Do You Need a Stomp Pad For Your Snowboard?

Customers in the shop often ask if they need to put a stomp pad on their brand new board. No, dude, you don’t need to mess up your crispy new snowboard with a big piece of studded rubber or metal. Last time I checked, I observed that most snowboarders, while snowboarding, strapped their feet into those things called bindings. It’s pretty wild.

There are only a few instances when you actually snowboard with one foot. You’re either skating over to the lift at the bottom of the hill, you’re getting off the lift, or you’re stuck in a flat spot on some ridiculous green trail at a sick New England ski resort with 1400’ vertical and a snack bar that charges eight bucks for a cup of soup and an extra dollar for oyster crackers and you want to kill yourself because you just paid 80 bucks to go downhill but you’re stuck in a flat spot and you wish you just learned how to skateboard and never spent five hundred bucks on a sick reverse rocker shred sled with a picture of a cow skull and a pirate ship.

But I digress.

You really don’t need a stomp pad. But what about when I get off the lift, bra? I’m with you on that one----sometimes those ramps at the top of the chair are way too steep and extra icy. You can still get some grip on your board by resting your free boot against the back binding. If you hate getting off the lift and it stresses you out then go for the stomp pad.

Another popular pro-stomp argument is that the stomp pad will protect your board from getting scratched. Stomp pads do help your deck from getting all scratched up but you end up with a big piece of rubber or some metal studs covering the design on your board. The choice is yours.

One quick note on the metal studs----I’ve learned from experience that most of the stud stomp pads end up falling off. I don’t know if they got knocked off from use or if they just can’t stick to the board when it gets really cold. I’d go with a rubber pad with studs for extra grip and also because you can use it to scrape snow from the bottom of your boot.

Mounting a stomp pad is easy and if you take the few extra minutes to do it right then it will never fall off. First off, make sure the board is clean and dry. It’s not a bad idea to go over the area on the board with a household cleaner just to remove any dust or grime. Next, make sure you know where the pad needs to be placed on the board to be effective. The best spot is right in front of the back binding so that the boot can lean on the binding for some extra control. When you figure out where you want to place it, grab a hairdryer and heat up the spot on the board and also heat up the adhesive that’s on the bottom of the pad when you peel of the bottom. The hairdryer helps make the adhesive extra sticky from the jump. Make sure you press down hard on the stomp pad after you put it on your board to remove any air that might be trapped in there. Give it about 12 hours to bond and that’s it---you just ruined your deck’s design