UPDATE: Check out our review of the 2018/2019 Best Park Snowboards here
When we say ‘park boards’, we don’t just mean ones that have been precision-engineered for slopestyle courses; for example, there’s a pro model in here for a guy that couldn’t give a monkey’s about sticking a triple cork. Whatever tricks you like to do, be they ground level jibs or lofty halfpipe airs, looking at specific freestyle decks is a good place to start.
“Powerful boards for getting serious airtime still tend to feature classic camber, while a flat-based board will be less catchy on rails”
Park boards tend to be more flexible than freeride-specific ones, especially torsionally (meaning from one edge to the other) to make them easier to manoeuvre. There’s usually some high-tech additives laid from end to end as well, as these increase pop without adding too much weight.
Profiles can vary dramatically. Powerful boards for getting serious airtime still tend to feature classic camber, while a flat-based board will be less catchy on rails but can still get airborne without too much trouble. Shape-wise, however, you’re pretty much guaranteed a true twin (or, in some cases, and asymmetric twin).
Of course, some of these boards will perform better than you might expect in the powder, and should work just fine on the piste too – but if it’s not something that you’d be happy to spend all day lapping features, then it doesn’t get in this list.
All boards are in alphabetical order. All photographs by Sami Tuoriniemi – click any image to enlarge
Production: Tom Copsey / Andrew Duthie / Arian Schlichenmayer / Sami Tuoriniemi
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