Search for the Right Women Board

[bebop]

Here's the deal: our friend just started snowboarding and we'd like to buy her a female-specific snowboard as a birthday present. The problem: there are too many women boards to choose from! Skill-wise, she just began to move from falling-leaf to doing skidded turns (still have issues linking turns though), so we need a board that is suitable for a beginner. But since we'll be doing 20+ days next season, I think she will progress very quickly so the board should be "high-tech" enough to prepare for her next levels. She wears size 7 boots, boards primarily in Tahoe, and weights around 135.

She demo-ed the Ride Vista and Palmer Liberty, but couldn't really tell if she liked them (I suppose it's hard for a beginner to judge boards). She doesn't know much about boards so it's up to us to find the right one.

I was thinking about the Salomon Ivy. But there are complains that it requires a lot of effort to turn, and the description says it's for "light riders", and I noticed that tall skinny girls love it. My friend is, dare I say, not that skinny. Next is the Burton Feelgood; but the 2003 TW review says it is not "the quickest to initiate turns." Hmm.. not so good for a beginner? Ride Kashmir sounds perfect except that it is supposed to be very stiff. The Sims Essence is a freestyle board, and I don't like putting beginners on park decks. On top of that, it is very hard to find a board around 150cm length with less than 24cm width. I have reservation about using Palmer Links because someone I know complained that the extra layer prevents him from feeling the change in terrain.

If anyone has any suggestion or would like to provide input on a female that you tried. I'd really appreciate it. I also looked at the K2 Mix, Chrous, Morrow Wildflower, etc, but don't know much about them.

-bebop
Praying for an early snow season.

[beez]

Here's the deal: our friend just started snowboarding and we'd like to buy her a female-specific snowboard as a birthday present. The problem: there are too many women boards to choose from! Skill-wise, she just began to move from falling-leaf to doing skidded turns (still have issues linking turns though), so we need a board that is suitable for a beginner. But since we'll be doing 20+ days next season, I think she will progress very quickly so the board should be "high-tech" enough to prepare for her next levels. She wears size 7 boots, boards primarily in Tahoe, and weights around 135.

She demo-ed the Ride Vista and Palmer Liberty, but couldn't really tell if she liked them (I suppose it's hard for a beginner to judge boards). She doesn't know much about boards so it's up to us to find the right one.

I was thinking about the Salomon Ivy. But there are complains that it requires a lot of effort to turn, and the description says it's for "light riders", and I noticed that tall skinny girls love it. My friend is, dare I say, not that skinny. Next is the Burton Feelgood; but the 2003 TW review says it is not "the quickest to initiate turns." Hmm.. not so good for a beginner? Ride Kashmir sounds perfect except that it is supposed to be very stiff. The Sims Essence is a freestyle board, and I don't like putting beginners on park decks. On top of that, it is very hard to find a board around 150cm length with less than 24cm width. I have reservation about using Palmer Links because someone I know complained that the extra layer prevents him from feeling the change in terrain.

If anyone has any suggestion or would like to provide input on a female that you tried. I'd really appreciate it. I also looked at the K2 Mix, Chrous, Morrow Wildflower, etc, but don't know much about them.

-bebop
Praying for an early snow season.

My wife rides the pro-salomon ivy, and loves it, but it is definately an aquired taste from what I here, my other female friends have not been as keen on the salomon's(for exactly what you've heard, a little to stiff and hard to turn). My one friend demo'd some new Ride female specific board this year, and swears that that will be here next board, no matter what the cost, so that's a pretty good endorsement! I don't rememeber the name.

[beez]

My wife rides the pro-salomon ivy, and loves it, but it is definately an aquired taste from what I here, my other female friends have not been as keen on the salomon's(for exactly what you've heard, a little to stiff and hard to turn). My one friend demo'd some new Ride female specific board this year, and swears that that will be here next board, no matter what the cost, so that's a pretty good endorsement! I don't rememeber the name.

I forgot to add that that was the one she liked from burton that was a little easier to turn than the Ride Kashmir.

[Snow Nymph]

My first board was a Morrow 141 (?) and I really had to work to make my turns. I was skiing at the time, and spent 1-2 hrs at the end of the day on a board (Mar-May, then Nov-Feb the next season)

Then on Valentines day I got a Burton Balance 143.5 and the first run on it was effortless! I was on intermediate runs by the end of the day. I quit bringing the skis with me shortly after. I've been a Burton fan since. Right now I'm riding a Burton Witchcraft 151 (my favorite) and a Burton Feelgood 152 (won it last month, so I'm still testing it out).

I'm 4'11, size 5 boot, and ~107 lb.

[bebop]

Wow, you're 107 pounds and ride 152cm? You must fly down the mountains!

At any rate, thanks for all the responses, they're all very helpful. We tried to find either a Ride Solace or Vista but the shops either don't carry them or don't have the right size. We found a Ride Kashmir that we thought were perfect but to my surprise, the opinions from our female friends (on the graphics) are collectively, "A cat woman holding a gun? Ahh, no." So we dropped the Kashmir from our list. I'm with you on the Burtons, the Feelgood would have been the perfect choice, but we have already set our sight on getting my friend the Drakes Lady bindings, and I was told Drakes either don't make 3-hole or they are very hard to find.

So we ended up with the Tara Dakides Pro because: "It's sassy. The design is cute." Imagine that, a simple checkered green and black design is better than the picture of a leather-clad vixen posting with a weapon.

[Reverend SC]

Just bumping because I like the abridged title that shows up at the main forum page - "Search for the right women..."

[smushmeg]

I have a chorus 150 and I love it dearly. It's nimble and not too stiff or flexy. An added perk is that they have (in my humble opinion) nifty graphics. Nary a flower to be found.

www.chorususa.com