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Snowboarders of a certain age have an inexplicable tendency to get misty-eyed about the shitness of the past, like the four Yorkshiremen of the Monty Python sketch. You know the sort of thing: “When I were a grommet, all we had were dendix, and old rubber bands for bindings. We used to break our thumbs every day and be grateful.” “Dendix? Rubber bands? You were lucky. We had to make do wi’ lashing ourselves to an old twig and trying to slide down a slope of cowshit. We used to dream of breaking our thumbs…”

The good news is that these days, an ability to take a beating is not a pre-requisite of learning how to snowboard. That’s thanks to all sorts of technological innovations; not least impact shorts like these, which are becoming increasingly popular. Here are three of the finest pairs on the market.