This page is going to discuss which snowboard camber types are best suited to different styles of snowboarding. If you aren’t sure about what camber means or if you’d like to learn more about camber profiles check out the link below.
This page is going to go through 4 broad styles – the styles that I have defined are:
- Freestyle/Park/Urban
- All Mountain
- Freeride; and
- Powder
Of course everyone has their own style and these are very broad definitions but it will give you a place to start. To learn more about the styles as defined on SnowboardingProfiles.com check out this post.
Freestyle
Freestyle boards typically have hybrid rocker or hybrid camber or flat to rocker profile.
But there are freestyle snowboards made in almost every camber profile you can think of so if you are used to a certain profile and you don’t want to change then there will be a board for you.
But here’s a couple of reasons why the above three profiles are the most popular
The Hybrid camber profile is the now the most common for freestyle boards – with that camber underfoot and between the bindings offering pop and stability – with the rocker tip and tail aiding in a more catch-free ride, helping with buttering and adding forgiveness on landings.
The camber section towards the tip and tail in the hybrid rocker profile is great for landing jumps (the rocker section of the board flexes initially on landing for give, and then the camber sections engage for stability). And that importantly adds pop too. The rocker between the feet helps on jibs and to give a looser feel, which a lot of freestylers like.
The flat section in the flat to rocker is also fine for jibbing assuming that the flex of the board is medium-soft or soft. And the flat section can aid in stability for landing jumps. Flat-to-rocker is typically for more jib oriented freestyle boards or for beginners in the park.
See below for the breakdown of 48 freestyle boards I looked at (model years looked at = 2016-2019):
| Number of Freestyle Boards | % of Freestyle Boards | |
| Traditional Camber | 4 | 8% |
| Continuous Rocker/Reverse Camber | 7 | 15% |
| Flat | 1 | 2% |
| Hybrid Camber | 17 | 35% |
| Hybrid Rocker | 10 | 21% |
| Flat-to-Rocker | 9 | 19% |
Old Figures
The following are figures I looked at in 2015. Comparing 49 freestyle and 22 jib/street board. So things have changed a little but not too much. The biggest mover was hybrid camber boards, with hybrid cambers now the dominant force, with 35% and previously 20% of freestyle boards. Continuous rocker boards decreased the most.
Freestyle Boards
| Continuous Rocker/Reverse Camber | 11 | 22% |
| Hybrid Rocker | 11 | 22% |
| Flat to Rocker | 9 | 18% |
| Flat | 2 | 4% |
| Hybrid Camber | 10 | 20% |
| Traditional Camber | 6 | 12% |
Urban/Jib/Street Boards
| Continuous Rocker/Reverse Camber | 4 | 20% |
| Hybrid Rocker | 0 | 0% |
| Flat to Rocker | 12 | 60% |
| Flat | 2 | 10% |
| Hybrid Camber | 1 | 5% |
| Traditional Camber | 1 | 5% |
Total Freestyle & Jib/Street Boards
| Continuous Rocker/Reverse Camber | 15 | 21% |
| Hybrid Rocker | 11 | 15% |
| Flat to Rocker | 21 | 30% |
| Flat | 4 | 6% |
| Hybrid Camber | 11 | 15% |
| Traditional Camber | 7 | 7% |
So as you can see there are boards made for freestyle riding across the range of camber profiles – with some being more popular than others.
NOTE: THIS POST IS IN THE PROCESS OF BEING UPDATED – ONLY THE FREESTYLE SECTION HAS BEEN UPDATED SO FAR
All-Mountaineers
All mountaineers like to do a bit of everything. How much of each type of riding they do will depend on the person. A majority of riders fall somewhere in this category – some leaning more towards freeriding and some more towards freestyle.
Because you need your board to be super versatile, if you want to be able to a bit of everything on one board, the camber profile needs to be versatile enough to excel everywhere on the mountain.
It comes as no surprise then that the flat profiles, traditional camber profiles & continuous rocker profiles don’t feature heavily in all mountain boards. And it also comes as no surprise that hybrid profiles dominate this type of snowboard.
In fact hybrid profiles made up 95% of the 40 boards that I looked at – so just 5% for the other 3 camber profiles combined.
All-Mountain Boards Camber Profiles
| Continuous Rocker/Reverse Camber | 1 | 3% |
| Hybrid Rocker | 15 | 38% |
| Flat to Rocker | 10 | 25% |
| Flat | 0 | 0% |
| Hybrid Camber | 13 | 33% |
| Traditional Camber | 1 | 3% |
All-Mountain Freestyle
If you are more of an All-Mountain-Freestyle rider then I also analyzed some all mountain freestyle boards. Unsurprisingly the most common camber profiles used for these boards came somewhere in between Freestyle boards and All Mountain boards.
For all mountain freestyle boards hybrid profiles made up 74% (compared with 61% of freestyle boards that use hybrid profiles and 95% of all mountain boards that use hybrid profiles) of the camber profiles used in the 53 all-mountain-freestyle boards that I looked at. The continuous rocker profile made 15% of the rest, with flat and traditional just 12% between them.
All-Mountain Freestyle Boards Camber Profiles
| Continuous Rocker/Reverse Camber | 8 | 15% |
| Hybrid Rocker | 17 | 32% |
| Flat to Rocker | 10 | 19% |
| Flat | 2 | 4% |
| Hybrid Camber | 12 | 23% |
| Traditional Camber | 4 | 8% |
Aggressive All-Mountaineer
An aggressive all mountain rider is usually someone who is in between a freerider and an all mountaineer. The table below shows the camber profile percentages for the aggressive all mountain snowboards that I analyzed.
| Continuous Rocker/Reverse Camber | 0 | 0% |
| Hybrid Rocker | 2 | 8% |
| Flat to Rocker | 0 | 0% |
| Flat | 1 | 4% |
| Hybrid Camber | 15 | 60% |
| Traditional Camber | 7 | 28% |
As you can see aggressive all mountain boards tend to favor some kind of camber in the profile. This will add to the stability at speed and the edge hold needed for aggressive riding.
More than half of all the aggressive all mountain boards I looked at had a hybrid camber profile. The rocker sections in this profile will help the aggressive all mountain rider to get float in powder.
Free-riders/Powder Fanatics
Freeride boards are pretty dominated by Hybrid Camber boards.
This isn’t too surprising. A hybrid camber profile offers freeriders rocker sections towards the tip and tail (sometimes just towards the tip) for extra float in powder. And the camber section in the centre of the board allows for greater edge control.
Since float in powder and edge-hold are both very important things for freeriders so it’s no surprise to see this camber profile dominate this category.
Freeride Boards Camber Profiles
Of the 36 freeride boards I looked at 50% of them were hybrid camber, with hybrid rocker (17%) the next most popular.
| Continuous Rocker/Reverse Camber | 2 | 6% |
| Hybrid Rocker | 6 | 17% |
| Flat to Rocker | 5 | 14% |
| Flat | 0 | 0% |
| Hybrid Camber | 18 | 50% |
| Traditional Camber | 5 | 14% |
Powder Boards Camber Profiles
The 34 powder boards I looked at followed a similar trend with Hybrid Camber being used on 47% of the boards with Flat to Rocker (32%) the next most popular.
| Continuous Rocker/Reverse Camber | 3 | 9% |
| Hybrid Rocker | 3 | 9% |
| Flat to Rocker | 11 | 32% |
| Flat | 0 | 0% |
| Hybrid Camber | 16 | 47% |
| Traditional Camber | 1 | 3% |
Over to You
As you can see there are heaps of camber options for each style of riding. In my opinion some profiles are better than others depending on the style – but some people have personal preferences for a certain camber profile no matter their style.
If you are unsure of the camber profile you should go with hopefully this page has helped you to decide.
If you are looking for the best camber profile for beginners check out this post on snowboards for beginners.
Thanks for reading. If you have any questions or comments you are very welcome to leave them in the comments section below.
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