A snowboard buddy app for finding riders by mountain

SkiBuds is an app for finding snowboard buddies at the mountain you ride, whether you want park laps, a powder partner or someone who'll wait at the flats. It is being rebuilt for iOS and Android and isn't in the app stores yet, and no release date has been announced. Right now, the best way to find riders is in person and in the groups around your mountain: a regular park session, a group lesson, the mountain's community group, a club that welcomes snowboarders, r/SkiBuddies and Meetup's snowboarding groups. How to find snowboard friends covers each one, how to describe your riding and how to keep up with a ski crew.

Find snowboarders by mountain

The people worth finding ride your terrain on your days. Every resort guide on this site has a snow forecast and a section on where to meet someone new at that mountain, and the mountain region guides group them by region. A few mountains don't allow snowboards at all: Alta, Deer Valley and Mad River Glen are ski-only, and each of the first two has its own page here (Alta, Deer Valley), so check before a trip someone else picked.

Snowboard stories by mountain

Riders from the SkiBuds archive wrote about their own mountains:

• Copper Mountain and Breckenridge: all-day Peace Park laps at Copper with a rider met on SkiBuds, in the 2019/20 season.
• Mt. Baker: deep storm mornings, sunny laps and a day Highway 542 closed.
• Hatcher Pass, Alaska: Erin Hogan on weeks of trucking in snow to build a road gap, then an Indy grab over a passing Ford Explorer.
• Bend, Oregon: Francesca Jacquez's first splitboarding season, from learning to skin uphill to finding patient partners.

The planned app

The rebuilt app is planned for riders 18 and older, with Discover filters, chat and opt-in location sharing; the features page has the details. Until it launches, this website does not find or message riders for you.

Say what kind of riding you mean

"I snowboard" leaves most of the day unanswered. A park session and a day exploring the whole resort call for different partners. For a park session, name the features: "small jumps and boxes, working on 180s" tells someone far more than "park." If you're learning, say you want terrain you know and room for breaks.

Riding with skiers

You don't need a snowboard-only crew. Skiers and snowboarders share terrain well once the group talks through the flat traverses and where to wait after a lift; the snowboard friends guide has the rules. The ski buddy app page covers the same plan from the skier's side, and once you've picked a resort and date, carpool planning helps you share the drive.