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Hi,

 

I am just after a little bit of advice.

 

I plan on heading over to Japan (from Western Australia) for about 2 weeks of snowboarding at the end of January.

And i was thinking of buying my own gear to take over with me.

 

I have done 2 weeks boarding over on the eastern side of Aus and a week in Queenstown, New Zealand.

Im starting to get the hang of the actual snowboarding part but am completly lost looking at gear packages.

 

Any suggestions for a begginer/intermediate level setup?

 

I am about 180cm and 65 kgs.

 

Any advice would be great!

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Think you are in the 158-160cm board range. Big boards are more difficult for beginners to ride. Since you are just beginning I think any twin all-mountain board would be fine. If you like Burton stuff you could get Mission bindings and maybe Tribute or Moto boots. All mid-range stuff. If you are planning on leveling-up your skills at some point I would suggest not buying the cheapest stuff out there.

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Most important, IMO, are boots. If there is 1 piece of kit that you don't wanna skimp on, its boots. Try as many pairs on as you can and pick the best fit/most comfortable pair that you can afford. You're gonna be wearing them all day....you don't wanna buy a pair of ill fitting boots that give you cramp and or blisters right from the get go. If you buy branded gear then you can pretty much rely on it being decent quality, any all-mountain twin board from about 157-160cm should see you fine (I started on a 157cm and I'm heavier than you).

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Hi,

 

I am just after a little bit of advice.

 

I plan on heading over to Japan (from Western Australia) for about 2 weeks of snowboarding at the end of January.

And i was thinking of buying my own gear to take over with me.

 

I have done 2 weeks boarding over on the eastern side of Aus and a week in Queenstown, New Zealand.

Im starting to get the hang of the actual snowboarding part but am completly lost looking at gear packages.

 

Any suggestions for a begginer/intermediate level setup?

 

I am about 180cm and 65 kgs.

 

Any advice would be great!

 

Not trying to be too personal but what size are your feet?

The range of gear that is available in Perth is very limited & expensive

If you have feet on the smaller side 9's or under I would be looking at buying your gear in Tokyo the range & price is much better

at worst I would buy some boots here in Perth & then get the board & outerwear over there or even online out of the states

 

Your budget will determine how good the gear is you buy, if you intend going regularly to the snow then buy quality over price

on a freezing day it all comes back to bite you if you skimp

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Thanks for the replies.

 

Yea the range in Perth is very limited, so i was planning on ordering it all online.

I dont really wanna be looking around for gear when i arrive in Japan, would rather have everything ready to go.

 

Would it be best to buy a gear package seeing as i dont have much clue what im looking for? Or just buy it all seperate?

 

Price range would be about $500-$750 AUD, which im assuming is the lower end of the market

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As the previous posts suggest be careful buying boots online they are the most important thing in the world, maybe you can go into one of your local shops in perth and try on some boots and if you do feel something that fits like a glove then go online and buy the same sort at a cheaper price perhaps....I just bought a board through an online shop out of New Zealand as the AUS dollar is so strong and the shipping was much more reasonable than the US.

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Hey, Rookie

I have been in a similar situation 4 seasons ago.

Lot´s of info out there it´s confusing. Like the others said, the pair of BOOTS is the single most important equipment. If the gear package has the boots you fit well, I´d consider it. My advice is when you try them on, take thin socks. Never thick ones. The thin socks gives you a better fit. Also make sure you have enough toe wiggling space. Everyones feet´s different so you got to try them on. Leave it on for 5-10 min, walk around, go up and down the stairs ... basically move your legs - bend stretch - and feel them out. It´s a mission finding the right boots. IMHO I stick with the lace ups, not those cable-click-click type.

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The board is a different matter - Depends on your vision, what you want to do, see yourself doing in the future.

If riding switch is not part of your plan, a directional board which you have an option of setting your binding towards the tail - will be easier for powder. (Still you can do switch on them if you want to)

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Wheeeee!!!

 

Grab a 152-154. Just look for any soft-medium flex camber board if you can. What you want as a beginner is something akin to a stiff park board. Basically a board you can take anywhere but is still playful and flexible enough to help you progress with your tricks and cruising/buttering. Basically a deck that lets YOU find out what your preferences are without locking you into a particular direction too early.

 

If you size up from a 154 (which its perfectly reasonable to do by the way), it means youre trading off certain things:

 

The board will be more stable at speed and in more tricky terrain (effective edge and all that).

It will have better float in powder.

 

It also means youll have a more cumbersome beast to turn.

Itll feel a bit stiffer and less pliable, and more often than not youll be tripping over it a bit though.

 

Id honestly say you just want to spend your time riding at the moment and not get too caught up in the fine tuning.

 

So pick up a nice 152-154 and youll be on a decent size for your weight.

 

If you have a boot size between 10.5 US and about 11.5 you really want to pick up at least a MediumWide board (if not a fully wide board). Anything bigger than that and youll absolutely need a wide board. 260mm AT LEAST (for solid carves - but of course you arent really there and will be skid turning for the most part) WaistWidth on anything over a size 12 boot. (well, really a size 11 in truth, but theres always a little scope to muck about - youll find this stuff is actually more fluid and depends a lot of rider ability - these are just generalities to be 'on the safe side')

 

What else? See if you can pick up a board thats a couple of years old. Try and buy new if you can. Often second hand prices are pretty much the same ballpark as a couple of years old new gear on sales so its kinda worth just grabbing a nice new set up if you can thats under warranty than some dudes "bargain!" dead camber core shotted hunk of crap on craigslist.

 

Some brands to check out:

 

Capita (cheap and incredibly good value for money. I love capita with all my little heart, but i love them because they make solid no frills decks that just rip and all at an amazingly cheap price point).

Burton (the daddy, but has lots of different price range boards with pretty much every conceivable tech out there. Youll easy find a board you want somewhere in their line.)

Rome. Rome make AWESOME boards. They can be pricey for current season gear but they do overproduce a bit so you can find sale stuff from a season or two ago fairly easily.

K2. I HATE K2. But their boards are top notch. These guys are really at the cutting edge of construction.

Ride. Great boards pretty hard to find in sales but like capita they have some great cheaper rides.

Arbor: beautiful boards, super light bamboo cores, but way up on the price. This year theyre getting a LOT of hype i notice (just as an aside :p).

Nitro: Massively underestimated in the US, but one of the biggest and best companies in Europe. My mate rides nitro and loves them so much i cant get her to change up after 4 years on it.

Bataleon: I <3 bataleon. Not everyone else does. But i freaking love them. My absolute favourite ride hands down.

 

PROVISO: Before i go on to recommend you stuff, its important you know these are just recommendations. I havent ridden any of these. I ONLY HAVE PERSONALLY RIDDEN CAPITA AND BATALEON (and not even those boards im gonna recommend you). Im just telling you the ones LIKELY most suited for what youre PROBABLY after - youll note the qualifiers! (a do it all deck thats going to get your riding down but will still be fun enough to muck about with and pretty much let you hit up the whole mountain).

 

Of those, boards you might want to look into:

 

Capita: Outdoor Living or Stairmaster (not stairmaster extreme). You might also want to look at the indoor survival, but i honestly think its a bit squirly at speed.

Burton: Custom. Its the default board for killing it all for a reason, or the Un-inc if you can find it.

Rome Reverb or Agent.

K2: Raygun or if youre feeling adventurous the happy hour (which really looks like it could be amazingly good fun if a bit... odd to look at :)).

Ride: DH2 or the Kink (kink makes a great price point board as well as APPARENTLY being pretty sick).

Arbor: Westmark. Arbor apparently have reverse camber stability problems on LOCK. So unlike with a lot of companies, i dont think itd be too bad picking up one of their reverse camber decks. Also you might want to look at the blacklist.

Nitro: Team Gullwing. Hybrid camber. And the only one ill recommend you (though honestly this is more my prejudice and the belief that if youre progressing you probably want to be on camber or flatline). Speaking of flatline: the rook. Might be a little on the stiff side, but its no stiffer than the custom. So why the hell not? Apparently shit hot kill it all deck.

Bataleon: Evil twin or the Whatever. If you can, buy this years evil twin since they had a massive makeover for 2012. The whatever was only added to their line this year but its a nice cheap board again.

 

Anyway, of all this, if you want a top 3 that i would go for if i was exactly where you are...

 

hmmm...

 

1. Burton Un-inc (the board is on amost EVERYONES all time favourite board list. This deck is spoken of in hush reverence whenever its brought up as if all snowboards since have been usurpers to its throne (the EZ livin for example) - apparently its coming back next season, but its probably like when roland made the MC-505, sure it had a 303 in it, but it was never gonna be THE 303 so no one will be happy (even though itll be the exact same fekkin thing)).

2. Capita Stairmaster. I was riding with a dude who killed it ALL on his stairmaster. In fact it was watching that dude ride everything that broke me of the tech obsession. The board is seriously versatile and is one of the softer rides im recommending you. So if you really like the idea of park, this would be probably your top choice.

3. Rome Agent. or the Ride Kink or the capita outdoor living (PS, the outdoor living is the new name for the old camber indoor survival - if youre looking for an older version, its just the indoor survival (not the "indoor survival FK" (which is the reverse camber version)). I honestly cant decide. :) All three are pretty solid choices, they all cover the same kind of ground (twin do it all decks, but playful and fun to throw around in the park). If you cant or dont want the other two for whatever reasons, these three are slightly softer flexing than the uninc and stiffer than the stairmaster, so obvioulsy they fill a decent hole.

 

Anyway, theres WAY more, but these will at least help you narrow the search down (if only to tell you what decks you dont want). Places you might want to go for decent reviews would be angrysnowboarder and shayboarder to help you along.

 

You might also want to check this blog post out: http://www.snowjapanforums.com/index.php/blog/11-gobshyte-annonymous/

 

Yeah, its by me and its on womens boards, but the info is legit for men (just the board recommendations would be different). Itll help you get your head around some of the info youre looking at and explain how its MAYBE going to feel for you. For more detail, this will also help (though it is a bit long winded im afraid - id love to edit it, but can no longer physically look at it without wanting to puke :p)

 

http://www.snowjapanforums.com/index.php/topic/19440-ippys-snowboard-buying-guide-20/page__fromsearch__1

 

Hope this all helps dude.

 

Good luck! Oh! and dont buy package deals. Theyre usually utter crap.

 

Oh, and for bindings, just pick up a pair of union contacts. Theyre an awesome well made, durable, cheap, reliable and solid binding. Unless you go with a burton board in which case you can just pick up a pair of burton missions or cartels. :) If i was getting my first set up, id pick up the contacts in a heartbeat. Great bindings, nice and flexible, decent response, nice and loose when you need it, but still responsive enough to blast on them. Massively durable and most important of all easy to set up and adjust to exactly how you need them. Oh, and pretty cheap.

 

PPS. Other brands you might want to check out:

 

Salomon,

Gnu/Libtech (theyd be top were it not for the fact that almost every deck in their line is banana/c2 and with magnetraction - its pretty much a love hate thing with most people so tough to recommend unless you demo them - which is of course sound (if sometimes unhelpful) advice on all boards).

Neversummer - same story. Sick boards, all R+c plus vario though. I still covet the 2009 Evo-art though :)

Ro... actually, im gonna stop here. I really should be in bed, but i have a feeling i wont stop until ive listed every damn brand out there.

Yes great dudes/women; DC -

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Thanks so much for the in depth advice.

 

I'll have a look around and try on some of the stuff here. Just to get a feel for it all.

Not much range but ill work out the boot sizes.

 

I will definatly be buying it all online.

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Hey Rookie,

Welcome to SJ :wave:

From one Perthie to another ... listen to snowpony! (This MAY be the only thread I will ever say that in ;) )

Part of the experience for us was taking a walk through the Kanda ski shop area and checking out store after store full of snow related delights.

In one afternoon we outfitted 7 snowboarders and 1 skier with new kit, and then carried it all back on the trains to our hotel.

Part of the fun! :D

And heaps cooler gear than was available in sleepy backwater (but much loved) Perth.

 

But if you have big feet, get your boots in Perth - head to Main Peak.

Buying online is risky unless you are ordering boots you have already tried on and know fit you and suit your foot. YES it is THAT important.

 

As for the board, Ippys guide is usually pretty bang on.

Personal preference is the key decider.

 

How did you go and what did you ride on your last trips?

If you were on a stiff cambered board and you got a lot of knee pain from hauling the board around and kept catching edges, then maybe a flexier rocker board will make it all fall into place for you super quick...

If you liked the feel of the board, maybe buying something similar is for you.

 

Don't go too long to start. Much easier to learn on a shorter board. For my weight my first board was considered pretty short, but if I had started on my current board - I would not be riding today!

You can always upgrade!

Welcome to Snow Sports!!! We all become gear whores before long :thumbsup:

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I am going to slam everyone who recommends a 180 65kg guy anything under a 157cm. That´s right,

The dude is on snow japan, and he is going to be on powder and he´s going to get hooked on that.

Me and missus are 165, 170cm and 55-60kg and we ride a board about 160.

Sure you might wanna practice on a short board but for how long? I -2 week really. He would be looking for a new longer board again to go on pow!

 

Hey, if you are going to pick up a binding, make sure the boot fit snug to that binding. Especially on the width. Get one that has a Aluminium base plate. Look for Rome, Ride, Drake. They don´t have to be the top model.

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Mamabear you're so mean but I like it

 

Rookie,head over to mainpeak before Saturday if your going to be trying gear on it was bedlam there last year

also remember each boot brand may say they are the same size on the label but may actually be slightly different fit

my Thirty two size 12's fit great but Burton for example size 12's are a little bit smaller & don't feel the same.

My last 2 boards have been Lib Tech & I've got a new Jones board just about to leave the States as your riding progresses you will want to upgrade anyway

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I tend to agree with Jynxx on the board length. Anything under 155cms will be too short. Weight isn't as much of a factor as height when it comes to board length. For someone 180cms tall their center of gravity is higher and should therefore have a board around 157-158cms. Too long makes turning difficult (but only at the beginning, once you get used to it it's not a problem) too short makes balance difficult, produces washouts and will limit your progression... (unless the plan is to just stay in parks and not get into much free riding) and if there is lots of snow you will sink!

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I am going to slam everyone who recommends a 180 65kg guy anything under a 157cm. That´s right,

The dude is on snow japan, and he is going to be on powder and he´s going to get hooked on that.

Me and missus are 165, 170cm and 55-60kg and we ride a board about 160.

Sure you might wanna practice on a short board but for how long? I -2 week really. He would be looking for a new longer board again to go on pow!

 

Hey, if you are going to pick up a binding, make sure the boot fit snug to that binding. Especially on the width. Get one that has a Aluminium base plate. Look for Rome, Ride, Drake. They don´t have to be the top model.

 

Slam away,but im correct :)

 

Its WEIGHT thats the big factor, not height. I appreciate theres an idea that because youre taller you should be on a board thats bigger, but this is a myth. Its always weight, height factors only very marginally.

I also appreciate that you want to ride powder and theres an argument to suggest that you should emasure your board for pow pow. Well, thats entirely your decision at the end of the day, but size up and your everyday riding will be affected in teh ways i said. Now as jynxxie says, you want the pow, of course you want the pow. But the majority of snowboarding is spent in those first couple of years on the groomers getting used to terrain and getting your technique down. Consider pow as a nice treat when it happens, but dont base your one and only board decision on it. If you were buying a quiver, sure, why the hell not. But i assume this is your one deck to ride it all. So sizing based entirely on how its going to ride in pow is maybe a bit silly. Its your choice, but honestly, id ask around on other sites, Im sure youll get some solid numbers and then you can go work out where you want to be.

 

What i should add in case its not clear, is that i dont think 158 is a terrible size. I just think its not the size from which he should be basing his size adjustments. If he wants to size up for extra stability or pow, then thats cool. And its not a big deal. I think 4cms might feel a bit too much pow emphasis, but its up to the OP to decide his priorities. If it helps, spenser (on a different site) rides a 158 and is around the same weight. But then again he isnt really a beginner and lives in AK and spends most of his time in slackcountry.

 

The important thing is that the trade off is explicated. Theres always one, and sizing up is going to give you more float (which is stated in the earlier post) and more stability in sketch terrain since you have more of teh boards edge contacting the snow. You can decide for yourself if a slightly stiffer feel is a bad thing or not. But there is the danger that the higher up you go the more cumbersome and unwieldy will be the board. Thats what you trade off and thats entirely up to you.

 

Remember though, you wont be in the pow pow all the time. In fact id dare say youre going to be in it a lot less than you think. And when you get back home and it hits july, pow days are gonna be few and far between.

So consider all this in your decision. Four Cms from your main size ISNT a huge deal, but if i was sizing up that much, id be doing it for the reason i want nicer float in pow and pretty much nothing else. You will be very stable on a 154 camber deck. Maybe if youre on a reverse camber youll be washing a bit more when you hit speed (and thats part of the reason i would actually advise you size up a couple of cms on reverse camber), but you shouldnt be washing at all on a 154 camber ride at your weight. The reason i recommend this size is because its your most versatile do it all size. Youll not get the float of a longer board, but then again youll not feel the board is unwieldy and bulky when you want to learn to spin and butter.

 

Spinning and buttering, (despite what some might think), is a part of snowboarding :) its not all scooting in trees, or 20 foot cliff drops in backcountry after all. Sometimes its just cruising on teh groomers and doinking off small natural hits. At other times its ripping through the trees and hitting some sidecountry powder. A lot of the time though (especially in those first few years), its just mucking about on the groomers and getting your carving down or getting used to more complex terrain features and occasionally popping into the park to hit some small jumps and 50/50 some boxes and rails.

 

That size is gonna do it all everywhere. Maybe pop up to a 156 if you want something a bit more stable with a bit more aggression for carving and ripping, or pop down a couple of cms to a 152 if you want something thats a bit more pliable to throw around (or change the camber profile even). But you want to have a good solid starting point to know what youre trading off, and 154 is that nice all round size for your weight. For me, a 158 means he might be under the impression that 160 is just a couple of cms from his main ride so it wont make much difference. This is patently wrong. A 160 for him is going to be a bit too big for anything but pow at his weight. The 154 tells him where his starting point is and allows him to make a decent hit of where he wants to tinker it for his own priorities.

 

Understand though, i appreciate no one is recommending he get on a 166 or anything, so its not like i think youre giving an absurd figure with a 158, i just think it doesnt give him a great starting point. It doesnt spell out what hes giving up. and it will maybe end up pigeon holing him into a certain style of riding (one that most people on this site coincidentally have as a personal preference - its no coincidence that most folks on this site prefer freeride ... its also no coincidence that they also live in japan where we do get a decent amount of powder - swings and roundabouts... oh! and that theyre of a "certain age" :p). So factor all that in with your decision at the end of the day.

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I should also add that if you are buying from the USA and shipping it over, almost all of those brands will have export restrictions in place (which usually means extra shipping costs since mail forwarders dont get as good rates with people like fedex than massive warehouse internet operations).

 

Brands that ARENT blocked on most sites are:

 

Nitro

Bataleon

and Rome

(of the ones i listed)

 

Some others might be:

 

Jones

Yes

Nidecker

Lobster

Flow

Elan

 

even more:

Artec

Technine

Stepchild

Lamar

5150

Morrow

 

Actually i just looked at the dogfunk list of restrictions and Rome is restricted to US, canada and Europe. I dont think thats the case everywhere (trusnow allow it), but it might suggest that rome are preparing the ground to join almost every other one of the main brands out there with export restrictions. Another crappy decision for internationals. :/ (capita/union up until this season could be exported as well, but theyve clamped down on it too (which makes me a sad ass panda)) :(

 

Oh! and also keep in mind that although most brands WILL honor their warranty (burton AUS have been difficult in the past though since the whole sierrasnowboards fiasco), if your deck needs warrantied and you buy from teh US, chances are youll have to send it back to the US at your own expense. Its just how it goes and its one of the things you have to personally decide on if you buy outside your own local shops.

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Well, it does come down to preference, doesn't it. I'm basically the same size at 180cms and 70kgs. When I first started boarding I bought a 152cm K2 (something) because I liked the design. Before the end of the first season I had already bought another board (158cm Burton Royale) because the 152cm was too small and I was having problems, even on the groomers. I also ride a 156cm Fish (which rides about 6cms shorter than a normal board). In the last 5 years I've probably ridden 20 different boards because like Ippy I'm a little board-baka. I know that I definitely can't ride anything smaller than 155cm without having major problems when I'm cruising. I just don't feel like I'm in control on something small like that.

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ETA: Sorry for the threadcrap OP. Alas we have some very passionate gear heads on this forum who LOVE discussing the minutiae of tech, and we also all agree implicitly that its all much ado about nothing at the end of teh day but can disagree on the usefulness of the info for people starting out. It IS all preference at the end of the day and these certainties like weight/edgelength or the benefits of camber versus reverse camber are actually less definitive than they sound. Most of it is marketing hype, and you could literally strap a 2 by 4 to your feet and bomb down a hill. In fact my best mate learned on a board not entirely dissimilar to that description :)

 

But back to the tangents and the meta discussion on sizing...

 

Thats all cool. We dont disagree on the 158 soooo much. We just disagree on it being a fair starting point. People get in a habit with their board sizes a lot as well. For instance, few people take any consideration of shape. Blunts are MASSIVE this year. but people will naturally pick up their same size board through pure habit, without even considering that the blunt shape has cut a few cms off the boards stated length. Its fun because it means people are on boards with longer effective edges but theyre so cut up on 'board length' that they dont even notice it. :)

 

I remember my own personal experience. Its actually the oppposite of yours. I mention it though not to say "YOURE WRONG!!!" (if anything, it actually reinforces your point) but rather to let the OP see how weird this all gets. On hakuba at the start of season 2 i remember going to the rental place across the road from escal and getting on the board they chose for me. It was a 160 (i was 80kilos at the time). And no matter what, it just felt really bulky and annoying. I got on my 157 artec and suddenly everything was streamlined and zippy. Board size is often a personal thing at the end of the day and you will eventually end up on a size you like DESPITE your weight. For instance i consider my size 157. No matter whether im 83kilos (my heaviest) or 70kilos (my lightest), im going to ride a 157 for all mountain. Blunt or no blunt ;) Even now the idea of hitting up a 159 as my main ride just mentally feels too big and flappy for me to enjoy it, (whilst the 155 bataleon riot sitting in my house awaiting snow fills me with dread that its going to be far too small for me to really enjoy). Understand, i aint no park rat either. I am one of the oyajis on this site that loves ripping pow. I dont give a crap about park. Its my freeride size and thats that! :p

 

I COULD conceivably be changing my board size based on my weight (and i sort of do for my other rides - the 153 funkink only became an option for me as a park ride after i dropped to low 70s last year - before that i wouldnt have gone any lower than a 155), but for my main ride, so long as i live ill be on something around that 157 (give or take a cm or two).

 

And to completely contradict that point: before riding it i actually thought the 164 charlie was going to be like a canoe strapped to my feet. After riding it i realised i was just getting carried away with sizes and assumptions. I mean dont get me wrong, i didnt DARE take it into the park (not because of its taper surprisingly enough - the 158 woudl have been awesome fun in park), but because of its sheer length - its not a deck you can easily swing about), so there is a block at points the bigger you go, and this is natural. But size is very flexible though, i can ride that board in everything else just as well as i can ride a 157 or a 155. We just get stuck in habits for the most part because thats what we've ridden and thats what we like based on what and how we like to ride. :) Of course this IS the case, but to someone coming in new to teh sport looking for simple answers its way too complex for what they want. Indeed, on this very point i was actually reluctant to post on this trhead because i knew we'd all be having a meta discussion way beyond what the poor OP wants to maybe know :)

 

But to pull it back a bit... You and jynxx are both factoring in the pow side (and as i say, why wouldnt you? of course he wants to ride pow, hes coming to japan!) Im just trying to give him a more neutral size which doesnt really emphasize one thing over another. I would change the 152-154 to maybe acknowledge that a 152 may be a bit too small all round size for him, and possibly push him towards a 154-156 based on a lot of the points made here, but id still suggest that a 158 might be pushing him outside of a do it all and into the realms of freeride/carving/pow stick.

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Hi mate, as another Perthite I understand your pain, I have been through so many boots and dollars trying to get the right fit. If you can find the right boots for you in Perth (Mainpeak Osborne Park) then buy them or layby. Don't buy a pair of boots without trying them on and wearing them for at least 10 -15 minutes and longer if you can. If you decide to buy a pair over the net of the same model you tried on in Perth, make sure they are the same year/model. I have 2 pairs of Burton Drivers from two different years that fit differently.

 

Boards are important but if you are cold wet and miserable you wont be out there long enough to enjoy it. Here are some more thoughts. Don't let it get overwhelming and you don't have to spend a million dollars, but spend the time and do some research.

  • Get good gloves. Mits if your fingers get cold.
  • Make sure your goggles are reasonable (twin lense). If you get cheapy single lense types they will fog up very quickly.
  • Make sure your outer gear has reasonable water resistance
  • Think of your Inner layers, cheap polys are fine. No cotton t shirts. No cotton socks.
  • Take a neck warmer

Your board will generally not stop you going out onto the mountain. Some of this other gear may.

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Goggles i honestly believe are a MASSIVELY underrated piece of kit. Goggles that fog up all the time really make you have a crappy time on the mountain. One of the things im definitely up for dropping cash on now is a nice solid oakley lense. Ive been through a fair few goggles trying to get one thats great value, but screw it. I wore the same pair last season every day and never once had a problem with the lense, (unlike every other season prior where id go through three or four pairs a season).

 

f you can budget for it (or can find someone willing to splash out on a nice xmas present, get a decent lense - it doesnt have to be an oakley by the way, i just found that one to live up to its hype is all - im fairly sure dragon, smith, ashbury, vonzipper and electric all make decent goggles in their higher end ranges alongside oakley. Honestly, nothing beats being able to actually see where the hell youre going when youre zipping at 70kmh and being able to actually SEE the bumps in the snow :)

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You can get restricted gear sent to a freight forwarder in the States ( normally at no cost to get there since most dizzy's offer free freight over a certain $ figure )

then they readdress the goods, charge you freight & send it to Oz & yes some are expensive but there are a couple that the charges for the freight are no different or cheaper than what it would be if it was sent direct from the dizzy's

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I tend to agree with Jynxx on the board length. Anything under 155cms will be too short. Weight isn't as much of a factor as height when it comes to board length. For someone 180cms tall their center of gravity is higher and should therefore have a board around 157-158cms. Too long makes turning difficult (but only at the beginning, once you get used to it it's not a problem) too short makes balance difficult, produces washouts and will limit your progression... (unless the plan is to just stay in parks and not get into much free riding) and if there is lots of snow you will sink!

 

what BM said

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