# Help with Butters!



## cocolulu (Jan 21, 2011)

I tried to do some butters the other day, and I just couldn't do them.

Every time I tried to stand on the board, no matter how much I leaned back, I couldn't get balanced and the board would just fall flat. I tried spinning on flat gorund, and could barely get any rotation going before the board flattened out.

Am I doing something wrong?

I'm afraid one thing could be that my board is pretty long for me. It's 145cm, and I'm 5'1"... it reaches up to my eyes. The board isn't supposed to be very stiff, but I only weigh 110 lbs, and that's after a big lunch =/.

Could it be my equipment?


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## BliND KiNK (Feb 22, 2010)

throw it on the ground and pull your front leg to you while crouching down on your back leg not completely backwards... I think your technique might be suspect.


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## Qball (Jun 22, 2010)

Don't just lean back, ollie or nollie into the press. It is much easier and looks way better too.


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## cocolulu (Jan 21, 2011)

I think I know what I'm doing wrong...

I'm supposed stand on the back leg and bend the board with my back leg? And spin on the back leg...?

I was trying to bend the end of the board and balance on it. Yeah that was stupid :dunno:


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## Donutz (May 12, 2010)

cocolulu said:


> I think I know what I'm doing wrong...
> 
> I'm supposed stand on the back leg and bend the board with my back leg? And spin on the back leg...?
> 
> I was trying to bend the end of the board and balance on it. Yeah that was stupid :dunno:


Right. Also, butters are _not_ easy right out of the box. You'll get nowhere with them until it clicks then suddenly you'll be able to do them. But you have to keep at it and accept the butt bruises.


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## MistahTaki (Apr 24, 2010)

extend your leading foot while leaning your weight on your bent back leg. simple as that.


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## linvillegorge (Jul 6, 2009)

If you're first starting don't even worry about spinning and all the cute stuff yet. Just learn to ride a butter straight first. From the sounds of it what you're trying to do would be akin to trying to learn how to hit jumps by starting off trying to huck threes. Start simple and work up from there or you're not likely to have much success.

What helped me was using my trailing hand to grab the tail of the board. I thought I was keeping my weight centered over the board but I wasn't. For quite sometime I could butter but cohldn't ride one for long before I was getting off balance and veering off course. It's because I wasn't staying centered. Grabbing the tail helped me overcome that.


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## MistahTaki (Apr 24, 2010)

keeping your shoulders aligned with the board is the most important aspect in trying to do a press in a straight line. usually it's easier to do butters if you go into a press first and look over turn your shoulders and the board will veer to the direction you turned them.


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## cocolulu (Jan 21, 2011)

Thanks for your help! I'll try it again next time I'm on the slopes...


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## cadencesdad (Nov 18, 2008)

maybe widen your stance and set it back towards the tail some. If your major concern is butters the farther back you set your stance, the easier it will be to tail press.


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## MistahTaki (Apr 24, 2010)

it's more stable when your stance is widen but does not necessasrily make it easier to do. when you have a narrower stance you have more leverage to bend the board. you have to put in more effort when your stance is wide to get it to flex.


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## Thad Osprey (Feb 18, 2009)

cadencesdad said:


> maybe widen your stance and set it back towards the tail some. If your major concern is butters the farther back you set your stance, the easier it will be to tail press.


What if he wants to nose butter? Not sure if settubg the stance further is not the answer in anycase. 

One of the key indicators is how far you are able to shift your centre of gravity over and past your bindings to go into a nose or tail press. I'd agree a wider stance could help (lower CG, better balance, more stability, easier to bend board per unit of hip movement). 

To O/P.. the lighther you are the more weight shift becomes important. If you're trying to press remember alot of it is leaning your weight into a press, not pulling the opposing leg up. I'd recommend just doing it a whole lot on flat ground and HOLDING for as long as you can to develop the muscular strength. Do it before u start any run and before you unstrap to ride the lift. And practise lots during the run. You'll be amazed what 2 days of this can do. And press both nose and tail (dont wanna be a one trick pony). You'll need to learn to press both once you go into combos anyway.


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## Leo (Nov 24, 2009)

MistahTaki said:


> keeping your shoulders aligned with the board is the most important aspect in trying to do a press in a straight line. usually it's easier to do butters if you go into a press first and look over turn your shoulders and the board will veer to the direction you turned them.


Eh, not really. My shoulders aren't completely aligned with my board during straight tail presses. It's all in your own style and technique. There's two ways people do presses (or combination of the two).

1) Lean back method

2) Manually lifting the nose method

I use both, but mainly the lean back method. I only lift the nose manually if it's a softer board just to get it higher. I also like to grab the tail with my rear hand sometimes during them.

Once you get your straight presses down, try doing a tail press and look over your shoulder while reaching to grab your tail with both hands. I find this causes you to naturally rotate. I'm still not able to do complete butters mid-run, but I like to practice them at the end of a run.

Also, learning flat spins first is a good idea so you get used to the rotation. On a rockered (center rocker) board, you can just start spinning. I spin using my edges.


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## cocolulu (Jan 21, 2011)

My stance is on the wide'ish side. I widened it to something like 2" wider than my shoulders (I have narrow shoulders). I have a forward stance setup, maybe I'll switch to duck stance for a day and it'll work better.

I'll try again next time I'm on the slopes.

One concern is that I have a hybrid RC board, so the place where my feet are are the place that's popped up out of the snow. I guess a rocker board would be more ideal for butters?


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## BliND KiNK (Feb 22, 2010)

The biggest part of any of this is finding out where your body needs to be in relation to the board to hold a press first off.

Because if you just yank the nose or tail up I guarantee you will either eat shit or just slap it back on the ground and look like a dumb ass...

Like I said before... just throw on your boots and click in at your house, apartment, or w/e... and see what it takes to lift the nose and tail off the ground.

You need to be comfortable with the weight management before you hit snow (IMO) as it makes it SO much easier than just trying to wing it while trying to do speed checks because you speed up considerably any time you go flat and lift the board up ( I do anyways, maybe I have a base made of nitrous oxide.


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