Yesterday I went snowboarding for the first time, and it was great! Any tips or tricks I could use?

Question

Yeah, I face planted and fell so many times yesterday....but I could actually get up and rotate my body...it was cool. I just want to know how to stop when you're going too fast and how to balance on a board. Thanks!

Answer 1

don't go faster than your comfortable with. if you feel unsafe or like you are going to crash, you probably are. its better to fall on your butt than when it doesn't feel safe than it is to test yourself especially if you are first starting.

Answer 2

You should stop snowboarding

Answer 3

Ok for one ignore the person who said you should stop boarding! to stop turn (by turning with your back foot and hip...not your shoulders!)so that you are facing down the slope (so your board is straight across the hill not up and down ) and lift your toes up a bit so that your heel edge digs in...it can slow you down or you can use it to completly stop...it might also help to take beginners lesson they teach you all the basics like turning and stopping...hope i helped...dont give up! snowboardings a blast once you get the hang of it!

oh and to balance...center your weight on the board and bend your knees!!

Answer 4

The basic stop is pushing your back foot in front of you and digging your heels in.  That and just keep your toes up and that's the basic stop.  If you're comfortable going toeside already, it's the same thing except you'll be pushing your back foot behind you even more until you're facing up the hill.  Balancing flat based is something that I doubt you'll get the hang of within your first two days on a board, and is something you should avoid doing unless you need a lot of speed for a flat area.  If anything, link your turns and avoid staying flat too long, or else you might catch and edge and wipe out.  Bend your knees and center yourself over your board.  Your bent knees should absorb most of the bounces, and being centered won't throw you around as much.

Basic tricks?  50-50 the widest box or table you can find until you get the hang of it.  (50-50 is just riding flat and straight over it.)  Hit them slowly, and ride straight over them.  Take it slow and stay flat.  Don't freak out, and don't rotate yet.  Try to find a box with a take-off that leads right up to it so you don't have to ollie off the lip.

Go over small jumps slowly, get the feel for being airborne for short amounts of time and work your way up.  Ollie off any small bump you can find on a trail.  It'll help with your pop, and jumping.

To ollie, load up your weight on the tail of your board and jump.  If it's a new board, it might take some time to break it in, but if it's a freeride or park-specific board, it should be pretty good after it's broken in.

Once you get those down fairly well, start doing 180's on flat ground going slow.  You'll get the feel for how it'll be like in the air and the landings.  Personally, frontside spins are easier to land, but the initial take-offs are more awkward.  Backside rotations are easier to spin, but weirder to land because you have to feel for the landing, or try to spot it as you come around.  Once you get that, try it on small jumps going slow.  Don't rotate too early, or you won't make it off the lip.  Don't rotate too late or you might not be able to bring it around all the way in time.

And remember this, you're probably going to need to whip your tail around faster than you think.  You may think it's enough, but in my experience, the majority of my falls were do to under-rotation.

Answer 5

They certainly should have covered those things in your beginner lesson... if they didn't then find another resort.  If you didn't take a lesson, then seriously consider it - it is worth it!

Answer 6

Besides the obvious "fall over to stop" answer you should take a lesson and learn how to use your edges.  You use turns to slow down and depending how much you dig your edge in will determine how much you slow down.

If you're pointing straight down the mountain the easiest way to turn is to look across (rather than down) the mountain and shift the pressure to the toes of your front foot and then the back foot to push the edge into the snow and bring your board around.  The same theory applies for your heels too.

Take a beginners lesson.  Or if you have then you should take a little time and get back to basics on a green hill.  Focus on making turns and see how many you can link in a row and don't worry about speed at all yet.  Once you've got your turns down you also know how to stop and can start going faster.

It took me a few days out on the hill to get comfortable with the board and understand how to move my  body to make it respond.  Find a friend who will just slowly go down an easy run with you or do it solo a few times until you feel in control before you move up to harder runs or start straightlining at all.

There are some videos on YouTube called "Boarding Skool" that might help you visualize some tips.  Here's the first video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgxEg_5L8...

Answer 7

It takes about 3 trips til you are comfortable on the board.  That's how long it took me.  I still fall quite often now but at least I can control myself on the board some what.