Unlike in the past where there has been a tendency of just taking the men's snowboarding gear version, making it smaller, throwing some pink on it and thinking that somehow it would work for women, today we can come across many options specifically designed to accommodate the female physique. And that should come at no surprise given the fact women and men are different in shape and size. This only means that women will benefit from a different snowboarding gear from one that was initially designed from men's point of view. As the snowboard is one the most important piece of gear when on the snow, let's look at some features that work best for women.
Softer
The snowboard flex ratio is what it sounds like essentially – it describes how flexible a snowboard is. Usually, flex is described on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1-2 translates as soft flex while 9-10 means stiff flex. As women, generally speaking, are on the lighter side, means that riding a board that is too stiff is going to be hard for them to control (the board will likely be taking you for a ride, rather than you riding it). That is why as far as flex, you may want your board to be a bit softer because it can give you a good feel of what is going on under your feet. With a softer board, you will be able to flex with bigger ease and it would take less effort for you to turn the board from edge to edge.
Narrowed
Snowboard width sizing is critical as it can prevent toe and heel drag when leaning on your board over into a turn. Womens wide snowboards, normal or smaller size can be all found on the market for sale. Womens wide snowboards can accommodate different sizes of feet than a narrowed one. Snowboards for women usually tend to be narrower because women's feet generally taken are smaller. A board that is too wide will not react quickly and may feel awkward to turn. Narrow snowboards, on the other hand, translate into faster edge turnover and quicker turns.
Lighter
Lastly, having a lighter board is just another feature that can make it a little bit easier for women to ride the board. Having a lighter women's board than a man's board may work because in general women are lighter in weight than men. The idea behind is again to give them something that is easier to control.
