What is a snowboard setback stance? And what’s the best position for you?
The answer to this question depends mostly on the snowboard you have and the style of snowboarding you want to do.
What is a setback stance?
Snowboards are designed to have the rider’s feet either centered on the snowboard (lengthways) or setback.
Setback basically means that your back binding will be set up closer to the tail (back) of your snowboard than your front binding is from the nose (front). Your front binding will be closer the centre of your snowboard (the waist) than your back binding.
See the examples of centered and setback stances below.
Centered
Setback
There are varying degrees of setback that can range from as little as 5mm to as much as 70mm or even more in some cases.
So how do you know what stance is best for you?
The Best Setback Stance for You
The setback stance you go with will depend on a few main things:
- How the snowboard was designed
- Your Style of Snowboarding
- What feels the best for You
How the Snowboard Was Designed
Snowboards are usually designed with a particular setback stance in mind. And often this means that the camber profile is set in a certain way, the shape is a certain way etc.
All snowboards have the setback stance published so you know what setback you should be riding on that board.
For me this is the most important one. The board is designed to have a certain setback and if you ride with a different setback then it could feel odd or not perform the way it should.
You can try a different setback but if it feels weird or you don’t get the same out of the board then you might need to change boards if you want to change your setback stance.
The Style of Snowboarding You do
If you don’t yet have a snowboard or you are thinking of getting a new one then this becomes the most important consideration.
Freestyle
If you like to ride freestyle then you are going to want to have a centered stance.
A centered stance allows you to ride switch more comfortably, perform tricks more easily and have a better feel on rails and other obstacles.
Below are the stats for over 60 freestyle and jib boards that I researched. As you can see every single one of them had a centered stance!
| Setback | % |
| Centred | 100% |
| Between 5mm and 10mm | 0% |
| Between 10mm and 15mm | 0% |
| Between 15mm and 20mm | 0% |
| Greater than 20mm | 0% |
Related: How to Choose the Best Freestyle Snowboard for You
All-Mountain-Freestyle
Naturally all-mountain-freestyle snowboards tend to have some characteristics of freestyle snowboards and some of all-mountain boards. When it comes to setback they take from the freestyle snowboard. A large majority have a centered stance.
And this makes a lot of sense. If you are riding freestyle anywhere on the mountain you still want a centered stance for riding switch, and doing tricks off natural hits.
Below are the setbacks of all of the all-mountain-freestyle boards I researched. Again the centered stance is the most preferred.
| Setback | % |
| Centred | 98% |
| Between 5mm and 10mm | 2% |
| Between 10mm and 15mm | 0% |
| Between 15mm and 20mm | 0% |
| Greater than 20mm | 0% |
All-Mountain
The all-mountain rider needs to be able to do a bit of everything. In order to be able to do a bit of everything their snowboard needs to strike a balance.
In terms of setback stance there is usually some amount of setback but there usually isn’t that much.
The reason for this is that you don’t want too much setback because you still want to be able to ride switch o.k. and might still want to do some freestyle riding but you also need the benefits of a setback stance.
The benefit of having a setback stance is that it helps to keep the nose out of your snowboard up – so if you’re in deep snow you don’t have to think too much about keeping the nose of your board above the snow.
Naturally the all-mountain snowboard tries to strike a balance, so the setback is almost never centered but is also seldom more than 20mm (3/4”) setback.
| Setback | % |
| Centred | 0% |
| Between 5mm and 10mm | 16% |
| Between 10mm and 15mm | 32% |
| Between 15mm and 20mm | 47% |
| Greater than 20mm | 5% |
Related: How to Choose the Best All-Mountain Snowboard for You
Freeride
Freeride snowboards don’t typically need the benefits of riding switch or the ease of doing tricks, hitting rails etc.
But they do need to be good at floating in powder.
Freeriders often venture into the backcountry in search of powder and you don’t want to be physically working hard to keep your nose afloat. A decent setback stance makes it more effortless to keep your nose afloat so that you can concentrate on the best lines to take.
So freeride snowboards usually have a setback stance of at least 20mm (3/4”) and sometimes as much as 65mm (2.5 inches).
| Setback | % |
| Centred | 0% |
| Between 5mm and 10mm | 0% |
| Between 10mm and 15mm | 8% |
| Between 15mm and 20mm | 31% |
| Greater than 20mm | 62% |
Related: How to Choose the Best Freeride Snowboard for You
Over to You
Thanks for reading and I hope this has helped you to find the right snowboard setback stance for you.
If you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave them in the comments section below.
Related: Choosing the Best Snowboard Stance Setup (angles, width, setback, high-back lean)
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