Understanding Snowboard Shapes

Choosing the right snowboard shape can make all the difference in your riding experience. Whether you're carving groomers, hitting the park, or exploring deep powder, understanding the different snowboard shapes—like directional, twin, directional twin, and 3D—will help you find the perfect board for your style. In this guide, we’ll break down each shape and its best uses, so you can ride with confidence this season.

History of snowboard shapes

Snowboard shapes have come a long way in the last decade or so. Back in the late 90s – when guys like Peter Line were dominating the scene and everybody dreamed of starring in a Mack Dawg film –  if you stripped the graphics away then it was pretty hard to tell one snowboard apart from another. They all had that classic lollipop shape. These were great for spinning off cheese wedge jumps, but a bit limited.

In the year 2000, Bataleon shook up the market with the launch of Triple Base Technology (3BT) which introduced the concept of bevel between the edges. Noses, tails and sidecuts, however, still looked much the same. 

A few years later, inspired by surf shapers, brands began experimenting with more and more radical outlines that improve performance in different conditions. It was a golden era for board design, the likes of which had not been seen since the pioneering days of Tom Sims and Dimitrije Milovich in the 1970s.

The result is that today, riders are confronted with a dizzying array of snowboard shapes. Round tails, swallowtails, crescent tails, pointy noses, blunt noses, progressive sidecuts, asymmetric sidecuts, tapered designs… the list goes on!

Although the choice of designs is vast – and new silhouettes are released every winter – every snowboard ultimately falls into one of three categories:

Best men snowboards in multicolor. Surfer 2025 | Bataleon Snowboards™ 2025.

Directional Snowboards

If the nose and tail are different to each other then you’re looking at a directional snowboard. Sometimes this difference can be subtle – like a stance that is slightly set back from the centre – and sometimes it can be staring you in the face, like a massive fish tail.

Directional snowboards, as the name implies, are primarily designed to be ridden forwards. The elongated nose will plough through crud and float over deep snow easier, while the sidecut (curve of the edge) is usually optimized for flowing turns.

Some directional snowboards feature a tapered shape. These carry a lot of width at the nose, then gradually narrow through to the rear. This provides an even surfier experience, with maximum float up front and a tail that will sink naturally in powder, enabling you to turn off the back foot like you’re slashing a wave. 

Carrying this concept even further are swallowtails. By reducing the surface area of the base at the back, a swallowtail (or ‘fish’) will sink even easier into deep snow, whilst retaining plenty of effective edge on each side to help you carve both on and off piste. Check out the Surfer for a classic example. 

Crescent or v-shape tails work in a similar way but retain a little more switch-riding ability. Their stubby silhouette also reduces the overall length of the board, prioritising nimble turns over drawn out arcs. If this sounds like your vibe, take a look at the Party Wave.

On a directional snowboard, the flex pattern typically changes along its length. The tail will be stiffer, improving snap through your turns and providing greater ollie power; the softer flex towards the nose will enable it to float better. You can read more about this in our deep dive on Understanding Snowboard Flex.

Directional Snowboards
Bataleon-Evil-Twin_2025-Bataleon-Snowboards-_Mens_snowboard

Twin Snowboards

Twin shape snowboards have an identical nose and tail, and the binding inserts are centred. Essentially, each half of the deck is a mirror image of the other.

The first such boards hit the market in the mid 90s and quickly began to dominate thanks to their freestyle credentials. On a twin tip snowboard it’s just as easy (in theory!) to ride backwards as it is forwards, making them great for doing tricks. 

True twins like the Evil Twin even feature exactly the same flex pattern at the nose and tail, so you can nollie, land switch and do butters for days. If park and rail riding is your thing then these are the boards for you. 

More recently, twin tip snowboards like the Wallie have combined this symmetrical approach with cutting edge freeride design. Boasting WallieTips™ at the nose AND tail, you can take freestyle tricks beyond the park and into the streets while adding to your bag of trick options more easily than ever before.

Twin Snowboards
Men's snowboard in black and red. Bataleon Beyond Medals 2025 | Bataleon Snowboards™ 2025.

Directional Twin Snowboards

Directional twin snowboards aim to achieve maximum versatility. To the untrained eye, they look basically the same as a true twin, but look closer and you will see they have a slightly set back stance to favour riding forwards and/or in deep snow. At Bataleon, the nose of our directional twins is 1cm longer than the tail.

Under the hood, directional twins also tend to feature a flex pattern that differs along the length. By making the core slightly stiffer towards the tail, the balance is again tilted slightly towards carving and powder performance.

Blending these tweaks with the sidecut and contact area of a twin tip makes for a snowboard that can still happily ride switch, so you can tear up the freshies with the first lift before heading to the park for the afternoon.

In short, directional twins are the ultimate all mountain machine.

Directional Twin Snowboards

3D Snowboard Shapes

So far, we’ve talked about shape in terms of the outline of a snowboard, as if you were looking at it from above. But shape is not just two-dimensional. 

At Bataleon, we’ve thought hard about what happens across the board, from one edge to the other. In other words, 3D snowboard shapes.  

From day one, our snowboards have featured uplifted sections along the base, known as Triple Base Technology (3BT). It smooths out turns, improves the ability of the nose to plough through powder (just like the hull of a boat) and makes it harder to catch an edge. Recently, we’ve taken this 3D idea further with the introduction of ‘Sidekick’ tips, which dramatically enhance the uplift where you need it most – at the wide points. 

Today, more and more brands are working on bowl-style noses and other such three-dimensional concepts of their own. For us, it only reaffirms a design philosophy we have spent twenty years perfecting. You can find out more about how and why 3BT works in this in-depth article.

So, what snowboard shape should I get?

Choosing the right snowboard shape comes down to the style of riding you plan to do. Are you someone who likes to do tricks across a variety of different terrains and snow conditions? And is this your only board? Then you’re going to need a shape that is optimised for all-mountain snowboarding, most likely a directional twin.

Is your idea of a perfect day dialling some new spins in the park, or even shredding a stairset in a snowy city? You’ll be best served by a classic twin snowboard.

Finally, are you a full-on powder hound that dreams of tearing through trees, dropping into couloirs and drawing lines down open faces? Or maybe you just like getting your elbows down to the corduroy and carving the piste at 90mph? Either way, a directional snowboard is the way to go.

Whatever your riding style, it also pays to think about the shape of your board in all three dimensions – because snowboarding is always more fun with triple base!

Frequently asked questions about snowboard shapes

FAQ

Can I ride switch on your Directional-Twin snowboards?

Absolutely. Riding switch is both possible and comfortable on a Directional-Twin snowboard. Bataleon’s Directional-Twin snowboards feature a symmetrical sidecut and shared geometry between the tip and tail, but do have a slightly-longer nose. This creates a very familiar feeling while riding switch on a directional-twin, and is even preferred by some of our Team riders.

How do the Twin shaped boards perform in powder?

Stereotypically, twin shaped boards, which are usually ridden in the park and on the slopes, don’t perform as well in powder as freeride-oriented, Directional-Twin or Directional shaped boards, but they can certainly be used in deeper snow. Bataleon’s twin snowboards feature 3BT, a base-contour technology that aids in better float. If you’re looking to ride powder on your twin-tip snowboard, we’d recommend moving your bindings back toward your tail, creating a longer nose, which will aid in float.

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