Snowgo

Snowboard gift ideas

Here are some online shopping ideas for Christmas gifts for the snowboarder in your life. I have carefully searched the web to find the best products at the best prices and sorted them from bargain basement stocking fillers to top of the range boys' toys.

Beanies - more and more riders are wearing helmets on the slopes but in the evening it is still nice to wear a beanie.

Socks - despite the cliché of giving socks good ones are a real luxury.

Cool Tool - every self respecting rider should already have one of these but just in case...

Stomp pads/studs - Bakoda do some cool studs that would make a great stocking filler.

Books - good snowboarding books are a bit thin on the ground but Todd Richards' autobiography, P3: Pipes, Parks and Powder sounds like it might be worth reading.

Protection - protective gear can numb the pain of learning to snowboard and give novices the confidence to progress quickly. Padded shorts, knee pads and wrist guards will save a lot of bruises.

Board tuning - Not everyone can be bothered to do their own tuning but an edging tool is easy to use and will be especially appreciated on icy days, for the fully committed, wax and scrapers make good gifts, or even a travel iron from Argos!

Xscape passes/lessons - or any artificial/dry slope, find your nearest with Snowboard Club UK's directory.

Thermals - good ones are surprisingly expensive but correspondingly effective.

Magazine subscriptions - avoid the teenage tat and go for The Snowboard Journal or Frequency.

DVDs - This season's must see snowboard flicks include Pop, Afterlame and Dropstitch.

Camelbak - keeping hydrated is very important and a Camelbak makes it easy. There is nothing as refreshing as supping on ice cold water on the chair lift after an exhilarating run (also very handy by the bed side as an apres apres rehydration treatment). Be sure to get one with an insulated tube or they can freeze up on cold days.

Heli Pack - My wife gave me one of these and its about the coolest back pack around, not only can you use it to carry your board conveniently for back country hikes but if you do ever get to go heli-boarding you won't have to pay excess baggage.

Board bags - go for either the minimalist bag to protect the board while making it easy to carry, or the full on board and kit bag big enough to hold a body, just make sure you get one with wheels.

Helmet cam - for anyone who already likes to video their snowboarding this is a nifty addition to the camera bag. They are available from Viosport and RF Concepts but make sure that the camcorder you intend to use it with has an AV-in socket as many cheaper ones don't.

GPS - there are a bewildering array of these to choose from but the most suitable for snowboarders is the Garmin eTrex Summit - trust me I have done the research on this one - it includes an altimeter and electronic compass.

Suunto wrist top computers - for the gadget freak either the budget Altimax or the splurge worthy S6 will provide scads of data for analysing performance with their built in altimeter and barometer.

Finally, if you don't want to spend any money what about a free gift? Give the "Gift of Blog" with Blogger and set them up with an online journal to record all their riding tales.