[TOS'd]

Sounds like you are a new boarder. Best advice I can give you is do not cheap out on your pants or gloves. You will be falling on your ass, you will need to use your hands to help get yourself up. Nothing sucks more than having your inside clothes and hands wet from all the snow touching. Look for a high millimetre rating for your pants, but also pick a reputable brand. My first pair was from Firefly and although they were cheaper and had a decent mm rating, they were not very waterproof. My next pair was from Burton and this one was much more expensive, but it keeps you warm and dry the entire day.

Oh yea, don't cheap out on boots either. If they are not comfortable, you will not have a pleasant day. For your board/bindings, you would probably want all mountain type board as a starter, the guys working on the stores on West 4th/Burrard are fairly knowledgable and will be able to suggest a length and then the look will be all personal preference.

You can get away with a cheaper pair of goggles as your first, find something that fits comfortably and probably with an orange hue lens as it covers the most conditions(i believe, can't remember the chart off the top of my head). You may want to look into a helmet as well. Wearing a helmet doesn't make you "uncool." A helmet provides warmth to your head on those extra cold night boarding sessions. It also protects your head from any accidents you may be involved in. It's not about how good you are and you won't get into an accident. It's the people around you that you don't know how good they are. I was at whistler once going down a narrow green with some friends. And those runs can get fairly busy at times, this guy behind me lost control and basically side swiped me, felt my head hit the edge of a board, but lucky I had a helmet on, or I'd probably have a gash up there.

Lastly, probably my most favourite purchase of all my snowboarding gear is....a $20 face mask. I think mines just the one you can get at spotchek, has one open hole for your face, and also protects your neck. You can also pull it up a bit and protect your cheeks. You can even choose to wear it fully over your head or you can pull the top part down and just have it covering your cheeks/neck. It's best when theres freezing rain coming down on to your cheeks as you are bombing it down a hill.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head, if I think of some more I'll add them in.