What is the difference between freestyle snowboards and freeride snowboards?

Freestyle snowboards are shaped specifically to be ridden in a park or pipe. Both the nose and tail of a freestyle snowboard are pretty much the same length to make it easier to ride switch (or fakie- which means riding with the opposite foot downhill than you would normally ride). A Free RIDE snowboard is an all mountain board and is shaped with the nose being longer than the tail to make powder riding easier by keeping your weight back. I own a free ride board and it is a lot harder to ride switch on a free ride board so i wouldnt suggest it for some one looking to ride park or pipe in the near future.

freestyle is for jumping and grinding so it has a thick middle section. wherease freeride is carving up the pistes and so it has a narrow deck.

Freeride snowboards are really for all round mountain use, whether being used to carve the powder, ride the ramps or just to descend the mountain on the pistes. Freeride boards are usually longer in length and are very good at high speed open turns. Freestyle snowboards are alot shorter and very flexible and are specifically designed for use in the snowboarding park for tricks.

A freeride board will always have a directional shape which means the nose of the board will be longer and more angled than the tail which will be smaller and more rounded. They also will be narrower than other types of board and will have a long tapered sidecut and a dirctional flex which means the nose of the board will be stiffer than the tail. You can also get freeride boards that are percifically for riding powder they tend to have a wider nose and a narrower tail so the board floats better on powder. Some well known freeride boards are Burton Fish, Arbor Crossbow, K2 Eldorado, Palmer Honeycomb, Palmer Platinum, Ride Timeless Freestyle boards will often have twin tip shapes which means the nose and tail will be identical in shape. Alot do still have directional shapes but they are far less extreme than a freeride board would have. They are usually quite wide so you can use flatter binding angles, and will often have a twin flex which means the nose and tail of the board have the same amount of flex in them. They tend to be quite light and are easier to spin and ride switch. Some well known freestyle boards are Forum Destroyer, Nitro MFM, K2 Darkstar, Rome Agent, Ride DH. Also Jib boards are a type of freestyle board which are very popular. They are used mainly for riding man made obstacles like rails and boxes. Some well known jib boards are Ride Kink, Rome Artifact, Batallion Evil Twin, Burton Dominant, K2 WWW. All moutain boards are boards that can be used for both freestyle and freeriding. They usually have a directional shape, but the lenght of the nose and tail of the board will be similar in length to help riding switch and for spinning. Some well known all mountain boards are Burton Air, Burton Custom, Gnu Carbon Highbeam, Rome Anthem Paul G yeah your right about the nose being softer than the tail on a freeride board, i should have checked this answer better before summiting it. Thanks

Free Style is mostly Park (rails, boxes, pipe, and jumps) these boards will be much more flexable, shorter, and different edges. Free ride is for all mountain (trees, steep, and deep) stifer, longer, and built for speed and agility on bumps.

shape is the biggest differences. You'll find that a park board has a more aggressive sidecut so it reacts quicker when you're turning. They are also often twin tipped (same shaped nose and tail). F/R boards tend to be directional shaped so that they perform better at speeds. This directional shape will make them handle differently when riding switch. Of course flex is important, but either style is available as soft or stiff as you like them.

Freestyle is more for the park, so doing rails and jumps is easier, and freeride is for riding around the mountain, so it's designed to ride in powder and go all over the mountain, even go in backcountry. So it depends on if you want to go to the park or ride around the mountain.