Swing Weight Puts a Spin on Things
Oct 27 '00
Swing Weight is a term, which refers to the weight of a snowboard when the rider tries to spin it around.
Snowboards that have been constructed with a more Twin shape (snowboards where the nose is built and shaped the same as the tail) have a small swing weight due to the evenly distributed weight of the board. Boards where the nose is longer than the tail have a larger swing weight since more effort is needed to bring the nose around in a spin. The snowboard industry has been leaning away from Twin shaped construction in the past few years. Directional boards are now more common in the park and pipe where swing weight is a factor.
The rider can also alter swing weight. A larger set stance decreases swing weight, while having the bindings closer together increases swing weight. Moving the center of the rider’s stance forward towards the nose or back towards the tail affects swing weight as well.
Novice riders need not pay any attention to a board’s swing weight since they will probably not be launching themselves up the side of a halfpipe attempting to spin their board around 360 degrees. The freerider also need not pay any attention to swing weight since they won’t be doing any spins while carving down the mountain.
For the hardened freestyler, swing weight might make a difference when trying to bring that 720 all the way around. When narrowing down your board choices, choose the one with a smaller swing weight to help land your spin tricks and save you some energy at the same time.
For the rest, swing weight is a tiny technicality of snowboarding that isn’t often noticed. I personally don’t really worry about it.
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