The term “all-mountain” is a pretty broad one. So choosing the best all mountain snowboard for you will firstly depend on what type of all mountain rider you are.
Are you an aggressive all-mountain rider or a more playful rider?
This post will cover three types of snowboard that are sometimes just labelled all-mountain but can be quite different.
- All-mountain freestyle
- All-mountain
- Aggressive all-mountain
I looked at the specs of over 100 different all-mountain, all-mountain-freestyle and aggressive-all-mountain snowboards – this post will cover those specs and also look at what will suit your riding style best.
What aspects this post will look at?
- Flex
- Shape
- Camber Profile
- Length
- Width
- Edge-tech
- Base
What is All-Mountain?
For the purposes of this post I will define “all-mountain” so that we are clear on what I consider an all-mountain snowboard to be.
All-mountain, to me, means a snowboard that can do everything you can think of on the mountain. It won’t do certain things as well as a more specialized board will but it should be able to everything reasonably well.
So;
- it should be able to take you into the back country. It won’t do as well in the backcountry as a freeride or powder board would but it will be able to handle the task.
- It should be able to tackle any trail you throw at it from the beginner to expert and everything in between.
- It should also be able to take you into the park, be able to perform freestyle wherever you want to do freestyle riding and into the pipe – it won’t perform as well as a specialist park/freestyle board but it should be able to do the job.
A freestyle-all-mountain board will lean more towards freestyle riding and an aggressive all mountain board will lean more towards freeriding. Check this out for definitions of styles
With that in mind let’s see what specs you should look out for if you are interested in an all-mountain board.
Flex
Whilst freestyle boards usually have a softer flex and freeride boards a stiffer flex, all-mountain boards are usually somewhere in between.
All mountain
If you are really a jack of all trades and like to do a bit of everything, including freeriding and freestyle and everything in between, then you are probably going to want to get a board with a medium flex rating of a 5 or 6 out of 10.
Or if you just like to stick to the trails then an all-mountain board is probably for you too. For a more playful, casual ride then a medium-soft flex (3-4 out of 10) might be your thing.
| Flex | % |
| Stiff (9 or 10 out of 10) | 0% |
| Medium-Stiff (7 or 8 out of 10) | 16% |
| Medium (5 or 6 out of 10) | 50% |
| Medium-soft (3 or 4 out of 10) | 34% |
| Soft (1 or 2 out of 10) | 0% |
All-Mountain-Freestyle
If you lean a bit more towards freestyle riding then an all-mountain-freestyle board might be more for you. This will usually mean a medium flex if you like the pipe or medium-soft flex if you don’t go in the pipe.
| Flex | % |
| Stiff (9 or 10 out of 10) | 0% |
| Medium-Stiff (7 or 8 out of 10) | 10% |
| Medium (5 or 6 out of 10) | 73% |
| Medium-soft (3 or 4 out of 10) | 17% |
| Soft (1 or 2 out of 10) | 0% |
Aggressive-All-Mountain
If you are a more aggressive rider and like things hard and fast then an aggressive all mountain board is probably more your style. If this is the case you probably want a stiffer flexing board – a 6,7, or 8 out of 10 depending on your preference.
| Flex | % |
| Stiff (9 or 10 out of 10) | 4% |
| Medium-Stiff (7 or 8 out of 10) | 88% |
| Medium (5 or 6 out of 10) | 17% |
| Medium-soft (3 or 4 out of 10) | 0% |
| Soft (1 or 2 out of 10) | 0% |
Shape
All mountain
Generally speaking an all-mountain board will have a directional or directional twin shape (with the latter being the most common). This favours riding in one direction slightly more than the other (your dominant direction be it goofy or regular) but still allows switch riding as an option.
The percentage of the shapes of the all-mountain boards I looked at are below. As you can see all-mountin boards are seldomly true twin or tapered directional – as these favour freestyle and freeride riding respectively.
| Shape | % |
| Tapered Directional | 3% |
| Directional | 16% |
| Directional Twin | 76% |
| True Twin | 5% |
All-Mountain-Freestyle
A freestyle-all-mountain board might have a directional twin or a true twin shape so that it is more setup for riding/landing switch.
| Shape | % |
| Tapered Directional | 0% |
| Directional | 0% |
| Directional Twin | 25% |
| True Twin | 75% |
Aggressive-All-Mountain
An aggressive all mountain board is likely to have a directional shape or a directional twin shape – on occasion they might also have a tapered directional shape – but this shape is usually reserved for freeride boards.
You typically don’t want or wouldn’t find an aggressive all mountain board in a true twin shape (this is usually for freestyle or freestyle-all-mountain boards).
| Shape | % |
| Tapered Directional | 8% |
| Directional | 38% |
| Directional Twin | 54% |
| True Twin | 0% |
You can start to really see how different the range of all-mountain boards can be.
Setback
Freestylers typically like to be centred on their board. Freeriders prefer a good amount of setback (usually more than 20 millimetres (mm)). Naturally all-mountain riders like it somewhere in between.
Again aggressive riders (closer on the spectrum to freeriders) will prefer a larger setback and those that ride a bit more freestyle will prefer it more centred or closer to centred.
All-Mountain
| Setback | % |
| Centred | 0% |
| Between 5mm and 10mm | 16% |
| Between 10mm and 15mm | 32% |
| Between 15mm and 20mm | 47% |
| Greater than 20mm | 5% |
All-Mountain-Freestyle
| Setback | % |
| Centred | 98% |
| Between 5mm and 10mm | 2% |
| Between 10mm and 15mm | 0% |
| Between 15mm and 20mm | 0% |
| Greater than 20mm | 0% |
As you can see all-mountain-freestyle boards are predominantly centred to favour a more freestyle oriented rider.
Aggressive All-Mountain
| Setback | % |
| Centred | 4% |
| Between 5mm and 10mm | 13% |
| Between 10mm and 15mm | 38% |
| Between 15mm and 20mm | 42% |
| Greater than 20mm | 4% |
Camber Profile
All manner of camber profiles can be used for all-mountain riding and the same applies whether you ride all-mountain, all-mountain-freestyle or aggressive all-mountain.
To check out the percentages of each of the different camber profiles and a more detailed discussion on the different camber profiles for different styles of riding check out the link below.
Edge-tech
Generally speaking the more aggressive you will be riding the more important it is for your board to have good edge-hold. If you like things fast and steep then some good edge hold tech like Magne-traction or the likes is a good idea.
This is less important the less aggressive a rider you are.
But edge hold is also dependent on the conditions you ride in. If you often ride in hard or icy conditions then good grippy edges are more important than if you tend to ride in nice soft powder.
Base
The base of your board will depend on a few things. Probably if you are on the aggressive side then a sintered base is more necessary than for your all-mountain-freestyle rider – though a sintered base might be a good thing to have for speed in the pipe.
What base you get will also depend on the price of the board (sintered bases are more expensive than extruded bases) and how willing you are to maintain it (extruded bases require less maintenance than sintered bases).
Length
When you see any length tables or charts or calculations the number they come up with is typically for a an all-mountain rider. Freestylers tend to go with shorter boards and freeriders with longer boards.
As is usually the case, all mountain riders are somewhere in the middle. The more aggressive you are the more you are likely to lean to a longer board and the more playful you want your ride then you will likely lean towards a shorter length.
Width
Finally we come to width.
Freestyle riders prefer a wider width (better stability for landing jumps) and freeriders prefer a narrower width (better response and quicker edge to edge).
You guessed it – all-mountain riders fit somewhere in between!
This is typically the case for all the specs we have talked about because your all-mountain snowboard needs to strike a balance between everything you want to do on the mountain.
Remember with your width that you also want to make sure that it is also right for your foot size.
Over to You…
Thanks for reading. I hope this post has helped you to choose the specs you want on your next snowboard.
If you are looking for a great all-mountain board check out my top 10 list below (lists for the top 10 agreessive all-mountain boards and all-mountain-freestyle boards still in the works).
- Top 10 Men’s All Mountain Snowboards
- Top 6 Women’s All Mountain Snowboards
- Top 5 All-Mountain-Freestyle Snowboards
- Top 6 Aggressive-All-Mountain Snowboards
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