Which snowboard?

[skiyak777]

Never been on a snowboard in my life, but after a summer of wakeboarding/kiteboarding, I'm looking for something that will allow me continue to hone my ability to ride switch. Details:
Size 13 feet (need a wide board?)
6'4" 190 lb

What size would be good?

What kind of boots/bindings would be best? Are there step in bindings that I can get into easily while flying a kite? (I've already got several pairs of Dynafit compatible AT boots if these would work.) Any releasable bindings out there?

Are there any neutral bouyancy boards (in case, say, the lake is not completely frozen and I wind up kiting across some water?) or should I glue on some foam to facilitate water starts?

Anything else I should consider?

Thanks!

[yuckster]

You can't put Dynafit on a snowboard, but you can use the Bomber plate bindings with any AT boot, the ability to use hardboots will be a great benefit for snowboard mountaineering:

http://www.bomberonline.com/store/bindings/

Great articles on bomberonline.com regarding choosing an alpine snowboard. If you're using hardboots, it comes down to stance angle. You want a real alpine snowboard stance angle, higher angles (50-60degrees) for carving on hardpack, and around 45 degrees for powder. The width of the board determines the stance angle - narrow boards force the boots to turn more to fit within the board, and conversely you should turn the boots to an appropriate angle that your heel/toes are over the running edge.

Running a softboot stance angle (20 deg) is going to be less than ideal in hardboots.