Though summer is now long gone—just a tiny fading memory of campfires, chlorine, bustling barbecue socials and sandy swim trunks—winter doesn’t mean fun is dead. Winter has its own charms, such as snuggling under covers, hot cocoa, sledding, snowball fights, ice skating, hockey—there’s a whole Olympics games dedicated to winter sports. Fun abounds wherever the will exists.

One of the most popular winter activities is snowboarding. If you’ve been waiting for December to roll around so you can jet over to Switzerland, or if you plan on taking the train to Bourg for the marvellous world class grounds of Les Arcs, you’ll want to make sure you’re well equipped for the rigours of this winter sport.

Aside from the obvious boots and boards, you’ll need to invest in a quality jacket. You don’t want anything bulky like a winter jacket but you still want it to be padded enough to protect you from any crashes and mishaps. The jacket should be breathable and of course have a shell which is wind and water proof. This is so you don’t end up soggy but it also ensures that none of the moisture or sweat from your body escapes and you end up shivering every time you’re idle. GORE-TEX is imperative for comfortable snowboarding and the Axis Berghaus Jacket with its lightweight 3 layer GORE-TEX is a great jacket to go with.

Also, don’t forget to protect your eyes from the glare of the snow. For beginners it’s fine to bring along your stylish Ray-Ban, Oakley or Guess sunglasses as long as you take it easy, but for any advanced moves you should definitely get goggles. Bolle’s Shark goggles and their polycarbonate lenses are ideal or you could spring for the amazing Zeal Trancend GPS goggles the fancy GPS LCD display in the lens.

Did you know?
The first modern snowboard was invented in 1968 by engineer Sherman Poppen for his daughter.

-Jeff H.


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