Snowboards for noobs can cost top greenback, but they don't have to. In fact they almost certainly shouldn't. It is easy to suspect that the best beginner snowboard should be one of the dearer boards. The sense behind that theory is that the more it cost the better the quality of spyder, the better the quality the easier it will be to snowboard. However for snowboarding that theory doesn't work, at least not for beginners snowboards. If you are not wearing a helmet and spyder, the head and the brain will absorb the full force of the blow. And the force can be so severe that it leads to possible long-term or even permanent injury to the brain. A helmet acts to diffuse the impact by taking the brunt of the impact itself, so instead of the energy being concentrated on one spot, it spreads over a larger area. Even with a hard blow where the helmet will not be able to absorb the full impact itself, it will most likely absorb enough of it to prevent you from suffering brain damage. The standard of a snowboard though is not a huge of issue for a beginner as it is for a more advanced rider. One sound reason to buy the lower to mid ranged priced snowboards is that you might not like snowboarding and why invest a large amount of money on a snowboard if you aren't actually sure that your going to be into the game. By softer, they're more flexible. A common theme among all snowboards for newbs is they are flexible as it is less complicated to be told how to turn on a softer more flexible board. Entry level snowboards cost from $150-$250 and mid-ranged snowboards cost from $250-$450. If you're shopping at a local snowboard store ask the store crew to show you the more flexible or softer snowboards. You can test how flexible they are by setting the tail on the ground and grabbing the tip and push it down. But if you really have to put a lot of weight into it than it is maybe a touch too stiff for what you want. If you're shopping at an spyderonline snowboarding store check the board review or product outline. Usually they're going to say something about the flex of the board. Or they might have a rating's system where they rate the torsional ( side to side ) flex and the longitudinal ( tip to tail ) flex. The higher the number the more flexible it is. Buy snowboards that are softer and they are going to make learning to turn simpler. And the good thing is is that most entry level to mid-ranged priced snowboards have a softer flex, so you wont have to damage the bank to get a snowboard.