Your initial steps to successful snowboarding start with safety and learning the basic skills of feet binding, posture, balance, control, acceleration, turning and stopping. Once you are through these steps it is possible to get into real-time action. You will need the following during your basic training period.
- A snowboard with necessary attachments
- A qualified trainer
- Safety gears and protective dress
- Suitable location for training and practicing
- First Aid kit and painkiller spray
Table of Contents
#1. Snowboard Selection
Beginners’ snowboard should preferably have the design for stability, hybrid-camber profile, soft-flex, true-twin shape, and extruded-base. The width of the board should accommodate a fixed stomp pad with safe and comfortable straps. The distance between them should be preferably of your shoulder width.
#2. Qualified Trainer
A qualified trainer from a licensed snowboard school will be able to teach you the basics of safety and snowboarding techniques. You can learn how to utilize the gravity and the slope of the mountains to your benefits. You gain expertise in perfecting the posture, shifting the center of gravity and the art of staying centered on the board.
#3. Safety Gear Selection
Safety gears include comfortable fitting snow overall, jacket, snowboarding boots and socks, gloves, goggles and thermal inner wear.
- Off The Chair Lift: Once you are off the lift, you can slide down the small slope until you come to a resting position.
- Strap The Other Foot: sit on the snow by stretching your feet forward and strap your back other foot to the board stomp. Fasten the two straps to a comfortable tightness (make sure they don’t get loosened during your ride).
- Stand Up After Strap: You can slide down the slope slightly in your seated posture and dig your heel-side edge into the snow and raise your upper body. This will give a momentum to your body and you can use the gravity to stand up without tripping over. Slow down by putting pressure on the hind foot and rotate 90-degrees to stop.
- Choose Short Slopes: Choose the short and low slope areas to start practicing. You need to master the zigzag movement to control your speed while enjoying your first ride. If you wish to accelerate, go on the straight line.
- Learn The Tricks: Safety gears include comfortable fitting snow overall, jacket, snowboarding boots and socks, gloves, goggles and thermal inner wear.
You can also find tutorials on YouTube. How to get from Beginner to Intermediate Level Snowboarder. You will also learn how to carve on a snowboard, How to stop, etc. You will also get to know What you need to do to start.
#1. Control Your Fall
Avoid exposing your palms to the front. Close your fist and use the back of your folded forearm if you fall forward. For backward fall brace your arms to the sides of your body, bend your knees and expose the side of your body.
Your trainer will be able to teach you the posture practically. You need to learn this for avoiding injuries, since fall during snowboarding is natural and unavoidable.
#2. Utilize The Gravity
You can use the gravity to accelerate, decelerate, stop and start moving again on your path. Going on the straight path (down the hill) naturally increases the acceleration. Choosing a zigzag path can help you control the speed and moderate acceleration.
Turning at an angle of 90-degrees to the moving direction can slow you down and stop your motion. You can lean forward to increase the acceleration and lean back to decelerate and stop. Make sure the distance between your feet is shoulder length or a bit longer.
#3. Balance Body Posture
Place your strong foot in the front stomp and the other foot on the rear stomp. Slightly bent (45-degrees) knees with a straight back are safe. The hip position should be directly above the knees.
Loosen your arms and slightly tough your thighs with your hands. Your head should straight and face towards the direction of your motion.
#4. Vary Your Stance
You may vary your stance and lean while on the move according to the situation without altering the posture too much. Freestyle riding stance with +15-degrees for front binding and -15-degrees for back binding helps your body to change the position easily.
Keeping the front foot at a higher angle helps you get the better forward motion and the vice versa stance helps in controlling the speed. Your trainer will teach you how to vary the binding angles based on your progress during training.
#5. Utilize The Slope
Keeping a low edge angle through the slopes can help your body to balance the weight over the center of gravity. Skid turn on the slope can avoid the risk of falling over and maintain the smooth flow of motion.
In this position, your shoulders face the direction of motion while you bend the knees at an angle of 45-degrees. Pushing out your back-leg can make the board to skid down the slope slowly shift your body-weight to the front leg to keep moving forward after you have are through the slope.
You can also use the carved turn as you progress to the intermediate level of snowboarding.
#6. Safe Stopping Method
Press your back-heel on the board slowly but firmly to slow down your speed. Ease the pressure on the front foot and turn at 90-degrees to the direction of motion slowly. The board will come to a stop. It may be painful in the beginning, but you will get used to it with practice.
If you tend to fall while slowing down and stopping, follow the simple technique in how to control your fall. Soon you can master the art of slowing and stopping on steep slopes also. Your trainer will know practical techniques which are best suitable for your style of snowboarding.
How to SnowBoard Intermediate
Intermediate is the stage when you have mastered the basic skills of controlling the board and balancing your body posture to a reasonable level.
#1. Learn To Carve
Carving is the first intermediate level task you can perform on the snowboard. Your posture on the board is the standard type. The first step is to practice balancing your body weight on your front foot toes by bending your body forward.
Similarly, you need to practice putting your body weight on the back-foot while remaining stationary. Practice the same postures while riding on low slopes. Bend your body towards your chest direction and edge the snowboard forward. Bend your knees and ankles forward.
This motion can make the snowboard cut through the snow at an angle of 45-degrees. Similarly, you can perform a reverse edge by shifting your body weight onto your back. The carving angle can be increased by bending further to the front or back.
#2. Learn To Ollie
Ollie is the art of jumping with your snowboard. You can perform this trick on a low slope while riding straight. Bend your knees and keep your back straight. Increase the pressure on your back foot while freeing the pressure completely from the front foot.
Give a hard push to the back foot to push the nose of the board in the air over the tail. Straighten your front foot. Now end your knees together. This will keep you airborne for few seconds. Then you can extend your knees down to land on the ground. Immediately bend your knees to keep the body balance and posture.
#3. Technique Improvement
Similarly, you can practice on many intermediate techniques like railing, tail blocking, tripods, power slashing, etc. Your trainer is the best person to teach you the practical methods and tricks.
Advanced Snowboarding Tips
When you wish to go for advanced snowboarding, it is time to start working on your muscles and athletic bodybuilding. You need to flex and bend your body like a gymnast for mastering the turns, side slipping, edging, half pipes and others. You could also practice horizontal jumps over the snow dunes and obstacles.
- Dynamic turns can help you master the art of snowboarding on multiple terrains.
- There are different types of dynamic turns like the advanced skidded turn, retraction turns, UN weighted turns, vertical turns, carving the turn, mogul turn, 180-degree and 360-degree turns are listed among the top.
- You need to have a professional coach with years of experience in the field.
Conclusion
So, Your training curve on the snowboard can be smooth and simple but it is never easy. Sometimes you may need to spend hours on end with patience and persistence to master simple sloping and accelerating techniques. Eventually, you can go to become an expert snowboarding professional.