Girls Guide: Choosing The Right Equipment
by Kathleen Gasperini
(November 7, 1997)

A lot of you ask what you should look for when buying snowboard boots. I will be going over all of this in detail in a story about buying women's equipment in Circleplus, but as a quick reminder, get a boot that is made from woman's last (mold). Women's ankles are thinner than men's, and the calf of a woman starts lower. Also, make sure there's not too much room in the foot of the boot. Women's feet tend to be narrower than men's. Overall, feel is the most important thing in a boot. When you lean forward, does your heel lift? Can you move your toes? Too much from side to side? These are things to consider. Forget about what the pros are riding, it's your foot we're taking about here. My suggestions (and like I said, I'll go over this all in detail in the women's equipment article) are to check out boots by Burton-of their eight boots, seven have designs for women-Sims, Preston boots by Ride, Airwalk (but not their new Quad step-in), Blax, which also offers a hard boot for women, and K2's Clickers. I went to the demonstration days at Solitude this winter to test all of these boots, but unfortunately, not many boot manufacturers had women's samples for me to test, except Burton. So I'm going by my research, not the feel. Burton's Ruler and the Drifter get kudos because they fit your foot like a sock and they have bindings that match the boot size.

Bindings are essential and most women end up with bindings that are too wide, with overlapping straps, etc. What I discovered is that step-ins, obviously, get rid of that fat-binding problem. I ride the Clickers and can get my board on edge so much faster than my conventional bindings. It's made a huge difference in my quickness and edge-to-edge control. For women, I would suggest step-ins. So far, K2, Device, Switch, T-Bone, DNR, and Blax offer them. Burton hopes to have one out next season, so you might want to hold out for that, because they always have great products for women. Also, Airwalk's Quad system is pretty cool, but again, we'll have to wait for the women's version. (I know, frustrating.)

Boards don't know the difference in gender, OK? That was definitely confirmed at the last trade show when some guys were getting pissy about this women's board thing. But we should get a board that comes to our chin in height, is narrow enough so that when you're feet are standing on it, you can get it on edge (which mean check the sidecut of the board), and the stance can be adjusted narrow enough for your legs. It's difficult to ride fat stance, stink-bug style.

See Also:
Circleplus 1998 Hardware II?
What's New for You in 1997-'98