Snowboarding

About Me

I’m a AASI Level 1 certified snowboarding instructor. I’ve been riding since about 2010.

Backcountry snowboarding

Biomechanic Notes

Good form requires an awareness of your body.

Jumps

When doing jumps, be careful that your knees stay in line with your foot as you land. My knees tend to slide inwards, which after repeated landings can cause pain. Squats can help correct this tendency.

Carving

Carving is the art of leaving a perfect, single line in the snow. The alternative is skid turns, where you “smear” the edge of the board over the snow.

When you’re carving, your center of mass is centered on the board. When you’re skid turning, you move your center of mass over the edges.

During carving, your lower body rolls the board onto it’s new edge.

Geronimo at Bear Mountain

Useful Drills

These are snowboarding drills that I’ve learned that have been particularly helpful.

Down Unweighting

This is where you unweight your board by bringing your board closer to your body. Almost nobody does this: most people up unweight, which is straightening their legs in order to change edges. Watch on the slopes.

Down unweighting is really hard to get the timing and motion right. The best drill that I know of is it start heelside on a very steep slope (black), and to a heelside sideslip. As you’re sliding, do a down unweight (bend your knees) and let your board go flat. Then straighten out, bring your board up again, all while heel side side slipping.

Once that feels comfortable, lean a shoulder into it a bit to initiate a turn. Take it slow, stop on your edge between each and every turn.

If you’re having trouble, try sticking your arms straight out (like a T) with your palms up. This will help get your upper body in the correct alignment and discourage you from breaking at the waist.

Loose Bindings Carving Drill

This drill is helpful for learning how to carve, and also for having lots more fun on flat terrain. Courtesy of Artie.

Before a gentle green slope, loosen the bindings a bit. You should have enough room to fit your fingers under the straps, but not enough where the toe strap falls off completely.

Begin going down the slope and carving. Really focus on pressure on your heels and toes, with minimal pressure on the highback. On your heel side, flex your knees and get down low, with your butt out. On your toe side visualize driving your front knee into the snow.

Fix for Heel Side Slip Out

When going down steeper terrain and trying to carve, or at least ride bigger skid turns, I’d often find that my front foot would start skidding out when on heel side, leading to a butt slide. This tip will help with that, courtesy of Artie.

First, keep shoulders aligned with board, do not open up into the turn. Second, lead your knee into the turn. This will twist the board, causing that lead foot to lock into the snow.

Flatland Tips for Buttering

While you’re waiting around for your buddies, try these flatland tips. Courtesy of Sean.

Move your board fore/aft under your center of mass. Try to move the board under you instead of moving your upper body. To help, you can put a line in the snow at the middle of the board, and move each foot in turn to that line. Your hips should remain aligned above the mark.

Next up, try reaching or grabbing the nose and tail as you butter.

Finally, try a nose butter roll. Wind up with your front hand on your back knee. Lean a bit on your toes, and use that edge to launch your spin onto the nose of your snowboard. You’ll be throwing yourself into the spin.

Fore/Aft on the Steeps

For steeps in (perhaps choppy) powder, use fore/aft movement. Shift your center of mass fore when you initiate the turn, and move aft when you stop the turn. Courtesy of Matt.

Matt’s “Surfboard” Move

Matt’s “surfboard” move: this move “pops” the nose of the snowboard up, and you actually end up going uphill a bit. You do that by moving your center of mass aft, past the rear binding of your board. Keep your coat zipper vertical. Do this at the end of your turn, and the tail will engage and do a rapid turn.

My Gear

 

Snowboards

Finding a snowboard is tough for me. I’m 220lbs, size 13 shoe, which means that almost all boards are too narrow.

My current board is a Rossignol Freestyle Jibsaw Heavy Duty Wide, 162cm (src). It has a 26.4cm waist which is still too narrow. I regularly boot out. It’s listed as a stiff board, but I really like it.

My previous board was a 2012 GNU Carbon Credit BTX Orange. Some reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4.

I’m looking for a new snowboard. Something with a wide enough waist that I won’t boot out on. Most manufacturers offer a “wide” board, it they’re typically only ~1cm wider than the normal board. Ridiculous.

The only options I’ve found are below. Some are from this Reddit thread.

Boots

I ride Burton Photon Boa boots, size 13. They’re considered stiff boots. They’re way more comfortable than the thirtytwo boots that I was using previously.

Bindings

I ride Burton Genesis X EST bindings. They’re easy to stap in and out of, but the hamock on the back is wearing out super quick and there are two bolts that are wearing holes in the side of my boots.

Resources

 

Reading

Youtube Channels and Videos

My Resorts

I’ve ridden at the following resorts:

  1. Bear Mountain, California
  2. Snow Summit, California
  3. Mammoth, California
  4. Stevens Pass, Washington
  5. Crystal Mountain, Washington
  6. Summit at Snoqualmie, Washington
  7. Alpental, Washington
  8. Mt. Baker, Washington
  9. Eldora, Colorado
  10. Arapahoe Basin, Colorado
  11. Brekenridge, Colorado
  12. Keystone, Colorado
  13. Sugarbush, Vermont
  14. Mt Ellen, Vermont
  15. Bolton Valley, Vermont
  16. Killington, Vermont
  17. Pico, Vermont
  18. Loon, New Hampshire
  19. Sunday River, Maine
  20. Sugarloaf, Maine
  21. Mt Sunapee, New Hampshire
  22. Stowe, Vermont
  23. Okemo, Vermont
  24. Wachusett, Massachusetts

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