The Insider Picks team writes about stuff we think you'll like. Business Insider has affiliate partnerships, so we get a share of the revenue from your purchase.
Facebook/Burton/Business Insider
- With a great snowboard strapped to your feet, you'll be ready to charge down the mountain, carve through powder, or ollie, gorilla grab, and front flip your way through the terrain park.
- The Burton Ripcord Snowboard is our top choice because it's a progression-friendly board that's suitable for use by novice boarders but still plenty of fun for advanced riders.
It's difficult to trace the exact origins of many of the world's most popular sports. Versions of soccer, golf, lacrosse, and other recreational activities go back many thousands of years and have gone through countless variations over the generations. Snowboarding, however, is a markedly different story. We can mark the creation of this now global sport almost to the day, and certainly to the place and the person.
In the winter of 1965, a man named Sherman Poppen created what would be the first functional snowboard when he attached a pair of skis together side by side, creating a wide monoski style platform with a rope handle affixed to the front of the board.
Named the Snurfer by Poppen's wife, the new device was designed expressly for use by the Poppen's children. But upon seeing how much his girls and their friends loved the new Snurfer, Poppen realized his one-off invention had big potential. The Snurfer was licensed and went into manufacture within a matter of months, and a million of these rudimentary snowboards would be sold within the next ten years.
About a decade later, the world saw the first effectively modern snowboard. It was developed by Jake Burton - who remains at the forefront of snowboard innovation and sales - and consisted of polyurethane-coated wooden boards using waterski foot traps. During the 1980s, snowboarding grew from a fringe sport oft-derided by skiers into a more popular activity, though it was still banned or at least limited at most American and European ski resorts.
In the 1990s, snowboarding finally went mainstream, with riders permitted on almost all slopes on almost all mountains. And at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, snowboarding made its first official debut on the grandest stage in the sporting world.
While mastering all the tricks, flips, and top speed sprints an experienced snowboarder can enjoy takes years of dedication and practice, with the right attitude and the right equipment, you can begin enjoying the sport this very season.
We've included several different types of boards on our list, including those suitable for beginners, one for kids, and some that are geared toward varied types of riding, from downhill speed to tricks and jumps. It's up to you to learn how to fall safely (keep your hands in and use your rump - it's tougher than your wrist bones), stop on a dime (all about the edge control), or pull off the perfect double wildcat (that's a backflip off a straight jump with two full rotations, and it's called the supercat by some, just FYI).
But here are a few great snowboards and a few tips that just might help you channel your inner Shaun White when you're out there on the snowy slopes.
Here are our picks for the best snowboards you can buy:
- Best overall: Burton Ripcord Snowboard
- Best freestyle: Salomon Ultimate Ride
- Best versatile: System MTN Snowboard
- Best for kids: Lucky Bums Kids Plastic Snowboard
- Best low-cost: Camp Seven Roots CRC Snowboard
- Best for powder: Rossignol XV Sushi
- Best splitboard: Voile Revelator Splitboard
Updated by Owen Burke on 12/12/18: Added a new freestyle pick, a powder pick, a splitboard pick, and updated prices and formatting.
Read on in the slides below to learn more about our top picks.
Subscribe to our newsletter.
Find all the best offers at our Coupons page.
Disclosure: This post is brought to you by the Insider Picks team. We highlight products and services you might find interesting. If you buy them, we get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners. We frequently receive products free of charge from manufacturers to test. This does not drive our decision as to whether or not a product is featured or recommended. We operate independently from our advertising sales team. We welcome your feedback. Email us at insiderpicks@businessinsider.com.