There’s no greater gift than to give your kids snowboards. It’s an incredible winter sport that can enrich a child’s life, especially if you get them into it early. Snowboarding is a lifestyle that not only gives children the ability to maintain their athleticism over time but it’s also a great way to make friends and find community.
In this Ultimate Kids Snowboarding Guide, you’ll learn at what age kids can start snowboarding as well as the changes in equipment considerations as they grow older. We’ll discuss the flex, sizing and different construction materials of kids snowboards. After reading this guide you’ll know how to purchase a kids snowboard.
The Ultimate Kids Snowboards Guide
When Can Kids Start Snowboarding?
Sizing It Up: Choosing the Right Size Snowboard for Kids
How It Rides: Side Profiles & Flex
Construction Materials: How Kids Snowboards are Made
Shop Online or In Store: How to Buy Kids Snowboards
When Can Kids Start Snowboarding?
Children as young as 3 years old can start snowboarding. There is a whole host of specific product offering in this age range that we’ll go over.
Kids snowboards can be divided into 2 product categories; children and youth. Children’s sizes are for young toddlers. Youth sizes accommodate older kids through their elementary and middle school years.
Children’s snowboarding equipment is less focused on performance and more on warmth and comfort.
For youth snowboards, the products offer more performance construction as they are usually shrunk down versions of men’s and women’s snowboarding gear. We discuss this in more detail below.
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Sizing It Up: Choosing the Right Size Snowboard for Kids
When deciding what size snowboard you should get for a child, it all depends on how much the child weighs. Snowboards are designed around a rider’s weight. Whether looking at snowboards in-store or online, each snowboard model has a spec sheet.
The spec sheet will show you how many different sizes are in that model, as well as suggested weight ranges for each size. Most snowboarding brands size their snowboards in centimetres (i.e. 90cm, 120cm, 152cm etc).
Here’s an example of a size and weight chart for the Burton Custom snowboard:
Snowboarding for Toddlers
Generally speaking, the smallest snowboards start at 80–90cm and are for riders weighing 25–70 pounds. A good example of a snowboard for toddlers is the Burton After School Special
Click image to see more about the Burton After School Special
What makes it a great kids snowboard for learning is the beginner-friendly combo of a convex shaped base with upturned edges and soft flex. Even the lightest weight riders can master turning and stopping. As a toddler grows into a child they will move into a snowboard like the Burton Mini Grom, which is for riders weighting about 40-100lbs.
Click image to see more about the Burton Mini Grom
Snowboarding for Teens
As kids move from children’s to youth’s gear, the snowboards start to incorporate more performance construction methods similar to adult gear. They’re for riders around 70-150lbs and come in lengths of 125-145cm. Although youth snowboards will reuse the same graphics as adult’s they are not just shrunk down versions. Kids snowboards are specifically designed and engineered for them.
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How It Rides: Side Profiles & Flex
Snowboards come in two primary profile shapes: camber and rocker.
Camber Snowboards
A board with a camber profile, or camber shape, is the traditional shape they’ve been making snowboards since day one. If you place a camber board flat on the ground, you’ll notice the center of the board is curved upwards. When you step on the center of the board it will flex.
When you flex and flatten a camber board while riding you’ll build up pressure and energy into the board. The board will naturally want to snap or pop back into its curved shape. This snap, or pop, is what makes a camber snowboard more responsive to ride.
Rocker Snowboards
Rocker boards are pretty much the exact opposite. The nose and tail curve up away from the ground. This gives the board a looser, more skateboard like feel under your feet. Because of the shape of a rocker board, when you get the board on it’s edge during a carve, the board will naturally drive the rider through the carve. For this reason rocker boards are described as being more mellow and easier to ride. A rocker board is usually recommended for beginner riders because with the nose and tail of the board lifted upward, it is less likely to catch an edge and bail.
Flat Snowboards
The base of the snowboard is flat and in direct contact with the snow from tip to tail. Flat snowboards make transitioning from edge to edge easy, with better edge grip than rocker and better maneuverability than camber.
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Construction Materials: How Kids Snowboards are Made
Although the construction methods of kid’s snowboards are different from adult’s, their construction materials are similar. Different brands will use different materials to reduce weight, dampen vibrations or increase stiffness.
These are the most common layers of a snowboard:
- Base
- Edges
- Sidewall
- Fibreglass Layer
- Wooden Core
- Top Sheet
Snowboard Bases
There are two primary types of of kids snowboards bases, which are called extruded and sintered. Extruded bases are more durable but sintered is much faster. Extruded bases are often constructed in medium to low priced snowboards. Sintered is used in medium to higher priced snowboards.
Edges
Snowboard edges are made of stainless steel, and are held into the board with T-shaped inserts which are built into them.
The Sidewalls
This is the area that runs alongside the edge of your snowboard. Most kids snowboards have ABS sidewalls, where urethane inserted into the side to ensure that the core is protected.
The Cores
The cores are usually made out of laminated hardwood such as poplar, beech, aspen, bamboo or birch. Each of these types of wood vary in stiffness but they are all relatively easy to genetically modify and grow sustainably to keep up with production.
Snowboard cores will use many strips of laminated hardwood that run through the entire length of the board. These strips are usually a mixture of different woods species. These various materials affect the flexibility and torsional rigidity of snowboards. A snowboard’s flex generally refers to bending a snowboard from nose to tail. While torsional rigidity refers to bending a snowboard from edge to edge.
The Fibreglass Layer
These layers protect and seal the core while adding strength. A wood core itself wouldn’t be stiff enough to use as a snowboard on its own. Fibreglass layers are applied in one of two ways:
Bi-axial Wraps – This is where the fibreglass strands are woven together at a ninety-degree angle. This makes the fibreglass lightweight and reliable.
Tri-axial Wraps – The strands are woven at both 45 and 0 degrees respectively, and then again at the minus 45 degree mark. This layer is lightweight and reliable as well, but has additional torsional rigidity.
Resin, which is a gooey-like adhesive, is used to glue the fibreglass layers to the top and bottom of the snowboard’s core.
The Top Sheet
This is the layer with the graphics on it. Graphics are usually sublimated onto a snowboard using a ton of heat and pressure.
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Shop Online or In Store: How to Buy Kids Snowboards
I always recommend going into a snowboard shop if you can to make purchases. You can buy kids snowboards online and make your purchase based on online reviews. But I still think going into your local shop is the best buying experience.
If you shop somewhere with knowledgable snowboarding staff who have been trained with product knowledge you’ll get the best service. I like going to Corbett’s in Oakville. I use to work there for multiple seasons when I was younger so I know the staff are reliable.
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