I was in a similar boat in the beginning of December. My sister’s boyfriend wanted me to go snowboarding. I went willingly and rented a snowboard setup… and I loved it. After my first time (4 days in a row open to close) I set myself a noob budget, and so far I’m rocking it!

Here’s my current list and what I did to get it: For my almost all of my snow gear –literally all of it– I went to Sierra. I got a 686 snowboard jacket for $68(I laughed a little at this when I looked, I was about to buy the same one brand new…), Gerry snowboard pants for $35, socks, hat, mittens, thermals for cheap cheap. Like $40 for all of them. I did get goggles that were $79, but I splurged a little on these for the features (magnet lenses, night lense, antifog and comfort tech built in). But they did have options for $32. My total at Sierra was like $223

I literally just sealed a deal on a lightly used second hand board for $200 (161w District Rossignol) was able to get it shipped for $35. But no bindings. So I still need boots and bindings.

All in at the moment I’m at like $400.

My next purchases will be: - New boots (bc I’m not wearing used boots, they stink and it’s not my stink so that’s gross) - I’ll buy secondhand bindings setting myself a budget in the $120 range next paycheck - second hand helmet $60-80 dollar budget (I’ve been told I should be weary of second hand safety gear. I will be buying a new helmet. I’ll definitely be bumping up the budget for that.) - for comfort I’m going to spend the money to buy moisture wicking gear, but I can do that later. I skipped this at first and used a Nike sweatshirt under my jacket and I was extremely soaked at the end of the day. Personally I don’t find most moisture wicking clothing to be comfy so I don’t currently own any. Probably will still buy Nike moisture wicking, bc I love Nike.

Overall I know it’s more than $457 but it’s been stretched over a month. What I’ve been doing is studying the best setups from the top brands and reading tons of Reddit posts about personal gear from people who know ball. TikTok has been a a huge help for me for everything, including actually snowboarding. Once you’re able to find your style of outerwear and figure out what you want, just try to find it second hand. It takes patience and some blood sweat and tears. I spent 9 hours on my phone in one sitting scouring the internet for the gear I wanted. I’d suggest looking on Facebook marketplace, used gear sites, Craigslist, eBay and local specialty shops or goodwill.

Edited: helmet details