A soft snowboard is easy to manipulate under your feet. It’s very easy to load the tail and pop an ollie, or lean into the nose to perform a press or butter. For this reason, soft snowboards are a popular choice with freestyle riders looking to do tricks on jumps and rails – or just get creative on the piste.

Soft snowboards are also more forgiving if you make a mistake, since your movements are not inputted as rapidly into the edge. By contrast, stiff boards can feel twitchy – like it wants to catch an edge – especially at low speeds. Beginners should therefore look towards a soft snowboard. 

At this point, it’s worth pointing out that Bataleon’s boards suffer less from this ‘twitchy’ feeling, thanks to Triple Base Technology (3BT). The uplifted contact points mean you’re much less likely to catch an edge, even on a stiffer board.

Snowboards offering a stiff flex are usually aimed at more advanced riders. They provide maximum response (particularly if they are torsionally stiff) and greater edge hold, which makes them great for carving. They are also more stable at high speeds (by comparison, soft boards can start to vibrate when you’re charging over hard snow) and a stiffer board won’t buckle under a heavy landing. 

If you are skilled enough, stiff boards can actually boast better pop (ollie power) since the rebound when you load the tail is more aggressive – it just takes more effort to achieve.

Every snowboard will be given a flex rating by the manufacturer. At Bataleon, our softest guy’s board is the park-oriented Disaster, with a rating of 2; on the flipside, the Turbo comes in at a 9. For all-mountain riding, a mid-stiff board is usually best – though as a rule of thumb, the heavier you are the stiffer your board will need to be.