Winter Fun

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.

The choices of snowboards are many, even among the 3 main styles of snowboarding. The most common is the freeride board which is the snowboard that most first time riders would use. The speed freaks who love shredding the groomed hard-packed trails will have Alpine snowboards. But for those who really want to test themselves and grab as much air as possible and test themselves with tricks and radical boarding will get themselves a freestyle snowboard.

A freestyle snowboard is wider, not as long and more stable than other boards. It will usually have twin tips which means that the tip and the tail are equal in character. Lastly a freestyle board will be lighter than other boards, just the thing for grabbing enough air for the mid-air tricks, half-pipe moves and rail slides that the freestyler loves to carry out.

The boots worn with freestyle snowboards provide a reasonable amount of flex allowing the rider a better feel for their board. Things have changed over the years and they have become more like the freeride boots in terms of added stiffness, a good mix of comfort and performance.

Within the freestyle board category there are also a pair of distinct styles of boards to cater for the different ground upon which the tricks are going to be performed. It’s possible to buy a snowboard particularly for half-pipe which will be more flexible so that it is able to bend to the curve of the pipe. you can buy a slopestyle board which is more fitting for the skateboard-type of ground tricks that can be performed.

A diverse range of freestyle snowboards are stocked by the big snowboard manufacturers so one of the most difficult choices the snowboarder is going to have to make is which one to prefer. Brands are occasionally so evenly matched that decorations or graphics may be the deciding factor.

Buying a snowboard will mean that you must first think about the kind of snowboarding you’re going to want to do and then buy the type of snowboard that suits that type. The chance to execute freestyle tricks on the half pipe or on the ground will mean that you will want to buy a freestyle snowboard. There are plenty of used snowboards to choose from and some really good quality bargains to be found if you look hard enough.