Road to Ironman

I think the smartest thing I did at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort was to take a lesson. I felt I was ready to move on to the next level and knew there were some things that I was consistently doing wrong. For my sake and anyone who'll find this useful, I'm going to share the main points of my lesson.

1. Relax! The shoulders and upper body should be relaxed and not tense. This will make everything that follows much easier.
2. Balanced Stance. Bent at the knees, weight equally distributed over the center of the board, and upper body relaxed.
3. Watch Where You're Going. Look over the nose of your board, not down the mountain. Doing this helps with control and balance. It also helps with confidence on the steeps.
4. Control Your Board! Turn with your feet, not with your arms. Many people are out of control out there. The only way they know how to turn is by swinging their arms around to skid the tail of the board around in turns. In essence, the board determines where it wants to go and they are along for the ride. You should know how to ride in control and use the edges to turn.

• Step 1. To stop flailing into turns put your arms into a natural position, where you will not have to move them. Place the back of your rear hand on the back of your waist above your butt cheek. Place your front hand on your front upper thigh. If you tend to really open up, you can exaggerate this so your front hand crosses your body as if you were going to bow.
• Step 2. Initiate turns with your front toes. Your board is flexible. If you ride in a balanced stance the movement of your toes will affect the length of the cutout of your board, and therefore the direction you're going. Try this on the flats.
  For front side turns, initiate the turn with your knee (toes - ankle - knee) and look across your board to where you want to turn. Follow through and complete your turn.
  For backside turns, lower your center of gravity by sitting or squatting into the turn as if you were getting on a chair-lift. Look over the nose of your board and really follow through to keep your edge.
  

Other Tips...

• If you find yourself sketching out look up and in the direction you're going. Complete your turns to hold your edge. This is important on steeps and ice.
• When carving while facing up the mountain, push your hips forward and lean into the turn. Conversely, you can squat lower into your opposite turns.
• Ride with your weight forward. Really lean on the front outside edge of your foot and binding.
• Confidence. It's not as steep as you think it is. Build confidence by learning the lay of the land. Find a run that you enjoy and master it.
• You will not catch an edge on steeps as you do on flats. The angle of your board is too great. You'll more likely fall from sketching out or getting air unexpectedly.
• On bumps, feel each knee moving independently to keep your edge in contact with the ground. Keep your balance and stay on your board. Don't bail.
• Jumps. Take off balanced to help you land balanced. Start small. Squat and execute a balanced take off.

That's all you need to go out and get gnar dude! Go shred. Get sick!

Labels: snowboarding

# posted by -g @ 3:20 PM