What to Wear Snowboarding [COMPLETE GUIDE]

What up shredder. One of the most confusing things about snowboarding is what to wear snowboarding.

Today we’re gonna break it down step by step. What to wear snowboarding can be extremely confusing and it seems like you need 27 different pieces of clothing just to go snowboarding.

 I was at Vail on a pall day with one of my new snowboarder friends last year and we got out of the car and he said you’re really good at getting ready for snowboarding.

What he meant is he’s scrounging around trying to find each piece. I just have everything neatly packaged up and ready to go get out of the car get on the hill and catch that paw before anybody else does.

So today Ben who’s much better at this stuff than I am is going to break down exactly what you need to wear to the mountain.

So you have a great day out there. You don’t get too cold not too hot and you’re not scattered all over the place with your gear.

Here’s a quick primer on what to wear skiing or snowboarding: 

• Long underwear
• Light fleece or wool top
• Ski or snowboard socks
• Ski or snowboard jacket
• Ski or snowboard pants (or bibs)
• Gloves or mittens
• Helmet
• Goggles
• Neck gaiter or balaclava

Long underwear: This layer wicks sweat off your skin and keep you warm. Choose wool, synthetic, or silk (not cotton). You’ll want lightweight or midweight depending on the outside temperature and whether you run hot or cold.

Light fleece or wool top: Wear it over your long underwear top in the car and the lodge; wear it under your jacket to add warmth on the slopes.

Ski or snowboard socks: Ski and snowboard socks are taller than your boots and not overly thick (thick socks can actually make your feet colder if they make your boots too tight and restrict your blood circulation). Some have padding at the shins. Go with wool or synthetic socks and avoid wearing cotton socks because, when cotton socks get wet from snow or sweat, they take forever to dry out.

Ski or snowboard jacket: These are usually waterproof or water resistant, and insulated, with convenient pockets and other snow-specific features. A waterproof/breathable rain jacket over your fleece or wool top would be sufficient as well, though its slickness might lengthen any slides you make after a fall.

Ski or snowboard pants (or bibs): Waterproof or water resistant, and insulated, these sometimes have convenient pockets, vents, and features to prevent snow from entering your boots. Waterproof/breathable rain pants would be sufficient as well. You can add fleece pants underneath for greater insulation.

Gloves or mittens: Choose waterproof or water-resistant and insulated. Generally, greater thickness equals greater warmth, and mittens tend to be warmer than gloves, but you sacrifice some dexterity (though inner liner gloves offer versatility). You don’t need ski- or snowboard-specific gloves or mittens, but they do have some nice features, like built-in goggle wipes and long cuffs that go up to mid-forearm to keep snow out.

Helmet: Not mandatory, but highly recommended, a ski helmet helps protect your head, and it keeps your head and ears warm and dry. (Wear a warm hat if you’re not using a helmet.) Most ski resorts rent these, so you don’t have to buy one right away.

Goggles: These protect your eyes from wind, snow, and glare. Check that they work with your helmet, and your face shape and fit over glasses if you wear them. You want them to fit without gaps. If you don’t own a pair, see if you can borrow some from a friend for a day. If it’s not actively snowing, sunglasses are a fine substitute.

Neck gaiter or balaclava: You can pull a neck gaiter up over your nose in icy temps; a balaclava offers even greater coverage.

The first thing you’re going to want to do is secure the back. Now what I mean by that is have a bag that you can kind of keep all your riding stuff centrally located in.

That’s gonna make like reduce so much stress from your life especially if you’re going in a trip. and you’re not gonna have to wonder do I have everything because you know exactly where everything goes in the bag and what you bring all right.

So this is the perfect riding bag Chris has multiple pockets you got your big one to kind of keep everything your pants, Your jacket,  your base layers.

You can see the separate pockets up top with zippers and mesh that’s where I’ll keep my socks on the side here we’ve got other separated pockets you can keep your beanies your gloves anything inside there. Same thing on the opposite side.

I’ve got my tool snacks pocket right here on the other end good little pocket. This is where you can keep some extra face masks. Another pocket on the other end is where I keep my backup goggles.

And then one of my favorite parts about this bag is really the boot locker this is a little bit extra but you can see a waterproof bag with ventilation to let those boots breathe all in one place you’re never going to forget anything and you can over pack it.

So is this called a snowboard bag did you get this from a snowboard company specifically designed for that this is a snowboarding bag?

I always just use an IKEA plastic bag. But you can do better so that’s our riding bag again you don’t need a riding bag you can go the young Christian way and get the big IKEA bag.

But just one central place to keep all your stuff together yeah I’m gonna upgrade this here so let’s get rid of the bag and let’s bring in another piece of gear.

So, here we are base layers right this is where it all starts what I really like is the air blaster ninja suit. This is a one-piece zip-up run the whole way down with a 359-degree zipper that goes almost the whole way around.

So you can get in and out of it easily. I’ll show you real quick here the whole way in case you gotta go to the bathroom you got that covered and really what this does for me is it

builds the foundation of my whole kit.

So, one piece with the little cufflinks you do have the optional hood, and then it zips up nice and high with some softer material around your neck. This is your base layer. You don’t need to do a ninja suit but this is definitely my preferred base layer these come in different varying degrees of how warm they can be.

They go all the way up to Merino wool which is going to be a little bit warmer. I just take the basic acrylic and it works just fine for me and I’ll pretty much wear this every single day I snowboard.

The proper base layer is so key we’ll see people out there snowboarding in khakis or wearing jeans on the mountain or they have cotton base layers and as soon as they get wet they’re pretty much done for the day or they’re stuck up on the mountain and their clothes are freezing and they’re getting hypothermia.

I cannot stress the importance enough of the base layer.  This is where it all starts. this is going to give you your foundation so, this is actually going to wick away sweat.

It’s not going to freeze if you because a lot of times snoring you’re gonna get sweaty when you’re running hard and then as soon as you’re back in the lift it’s cold again.

So you have this sweat freeze pattern going on. You have to make sure you have something that can combat that powder absolutely and that’s your base layer.

Socks

Everybody has them does everybody have skiing or snowboarding-specific socks and what makes that a skiing or snowboarding-specific sock?

What makes it a snowboarding sock is really the material that they put into it and then the stitch work as well. If you see on the toe where you want to go pro. This shot closes up what we have here a seamless toe box.

There’s no seam that’s going to be adding any bunching.  You can see built-up padding underfoot.  So a little bit more support to wrap your arch, more padding in the heel, and then a little bit of elastic at the top just to keep everything tight.

At the top of the sock, you don’t want the sagging down and dropping so this is a snowboard-specific sock that I would highly recommend.

There are a couple of things I want to get to but one is I see people have boots that are too big for them maybe they borrowed them from a friend or the hand-me-downs and they think I’m just going to put on three pairs of socks to make this boot fit.

Is there anything wrong with that or is it a good or bad idea? You’re not going to want to do that if you are wearing multiple pairs of socks what that does is as your body sweats it kind of builds a layer of condensation between the socks which is then more likely to get colder. Then you’re

actually kind of trapping a cold layer around your foot.

So don’t wear multiple pairs of socks you want to get the right size fitting boot and wear a ski or snowboard-specific sock. Then do we have depending on how cold it is done we have different thicknesses or temperature-rated socks absolutely?

if you are looking for a more you know really cool day sock you can look into that thicker material merino wool. Again you’re never wanting to really double up on a sock maybe just getting a thicker sock to begin with becomes a very common mistake.

So I’ll talk about that it’s gonna make your feet colder they’re just gonna freeze up and you’re gonna have a miserable time.

Get the right socks and you’re gonna be a happy snowboarder. The pro tip here for you is gonna be to get two pairs of snowboard socks.

You know think about if you’re going up to the mountains you gotta make a trek up there and you want to crash on a buddy’s couch if you have one pair of socks and it’s sticking up the place that’s going to be your only trip to that buddy’s place.

So get two pairs of socks I recommend a more thin pair and then a thicker pair for the colder days and this also doubles as you’re breaking in boots you can start in a thinner sock as that boot breaks in and then move to a thicker sock.

Let’s go ahead and jump to the next item here we’re talking about the bibs. Now you don’t need to rock a bib I really like it because I don’t get snow down my pants but this is going to be basically for the lower half of your body.

If you want a good waterproof material I recommend at least 10k we can go into waterproofing ratings later I’ll explain all those but 10k and up for anything here in the Rockies depending on where you’re at. If you’re in the northwest and get that wet heavy snow and rain you’re going to want to go with maybe a gore-tex material but for the dry snow of Colorado, I get by with my 15k bibs.

So that’s gonna be the waterproof rating you can see it on the tag when you’re buying your snow pants.

It’s really up to you I don’t bend them on style for a while and now they’re back in.

As you’re out there looking for your new pair of snow pants,  a couple of things you want to consider.

The waterproof rating obviously see how they fit you don’t want some well depending on your style you could go bagging but you want something that fits you comfortably.

You know do a couple of those snowboard movements in them and make sure you’re not tearing out the crutch or anything.

And make sure those pants can flex so if you look at the waterproof rating make sure it’s comfortable and the fit is right.

Then you can check out some of the extra features you know these pants come kind of loaded with stuff be it all the extra pockets that you have. The ventilation on these, vent shock

on the side that way if you’re overheating you can just undo these on the chair and you can breathe for the pockets.

I prefer a sealed pocket so you’re not going to trash anything in there you can see it’s a nice waterproof pocket and then all the way down to the bib guards.

These have some cool stuff if you’re a fan of the boa you’ve got the glory hole. Here you can open that up and just turn your dial without having to take your cuff up off your pants.

So that’s a really cool added feature that a lot of companies have but not everybody.

We got the pants to let’s get the next one

So as you can see I’ve got my jacket on here. This is my anorak pullover.  I really like this jacket. It’s got a half zip great waterproof rating. Velcro on the cuffs to adjust that cufflink to tighten up

So if you want to get that nice and snug over your glove you can see the Velcro just coming in nice and tight again with ventilation. This one has a little bit of a different style just on one side. Coming the whole way down really pretty nice to let it air out and breathe while you’re overheating.

Big kangaroo pocket across the top. Again zippers are very clutch when you’re out there riding Velcro is great.

I trust zippers a little bit more for actually keeping stuff in the kangaroo extends across the middle and I can use that as a little storage pocket as well.

I prefer to have a jacket with a hood for those really brutal chair rides when you’re just freezing you can pull this up cinch tight and pretty much get into your bubble.

This is a nice way to really stay dry and warm and dry on cheerleading.

All right we got the base layer, we got socks, we got the pants and jackets. it’s time for some accessories.

I always like to ride with a face mask you know something you can kind of pull up and down. kind of cut off some of that bite from the wind really protects your nose and those really kind of sensitive areas that can get frostbitten without you noticing.

So a face mask is a good one.  I go a little bit extra and rock this hood right here it just makes me feel secure.

This isn’t for everybody but it is nice because it can kind of stretch over a helmet and give you that warmth locked. In that sense, a beanie I like to pat more orange one of my favorites from Hal there and then some mittens too mittens gloves whatever your preference.

I think mittens are great because you know fingers need friends again shout out royal white but

when you have the mitten there it’s going to keep your fingers together and they’re going to generate the heat for each other versus a glove where every finger is kind of on its own mittens for me.

And then of course the goggles I’ve got the Dragon dx3 right here this is an awesome goggle. It is over-the-glass compatible. It’s got great peripherals and it doesn’t break the bank here with its

lexicon lines here we are all completely ready to ride.

Layering is key but as you can see I don’t really have any skin exposed to me that’s kind of like a personal preference but the sun and elements can be pretty damaging.

So make sure you have this ability to get fully geared out and fully covered. I mean it’s gonna make your day so much more fun.

If it’s cold out there and you don’t have anything exposed you just be nice and cozy in all your gear.

I think that’s all we got but hold. Oh God helmet.

Because none of us want to relearn to read or walk or anything like that. Increase your chances of not doing significant brain damage to yourself and rock a helmet something like 70 or 80

percent of skiers with snowboarders wear helmets.

So it used to be uncommon or maybe even a little taboo. But now it’s become taboo not to wear one and so I know it can be tempting to want to be cool and not wear a helmet.

But the reality is you’re not going to be happy with yourself if you smash your head. And you have to relearn to eat or to walk or to do any of those things.

So the morning is just a sport it’s a lifestyle sport it is an awesome time but let’s be safe out there

wear your helmet and you’re going to shred even harder. So this all about What to wear snowboarding.

All right peace out the shredder

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