I have never done snowboarding in my life and am planning on starting. Being new to this I would like some advice please.

Board: What type of board do I get?

From the reading I have done I saw there are 3 types of boards. Of those the 2 types I am looking at are Freestyle & Freeride. According to the information I have gained Freestyle are good for beginners like me.

A snowboarder at one of the shops also said that starting out with a cheap board is ok as I can always upgrade my board.

From this I would like to know what brand board to get? I saw Burton is quite good, but I am not too sure if this is too much for a beginner in the form of price?

Bindings:

What type of binding is the right one?

Do I just try and see whatever fits me comfortably and go with that? Or are there recommended bindings for beginners?

Boots:

The snowboarder (mentioned above) pointed out a very interesting thing between boots.

There is a difference in the toe in that some are quite hard and as such they tend to squeeze the foot and others are not as hard at the toe area. Another difference is the laces with which you tie your boot. Some boots have the classic shoe lace style and others have what looks like a string with which you can adjust the boots'' stiffness over the foot area as well as around the lower leg area (Sorry for my bad description as my snowboarding terminology is non existent yet).

Pants/Gloves:

Pants are important as they need to keep me dry fom when I fall down in the snow.

Gloves are also important as they need to help me protect my hands against the wet snow as well as falling down.

That said what brands are there and which ones are good?

Helmet:

Apparently all helmets are more or less the same quality. So any decent quality helmet ought to do the trick? Or is there something I should take note of when buying a helmet?

I appreciate your help.

TIA

w