Snowboarding is a pretty expensive sport especially if you’re having to update your kids equipment even season!
Thankfully, some snowboard manufacturers have developed certain bits of equipment that can grow with your child – boots with removable insoles so they go up a size, clothes with seams that can be let out and clothing lengthened, bindings generally will adjust, adjustable helmets, etc. All of these will help (along with looking out for sales and bargains!) obviously, snowboards themselves are a fixed size however these can often be sized with a view to two seasons usage.
Things to think about:
- How many times will your child use their kit?
- If you are traveling somewhere to ride will there be transportation costs?
- How long until they have out-grown the equipment?
- What is the availability and quality of any rental equipment?
- Will you be able to pass on (to siblings), sell on or reuse in any way?
- Can you source second hand equipment to buy?
See our Buyers Guide for more Information
Two Kids – Four Seasons?
If you have more than one child that will be using the equipment think about sizing a board & bindings for two seasons use and also boots if you can. This will obviously make things much more cost effective. If you divide the cost of the equipment into two seasons for each child then take off any potential sell on costs, it can bring the yearly price right down – if not the initial outlay. Depending on how much time your kids are spending in the snow depends on whether their outwear will pass on! (Bear in mind that gloves and pants are always the things to wear out/loose ‘waterproof-ness’ first).
Get the right kit for the best progression!
Having good equipment, especially for younger riders, can make a huge difference in their progress so if you can’t source good hire equipment then buying and selling on should be something to seriously consider. Ebay has lots of kids snowboard equipment which seem sell on well.
Outwear
Clothes wise – you can pick up good quality winter snow wear online (look out for sales at the end of the season or in the summer) or even in high street discount shops (TKMaxx etc) for reasonable prices.
If your child uses their winter gear a lot it is, obvioulsy much harder to pass on! If it is only used for a few weeks a year you will have much more success. It is also possible to hire winter outwear.
When buying outwear make sure you get snowboard specific gloves or at least gloves with whole hand waterproof coverage. Some kids ski gloves will only have a waterproof strip through the middle which works well for ski poles but not for snowboarding (or snowball making either)! Also think about getting as high a waterproof rating as possible; especially for the pants as they’ll be sitting on the snow a fair bit!
(For more info see our Clothing Section)
