# Suggestions?



## Guest (Feb 12, 2010)

Hey, I've been snowboarding for a few years now, but have never really attempted any tricks. I'm pretty sure this is mostly down to fear. I want to learn some tricks that are pretty easy, but also look good.

If you've got any suggestions of good begginer tricks or tips to combat fear it would be much appreciated.


----------



## Leo (Nov 24, 2009)

Coop said:


> Hey, I've been snowboarding for a few years now, but have never really attempted any tricks. I'm pretty sure this is mostly down to fear. I want to learn some tricks that are pretty easy, but also look good.
> 
> If you've got any suggestions of good begginer tricks or tips to combat fear it would be much appreciated.


Flat land jumps. On mellow and slower parts of a run, start practicing flat jumps. When you get good at these, you can start to do Ollies and Nollies. Then you can progress to natural features. Hit the small bumps throughout the runs and get some air. Take it slow and work your way up faster and higher. Tail presses are also a beginner friendly trick that can look steeze when you dial it in.

Get a helmet, and some padded protection if you can. I'd say a helmet is a must when learning and the padding will help reduce the pain from falling which in turn will build confidence.

Most importantly, have fun. Oh, don't forget to work on your switch riding. Start on the bunny hill and when you can ride that out switch the whole time, start moving to bigger runs. Good switch riding is important for when you start doing bigger tricks.


----------



## gjsnowboarder (Sep 1, 2009)

One way to start conquering fear for the speed it some times takes to hit jumps try riding a flat board down the hill for a ways. Start on mellow groomers and then work up to steeper terrain. Remember to be cognizant of others on the hill when doing this.


----------



## jputtho2 (Jan 14, 2010)

One thing I tell myself when I want to try new things is something I picked up from a friend that I ride with and that is that the fear in most cases is greater than the trick. Obviously don't expect to go in with that mindset and think you're gonna BS 540 a small gap jump but it's good in finding confidence to progress. 

You just have to not be scared to fall because it's going to happen. One thing you should do is read up on the tips on his site on how to fall as it'll make the experience much better. 

But yeah, now when I want to try something new I just picture how I want it to go in my head and just hit it. Most of the time it doesn't work out how I picture it in my head the first time but I just keep at it until it does.


----------



## david_z (Dec 14, 2009)

jputtho2 said:


> One thing I tell myself when I want to try new things is something I picked up from a friend that I ride with and that is that the fear in most cases is greater than the trick.


Indeed. The fear is always greater than the trick. Well, almost always  I'm afraid to do 3s, even though I landed my first few attempts. Don't know what it is, but I need like a _perfect_ jump setup otherwise I chicken out.



jputtho2 said:


> You just have to not be scared to fall because it's going to happen.


And 9 times out of 10, it doesn't hurt anywhere near as badly as you thought it would. I _busted_ my ass a few times last Thursday frontboarding this rail. Got up and did it again. Didn't stick any of them, and got a real nasty bruise right on my ass crack, but honestly, it never really _hurt_. I've washed landings on jumps, I've caught edges over-rotating a spin or coming down off-balance or whatever, and you _think_ it's going to really hurt. It almost never does.

I'm not saying your bulletproof (none of us are) but the psychology is what's keeping you scared. physically, you're not likely to _really_ hurt/injure yourself until you start throwing yourself off 30+ footers and inverting and kinked rails over 20-stair sets on concrete. When you get that good, you won't be worried about getting hurt 



jputtho2 said:


> But yeah, now when I want to try something new I just picture how I want it to go in my head and just hit it. Most of the time it doesn't work out how I picture it in my head the first time but I just keep at it until it does.


Dood. If you can get yourself on video, even crappy video from a digicam or cell phone, it helps. you can usually watch it and watch one of snowprofessorrick's videos or the guys from snowboardaddiction.com etc., and you should be able to see what you're doing wrong. From there, you gotta force yourself mentally to adjust and overcome the bad habit(s) that you've built up over the years, but it's a great place to start.


----------



## damanb (Sep 9, 2011)

Was going to start a new thread but found this one.

I'm a newer rider. I've done about four different 3-4 day trips and that's all. Picked it up pretty quickly in those trips but am still nowhere near what I'd call good.

I am spending my first full season at Brighton now that I moved to SLC and want to get into freestyle. I've always wanted to progress my buttering a lot. Any tips on some good foundation butter tricks that can help propel me along? Obviously there's the nose/tail press. I was just curious of anyone's opinions on other tricks or techniques to try out to improve my buttering/general riding.


----------



## j.gnar (Sep 4, 2009)

make some friends and ride with people that are better than you....its the fastest way to progress your riding ability


----------



## ThunderChunky (Oct 1, 2011)

Snowboarding is really all about mindset. Go into stuff fast and confident. You need a lot more speed than you think, and if you do something too fast and nothing happens (which it most likely won't) you gain a lot of confidence. My experience with progressing is just being confident and doing it. I've been riding seven years and never gotten hurt, and I fall a lot, fall hard, and fall fast. I get more and more surprised how durable the body really is every year. But this don't mean were indestructible, so be a little cautious, believe me a helmet makes things a lot less painful.


----------



## IdahoFreshies (Jul 9, 2011)

j.gnar said:


> make some friends and ride with people that are better than you....its the fastest way to progress your riding ability


god, this 10000x over. aside from private lessons that is the best way to get better, fast. And i dont mean people that think they are better than you, or are more confident than you, or people that have been up 5 more times than you. Its people that are at least 2-3 years ahead of you. When me and my friend first got into it by the end of our first season riding together we could do the black diamond groomers confidently and with little to no falls. Fast forward 4 years and we bring up another friend, first time on the mountain, he takes a private lesson and we start riding with him. After his 5th day up with us he is at the same level it took us an entire season to get to. If you can find some friends at an advanced enough level that are willing to put up with your slower pace, you will get better very very fast.

oh, also have balls. The only reason he progressed so fast was because if we told him to hit something, he hit it, and if we told him you better take the blue run and we will meet you at the bottom, this section is pretty difficult, he ignored us and followed us anyway.


----------



## WasatchMan (Aug 30, 2011)

be really cocky and act like you know you're going to land whatever your attempting. Also eat shit/fall hard - get it over with and out of the way.


----------



## j.gnar (Sep 4, 2009)

ThunderChunky said:


> Snowboarding is really all about mindset. Go into stuff fast and confident. You need a lot more speed than you think, and if you do something too fast and nothing happens (which it most likely won't)


this isnt always true. in fact, its almost never true. try flat landing a 40 or 50 foot jump and tell me nothing will happen and youll bounce right back. 




ThunderChunky said:


> a helmet makes things a lot less painful.


i do agree with this. especially if youre new and want to get into the park. i got a concussion last year and it was pretty scary. if youre pushing your riding ability, youre going to eat shit. and if youre not eating shit, youre not pushing yourself


----------



## CheeseForSteeze (May 11, 2011)

Snowolf said:


> Another concept that is invaluable is the "outside in" method. Quite simply it is learning much of your freestyle moves outside of the park, using natural features as you are free riding. This allows you to dial in your freestyle riding without the pressure and potential hazards of of being in the actual terrain park.


On a sidenote, this is one of the most fun things you can do and is almost another style of riding all together (all-mountain freestyle?). So definitely do as Wolf suggests here and give it a shot. Everything from transitions between cat tracks, side hips, natural moguls or stashes and if your balls and the mountains you ride are epically big enough, dropping over big cornices into steep grades.


----------



## IdahoFreshies (Jul 9, 2011)

CheeseForSteeze said:


> On a sidenote, this is one of the most fun things you can do and is almost another style of riding all together (all-mountain freestyle?). So definitely do as Wolf suggests here and give it a shot. Everything from transitions between cat tracks, side hips, natural moguls or stashes and if your balls and the mountains you ride are epically big enough, dropping over big cornices into steep grades.


as long as there is some nice fresh snow, integrating these natural freestyle features into my line is what i usually do the most of, and i thinks its one of the funnest things you can do on a snowboard. Any trick you can do in the park looks twice as good if you apply it to natural terrain. Anyone can do a straight air + grab off of a park jump and nobody cares, but as soon as you take it to the mountain and huck it off of a 15 ft tall rock face...the entire chairlift cheers and goes wild. Doing smaller natural jumps will greatly help you when you take it to the park, because natural jumps are far from perfect, and if you can dial in your landings on the mountain, you take it to the smoothed out park jumps and land solidly every time even when you are just starting out.


----------



## dreampow (Sep 26, 2011)

I agree with the go slow way of learning tricks and start on regular runs using little natural bumps or side walls.
You don't even have to get air at first, just get used to the feel of the board as you go over bumps and terrain with little transitions. That way you start getting used to how you need to change your posture and your foot pressure on the board to keep your balance. 

If you find a nice little natural jump landing is powder you can hit it small to start and slowly increase speed and pop off the jump. The beauty of powder landings is when you get it wrong its like falling into a big fluffy pillow. You get it badly wrong in the terrain park and you will be going to the hospital.

I've seen it happen many times and I barely go through the park. Must be the place with the most injuries by far (IMO).

When you have some basics down you can hit the park if thats your thing.
I don't bother with it because I don't like the posing/showing off element. I prefer to hit natural features and I get the satisfaction of landing a sweet grab or a 360, no one else even sees most of my tricks apart from maybe my riding buddies. 
I do it for the pleasure not the props.

Each to their own.


----------



## CheeseForSteeze (May 11, 2011)

One of the best things about going to mountain and learning all the trails is just finding those places hits tend to build up and memorizing them. A couple of side hits, a roller, a transition between cat tracks, some mogus, trees etc. you can have your own terrain park down the entire mountain.


----------

