Buying used gear is a great way to get started in snowboarding, especially if you’re not sure if you even enjoy the sport. All-new boards, bindings, and boots can easily cost $1,000 or more (although you can sometimes find package deals that can save you some money). But if you live in an area with a large snowboarding community — and especially one where kids are constantly outgrowing gear — it’s often possible to find used gear that still has some life in it on craigslist or Facebook Marketplace or at local ski and board swap events. I frequently see used kits on Facebook Marketplace ranging from $150 to $250 in Wisconsin.

But the main downside of buying used gear is that you can’t return it if it doesn’t work for you. So how do you know if the gear you’re looking at is worth buying and will fit you? Here are some considerations.

Sizing: Find Boots, Bindings, and Boards that are Compatible

Snowboard Sizing

When you’re buying a snowboard, boots, and bindings, you need to make sure each component fits you and is compatible with each other. You can get really lost in the weeds with trying to figure out your precise measurements for the perfect fit, but in this guide, I’ll stick with loose guidelines that will help you find a used board that will work well enough — since you’ll have limited options anyway.

Snowboard lengths are typically recommended based on both your height and weight, although some sizing tools only consider your height. If you find that the recommended size based on your height is different from the recommended size based on your weight, choose the smaller size if you’re a beginner. Smaller boards are slightly easier to learn on.

Riders who are especially tall sometimes need to consider extra-wide boards, but if you’re under 6 feet or wear less than a size 12 in street shoes, you can usually get away with a regular-width (default) board.

Now, here’s the thing with buying boards used. Sellers often don’t realize that the size of the board is an important detail to include. Sometimes they won’t list it at all. Sometimes they’ll take a photo of a tape measure held up against the board and hope that gives you all the info you need. I tend to avoid these sellers because I can tell they don’t know anything about snowboarding, and that’s a red flag that the board might have been stored poorly. BUT if you recognize the board and it’s a good brand and it looks like it’s in good shape, this might be a great opportunity to find a bargain, because the seller doesn’t know what they’re selling. If possible, ask the seller to look for the size that’s printed somewhere on the top sheet or the side wall of the board — this is more reliable than the photo of the tape measure. But if they can’t or won’t do that, the tape measure photo will still give you a sense of whether the board is close to your size.

Snowboard boots run close to street shoe sizing, but there are certainly variations between brands. REI has a more detailed guide to buying boots that might be helpful to review. You want a snug but comfortable fit. When buying used, you probably can’t be too picky, so it’s best to just look for your street shoe size. However, you should avoid committing to buying them before you’ve tried them on, if possible.

Bindings primarily come in small, medium, and large sizes, but some brands offer small/medium, medium/large, and large/extra-large. Check the manufacturer's website for a size chart for the brand you’ve found to make sure that size will fit your boots.

I’ve made the mistake of assuming that bindings would fit me if the board fit me since I have an average shoe size. But that’s not always the case, and I ended up with bindings that were too big for me. (Luckily, in that case, the seller gave them to me for free with the board.)

One more thing you have to consider with bindings is whether the mounting pattern is compatible with your board. Newer Burton boards all use the channel system for mounting bindings, whereas most of the other brands nowadays use the 2x4 mounting pattern. Older boards may have some other weird styles. If the board you’re buying isn’t a 2x4, you may need to get a universal binding adapter to make it work with your bindings. Ideally, you want bindings and boards that were designed for each other in the first place.

Condition

When you’re looking for a used snowboard, you will often find boards that haven’t been ridden on at all, or only once or twice. These are usually in excellent condition, without any damage to the top sheet or base. However, you want to make sure that they weren’t stored improperly (like in a damp basement or outdoor shed or attic where they were exposed to extreme temperatures and moisture). The signs of improper storage would be pretty noticeable in the form of warped and swollen sections, the top sheet pulling apart from the base, or super rusty edges. Luckily, I’ve never seen a board like that for sale. Most sellers aren’t trying to swindle you by selling you a damaged board.

If the board has actually been ridden, it will probably have some small dings on the top sheet. These are just cosmetic and mostly don’t affect the board’s performance, and aren’t even worth trying to repair (unless a large flap of the top sheet is peeling up, then you definitely need to get that repaired).

The dings on this top sheet are just cosmetic and don’t need to be fixed.

As a point of reference, my Jones Mountain Twin board suffered its first top sheet nicks on the first day I rode it. It was devastating, but like the first scratch on a new car, I got over it pretty quickly.

Another common type of damage is scratches or gouges in the base. These come from riding in the trees and passing over sticks (or rocks) and from riding in the park and sliding over boxes and rails. Little scratches that are just big enough to catch your fingernail but not wider or deeper than a millimeter are fine — you don’t even need to repair those. If you’ve got gouges that are wide and deep enough to make your base feel bumpy, you’ll want to repair those. If the gouge isn’t discolored, then it probably isn’t a core shot. If it’s not a core shot, you can repair this at home with a P-tex candle. If it’s a core shot, meaning you can see through the P-tex layer into the next layer of the board, you’ll want to take the board to a snowboard shop.

These gouges are large enough to merit repairing, but small enough to repair at home with a P-tex candle because they don’t go through to the next layer.

If you’re buying a board and it has gouges like these, that wouldn’t be a reason not to buy it, but it might be a reason to negotiate for a lower price.

It’s also totally normal for snowboards to get little spots of rust on the edges. A regular part of snowboard maintenance is removing rust from your edges, which can form overnight in between riding days during a trip if you don’t completely dry off your board. But if the edge is totally rusted out like a 25-year-old car from the Upper Midwest, that’s gonna be a problem.

Age

Snowboards can last for decades if they’re stored properly. However, snowboard technology has advanced significantly since the sport first became popular, so older boards may not benefit from the new construction methods and camber profiles. For example, rocker technology didn’t become popular until the early 2000s, so boards older than that will all have traditional camber.

Pro Tip: If you buy a super retro board, you may get compliments on the mountain from old school riders!

Snowboard bindings, on the other hand, don’t tend to last for decades. Bindings that are older than 5 years may not last very long before pieces start to break. You may be able to limp along and replace individual parts (like ratchets and straps) for a while, but ideally, aim for bindings that are less than five years old. Boots can last for a while — my wife got back into snowboarding at age 27 and rode three seasons in the boots she got at age 13 (but she’d only used them a few times as a kid). But if they were heavily used, they may only have half of a season of life in them. Still, that might be all you need to figure out if you like the sport.

Brand

It’s possible to learn to ride and have a blast on a snowboard from any brand. However, there’s a general consensus among riders about which brands are good brands, and which ones are lower quality and not likely to hold up as long. The following categorization of brands is really just meant to help you know whether you’re getting a good deal on a used market.

I learned to ride on a 20-year-old used Lamar, and I fell in love with the sport. But when I upgraded to a modern Jones board, my riding skills and enjoyment took off even more.

The author riding a 20-year-old Lamar snowboard. — That’s me riding my 20-something year-old Lamar snowboard at Lutsen Mountains Ski Resort, having a blast (although I had to replace the bindings in the first year, and the boots in the second year).

Highest-End Brands (Some Think They’re Overpriced)

Lib Tech
Burton
Capita
Gnu

Great Brands, Not as Expensive

K2
Arbor
Rome
RIDE
Rossignol
Forum
Bataleon
Salomon
Weston
Nitro
Nidecker
Never Summer
YES.
Palmer
Roxy

Lower End Brands

Lamar
Sims
Morrow
LTD
Liquid
Avalanche
5150
Firefly

Camber Profile

As I mentioned earlier, older boards tend to be traditional camber only, because that was the only technology available.

If the board was manufactured after 2010, its profile might be rocker, camber, or flat, or a combination of all of the above.

Rocker and flat profiles are beginner-friendly and can be better for riding rails and boxes in the park or doing ground tricks. Rocker profiles are easier to learn on because they’re more forgiving — you don’t have to lean as far or as hard into a turn to get the board to go where you want it to go. However, they tend to be slightly worse when riding at high speeds, and I’m talking 30 mph and above. This is the kind of speed you’ll reach if you point the nose straight down a Black Diamond run in the Midwest or a blue run on a big mountain resort. If you don’t think you’ll be doing that anytime soon, you probably don’t need to worry about the speed limitations of a rocker board.

Camber boards perform better at speed and hold an edge better in icy conditions. They can also be better at landing big jumps. Again, if you’re a beginner, you won’t be taking any large jumps (not on purpose, anyway). Camber boards are a little more likely to catch an edge when you start to turn if you don’t shift your body position properly, which is why they’re a little harder to learn on.

Get Out and Ride!

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all of the specs and stats related to snowboarding when you’re trying to buy your first set of gear (or second or third). The most important thing is to find gear that won’t fall apart immediately and that generally fits you and your riding style. If those conditions are met, go for it!

How to Buy a Used Snowboard