a good rule of thumb to follow is go by weight rather than height. also the lengthof the board will affect speed and turning abilities.at 190 5'8″ you can ride boards between 148 and 158.on the 148 side, you'll have much more control over turns andstability, yet speed might become an issue.on the 158 side, you sacrifice turning ability (not leaps and bounds,but you'll definatly reconize a difference), but you'll have more speedand floating ability for powder because of the long surface area.the width should be ok. 11.5 and up and you start talking about wideboards. at an 11 you can probably get away with riding either wideor regular, but if you choose regular stay at the high end of the numbers.there really isnt any magic formula to sizing up a board though. most boardfinders just get you into the ball park. my advice is to ride all the numbersin bet
a good rule of thumb to follow is go by weight rather than height. also the lengthof the board will affect speed and turning abilities.at 190 5'8″ you can ride boards between 148 and 158.on the 148 side, you'll have much more control over turns andstability, yet speed might become an issue.on the 158 side, you sacrifice turning ability (not leaps and bounds,but you'll definatly reconize a difference), but you'll have more speedand floating ability for powder because of the long surface area.the width should be ok. 11.5 and up and you start talking about wideboards. at an 11 you can probably get away with riding either wideor regular, but if you choose regular stay at the high end of the numbers.there really isnt any magic formula to sizing up a board though. most boardfinders just get you into the ball park. my advice is to ride all the numbersin between hard and see which responds better for you and your ride preference.i ride a forum manual 147 for the park and rails due to its flex and i ride aforum grudge 154 for riding the whole mountain minus the rails.rome makes some killer snowboards too that will probably be in your price range,as well as palmer. i learned to ride on a k2 dart from about 12 years ago hahah.play around with a few boards at your local shop. bend em, feel em, stand on em,have fun. if you find one you really like, you can usually go online and find theyear before models at a pretty big discount, and alot of times the only thing thatchanged is the graphic.hope that helps!
