Outer Shell: Jacket and Pants

We reccomend jackets and pants designed specific for snowboardin, especially as beginners will sit on the snow more often. If you do not have good jacket and pants, snow sticks and will eventually melt into the inside. To protect your body from the cold, you need to keep the warmth from your body heat inside. On the other hand, when it is hot, you need to have a ventilation system with zips to cool your body down.

< Burton Poacher Jacket • ¥23,100 > <Burton Poacher Pant • ¥ 21,000 >

Middle Layer

For the middle layer, we reccomend a fleece jacket or vest. There are so many inexpensive fleece products but they are only able to keep warmth from the body in, they don’t work well when you get too hot. Because of that when you sweat and the temperature suddenly changed, it would be too cold or too hot and your body cannot adjust well and it might cause you to catch a cold. A good fleece jacket is able to keep warmth in when it is cold, to let the heat go when it is hot and to make good body heat adjustments.

Also we recommend a thin down jackt for colder weathers such as snowstorm.

< patagonia Men’s R2 Jacket • ¥21,000 >

Base Layer

For the base layer, you might think cotton is good since it touches your skin but as climbers say “Cotton Kills”, cotton prducts are avoided in the winter sports world. Cotton is soft and comfortable but when you sweat the fabric keeps moisture in and if the temperature drops the moisture will cool your body down. Base Layers made out of polyester or wool is good at keeping you dray and warm and they make it easier to adjust your temperature. Base layers are not only soft and comfortable like cotton, they are also have a antibacterial and deodorization effect.

For bottoms, we recommend to wear compression tights such as CW-X or SKINS. Not only to avoid the cold but also to avoid injury and recovering from soreness.

Also, don’t forget about underwear and socks. Sometimes inexpensive polyester underwear keeps too much moisture in and could make you cold. Also cotton socks don’t make a good fitting with boots. We recommend wool socks which are long enough to cover up to below knees instead of  ankle socks as they give you some deodorization and good fit in the snowboard boots.[/en]

< patagonia Men’s Capilene® 3 Midweight Zip-Neck • ￥7,035 > < Men’s Capilene® 3 Midweight Bottoms • ￥6,090 >

Accessary

For googles, we recommend ones with double lenses to give you a clear view in all conditions. There are so many different styles and fits for goggles so you should go and try them at your local shop and find best fit ones to fit your face and nose. If you could have a pair for cloudy weather and the other pair for sunny wether, it would be best.

< Smith Optics STANCE • ¥15,750 >

For gloves, try and find best fit for you since the everyone has a little different sized hands. If you could have two pairs, it would be good for when one pair gets wet and by rotating two pairs they will both last longer.

< Burton Pyro Glove • ¥7,350 >

For beanies, it doesn’t  have to be special one for snowboarding, we just recommend acrylic or fleece. A wool beanie will get fuzzy when you try to take snow off and could collect a lot of snow. Find a good one that you look good in so you can show your cool style on the slopes.
< patagonia Lined Beanie • ¥5,250 >

Protection

All NORTHSTAR staff are required to wear helmets. You need to have some good protection when you fall with a snowboard, you might fall backward and hit your head. Other than helmets, we recommend to have wrist guards and a spin protector, especially when you hit the snowboard park.

We have helmets and writ guard rentals available at NORTHSTAR.

< Smith Optics Holt Park • ¥12,600 >