EFFECTIVE EDGE

Effective edge is the length of the edge from the widest tip point to the widest tail point, that is in contact with snow during the ride, namely when rider stands on the edge while curving.

Effective edge length is affected by the following values:

  • Tip and tail length. Snowboards with short tip and tail have bigger effective edge relatively to snowboard length. Snowboards with longer tip and tail have opposite proportion.
  • Less significant parameter that affects the value of effective edge is sidecut radius. Snowboards that have smaller sidecut radius  have longer effective edge and vise verse, snowboards with bigger sidecut radius have shorter effective edge. This parameter just slightly affect the value of effective edge length. 

CONTACT LENGTH

Contact length  is the length from the contact point of the tip zone to the contact point of the tail zone on the flat surface when snowboard is loaded with raiders weight.

Contact length is affected by the following values:

  • Snowboard camber. Snowboards with rocker form tip to tail have less contact length rather than snowboards with camber from tip to tail.
  • Contact lengths is also affected by tip and tail length. 

Note: effective length is always bigger than contact length.

How it affects on snowboard maneuverability

  1. Snowboards that have bigger difference between effective edge and contact length (i.e, effective edge length is much bigger than contact length) will be more forgiving and maneuverable, but less responsive and stable. And snowboards with less difference will be more prehensile and less maneuverable. Of course, such parameters as sidecut radius, camber type, and snowboard shape  also affect these feelings.
  2. Bigger effective edge will contribute bigger stability and sharp turns in carving. 
  3. Bigger contact length contributes stable landings form gaps and drops.
  4. Snowboard with bigger contact length seems longer than the same length snowboard with less contact length. Thus, snowboard with lower ratio of effective edge to the contact length will feel longer than snowboard of the same length with bigger ratio of effective edge to the contact length.