The front of the bored, sometimes called the nose is usually turned up so as to aid the rider when snowboarding over snow terrain that is not level. The back of the snowboard sometimes referred to as the tail is also turned up in order for the rider to be able to switch or ride backwards. The base or the bottom of the board that is the side of the board that will be coming in contact with the ground when snowboarding is usually made of a Polyethylene type plastic.
There are two main categories of base construction; these are Extruded base and Sintered base. While both bases are usually made from the same material, they do have their differences; the extruded base is basically a design that requires very little maintenance which essentially consists of usual plastic base material infused into the form.  On the other hand the sintered base does not use the material the same way as the extruded base, the material is foremost grinded into a powder then is moulded into the form desired by applying heat and pressure to the components. The extruded base is not as soft as the sintered base and as such require less maintenance and is harder to damage from snowboarding, however the sintered base with its softer form is more absorbent which makes wax absorbance greater. Greater wax absorbance has its advantages as waxing, when done correctly with hot wax, can significantly decrease surface friction between the base of the board and the snow.

Based on the aforementioned it is agreed that a snowboard with a sintered base will operate much faster as it will slide quicker over the snow, the downfall is that they will require a significant amount of maintenance and will be easier to damage from snowboarding. Due to this fact the edges of the underside of the snowboard is fitted with a strip of steel to permit the board to grasp or dig in to snow that is hard packed and / or hard ice, something like what the blade of an ice skate shoe does. The steel is also there to reinforce the interior of the snowboard.

More often than not the top of the snowboard is usually imprinted with some form of graphic design selected by the owner, the design is sometimes drawn personally by the owner or is a form of advertisement, especially if the board is used for competitive snowboarding; this section is usually covered with acrylic.