Snowboarding Clothing Guide

Headgear

Personally, I feel that headgear is one of the most important parts of clothing you need when going snowboarding. Like all other parts of the body, it is wise to layer up when wearing headgear. If it is a cold day on the mountains or it is snowing, you should wear a face mask to keep your ears and cheeks warm. If you don’t have a face mask, sometimes wearing a beanie can help more by keeping your ears warm. Then after the inner layer, you wear the helmet. The helmet shouldn’t be a bicycle helmet, but should actually be a snowboarding helmet. This is because snowboarding helmets also keep your ears warm and are thicker than bicycle helmets. After that, you need to wear goggles, because the snow can be bright due to light being reflected off of the surface. Sometimes people decide not to wear a helmet or a goggle, but that is a bad idea. We have had people in this troop break their helmets from falls or sunburn their eyes by not wearing goggles.

Upper Body

The clothing for the upper body depends on the weather during the day. You can choose to wear 2, 3 or 4 layers of clothing. Even though I usually wear 3 layers of clothing, I will give an example of 4 layers of clothing. On the very inside, I wear a normal t-shirt just to be comfortable. After the t-shirt, I wear a long sleeve shirt, preferably with a material that dries fast because your clothes could get wet. On the mountains, if your clothes don’t get dry fast, the wind will make it cold, which is a bad idea. My third layer of clothing would be a small jacket. This layer is usually not needed unless it is very cold that day, due to either snowfall or wind. Finally, I wear a snowboarding jacket on the outside. The snowboarding jacket is good for the outside, because it is somewhat waterproof, thick and has lots of pockets. The snowboarding jacket usually provides most of the warmth unless snow has leaked into your inner layers. Overall, your upper body clothing should consist of a t-shirt, long-sleeve shirt and a jacket.

Gloves

For gloves, normal snowboarding gloves work. Mittens can also work but the downside is that there is less movement with your hands because the fingers are pushed together. The snowboarding gloves are warm on the inside and can be tightened so no snow can go in, even when you fall. If it is really cold, you could also buy an inner layer glove so your hand has two layers to keep warm. Also the inner layer glove is good because you can take off the outer layer glove to use your phone or fix your clothes without being cold.

Lower Body

For my lower body, I usually wear 3 layers of clothing. I start off with a pair of normal underwear on the very inside. Then I wear long underwear to keep my legs warm because snow pants don’t always keep all the cold out. Finally, the outer layer is the snow pants, which is somewhat waterproof and thick.

Socks

For socks, you can buy special socks to wear like backpacking socks so your feet can stay warmer. However, personally, I just wear normal socks that I wear every day. My feet are usually not cold even if I fall. This is because you can wear your boots and pants so that the pants cover the openings of your boots. This helps prevent snow from going into your boots during snowboarding. This is why normal socks can be worn when snowboarding. If you want to stay warmer, you can buy a pair of wool socks and wear a thinner layer inside, just like the socks for backpacking.

Shoes

The shoes for snowboarding are pretty self-explanatory. All you need to do is to buy/rent snowboarding boots. The size should match your normal shoe size, but always try them out before getting them. If the shoe is too tight, it’ll hurt your feet and cause low blood circulation. If it is too loose, it might be dangerous when snowboarding because it could come out of the shoe. The best thing about snowboarding boots is that it is easy to walk in and to use because they are basically big boots.

Snowboard

The snowboard is the key thing to all the equipment because without it, you can’t go snowboarding. The snowboard should be between your nose and your chin, but the best height is when it is at your nose. Always try on your snowboard with your boots to make sure that everything fits and works. After that you should be able to go snowboarding.