Research has indicated that the flex pattern and camber of a snowboard are crucial to its overall "feel" and response. These features are the primary cause of Variation in snowboard performance for different riding styles. Consequently, this article deals with the identification of stiffness and camber characteristics for both freestyle and freeride boards, and their statistical correlation to a comprehensive list of qualitative "feel" based performance requirements. It has been determined that the test boards spanning the major styles all possessed similar bending and torsional profiles. Neglecting the assumed effect of the binding inserts, all of the profiles were highly representative of each snowboard's respective thickness distribution. This leads to a conclusion that the thickness of a snowboard at any location along its chord will govern its resulting stiffness characteristics. The stability, edge grip and accuracy of any snowboard all appear to be highly positive linearly dependent on both the body bending and torsional stiffness. The camber on the other band showed a particularly strong l Analysis of Snowboard Stiffness and Camber Properties for Different Riding Styles (P65) inear positive correlation to a snowboard's manoeuvrability. Despite it being polar opposite by definition to the stability, the manoeuvrability also showed good positive linear correlation to the stiffness, implying that these subjective parameters are not mutually exclusive. However it appears that relatively soft boards with high camber are considered the most lively, although the mass of the rider will greatly affect how the stiffness of the board is perceived in terms of overall liveliness.
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