What Are the Different Snowboard Profiles? – A Camber & Rocker Guide

JUMP TO: WHAT IS A SNOWBOARD PROFILE?  |  TYPES OF SNOWBOARD PROFILES  |  WHAT SNOWBOARD PROFILE SHOULD I CHOOSE?

Author: Holly Price | Updated: Nov 7, 2023
We may earn a commission when you buy through our links. Learn more.

Different snowboard profiles offer different benefits. Understanding those differences is key to identifying the right snowboard for you. So before you dive in and drop a few hundred big ones on a board, it’s essential that you can appreciate how it will ride, if it's suitable for your skillset and whether the profile will work well in the terrain you like to hit.

To help you do that, we’ve compiled this brief guide explaining what the different snowboard profiles are, and what kind of riding they are best suited to.

WHAT IS A SNOWBOARD PROFILE?

Snowboard profile is essentially the shape of your board if you were to look at it side on. Think about how we call the side view of our faces our ‘side profile’. It’s a similar concept with snowboards, although the curves and undulations are much more subtle.

There are four main snowboard profiles, which are:

  • Camber

  • Rocker (AKA Reverse Camber)

  • Flat

  • Hybrid

Traditionally, all snowboards had a camber profile, which is essentially a concave shape, arching up from the ground between the contact points in the nose and tail. This engineering meant that the rider would have plenty of pop and ease of turn initiation. Camber profiles remain extremely popular, but brands have been creative and introduced lots of other profiles designed to provide a unique experience tailored to specific types of riding.

TYPES OF SNOWBOARD PROFILES

Camber

There’s a reason that camber has remained a mainstay of snowboarding profiles since the sport gained popularity back in the 90s. It’s just good engineering. The convex curve of a camber snowboard provides the rider with a decent level of springiness that they can use to pop for speed, power and impressive jibs. With the weight of a rider on a camber board, it offers a long effective edge from tip to tail, which also helps with edge hold and stability during those impressive carves or high speeds.

KEY FEATURES: A poppiness in the board which you can feel when the board is laid flat on the ground and you ‘bounce’ on the middle of it.

BEST SUITED TO: All-mountain, hard carving.

Rocker

A rocker profile is essentially the opposite of camber, which is why you’ll also see it named as ‘reverse camber’. This type of snowboard profile is also known as ‘continuous rocker’ because it has a concave, bowl-like shape from tip to tail. This type of profile was originally designed for those who wanted to float like a butterfly in endless powder fields. Rockered boards accomplish this thanks to their nose pointing up and out of the snow, rather than down into it like on a camber board. This formation makes for a shorter effective edge, reducing the likelihood of catching an edge and making it easy to ride switch, which is why rocker boards are great for both beginner and freestyle riders.

KEY FEATURES: An overall looser ride which floats in powder and offers easy switch riding.

BEST SUITED TO: Powder, freestyle, beginner.

Flat

This one is pretty self-explanatory! Although not massively popular, flat boards are exactly what they say on the tin, with a stable, flat profile making for a long effective edge and easy maneuverability. However, they do lack the pop of a camber board and might feel a little ‘lifeless’ under the feet for some. 

KEY FEATURES: Flat, long effective edge, good for rails and park features as it grips easily.

BEST SUITED TO: Freestyle, beginner.

Hybrid

Once camber and rocker had been figured out and engineered, many manufacturers got curious about what would happen when they mixed them. The result is an almost endless list of hybrid variations that each promise to bring something different to the board. These types of boards often have small sections varying between flat, rocker, and camber, with the most popular options being known as ‘Camrock’, ‘Rock Out Camber’, ‘Directional Camber’, and ‘Pow Rocker’.

These terms and names might seem a bit overwhelming, but once you’ve got your head around what camber, rocker and flat boards are like individually, it’s easy to figure out what these hybrids mean and how they are designed to work. That’s why hybrid styles are mostly reserved for intermediate riders who know what sort of terrain they prefer.

KEY FEATURES: Various - depending on the different types of profiles used. The Pow Rocker, for example, is similar to the Directional Camber in the sense that it will have a rocker towards the tail and camber in the nose to lift you above the snow and maintain one direction.

BEST SUITED TO: Mostly all-mountain, with some terrain-specific types.

WHAT SNOWBOARD PROFILE SHOULD I CHOOSE?

The type of snowboard profile you choose will depend entirely upon your style of riding, what terrain you enjoy, and whether or not the board feels good beneath your feet. Much like getting your binding angles to suit you, there’s often no right or wrong answer and it might take a period of trial and error before you find the perfect fit. If you want to do this without the massive investment first, you should look into any local demo days that are happening on your hill, or head to your rental shop after completing some research (like reading this article.)

However, for beginner snowboarders, we would suggest starting out with a beginner-friendly rocker board which will allow you to ride confidently while you progress. Once you’ve mastered the fundamentals and begin to branch off into one of the different snowboarding styles, you can get a little more creative with your profile choices.

MORE INFORMATION

Need to get shopping for a board? Check out our board guides for each style of riding:

Or see other articles in our Snowboarding 101 series:

Or check out our entire Gear Reviews Page, our Knowledge Base Articles, or Destination Guides for more snow and outdoors related content.