# Park



## Guest (Feb 16, 2008)

I'll just give you the full run down.

Well my friend and I started boarding this year (self taught). We've been hittin the park lately and its about our 7th time actually palying in the park. he has been wanting to do 180's. His first attempt was a few weeks ago and he came out with a black eye and scratches all over his face. We had a warm spell and havnt hit the slopes for a few weeks.Then today he got me to try one on the smaller jump. Now i do not really know how to measure how much air but from the peak of the flight to where you land you can get 5-10ft depending on how much speed, I over rotated and landed completely sideways (270). 

I cant ride switch yet so I went for the 360, and fell my first 5 attempts. Then finally landed one but i feel like im leaning too far back. So i land kinda on my tail. By the end of the day I was landing pretty much every attempt just leaning back. Unfortunately he was only able to land 1 or 2. 

Any pointers on not leaning so much? And also any pointers on throwing in grabs?


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## Guest (Feb 16, 2008)

if you dont wanna lean back wen u land try doing the spin with an indy grab.
its easy and it centers your body really well


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## Guest (Feb 16, 2008)

First problem is skipping stepping stones. You should simply start with 180s while riding down the hill, no (snow) jumps involved. Then you can go for 180s off of kickers. And then you can progress to 360s and the such. 

Being self taught can save you ~$25 but it can also give you a lifetime of bad habits (check the other thread on this). I would take the time and money to invest in at least one lesson to make sure you haven't fallen into any of this. Just because it works, doesn't mean it works right. Alot of small modifications in your riding style can make things so much simpler and easier.


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## Mr. Right (Sep 27, 2007)

So true. After riding for 2.5 seasons I can bomb a hill like a mofo, but never really practiced switch at all. I can barely ride switch where riding regular I rarely ever get passed (I like to go fast) and I catch mad air, pull some grabs, and handle choppy terrain like crazy. Practicing slow flatland 180's in the last week or two has helped me a lot in my switch abilities. If I hit a jump and whipped out a good 360, I would most definitely land it but landing/riding switch will have me baffled until I really step up my ability there. I wish I had taken lessons. I still might. Being stuck landing only 360's or 720's could make life a bitch!


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## Guest (Feb 16, 2008)

chrisp41 said:


> if you dont wanna lean back wen u land try doing the spin with an indy grab.
> its easy and it centers your body really well


Well when throwing in a grab how do you keep spinning? When i 360 I twist my body to spin. But if i grab it will be an awkward twist.


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## Guest (Feb 16, 2008)

xevi89 said:


> First problem is skipping stepping stones. You should simply start with 180s while riding down the hill, no (snow) jumps involved. Then you can go for 180s off of kickers. And then you can progress to 360s and the such.
> 
> Being self taught can save you ~$25 but it can also give you a lifetime of bad habits (check the other thread on this). I would take the time and money to invest in at least one lesson to make sure you haven't fallen into any of this. Just because it works, doesn't mean it works right. Alot of small modifications in your riding style can make things so much simpler and easier.


I would love to do flat 180s but I cannot ride switch to save my life. I can heelside fairly decent but thats it. We actually tried 180s first off but felt better on the 360s. By the end of the day I was landing them pretty smooth just leaning back a bit.

The lessons here are terrible. I have several friends that work there that teach the lessons. One of my friends was teaching a lesson and another was the one learning. So i decided to join in and watch.And no offense to any of the instructors at Perfect North, but Im better than half of them. It seams like they just came out of a lesson and are now teaching them. :dunno:


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## snowsam17 (Jan 14, 2008)

You also might wanna try doing 180's but instead of landing switch, go off the jump switch. Landing regular will be much easier, and it will help you get a better feel for spinning.


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## alaric (Aug 28, 2007)

KJohnson said:


> I would love to do flat 180s but I cannot ride switch to save my life. I can heelside fairly decent but thats it. We actually tried 180s first off but felt better on the 360s. By the end of the day I was landing them pretty smooth just leaning back a bit.


That's why you need to learn riding switch. It helps your riding in everyway. And you won't be landing anything like 180's, 5's etc without switch riding unless you're doing pipe riding


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## Guest (Feb 16, 2008)

It's so easy to not to want to practice switch, but I was forced into it twice while taking a lesson, and I found out it isn't that hard. Yes it takes you back to being a complete noob, but you have the upper hand in knowing what to do. And you don't even have to be proficient at it to land 180s, just good enough to ride away and you can switch back to regular if you wish. 

Something else that will probably help with the rotation and switch (plus it is fun in itself) is just rotating while riding down the hill. Like go into a heelside turn and when your board is perpenticular to the fall line, bring your rear foot foreward (basically a switch toeside turn). Just keep doing that doing for however long you want or until you biff (which you will in the beginning). And this burns off INSANE amounts of speed.


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## Guest (Feb 16, 2008)

xevi89 said:


> Something else that will probably help with the rotation and switch (plus it is fun in itself) is just rotating while riding down the hill. Like go into a heelside turn and when your board is perpenticular to the fall line, bring your rear foot foreward (basically a switch toeside turn). Just keep doing that doing for however long you want or until you biff (which you will in the beginning). And this burns off INSANE amounts of speed.


I am actually able to do that but opposite. I toeside first then bring my board around and then heelside switch.


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## Guest (Feb 16, 2008)

KJohnson said:


> I am actually able to do that but opposite. I toeside first then bring my board around and then heelside switch.


Well work on it the other way (I need work on the way you do it) and it will really help with riding switch altogether.


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## Guest (Mar 7, 2008)

I took one day and rode switch exclusively. I actually got almost on par with my regular ability (It's only been 1.5 seasons, so it's not a huge accomplishment). By the end of the day I was bombing down blacks switch. You definitely will feel like it's the first time boarding again, but once you get it it picks up even faster than you did the first time. The key was remembering to put weight on the front foot. That kept messing me up as I was used to putting weight on my left foot to turn, so I kept skidding out or catching an edge until I forced myself to lean forward until I felt like I was going to tumble down the slope. 
Unfortunately since then I have been doing other things, butter attempts, 180s (with near instant change back to regular upon landing), etc. so my switch riding has gotten pretty bad again.


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