So, I'm eagerly awaiting the first snowfall and I've begun looking around on online for my first snowboard. From what I've read found it looks like I should be looking for something with reverse camber and true twintips. I've also heard that since I'm hoping to ride on a frozen lake I should look for something with magnetraction. However, I don't know much beyond this and was wondering if people who actually know about this stuff could share their thoughts.

I've seen some good stuff about ABoards Reverse, but it doesn't look like it has magnetraction. I'd also like something that also rides well on mountains and there don't seem to be a lot of people talking about how the Reverse handles mountains.

Libtech also seems to have some things which people are seem to like and I've been watching to see if one of their boards shows up on craigslist around here.

Mostly I'm looking for people to confirm I'm looking for the right things, point out something else I should be looking for, or let me know I'm doing something wrong.

I currently ride a 08 skate banana with magnetraction. It has worked really well for me on all kinds of surfaces. The side cut that this board has is quite deep. This makes it tough to hold lines a lot of time on icy surfaces when kiting (for me anyway). Last winter sitting on the ice, I noticed for the first time, that the entire middle section of edge, (in between my feet) wasn't even making contact. I don't particularly believe that you need magnetraction to have a good board. That said I am a really big fan of Mervin Manufacturing, and I don't think you will find magnetraction on anything other than one of their lines. The aboards reverse really has my eye, as it looks to really fit the bill to be a fantastic snowkite board. If you are planning lake riding with minimal to zero ice coverage, you can get by with a second hand board, and something called a switchblade. I haven't kited with any other boards yet, but I am considering a significantly longer board (currently 151cm, thinking 158-161cm for new board). The longer board should help with holding a better line, better control at speed thus allowing me to go faster. Hopefully I didn't make things more confusing for you. Here is a video of the switchblade:

I had heard of the switchblade, but I'm not sure I'll get enough lake riding in to justify one. I'll only be around the lake during my Winter break and I'm not sure when it'll actually freeze. I also definitely intend to get some use out of this without kites too.

Shortly after posting this I saw someone had a GNU Park Pickle for sale on Craigslist and now I'm going to be picking it up in about 12h. It looked pretty similar to the skate banana which I'd seen several other people were successfully using, so I'm hoping I won't come to regret it. At this price I got it at least leaves more room to pick up more kites!