Snowboarding has grown in leaps and bounds since it’s inception and with it new styles of riding have developed requiring different stances. Your choice of board, whether you ride a regular stance or goofy stance and your skill level will ultimate dictate your binding angle.
It is ultimately a personal preference. As a general rule your natural stance and the ultimate angle of your feet will just feel like your legs are in a good position. So play around with it. The best way to find your most natural stance is to try a few different angles and see what feels best to you.
What do I mean by angles? Well, your stance will typically have your dominant foot forward, towards the nose or tip of your board and your back foot towards the tail. If your bindings are both perpendicular to the board that is a zero angle. Most people will have some degree of angle. A positive angle means your foot, whether its just your front foot or both are facing towards the nose of the board. A negative angle means your foot is facing towards the back of the board.
Most commonly the angle of the front binding will have at least a slight positive angle and your back foot will either have a positive, zero or negative angle depending on your riding style and your comfort level. You don’t want to create to great of an angle because you can torque your knee and that’s not good for anyone.
Stance angle for beginner riders
When you are first beginning to learn how to snowboard, many will set their bindings up in a slight duck stance. In this stance your front angle will be positive and your rear angle will be negative.
A slightly wider stance can also be good for beginners because it makes you feel more stable on your board. This typically puts your feet just slightly wider than shoulder width.
A duck stance and slightly wider stance are a good starting point for all beginners and as you learn to use your heel side edge and your toe side edge and become more comfortable you may be able to adjust to a more aggressive stance. This involves create bigger angles, usually positive angles, to get a deeper carve.
Stances for the advanced rider
If you are a more advanced rider, your stance will mimic the style of riding you are doing and the type of board you have. Freeride boards are more forgiving because they’re more flexible and easier to maneuver in the air than say a freestyle board, which is more aggressive, more narrow and a stiffer board. A freeride board is great for terrain parks and riding switch (going from regular footed to goofy footed).
Many who enjoy riding in terrain parks will set the stance width a little wider and will choose to ride in a slight duck stance. This allows them to more easily ride switch and land jumps with either foot.
Directional boards are more for riding powder. Your stance will be set back more to allow the nose of your board to sit up higher in the snow.
Most common stances
For most riding styles you’re either going to be set back more on the board, as mentioned with directional boards, or you are going to use a slightly widened stance with either a duck stance or a positive/positive stance (both your front binding and your back binding will be angled towards the nose).
Most of the time you are not going to set your stance to be a more forward stance.
In my opinion, doing so puts you more at risk of getting your nose stuck in the snow (including your boards nose and your own). Riding with a slight forward stance with a positive angle is a more aggressive way of riding and seen in more advanced mountain riders.
Best Snowboard Bindings
If you are looking to get new bindings, you need to consider your style of riding. For the best all-mountain freeride bindings check out this roundup for 2024. I personally am not into those snap in bindings. I have seen way too many riders having trouble getting them to snap in and then if you fall they can pop off and there goes your board down the mountain.
Concluding Thoughts
Snowboard technology has really grown in leaps and bounds and one of the most important parts of your gear are your bindings. They often go overlooked because they are not as flashy as say your board or your cool matching jacket and pants, but your bindings and your stance can make or break a good ride.
So whatever your desired angle, play around with the different ways to ride and I can guarantee you will find that sweet spot that makes the most of your riding style.
Looking for the right mountain for you? Check out the top snowboard mountains in Utah or if Colorado is more your style head to world famous Vail mountain.
