# First timer



## strycker (Jan 28, 2015)

Well I'm new to boarding and the board itself. From VA and headed to Breckenridge in a couple weeks for the first time ever with some family. I've taken exactly one lesson and didn't do too bad. I live about 40 minutes from Bryce Mountain here in VA. It's tiny, but was a fun place to hit the snow for the first time. Not too intimidating. Looking for advice on gear and stance. Probably renting while out there. I'll be snooping around here now that I've found this forum.


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## Mystery2many (Aug 14, 2013)

15/-15 shoulder width apart is a good start while learning your heel and toe edges and once you start linking turns and riding you can dial it to what feels good. My biggest suggestion is to go ride as many days as you can before your trip. Definitely take more lessons if you can afford it! Welcome!


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## f00bar (Mar 6, 2014)

strycker said:


> Well I'm new to boarding and the board itself. From VA and headed to Breckenridge in a couple weeks for the first time ever with some family. I've taken exactly one lesson and didn't do too bad. I live about 40 minutes from Bryce Mountain here in VA. It's tiny, but was a fun place to hit the snow for the first time. Not too intimidating. Looking for advice on gear and stance. Probably renting while out there. I'll be snooping around here now that I've found this forum.


Welcome! As fairly new myself my advice is to get out as often as you can before you head out west. I was comfortable hitting a 'big' mountain after probably my 4th time. 

I would also advise that around your 3rd/4th time take a private lesson before you go to nail down things a little. It will seems expensive, but compared to what you are dropping on your vacation its a drop in the bucket and will open up a lot more of the mountain to you.


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## strycker (Jan 28, 2015)

Would that be considered a 'duck stance'? I was riding front foot angled and rear foot 90 to the board edge. I was debating trying the duck as when I would get turned around I had a hard time righting myself. I read the duck stance helps that out a lot. As for the lessons, it was kind of a joke. Here they are very minimal. I'd have better luck taking one out there I think in Breck. I was picking it up by the end of the day, but still trying to control speed and turns. I wiped out pretty hard a few times too catching the edge. I'm sure that's pretty normal though.


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## f00bar (Mar 6, 2014)

strycker said:


> Would that be considered a 'duck stance'? I was riding front foot angled and rear foot 90 to the board edge. I was debating trying the duck as when I would get turned around I had a hard time righting myself. I read the duck stance helps that out a lot. As for the lessons, it was kind of a joke. Here they are very minimal. I'd have better luck taking one out there I think in Breck. I was picking it up by the end of the day, but still trying to control speed and turns. I wiped out pretty hard a few times too catching the edge. I'm sure that's pretty normal though.


When you think you can link a dozen turns in a row I'd still recommend a PRIVATE lesson. Private being key. Group lessons are tough. Someone dedicated to look at you when you go down and tell you what is wrong is a totally different story. Trust me when I say you aren't doing nearly as good as you think you are at this point.


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## Mystery2many (Aug 14, 2013)

If you have a smart phone I'd take it to your local hill fully charged and protected from the wet. Pull up begginer snowboarding lessons on YouTube and practice the basics. Take a run or two and then watch a video and try to apply what you see. But a private lesson at Breck will do mircales!


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## strycker (Jan 28, 2015)

Mystery2many said:


> If you have a smart phone I'd take it to your local hill fully charged and protected from the wet. Pull up begginer snowboarding lessons on YouTube and practice the basics. Take a run or two and then watch a video and try to apply what you see. But a private lesson at Breck will do mircales!


I've been watching all the videos I can find on Youtube during my lunch breaks at work and at home. I feel like I have it in my head now but just practicing is the part I have to get to. I'll be the only one snowboarding. The others will be skiing. I'm content with the green runs if that's all I can get to. The problem learning here is the terrain is super narrow and the surface was really slushy and hard because we had rain/snow the night before I went to my lesson.


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## F1EA (Oct 25, 2013)

All those lessons are worthless if you are not fit for bigger mtns and longer runs.

Being used (if at all) to a small hill will exhaust you and any technique will be out the window at that point, especially if you're trying to follow the most valid of advices: bend your knees!

So:
#1 work those quads out. Go ride as much as possible, plus do some squats at home.
#2 you've ridden before, what was your stance? How did it feel? were you bending the knees? 
#3 Bend your knees. No, bend them some more.
#4 You'll be renting... the guys there can help you set up stance width and angles. Feel free to experiment and change anything that feels painfull.
#5 your "comfortable" stance will probably be too narrow. How tall are you? otherwise, start with reference stance on whichever board you get.


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## strycker (Jan 28, 2015)

F1EA said:


> So:
> #1 work those quads out. Go ride as much as possible, plus do some squats at home. --*Not a lot more time to go before trip, but will try.*
> #2 you've ridden before, what was your stance? How did it feel? were you bending the knees? -- *I'm left foot forward and it was angled forward while right foot was 90 degrees to board edge.*
> #3 Bend your knees. No, bend them some more. -- *I was touching the snow a lot so I think they were bent.*
> ...


See bolded above. As for being fit for bigger mountains, there's no way of knowing that since I've not been out west at all. I know there's a learning curve, but everyone has to start somewhere.


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## Crono139 (Jul 7, 2012)

strycker said:


> Would that be considered a 'duck stance'? I was riding front foot angled and rear foot 90 to the board edge. I was debating trying the duck as when I would get turned around I had a hard time righting myself. I read the duck stance helps that out a lot.


Yup, +15/-15 is a duck stance.

Personally, I would keep your front foot angled however you like (say between 15 and 21) and then put a slight angle on your back foot (say -6 or -9). You'll be able to tell pretty quickly if you're not comfortable with the angles that you've set.


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## ridinbend (Aug 2, 2012)

Get on a skateboard, ride around and get a good idea what your feet naturally do when your on the skateboard.


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## F1EA (Oct 25, 2013)

strycker said:


> See bolded above. As for being fit for bigger mountains, there's no way of knowing that since I've not been out west at all. I know there's a learning curve, but everyone has to start somewhere.


Cool. 
Yes, there's no way of knowing until you try it. There's also no reason to not try it because you may get too tired. Basically, of course go for it, but know that the more you prepare the better. There is a BIG difference between short simple runs and even begginer long big mtn runs.

Based on your height you can even go a bit wider than reference, especially if they put you in short-ish boards to start with... So maybe something between 22-24 inches should be ok for you.

Other than that, just go for it. Nice big mtn resorts are pretty awesome.


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## strycker (Jan 28, 2015)

Crono139 said:


> Yup, +15/-15 is a duck stance.
> 
> Personally, I would keep your front foot angled however you like (say between 15 and 21) and then put a slight angle on your back foot (say -6 or -9). You'll be able to tell pretty quickly if you're not comfortable with the angles that you've set.


Today I got a board preset and in a 158 length. He wanted to give me a 155 but I asked for longer. I asked what the angles were and he couldn't tell. He thought it was about 5 front and -12 rear. This sounds wrong to me from what I've read. I rode fine on it, and a lot better than the last one I was on. (Front about 12 and back at 0). Today's progression got me down the hills a lot smoother and I rounded the corners. I'm really heel side prone though when I ride and can't get used to the toeside. The minute I try to go heel to toe in a turn, I almost always catch the edge and go down. I've got the pendulum down pretty well and power stops on my heel side. I had much more confidence I could control the board today with the setup. Does that 5/-12 sound weird though for binding angles?


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## Cycle4Fun (Feb 22, 2012)

strycker said:


> Today I got a board preset and in a 158 length. He wanted to give me a 155 but I asked for longer. I asked what the angles were and he couldn't tell. He thought it was about 5 front and -12 rear. This sounds wrong to me from what I've read. I rode fine on it, and a lot better than the last one I was on. (Front about 12 and back at 0). Today's progression got me down the hills a lot smoother and I rounded the corners. I'm really heel side prone though when I ride and can't get used to the toeside. The minute I try to go heel to toe in a turn, I almost always catch the edge and go down. I've got the pendulum down pretty well and power stops on my heel side. I had much more confidence I could control the board today with the setup. Does that 5/-12 sound weird though for binding angles?


+5/-12 as a stance would be completely wrong. Your front foot would be at less of an angle than your rear. This is never done. The angles were probably +12/-5. Either way, the kid at the rental shop doesn't know squat (expected). You yourself knew enough to know that wasn't right. When I was learning I settled on +15/-9 stance. I've since migrated to +15/-15 duck to make switch riding easier.

Now to my two cents on your toe-side troubles. Without any video, or anyone standing there to watch it's tough to give teaching guidance. My guess is that you are having commitment problems with your toe-side turn. You are not fully committed to the turn like you are on the heel-side. This is natural. On your heel-side you can look down the mountain. A fully committed toe-side turn has your back pointing downhill. This is not a comfortable position for a beginner. There has probably never been a snowboarder who did not struggle with this when learning.

The reason you catch an edge when you don't commit to the turn has to do with your board's angle to the slope of the hill. Initiate your toe-side turn by pressing down on your front foot toes like you were pressing on the gas peddle. Leave your back foot balanced. You can learn how to use your back foot coupled with your front foot after you've learned a basic skidded turn. By pressing down with your front food you've torqued the board disengaging the edge on your front heel-side.

Now is where you need to commit. Keep your weight on your front foot and your front toe engaged. That's all you need to do to complete your first turn. You'll still struggle because you have commitment issues. To help, try a little exercise with your turns. Stick your front-side arm straight out to your side parallel to your board. Then immediately after you have engaged your front foot, point in the direction you want to go. For a toe-side turn: press down with your front foot, point your arm in the direction of the turn and keep your weight forward. What you'll probably find is that you still have commitment issues, but instead of catching an edge, your weight is to far back. Get your weight forward.

Also, you aren't bending your knees enough and your back is too bent. This is something else every beginner struggles with. Fix your commitment issues first, then work on your knees and back by practicing the hump and dump. Hump with hill with your pelvis arching your back with your knees bent on a toe-side turn. Take a dump on hill in a heal-side turn by bending your knees, not your waist.

Hope that helps.


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