Buying snowboard gear - abroad or here?

ilford

Hi Folks

Just wondering if anyone can give some advice on where would be best to buy bindings and a board, finding the gear in the Great Outdoors very pricey and can not find many reviews of the gear on snowboard Ireland in bray.

Of to St Anton in Austria in FEB so was thinking maybe wait and get the gear there.

Anybody

gee-em

St. Anton is wouldn't be the cheapest place to pick up gear either i'm afraid, there are quite a few decent shops though so trying board/bindings on a couple of runs shouldn't be a problem.

If you know what gear you want already, including sizes, then getting it online is generally cheaper, however it's hard to beat the reassurance of buying in a real shop where you can try the good on for sizes and easily return any faulty kit.
When choosing my board i read loads of reviews/boards/blogs however when riding it it just didn't feel right and was too short, i would have benefited hugely from testing it from a shop in a resort first.

Best of luck on the hol, St. Anton is an awesome spot, especially for pow!

ilford

Thanks a lot gee-em, thats helpful did not know that shops would let you test out models of boards and bindings.

All I've worked out so far is that I want a General all round freeride board.

gee-em

Just dug through my old emails, i spoke with this crowd via email and on the phone before i arrived in St Anton to arrange test rides on a couple of boards. I ended up buying my board before heading over so didn't avail of it in the end, might be of some use to you though.
They generally charge rental for the board you want to test and you have it for the day, if you end up buying a board they knock the rental cost off the price.

s'No Control
> Dorfstrasse 23
> 6580 St. Anton am Arlberg
> Ph: +43 5446 3400-30
> snocontrol@sport-alber.com

ilford

Thats really helpful gee-em really appreciate that will look them up.:)

ilford

Just wondering has anyone bought any gear for here

http://www.irishsnowboards.com