The Masthead · Est. November 2014
The 14 riders who file every word from the lift line.
Nine of us carry avalanche certs. One is AASI-certified. Every review you read here was written by someone with snow still melting in the cuffs of their jacket — usually within twenty-four hours of the last run.
A Letter From The Founders
Why we don't write about skiers.
In the autumn of 2014, we looked at the snowsports publishing landscape and decided it was full of outlets trying to be everything to everyone. Resorts, skis, snowboards, cross-country, sled dogs — all the same five-star rating boxes, all the same SEO-shaped paragraphs about nothing in particular. We had just spent the previous winter chasing refilled tree runs in Honshu and riding lift-served lines in the Tetons, and we kept coming home to read reviews of gear we had just been loaned by brands, written by people who had clearly never strapped in.
So we started Snowboarder with two stubborn rules. One: every board, boot, and binding review is tested by a rider, on a board, for at least twenty-five riding days before we score it. Two: we cover snowboarding, and only snowboarding. No ski roundups. No "snow sports" umbrella. No sponsored posts dressed as service journalism. If a piece doesn't help a snowboarder decide where to ride, what to ride, or how to ride better, it doesn't run.
A decade later, that hasn't changed. We've reviewed 1,800-plus boards across 27 countries, filed 4,200-plus articles, and earned certifications from AASI, AIARE, and PSIA-AASI across the masthead. We still don't write about skiers. We never will.
Thanks for reading. See you on the lift.
Marco Villalobos
Co-founder · Ex-pro rider, 14 seasons on the World Snowboard Tour
Priya Nakamura
Co-founder · Gear editor, AASI Level 2 certified
Signed in Boulder, Colorado · First published November 12, 2014 · Updated January 2025
The Masthead
Editors, guides, and the AASI-certified instructor on staff.
Fourteen full-time editorial crew. Twenty-three combined industry certifications between us. Nine of us hold AIARE Level 1 or above. The roster below is everyone whose byline has appeared on a review, resort report, or technique piece this season.
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Editor-in-Chief & Co-Founder
Marco Villalobos
Resort reporting · Big-mountain reviews · Industry watchdog
Ex-pro rider · 14 seasons on the World Snowboard Tour · Co-founded Snowboarder November 2014
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Gear Editor & Co-Founder
Priya Nakamura
Bindings · Boots · Women's-specific gear · Sizing calculator
AASI Level 2 snowboard instructor · Authored the open-source snowboard sizing calculator (2018)
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Backcountry Editor · AASI-Certified Instructor on Staff
Diego Hartmann
Splitboard reviews · Avalanche safety · Trip planning
AASI Level 2 snowboard · AIARE Level 2 avalanche · IFMGA-track mountain guide in training
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Technique Editor
Lena Okafor
Carving · Freeride technique · Park progression
AASI Level 1 snowboard · 11 seasons instructing at Mammoth and Mt. Bachelor
And 10 more — listed by beat
- Jonas Weller
- Senior Resorts Reporter · AIARE Level 1 · 600+ resort visits since 2015
- Aiko Tanaka
- Japan & Hokkaido Correspondent · AIARE Level 1 · Filed from Niseko, Furano, Rusutsu, Kiroro
- Sam Côté
- Alps Correspondent · AIARE Level 2 · Based in Laax, Switzerland
- Renata Vasquez
- Gear Lab Director · Oversees the 25-day minimum ride test protocol · AASI Level 1
- Caleb "Cal" Friel
- Senior Snowboard Reviewer · Tested 240+ boards on record · AIARE Level 1
- Yusuf Demir
- Outerwear & Layering Editor · AASI Level 1 · PSIA-AASI snowboard crossover
- Hana Bergström
- Splitboard & Touring Gear Lead · AIARE Level 2 · AMGA Single Pitch Instructor
- Theo Marchetti
- Photo Director · 12,000+ on-snow images in the archive
- Ines Murillo
- News Editor · Covers FIS-adjacent industry and brand-side announcements
- Devon Pryce
- Audience Editor · Runs the Weekly Snow Report newsletter · AIARE Level 1
Editorial Methodology
How we test — and why a review takes six months to publish.
Most snowboard reviews online are written in a single afternoon after a single afternoon on the hill. We do it differently, and we have since issue one.
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01
The 25-Day Minimum Ride Test
No board, boot, or binding is scored before it's been ridden at minimum 25 separate days across at least three different resort environments — groomers, park, and a powder day if conditions allow. The test rider logs every session in our internal Real Day Count ledger. Gear that fails before day 25 is published as a failed-test field note, not a star rating.
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02
The Real Day Count (RDC) Rating System
We replaced the vague five-star scale in 2017 with the Real Day Count: a verified, dated riding log that shows exactly how many days each tester logged on a piece of gear, in what terrain, and in what conditions. When you read an RDC score, you can audit it against the session log. No other major snowboard outlet publishes its scoring methodology to this level of granularity.
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03
1,800+ Boards Reviewed Since 2014
Every board we've ever scored is in the public archive — even the discontinued ones. If we recommend a board in a current buyer's guide, you can trace it back through every prior review and every test rider's notes. The archive is searchable by brand, by terrain, by rider weight, and by flex pattern. It's not a marketing database; it's a research library.
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04
No SKI Scope — By Design
We do not cover alpine skiing, cross-country, telemark, or any other ski discipline. We do not run ski resort reviews. We do not accept ski-related advertising. A reader who lands here from a search result can be certain the page is about snowboards — and only about snowboards. This scope discipline is the single most-cited reason our average reader session is 4 minutes 12 seconds, more than double the engagement rate of competing snow sports sites.
By the Numbers
The numbers behind the bylines — since 2014.
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1,800+
Snowboards reviewed, ridden, and scored on the RDC system since November 2014.
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27
Countries tested across four continents, including Hokkaido, Laax, Jackson Hole, and Niseko.
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4,200+
Resort reports, gear reviews, and technique articles published to date.
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23
Combined industry certifications across the masthead (AASI, AIARE, PSIA-AASI snowboard).
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850K
Verified monthly readers across the US, Canada, Japan, and the Alps. 71% male, median age 31.
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1.2M
Newsletter signups processed across the past 36 months for the Weekly Snow Report.
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340+
Resorts and brands who cite Snowboarder as a source, including Burton, Jones, and Patagonia.
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2023
Snowsports Industries America (SIA) "Best Digital Editorial" award winner.
The Weekly Snow Report
Read the masthead, then ride with us weekly.
One email, every Thursday morning. A short editor's note from the lift line, three resort conditions worth knowing, one gear pick from the lab, and one technique tip you can actually use on Saturday. No filler, no sponsored content, no ski coverage. Free, always.
- 1.2M signups processed in 36 months
- 4 min 12 sec average read time
- SIA Best Digital Editorial · 2023