My Top Snowboards of 2023/2024
If you know me you know there was a time when snowboarding consumed my life. I had the latest and greatest gear before the start of every season. Oftentimes that involved multiple setups. Almost every waking minute, outside of school or work, I was skating, snowboarding, planning a trip, or watching snowboarding videos.
Those days are long gone. These days I’m teaching our 5-year-old daughter to ride and having a blast photographing and filming our 13-year-old shredder. It’s a different kind of awesome.
The last time I bought a new board was the LibTech MC Bus in Da Barrel in 2018. It rips. I love it.
I probably won’t buy a new snowboard this year, but if I were these are the ones at the top of my list:
LibTech - Dynamo
All Mountain - Directional Shape. Perfect for me. Aesthetically I like roundish noses and tails. There is something unpleasing about the super square, planky noses a lot of boards have.
C3 Camber. Traditional camber with a little rocker between yer feet.
Magne-Traction. They call it “serrated steak knife technology” and it really works. LibTechs with the Magne Traction hold an edge like nothing else I’ve ridden.
I’d go for the 159.
I’ve been a Mervin guy almost exclusively since the early 90s. When I was 13 I learned to ride on a hand-me-down Gnu from a buddy’s older brother. One of the older kids I looked up to had the LibTech Matt Cummins Radical Rik - the one with the bmx graphic on the bottom and the VW bus on the top. I had never seen graphics like that before and knew I would, someday, have my very own LibTech.
While I have never ridden the Dynamo, the C3 camber, directional shape, and aggressive stiffness I love about LibTechs put this board at the top of my list.
Plus Mervin boards are handmade in WA with no hazardous waste, which is important to me.
LibTech - Terrain Wrecker
All Mountain - Directional Twin. Also great for how I like to ride. I may not be as young as I used to be, but I do love riding a directional twin. The tail isn’t too planky, which I appreciate.
C2X Camber. Pretty different from traditional or the more modern C3 camber, but I really like how the C2 rides. The first time I rode this camber I couldn’t believe how hard it railed, how much control I had, and how easy it was to turn.
Magne-Traction. Again, dope.
For this one I’d go with the 157.
This board reminds me of one of my favorite LibTechs I had, the Emma Peel from 2000/2001. Like many of my boards from back in the day, I wish I still had that one. I loaned it to a buddy and never saw it again…
It’s honestly a toss-up between the Dynamo and the Treerain Wrecker.
YES. - Standard Un..Inc. DC
Directional Volume Twin. Probably wouldn’t notice it on groomers or hard pack, but on pow days it sounds like it would be sweet.
Camber. Real, traditional camber. Just like we grew up with.
MidBite for edge hold.
The Slamback inserts would be awesome for pow days on this thing.
7/10 stiffness sounds about right.
159 is my jam.
I dig YES. Who they are and what they are about. Dudes who got the shaft by the man and started their own gig. Much respect. That couldn’t have been easy, even for superstars.
I got to ride a YES. Typo 157 a few years ago and really liked it. I’m not a small dude so it felt a little squishy and unresponsive, but that wasn’t the board’s fault. It was super fun in the park, but I couldn’t open it up on the groomers like I wanted it to.
https://www.yesnowboard.com/snowboarding/879-standard-uninc-dc.html
Academy - Masters
Directional.
7/10 flex.
Micro Camber? The Academy website is light on explanations of features/tech, but I’m assuming this is a mellow traditional camber.
Carbonium topsheet which sounds techy and cool.
Vario Powergrip Sidecut which, I assume, is Academy’s version of Magne-Traction.
The 159 only comes in Wide and I wear a 9.5, so I would opt for the 157.
If it’s good enough for Chris Roach, it’s probably good enough for me. This board looks like it would rip. I like the shape. It reminds me of the 1992 Sims Shaun Palmer I bought used at a pawn shop in probably ‘93 or ‘94. That board was tragically stolen by a moving company I hired to move me into my new house a number of years ago. I tipped the guys really well too, before I realized they had taken a bunch of my stuff. The moving company didn’t care, which was disappointing. But that’s a different story. Karma, mother fuckers.
https://academysnowboards.com/products/masters?variant=42892339249342
Dinosaurs Will Die - Kwon
All Mountain. Freestyle-looking shape. I dig it.
ACTION Camber. Traditional camber in the middle, flat camber out the tips, and reverse camber at the contact points. Sounds sweet.
7/10 flex.
158 for me.
DWD is super cool. Independent and, obviously, punk rock. They’re in it for the love of the game, which is rare in any industry. Reminds me of the 90’s when snowboarding was dangerous. I would be proud to rock a DWD.
So, there you have it. My list of top snowboards for the upcoming 2023/2024 season. Like I said, I’m not planning to buy a new stick this year, but if I was, it would be one of these 5.
DISCLAIMER: I am not affiliated in any way with any of these brands. I provided links to each of the boards on the company’s websites. If you choose to buy one of these, whatever, I don’t benefit in any way. The images above are clipped directly from the company’s websites, I hope that’s cool.
If you do end up buying one of these, let me know. I’d love to hear what you think.
-Krisjan
