Gloves with built in wristguards & padded shorts

[pboards&mskis]

Hi all,

Need some opinions...Does anyone use gloves with built in wrist guards for snowboarding, and are they any good.

Hubby (pboards) has RED guards which he wears under burton gloves at the moment, but in 2 years and only about 35 snow days he has nearly destroyed the wrist guards. Have spotted some combined gloves and guards on the net and want some feedback on if they are any good before we shell out for them.....

Also, padded shorts....after 2 misadventures connecting hip with tree, pboards is looking at the body armour shorts. Anyone got any experience with these things? Flying home from Breck with a 4 inch corked thigh wasn't fun!

And before you say it - it would be easier to keep out of the trees, but thats often where the good pow is and it just isn't going to happen. Besides I've only just got good enough to go in after him, and I'm enjoying it too much!!!

Cheers graemlins/boarder.gif graemlins/skier.gif

[Podlettte]

Might be easier if we knew what the brand of gloves you've seen with wristguards was ;)

The level gloves I have had wristguards that could be taken out, whcih I did as I'm a skier, and the gloves have been great for 5 seasons. My hands did get particularly cold a few days last season, but I worked out it was my issue, dehydrated etc

[Tobi]

Dakine wrist guards are great.

Can't offer any other advice though.

[Paul Oberin]

Dakine Nova wristguard gloves at $79.95 this year, $85 next year are the best value for money durable wrist guard glove I have found to date.

[pboards&mskis]

Thanks for all the responses so far.

Podlette - the Level Fly snowboarder gloves are one of the ones we've been looking at, but there are also the flexmeter and Dakine do a glove with a wrist guard too (Dakine Nova), which is the one Paul has recommended.

Paul, we'll be checking your shop out for this I think!

Cheers guys!

[BrumbyJack]

Go to a MTB store for the shorts.... Snow Princess had Dainese boardercross shorts she actually used for DH MTB racing and occasionally for boardercross.

Bike gear is so much cheaper than ski gear.

[dacraw]

Level gloves with the built in biomex system are really good. I had a pair for ages and recommend them highly.

[Coopski]

Ditto with the level gloves. I have had mine for years and they are still going strong. Like Pods mentioned they are removable wrist guard so I use the gloves for both boarding and skiing.

[blutek]

I'm of the opposite opinion, drop the wrist guards & lean how to fall better. They can cause their own injuries.
However, padded shorts are excellent. I use the Burton ones under the RED brand.
Originally, the +1 made me some years before you could buy them commercially. That was after I got a fracture in the tailbone (hit a rock on the side of Olympic - ouch for one year).
I've also been thinking of the spine protector for the firmer days.

[pboards&mskis]

Thanks to all for the good thoughts...
Blutek, good to hear about the RED shorts...will try and source some of them. Unfortunately the wrist guards are a necessary evil now. Pboards hit a tree with his wrists and his thigh in Rusutsu two years ago, and narrowly avoided microsurgery on his wrist to repair all the stretched ligaments from hyperextending his wrist. The sports Dr who looked after him wants him to wear them, but also confirmed that , yes, if you have a decent fall/hit when wearing them it will either be your shoulder or elbow that dislocates. Not good options all round. It's just about harm minimization.

Need to go shop and try some of these things on to get a feel for them...

[blutek]

That's nasty, Rusutsu is probably my favourite resort - love that offpiste around the Isola chairs (but hate that crazy hotel).

Good falling technique takes years of practice!

[pboards&mskis]

Biggest problem is that as Victorians, we don't know how to rugby tackle a tree and not come off second best. First time it was the wrists and thigh, second time it was just the thigh (he learnt from the first time and got his hands outta the way). Hence, the padded shorts. Ironic thing was that he built a helmet because he was planning to get in the trees. It doesn't have a scratch on it from either misadventure. He'll go out looking like a sumo soon ;)

And please don't get the wrong idea - pboards is bloody awesome on a board. He started nearly 20 years ago on a really primitive Burton board (which he still has in a cupboard) when noone even knew what they were. He's done a season in Whistler/Blackcomb, and heli'd in NZ etc....His idea is anything double black and preferably with a bit of a hike, to get a line no-one else got. But sometimes he has to board with me, gets slack cos its not 35-40 degrees and double black and hits a tree.

And yup, Isola rocks. The last day we spent at Rusutsu we had knee deep pow under that chair. It was my first massive powder day. Pboards had a massive bow wake going on. It was wicked. I now never ever want to ski groomed again! Every day should be a pow day - so its Hakuba in Jan for us this year!

[blutek]

Vintage Burton - very nice.
My first board was a Kemper with 80's "disco fluro graphics" - unfortunately went to the rubbish dump a long time ago - would be a nice conversation piece. We are back to Hokkaido Feb (can't wait).

[Paul Oberin]

Gone off topic now, so time to lock this one.