowboarding that you will be involved in.

2) Womens snowboards are shorter in length, making them easier to control. A woman's center of gravity tends to be lower than a man's. A shorter length snowboard lets keep her balance by helping her to maintain her center of gravity over the riding edge. This translates to less falls.

3) Womens snowboards are made with a softer flex pattern. Market research has found that beginning women snowboarders want snowboards that are easier to control. Softer, more flexible snowboards need less power to control them than the stiffer boards usually sold to men. In general you want a woman's snowboard to be soft in the flex but stiff enough to do the tricks that you want.

4) A womens snowboard usually weight less. The trend is for Snowboard manufacturers to make the boards  lighter for better control with less power.

Recommended Women's Snowboards

One of the top women snowboards being recognized in women's circles is the Chorus Determination.. ONe reason is that the designers of these snowboards are snowboarders themselves.

Another is Capita snowboard which have a wide variety of models with prices averaging around $250.

And the K2 Mix Snowboard is a fast aggressive and hard snowboard for women. It's the snowboard that Gretchen Bleiler, winner of the women's halfpipe at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy has often ridden. This is perfect for the more aggressive women riders.

An excellent online shop that provides women snowboarders with a vast variety of boards, womens snowboard bindings, googles, womens snowboard pants, and all sorts of snowboarding accessories is shop.shreddingbetty.com/.

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