Snowboards

What board, what brand?

Understand cambers

Camber gives personality to a snowboard. It enhances specific properties such as agility, edge control or pop. When you pick a board, its camber is one of the important criteria you need to consider, on top of the board’s category and level. Every manufacturer keeps working on new profiles but there are some standard cambers we can highlight:

Traditional camber:

The traditional camber, also known as classic camber, refers to the arc that shapes between the nose and the tail when the board sits flat on the ground. It will define the following attributes: liveliness, pop and edge control. On the down side, a traditional camber makes the board less forgiving and more demanding which often turns beginners away.

Reverse camber:

The nose and the tail raise above the snow. Reverse cambers maximise floatation on powder and provide a more forgiving and catchfree feel on hard snow. Boards with a reverse camber are generally best suited for freestyling due to their playful character. Jibbing or box pressing is easier, same goes with flat tricks. The boards are also excellent partners for powder sessions. They are easy to manoeuver through deep snow and they float naturally. The price of this versatility is a lack of stability and edge grip at high speed.

Flat camber:

Flat cambers forgive more mistakes than traditional cambers and offer more stability than a reverse cambers. Generally flat between the feet and rockered towards the tips, the board floats easily on powder and feels playful on hard snow. It is an excellent in-between if you can’t decide whether you want a traditional or a reverse camber.

W Rocker:

The W Rocker, or hybrid camber, is a mix of several cambers giving the board a wavy shape when you look at it from the side, this is why we call it W. It features a reverse camber between the feet, two sections of traditional camber under the bindings which turn into two rockers through the tips. The idea is to combine the benefits of a traditional camber (pop, grip, liveliness) with the benefits of a reverse camber (easy turning, forgiving feel, floatation). The hybrid camber is, according to us, the profile that can suit the needs of most riders.

Rocker Camber:

The Rocker camber is a traditional camber coupled with a rockered nose and tail. This allows a good combination of pop and edge control with playfulness and floatation.

Freeride :

The freeride camber is a traditional camber combined with a long rockered nose. This gives the board tons of edge control and strong underfoot power, which offers solid control at high speed. The rocker maximises floatation on powder and helps initiating the turns, making the board more manoeuverable in difficult conditions.

What is a rocker ?

If snowboard constructions are widely inspired from ski constructions, it is the other way around when it comes to cambers and rockers. Snowboards were first to feature new profils improving turns entries or powder performance. Recognisable thanks to a long progressive rise of the tip, the rocker is now a standard feature on boards, especially on freeride boards.