Hello and welcome to my list of the best snowboards for women for the 2015/16 season.
Because snowboards are designed to do different things (freestyle riding, all mountain etc) this post will be broken up into 5 different categories and the top board from each category will be selected.
The 5 categories are:
- Top Beginner Snowboard
- Top All Mountain Snowboard
- Top Freestyle-All-Mountain Snowboard
- Top Freestyle Snowboard
- Top Freeride Snowboard
O.k. let’s get started!
#1 Women’s Beginner Snowboard
Board: Rossignol Myth
Price: $299
SnowboardingProfiles’s Rating: 99/100
The best beginner board for 2015/16 goes to the Rossignol Myth!
It was a tough battle in the top 5 women’s beginner snowboards but the Myth was the standout beginner deck.
The Myth is pretty much the perfect board for beginners and has the ideal specs for beginners, including:
- A soft-medium flex which is forgiving and easy to manoeuvre but still provides decent edge-hold
- A hybrid camber profile which provides stability underfoot and rocker sections towards the tip and tail for a catch-free ride
- A true twin shape
- A centered stance
- An extruded base
- A great price-tag.
Checkout the score breakdown for the Myth below.
For more details check out the link above or my list of the top 5 beginner snowboards for women
#1 Women’s All Mountain Snowboard
Board: Rossignol Diva
Price: $499
SnowboardingProfiles’s Rating: 90/100
And the top all mountain board for women for the 2015/16 season is the Rossignol Diva.
The Diva is a great carver, has a good bit of speed under it and is super awesome if you tend to ride in hard snow or icy conditions. Its magnetraction tech really helps the edges of this board grip tight in those harder conditions and the sintered base gives it that great speed.
But it still also performs well in the powder – this is in part due to a setback stance of 12.5mm and a hybrid camber profile – with camber underfoot for stability and increased edge-hold and rocker towards the tip and tail for float in powder and a catch-free ride.
This board wouldn’t be out of place in the backcountry or on the groomers – but at the same time it can also carry you through some freestyle riding too.
So it really fits the definition of all mountain riding. This board can take you anywhere you want to go on the mountain.
See how this board beat the competition in my list of the top 5 women’s all-mountain snowboards or check out my full review of the Diva
The Rossi Diva Score Breakdown
Smart Rating Score Breakdown
| FACTOR | RATING (OUT OF 5) | CONTRIBUTION TO FINAL SCORE |
|---|---|---|
| Powder: | 3.5 | 10.5/15 |
| Carving: | 4.5 | 13.5/15 |
| Speed: | 4.0 | 12/15 |
| Uneven Terrain: | 3.0 | 9/15 |
| Switch: | 3.5 | 7/10 |
| Jumps: | 3.0 | 6/10 |
| Jibbing: | 2.0 | 4/10 |
| Pipe: | 5.0 | 10/10 |
| TOTAL after normalizing | 86.7/100 |
#1 Women’s Freestyle-All-Mountain Snowboard
Board: Never Summer Onyx
Price: $459
SnowboardingProfiles’s Rating: 91.8/100
My number 1 pick for the freestyle-all-mountain board for 2015/16 is the Never Summer Onyx.
Like a good freestyle-all-mountain board should, the Onyx can tackle pretty much all of the mountain but it wants to ride freestyle wherever it goes. If it sees a park or a pipe it’s drawn toward it.
But it likes to take the lift to the top and explore all the terrain that’s on offer and see what natural hits it can find too.
The Onyx’s strongest points are its pipe riding abilities, its jumps and riding switch. But it shows no particularly weak areas and can handle the jibs too.
And that’ no surprise given its true twin shape and centred stance – ideal for riding switch.
It possesses a medium-soft flex – a nice balance between a playful feeling board but one that still maintains some decent edge-hold.
Not to mention its hybrid rocker camber profile – well suited to freestyle all mountain riding in my opinion. This profile is particularly good for landing jumps with rocker underfoot for a bit of give on the initial point of landing and then camber towards the tip and tail engages for grip to gain control as the board flexes down.
That’s all very well, but to be a good freestyle-all-mountain board it also needs characteristics that will allow it to ride the whole mountain well. And the Onyx doesn’t disappoint there either.
If you need to take this board into the powder, bomb down the hill and carve it up then it won’t disappoint. And whilst it’s not the fastest board on the planet it’s certainly not a snail either.
For more on the Onyx check out the links above.
The NS Onyx Score Breakdown
Smart Rating Score Breakdown
| FACTOR | RATING (OUT OF 5) | CONTRIBUTION TO FINAL SCORE |
|---|---|---|
| Switch: | 4.5 | 18/20 |
| Jumps: | 4.5 | 18/20 |
| Jibbing: | 3.5 | 7/10 |
| Carving: | 3.0 | 6/10 |
| Powder: | 3.0 | 6/10 |
| Speed: | 3.0 | 6/10 |
| Uneven Terrain: | 4.0 | 8/10 |
| Pipe: | 4.5 | 9/10 |
| TOTAL after normalizing | 86.7/100 |
#1 Women’s Freestyle Snowboard
Board: GNU Ladies Choice
Price: $559
SnowboardingProfiles’s Rating: 94.4/100
For those ladies that like to lap the park most of the day and only really see the rest of the mountain as a nice backdrop, and maybe to occasionally ride the groomer with friends to mix it up, the GNU Ladies Choice should definitely be on your radar.
The Ladie’s Choice destroyed the competition. Of 19 women’s freestyle snowboards I rated the average score was 81.7, and the next best to the Ladies Choice’s score of 94.4 was 87.2.
And it just so happens that the men’s version of the Ladies Choice – the GNU Rider’s Choice was my number 2 pick for men’s freestyle boards for 2015. GNU must be doing something right with their freestyle tech!
The Ladies choice has a stiffer flex than you would typically expect out of a freestyle board – a medium flex. But it still behaves like a freestyle board but has the bonus of greater edge-hold and better ability in landing big jumps.
And this helps the Ladies Choice being near perfect in the jumps without sacrificing too much in the jibbing stakes.
The asymmetrical twin shape that is used on the Ladie’s Choice is an intuitive design to get the right balance for heel and toe side turns and this tech assists, in addition to its centered stance, with its awesome switch riding.
As a bonus this board, due to its magnetraction tech and slightly-stiffer-than-usual-for-freestyle-boards flex, holds an edge really well and would also score really well as a freestyle-all-mountain board.
This extra edge-hold also means that it can rock it in the pipe with the best of them.
In actual fact this board would probably top the freestyle-all-mountain category too – but it would be a bit unfair to have it win both categories!
The GNU Ladies Choice Score Breakdown
Smart Rating Score Breakdown
| FACTOR | RATING (OUT OF 5) | CONTRIBUTION TO FINAL SCORE |
|---|---|---|
| Switch: | 5.0 | 25/25 |
| Jumps: | 5.0 | 25/25 |
| Jibbing: | 3.5 | 14/20 |
| Uneven Terrain: | 4.0 | 8/10 |
| Powder: | 2.5 | 2.5/5 |
| Carving: | 3.0 | 3/5 |
| Speed: | 3.0 | 3/5 |
| Pipe: | 4.0 | 4/5 |
| TOTAL after normalizing | 91.8/100 |
#1 Women’s Freeride Snowboard
Board: Jones Women’s Flagship
Price: $549
SnowboardingProfiles’s Rating: 91/100
Finally we have the #1 women’s freeride board for 2015/16, which goes to…..drum roll please….the Jones Women’s Flagship!
If you like a more aggressive board that will bomb down the slopes at speed, tear through any terrain or float over powder in the backcountry; and will take you through narrow chutes, sweeping bowls and gnarly tree runs, then this board would be a great choice for you.
Whilst there aren’t a lot of women’s freeride boards to choose from, what is there is good quality. And the Women’s Flagship had some tough competition.
The medium-stiff flex of the women’s flagship makes for a nice aggressive ride – and helps to give you the response that you need out of a freeride board.
The Women’s Flagship has some awesome speed powered by its sintered base and is great in powder, no doubt partly due to its hybrid camber profile and its 20mm setback stance. It’s also a killer carver.
Check out my top 5 women’s freeride snowboard list or check out the full review for the women’s flagship for more info.
The Jones Women’s Flagship Score Breakdown
Smart Rating Score Breakdown
| FACTOR | RATING (OUT OF 5) | CONTRIBUTION TO FINAL SCORE |
|---|---|---|
| Carving: | 4.5 | 27/30 |
| Powder: | 4.5 | 18/20 |
| Speed: | 4.5 | 18/20 |
| Uneven Terrain: | 2.5 | 7.5/15 |
| Jumps: | 2.5 | 5/10 |
| Switch: | 2.0 | 2/5 |
| TOTAL after normalizing | 86.1/100 |
Thanks for Reading
Thanks for checking out my picks for the top 5 snowboards for women for the 2015/16 season. I hope you have enjoyed reading it and, if you are on the lookout for a snowboard, I hope it has helped in your decision for which board to go for.
If you have any opinions on what you think are the best women’s snowboards in 2015/16 or any other questions or comments please feel free to leave them in the comments section below.
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