# Rail Help?



## Extremo (Nov 6, 2008)

Def start with 50-50's. Board slides aren't super hard but 50-50's are essential.


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## Guest (Jan 10, 2009)

start with the 50-50 board slides arent hard like extremo said... just get comfortable first with the 50-50 and commit if ur gonna boardslide, cant pussy out just go for it


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## Derek (Dec 30, 2008)

Thanks I'm gonna try a 50/50 today


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## sedition (Feb 8, 2007)

Derek said:


> ...to land kind of board slide, kind of 50/50 on it...


Ok, a few things.

First, it dosen't sound like you really knew what you wanted to try on the rail. A 50/50? A boardslide? Something between the two? This is not a good approach. You want to have a clear idea of what you are going to try before you actually do it. Rails take confidence. If your whishy-washy about what you are trying to do, you are going to end up in trouble. So, first figure out if you are going for a boardslide or a 50/50. 

Second, rails are fast. Do not expect to slow down the same way you often do on a box. People learning rails often slide out because they arn't leaning _forward_ (downhill) enough. Yes, they can be that fast. 

Third, 50/50's can be tricky, as the balance point is small. If you feel yourself starting to slide off the rail, don't try to "save it." Just let yourself slide of the rail. The two most important things to remember are; (1) keep your weight center over the rail, AND keep your feet, knees, hips, shoulders, and head all on the same verticle plane as the rail. If upper body / hips / etc starts turning to one side, your not going to stay "locked in" to a 50/50 for very long. Likewise, if you ass or shoulders are not directly over the rail, your also going to fall off. (2) your body follows your head, which follows your eyes. Eye your contact point on the rail. Launch and land so that your board, body and rail are all on the same verticle plane. Continue looking down the rail so that your body will be following your eyes (i.e. keep your eyes focused on where you want to be going). When either come to the end of the rail, or start to slip off, spot you landing and go for it. Once you have done this many times it will become second nature and you wont have to think about it as much.

Fourth, is speed. Ride a bike very slow, and what happens? You become unstable. Add a little bit of speed, and things are much easier. The same is true with snowboarding, and with rails. I often see park noobs hit rails at very very slow speeds. They get on the rail (which can be very slick) and destablize. As scary as it may seem, if they were going a bit faster, things would be much easier for them. 

Last, you can "prep" yourself for rail 50/50's by doing them on the very edge of a box. This will help get you used to having a smaller balance area, but also allows for greater room for error. Do these both backside and frontside on a box so you can start to get the feel of what it is like slide off the rail on either side once it happens.

Hope this helps.


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## Derek (Dec 30, 2008)

Thanks! I just went today and did two rails


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## BliND KiNK (Feb 22, 2010)

As I'm counting days down to my first season on boxes and rails... the thing I'm concerned about as far as mental fear is catching an edge on a box or rail when trying to do a boardslide... I can just see that ending up with a mouth full of blood... tips?


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## Thad Osprey (Feb 18, 2009)

sedition said:


> First, it dosen't sound like you really knew what you wanted to try on the rail. A 50/50? A boardslide? Something between the two? This is not a good approach. You want to have a clear idea of what you are going to try before you actually do it. Rails take confidence. If your whishy-washy about what you are trying to do, you are going to end up in trouble. So, first figure out if you are going for a boardslide or a 50/50.


This is one of the most important, yet underrated pieces of advice out there.

To OP: Glad you managed to go out and do 2 rails. Just remember that when you start to ride/ollie onto rails/boxes, that is the point of COMMITTMENT. Meaning a) you need to ensure that you are able to get up and over then onto the feature and b) that your body position needs to be exactly right when you land so you can lock on to the feature and do your trick (i.e. head, shoulders, hips, knees, feet, angle of inclination to match the feature etc are all spot on). A lack of commitment to the trick almost always ends in disaster.

In order to commmit to the trick you need to know beforehand what you want to try on the rail. Then you can go visualise it, i.e. figure out your drop in speed and distance, approach angle, when you ollie etc. Visualisation is important because it prepares you for your trick. If you look at some videos on youtube or snowboarding websites they invariably have jibbing videos and if you pause the video at the point where the rider ollies off and just before they land, you can see a whole lot of body movement or preparation to ensure that when they land on the box or rail, their body is already in the necessary position (i.e. pressed, counter-rotated, head facing which way depending on blind landing or not etc) to nail the trick. This kinda preparation, even for a simple 50-50 is crucial. 

The other essential elements are already covered by other posters, but just belabor a few: a) bend your knees, alot of people focus on freezing their feet to maintain a flat base that they end up freezing their entire lower body, straight knees lead to a lot of immobility and instability, b) when you land on a rail, always try to land soft to avoid jarring yourself with big impact, so again flex ur knees to absorb it, c) keeping balance is almost always a function of making sure your head, shoulder, hips, knees and feet are stacked over the board and your body weight is projected at a 90 degree angle down on the feature (i.e. perpendicularity) so watch out for that - esp on roller coaster boxes, kinked features, flat-down rails where this perpendicularity changes etc.

Always work your way up on features, start small, be smart and stay injury free. Good Luck!


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## bigwhiffa (Aug 2, 2010)

If you want to get boardslides down you need to have a good counter-rotation position.
Your upper body should rotate opposite to the lower body. 
Get the 50-50's down first though so you are more familiar with how the board slides on the rail or box for you. 
Also be sure to use your arms. Keep them active.
Good luck and have fun out there!

The best frontside boardslide video I have ever seen.


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## thetraveler (Feb 24, 2010)

BliND KiNK said:


> As I'm counting days down to my first season on boxes and rails... the thing I'm concerned about as far as mental fear is catching an edge on a box or rail when trying to do a boardslide... I can just see that ending up with a mouth full of blood... tips?



You can ease your fear by wearing a helmet (it can get nasty if you crack your head on the rail or box - concussion, deep cut or both), a gum shield (lowers the chance of losing teeth or biting off your tongue although you'll still probably see lots of your own blood if you land on your face) and make sure you don't try to break the inevitable falls with the hands and wrists (they have an ugly habit of snapping when used incorrectly). Be ready to sacrifice other body parts in order to get your head, face and wrists out of harms way and you'll probably avoid the worst injuries that could happen.

Also remember, it doesn't matter if you feel like a bit of a tool all armored up for the Superbowl when you're doing little rails. Safety first.


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## slyder (Jan 18, 2010)

I bought the collection and am very happy I did. Watch them once a month on my iPod, now to get some snow and put the studying to use hahhaaa
-Slyder


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## j.gnar (Sep 4, 2009)

BliND KiNK said:


> As I'm counting days down to my first season on boxes and rails... the thing I'm concerned about as far as mental fear is catching an edge on a box or rail when trying to do a boardslide... I can just see that ending up with a mouth full of blood... tips?


having confidence is HUGE. you absolutely need to commit to whatever you are trying because half-assing a trick on a rail is a sure ticket to a shit buffet.
approach/take off is essential as well. unless you have skateboarding experience, i would definitely try 50-50's before front/back boardslides


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