Board advice for lady

[JAK]

Hi all!

I've been snowboarding for 30 years and now I want to focus completely on carving. I love fast speed and big turns. I've snowboarded with Nidecker and K2 boards a lot, but they aren’t stable enough in turns. Now I'm looking for a new stiffer board.

I have several options and would greatly appreciate your help. Women have hardly been found on the forums to help, anyone here?

Are all carving boards unisex models? And what should be noted?

Here are some options:
Jones Freecarver 9000
Korua Café racer
Swoard Dual2
Kessler X-Carve White 23/24
Gray snowboards DESPERADO Ti TypeR
Donek Snowboards ?
Oes snowboards?

I am 161 cm tall, weight 75 kg, shoe size 39.

[Swoard team]

Hello and welcome,

Actually there could be 18% of women in this Forum, along to this old poll.

We do take the girls into account as we made the Swoard Dual2 in size 158.
It is really loved by the girls and the light men.
See the chart of board selection:

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Swoard-Dual2.png (55.74 KiB) Viewed 13265 times

The width of the Dual2 158 is 24.2 cm, what is OK for your feet size.

You are using softboots, right? If you have hardboots, the Dual2 can be mounted with both gears (that's why the name is "dual", for duality hardboots/softboots, as well as for carving/freeriding).

If you use only softboots, you may prefer a wider board to avoid boot overhang when carving, even with low bindings angles. The new (additional) model Stoke has even a flex choice, so it's like custom:

Stoke_board_selection.gif (27.27 KiB) Viewed 13265 times

SWOARD_Stoke.jpg (63.33 KiB) Viewed 13265 times

We would recommend you the Stoke 154S (even if you are above 70 kg), because its flex will be nice for you. The easiness will compensate the width of 26.6 cm. So you could carve strong and fly when freeriding. Well, as you are 30 years experienced, you can also choose the 154M.

Though the Stoke is made primarily for freeriding in deep powder (where it is awesome), it has great carving abilities thanks to Swoard know-how for 20 years.

If you want more info, we give many details and assist the people at this address: orders@swoard.com


The Swoard team

[joemzl]

Perhaps we should recommend the Swoard Demo Tour for a board test.
For details see the first thread on this site.
30 years experience. We should do a few runs together.

[JAK]

Hi,

Nice to know there are women here too!

I do snowboard only with soft boots. We have quite icy conditions in Finland except late spring (one month) when its very soft. I love powder, but the best is the early hours of the mornings on a well maintained slope in your own peace with BIG curves.

Thanks to these discussions, now I really have to think about a sword board as an alternative!

[fivat]

We developed all Swoard models primarily for ice and hard snow, so that they perform great everywhere (including on good snow, of course).
I remember all these summer days on the glaciers, testing and testing on bad ice, to feel all details in the prototypes. On easy snow, most boards should be good... Well, damping is another point on which we have worked a lot. That's why I love cruising and making big turns on degraded slopes in the afternoons. All terrains are playgrounds.

Here are some of my favourite recent pictures of Swoard Dual2 and Stoke in action with softboots. On ice, the width of the Stoke prevents the boots from touching the slope, which is crucial to not lose the edge control. The grip is awesome as it comes from our alpine models.
On Dual2, one can use higher bindings angles, but this is not my cup of tea (as I also use the duck stance in function of my mood).

Pascal on Stoke, EC frontside.

Vincent on Stoke in powder.

Taro on Dual2, EC backside.
This is rarely (was never) seen on backside, fully laid. Note that Taro has small feet and high bindings angles. That's why we need a board like the Stoke for bigger feet.


You can also watch this video from Pascal with his Stoke at the last "20th ExtremeCarving Session" (official video here).
Or Xavier with his Stoke here, or Seb with his Dual2 here.

I want to say here that, if we love carving or laying down with softboots too, alpine gear brings more power, dynamics and precision. Hardboots is something we love and will continue for sure! Soft and hard are both great. There is no bad day on the snow.

Patrice Fivat

[get!em]

My Wife is riding on the Dual2 now for 4 years. She loves it, but had very soft boots.

Previously she had that same very soft boots on a very soft board, and she had difficulties and pain in feet and heels, lowerleg.
Shifting to the Dual2 made her see that materials matter, and now she already made an enormous progress in carving on hard snow and even on powdery snow (30cm fresh snow on prepared hardsnow). Easyness of turns, resilience and recovery of unexpected things on slope or other riders.

Last week she bought a set of K2 Contour softboots. Very good (boa) control of ankle fixation, and a good sturdy lowerleg to foot connection. Already with fitting on dry (in our living room) she concluded it will be a master leap in progress of carving for her. Next week she will do the proof of the pudding.