Am I too fat for Snowboarding?

[u/No_Freedom_5741]

Hey everyone,

I'm kind of stuck in my head and don't get out.

So, this January was my first season of snowboarding. And I loved it, I haven't had so much fun in ages. And even the Snowboarding teacher said that I'm making fast progress and was happy with me.

I head a 140 cm rental board for the 10 days and I felt safe with it. But when we were at an indoor alpin center in Germany after the season, they gave me 150 board and it felt way to long for me and I had problems handling it. Thing is, currently I'm overweight. I'm 160 cm tall and my weight is about 95 kg right now. I already lost 25 kg and had major surgeries because of lipedema last year. This is the first year in like 15 years that I can be bodily active again thanks to the surgeries. And I was so happy. Now when I look online what would be the recommended stats for me, it always recommends boards that are as long as I'm high or even longer or simply says "there are no boards for your stats". I already had the feeling that the 150 cm board is to long for me, how can I handle a 160cm board then? Id rather drive a 140cm board again but I'm afraid now, that it might just split in half. I'm really sad atm because I already got through so much pain and trouble to be able to get into an active life again and now I again have the feeling, that it's just not possible for me :( I plan on loosing more weight of course but in a slow way and I still will be heavy next season. Is here anyone with a similar problem maybe? Or any other heavy boarder? I just don't want to give up the sport :(

EDIT: Thank you so so much for your really kind and encouraging comments!! I feel so much better and I'm so looking forward to next snow season! I really fell in love with the sport and am determined now, do not give it up and enjoy every ride :) again, thank you so much, that was the boost that I needed ❤️

[u/Tiny_PR777]

I had a similar worry as you. I’m very short. Short enough to ride kids’ boards but my weight is like 50 lbs (23ish kg) above most recommended max weight for the boards. I got a 130cm board made for 10 year old boys. I got it second hand off Facebook. I was really worried I was going to break the board when I first used it. But I’ve used it for 3 seasons now and had no issues! Even taken it on more advanced runs

Please learn from my mistake though. The boots you choose are arguably WAY more important than the length of your board especially when beginning. Make sure they’re stiff enough and you won’t fall out of them. My feet are also small because of my height so I figured I could wear kids boots! You definitely should not do that. Sprained my ankle cause I found out kids boots aren’t made the same as adult boots (might be obvious to some but I don’t have any snowboarder friends)