Winter Fun

When you’re looking to buy a new snowboard there may be certain things that you will be looking for that will meet your basic criteria. Naturally, if you are planning on doing predominantly all-mountain boarding you are going to want an all-mountain snowboard. Similarly if you are a park junkie and you want a snowboard that is more suitable for freestyle snowboarding you will be after a board that is more suited to this discipline.

Once you have worked out what style of snowboard you’re after it may then come down to a decision between different brands of snowboard. This could be a matter of loyalty, pressure form the media or simply a matter of whose graphics appeals to you more. For others there may be more subtle differences that are very important such as the flex in the board, the weight of the board or the materials with which the snowboard has been manufactured.

One of the finest of the snowboard companies that can be considered one of the lesser known brands is Palmer Snowboards. This is a company that manufactures only a small range of boards at any one time but the boards that come out of the factory are meticulously turned out and are filled with special features. Many of these features will be lost on the average snowboard customer, but other companies have taken not e and have adjusted their own designs to make use of the features of the Palmer boards.

Such is the standing of this company that you may look carefully to see if there are any Palmer snowboards for sale in the store. Compare these boards against those of some of the bigger names and you will see that there are some technological innovations built into their boards that are completely missing from boards of a similar price range.

This isn’t to say that other snowboard company’s boards are not up to standard. They most certainly are, but you can be comfortable in any snowboard bought for the Palmer range.

There are some snowboard companies that like to push the “we are a cool company” line, trying to take advantage of the fact that certain boards are perceived to be more cool than others. This may come down to the design of the graphics on the board which appeals to a certain section of the market.

This is not the case for the Palmer Snowboard Company which has made an impressive name for itself as an innovator in the snowboard industry. The word is well and truly passed around to those in the know that Palmer snowboards epitomise quality. Although the company specialises in all-mountain snowboards you can also be assured of quality freestyle snowboards too.

Part of the reason the Palmer boards are so popular are the bases that provide tremendous speed and great edge hold with smooth sidecuts. The snowboards are also extremely durable despite the fact that they are lightweight in construction. You can put that down to the revolutionary Nomex honeycomb core.

One of the indications that Palmer is more focused on the performance of their boards rather than the way out look to get them sales is to simply take a look at the boards themselves. There is nothing flashy in the way the snowboards are presented. Muted colors with the brand logo sitting squarely in the centre of the deck is about as showy as it gets.

Palmer snowboards are the all-mountain snowboards that the serious snowboard rider will move heaven and earth to get hold of. They’re made to go fast and they’re made to withstand the rigors of the inevitable heavy knocks that come from going fast.

The bottom line is that you will not be disappointed with a Palmer all-mountain snowboard. Or at least, it’s very unlikely because Palmer has one of the lowest return rates of any brand of snowboard.

One of the first tricks that you might have learned (or maybe it will be one of the first tricks you will try) is riding fakie. Another term for it is riding switch and it means to ride the board tail first instead of nose first. For many people, riding fakie was the only way in which they could traverse down the mountain because they hadn’t learned to switch edges yet.

You will probably find it very awkward the first time you actually intentionally try to ride fakie. You will probably find that your lead leg, which is usually your trailing leg, is not applying enough weight and vice versa with the trailing leg. This will make it difficult to get the tail of the board around to make a turn.

As with other tricks it will take persistence as you have to devote entire runs to the switch manoeuver. It’s only natural that your mind will take some time to get around the fact that everything you’ve learned has to be reversed. The stance is opposite, the procedure for making a turn is backward and it won’t feel comfortable.

Once you have mastered the art of fiding your snowboard switch you will have opened the door to a lot of freestyle snowboarding tricks. So many of the landings and completions of freestyle tricks will depend on a comfortable switch style as the spins and tricks on the half-pipe will become easier.

When you start to learn to turn the board to ride fakie, do so on the flat sections of the mountain so that you can go through the steps slowly. You don’t need the snowboard to get away from you while you’re out of your comfort zone.

To go into your fakie move, ease up on the pressure on the edge to allow the board to pivot. As you go into a turn, over-rotate and then stay on that edge until the board’s nose is pointing uphill slightly. All you need to do then is to turn your gaze downhill followed by your weight. You want to have your front foot centered while riding fakie so that your back foot will be able to steer.

Although you don’t necessarily need a certain type of snowboard to make riding fakie easier, I tend to lean towards my Burn, a freestyle Palmer snowboard, to get me through.

If simply taking your snowboard straight down the groomed trails at the snow resort is not enough of an adrenaline rush for you, it may be time to progress on to something a little more exciting. That means visiting the terrain park and tying some freestyle snowboarding.

Freestyle snowboarding is a sub-discipline that requires a specialised snowboard if you are going to get the most out of your attempts. A freestyle snowboard is more flexible than an alpine snowboard, it is lighter so that you can get more air more quickly, and it is generally shorter than an alpine snowboard so that it can be manoeuvered though some tight turns.

There is going to be more of an exposue to the possibility of injury if you intend on becoming a freestyle snowboarder because it involves performing all sorts of tricks. These tricks may mean taking off over some dizzying jumps, performing moves on the half pipe, grinding the board on rails and other feats that require an ability to land the board properly.

Generally it is advised that you have a fair amount of snowboard experience before you attempt to become a freestyler. Complete confidence in snowboarding and in your snowboard is a good start but knowing how to fall safely is also a requirement. If you can take a fall without ripping every tendon away from your knee, you may well be in for a long career at the terrain park.