# Beginner Jumps (Broken Ankle)



## f00bar (Mar 6, 2014)

Funny, I am a little bit older than you, pretty new to all this and have the exact same issue.

I'm pretty sure its a fear thing, you're either hitting the brakes on the take off or simply am uncomfortable in the air sideways. Let's face it, at your age you fear breaking bones more than the youngsters so aren't committing.

Personally, I'm having issues with the 'pop'. I have a real hard time keeping the pressure vertical and as a result when extend down I end up pushing from the and sliding it out. I think maybe I'm not keeping my ankles stiff. I dunno.


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## sabatoa (Jan 18, 2011)

You should try to make those pics a bit smaller, I still see more than one pixel.


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## Kenai (Dec 15, 2013)

Your video is not loading on my iPad, but it doesn't look like the jump is too big. I was worried you were already going off serious kickers!

I had the same issue (and occasionally still do) because I came from four decades of skiing and it took some adjustment to go sideways. Clearly you just need to get more comfortable with going sideways. Work on riding looking straight ahead (i.e. across the run not down the hill) and backwards. Work on riding flat. Make sure you are riding without your hips feeling like they are twisting forward. You might need to lock that back arm behind you (grab your pants or something) so your upper body is not trying to rotate forward. You can definitely ride with only your head turned down the hill and when you do you will find that when you get in the air your body is not trying to face forward. 

Also, what are your binding angles? The more duck you are the easier it is to embrace that sideways feel.


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## Bama (Jan 23, 2016)

sabatoa said:


> You should try to make those pics a bit smaller, I still see more than one pixel.


 Trying to make them larger but everytime I do it says it exceeds the 20kb limit.


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## f00bar (Mar 6, 2014)

Bama said:


> Trying to make them larger but everytime I do it says it exceeds the 20kb limit.


Probably because you are a new member. They put limits to keep spammers at bay, not sure how it works. upload them someplace else and attach them as a link, not attachment.


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## SkullAndXbones (Feb 24, 2014)

i'm no expert on jumps so take this with a grain of salt but since your a beginner it sounds like you're favoring your heel edge when you go into the jump causing you to rotate. most beginners aren't comfortable on both edges. they usually favor one edge over the other (most of the time it's the heel edge) and that's why you see so many new people going down the hills facing forward and sliding down on their heel edge. my advice would be to get more comfortable using both edges with speed before attempting jumps. as for hitting jumps, bring your knees up when you come off the lip. in the photos your legs look too straightened out.


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## sabatoa (Jan 18, 2011)

Bama said:


> Trying to make them larger but everytime I do it says it exceeds the 20kb limit.


Ah, all good man. I didn't know you had that new member limit.


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## Bama (Jan 23, 2016)

sabatoa said:


> Ah, all good man. I didn't know you had that new member limit.


No worries, I set up a photobucket account. I now have the video up I think.


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## Bama (Jan 23, 2016)




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## Bama (Jan 23, 2016)

VIDEO


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## AmberLamps (Feb 8, 2015)

When you take off, find an edge your most comfortable taking off of, work on that first and bend your knees, get your weight more centered, your in the back seat the entire time, thats why you slid out on the landing. Again bend knees more, you extended them imediatly while in the air, its gonna put you off ballance and be hard to land.


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## sabatoa (Jan 18, 2011)

SkullAndXbones said:


> i'm no expert on jumps so take this with a grain of salt but since your a beginner it sounds like you're favoring your heel edge when you go into the jump causing you to rotate. most beginners aren't comfortable on both edges. they usually favor one edge over the other (most of the time it's the heel edge) and that's why you see so many new people going down the hills facing forward and sliding down on their heel edge. my advice would be to get more comfortable using both edges with speed before attempting jumps. as for hitting jumps, bring your knees up when you come off the lip. in the photos your legs look too straightened out.


Yeah, with your newest pics and video you're totally favoring your heel edge with messed you up. @SkullAndXbones is right on here.


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## AmberLamps (Feb 8, 2015)

Also if you broke your ankle there, maybe go get a boot fitting, you are probably in a boot that is to big, shouldnt be breaking ankles to easy if your foot is held correctly in the right size boot.


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## Rogue (Nov 29, 2014)

Faster!!!!


Ha-ha love southern accents!! Agree with skull & f00bar


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## f00bar (Mar 6, 2014)

AmberLamps said:


> Also if you broke your ankle there, maybe go get a boot fitting, you are probably in a boot that is to big, shouldnt be breaking ankles to easy if your foot is held correctly in the right size boot.


He really break his ankle? Seems the jumping would be the least of my concerns in that case!


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## chicagoland (Feb 22, 2014)

Work on hitting the jump straight and with your base completely flat on the snow. Another thing that helped me hit jumps more consistently is to watch the lip of the jump as you approach it, which helps you time your pop properly.


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## zenboarder (Mar 5, 2009)

SkullAndXbones said:


> i'm no expert on jumps so take this with a grain of salt but since your a beginner it sounds like you're favoring your heel edge when you go into the jump causing you to rotate. most beginners aren't comfortable on both edges. they usually favor one edge over the other (most of the time it's the heel edge) and that's why you see so many new people going down the hills facing forward and sliding down on their heel edge. my advice would be to get more comfortable using both edges with speed before attempting jumps. as for hitting jumps, bring your knees up when you come off the lip. in the photos your legs look too straightened out.


Going off edge isn't enough to cause spin unless you carved into the lip which is what you do to spin on a jump. No way he had that much control though. It's hard to tell from his video but my money is on him having opened up his shoulders to the jump as he went off the lip. This would result in his 90 degree side slip jump through the air. Other thing is it doesn't look like he popped the lip so the jump jumped him if you will. Another thing is he is too heavy on the back foot resulting in the weird way he is flying through the air. Quite common in people when they first hit jumps they forget to shift weight forward as they climb up the lip.

Breaking your ankles is easy though if you air to flat which this looks like he might have done in the video. Even on a small jump an air to flat is going to hurt a whole ton. Hitting that in the sideslip position is going to make things even worse. No way is any boot or binding going to save your ankles in that scenario. Small jumps are a great way to get seriously hurt if you take too much speed into them since they tend to have almost no landing zone. Overshoots typically end up in very serious injuries such as broken ankles(typically broken talus) or compression fractures.



AmberLamps said:


> When you take off, find an edge your most comfortable taking off of, work on that first


Unless you are spinning almost everyone will come off a lip with a nearly flat base with a slight bias to the toes. It's a lot harder to pop from the heels.


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## Mystery2many (Aug 14, 2013)

You don't do straight airs off park kicker in an edge. You hit them completely flat based and relaxed.

I think you're going beyond your ability at this point. How well can you flat base down the mountain completely relaxed and in control? Its hard to tell how the park is set up but you either need to find a drop point or speed check then straight line/flat base to it at a controlled speed. I would start smaller and slower and work on your technique and body posture. When you are able to hit really small hits completely flat and in control you can take it a little bigger. Progression is key, just like in grade school you don't go from second grade to sixth grade until you work your way up.


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## Fewdfreak (May 13, 2013)

Play by play of a crash, LOL.

I when I learned jumps I was told to start small and get comfortable in the air with good form on little kickers then work my way up. I like to pick a specific number of speed checks I will do and then attempt to do a grab everytime I am in the air, grabbing indy is pretty easy one to do and will keep you from rotating. Grabbing helps you keep that form in air instead of like dead sailoring it... Look where you want to go and then think "stomp it".


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## redlude97 (Jan 9, 2008)

Mystery2many said:


> You don't do straight airs off park kicker in an edge. You hit them completely flat based and relaxed.
> 
> I think you're going beyond your ability at this point. How well can you flat base down the mountain completely relaxed and in control? Its hard to tell how the park is set up but you either need to find a drop point or speed check then straight line/flat base to it at a controlled speed. I would start smaller and slower and work on your technique and body posture. When you are able to hit really small hits completely flat and in control you can take it a little bigger. Progression is key, just like in grade school you don't go from second grade to sixth grade until you work your way up.


You might think you are totally flat based but I bet if you really pay attention you are pressuring your toe edge with a slight bit of counter rotation. Its the easiest way to pop.


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## Bama (Jan 23, 2016)

Thanks everyone for the replies. I'm reading through all this now.


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## Bama (Jan 23, 2016)

Rogue said:


> Faster!!!!
> 
> 
> Ha-ha love southern accents!! Agree with skull & f00bar


haha... I'm from bama and am now living in Minnesota. My friends are motocross racers and came up for the week and their answer to everything is "FASTER"...


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## Bama (Jan 23, 2016)

So after reading here is where I'm at... And I'm currently riding 26" wide stance at 15/-15 Duck.

1. Watch lip of jump as I approach
2. Shift weight slightly forward
3. Ride in with a flat base or slightly favoring toe edge
4. Pop off the lip like a boss
5. Pull knees up while in the air and extend legs down upon landing...


How does that sound?


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## emt.elikahan (Mar 12, 2014)

Bama said:


> So after reading here is where I'm at... And I'm currently riding 26" wide stance at 15/-15 Duck.


26" ? How tall are you?



Bama said:


> 4. Pop off the lip like a boss
> How does that sound?


:thumbsup:


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## ketchupgun (Apr 6, 2013)

yeah man....you have to approach it flat based.

the real aha moment I recall with this was crouching real low way ahead of the jump...so your rid eup the jump crouched, then at the top extend (pop) and bring the kness (landing gear) up to your chest. Then as you spot the landing, bring the landing gar down. 

judging from the pix, you;re just running off the jump with your legs extended/straght and zero control, as such...and thats dangerous.

flat base will help your rotation, but the other to try is pointing with your leading arm...point to the jump and the landing...this should help keep you sideways...once your chest is no longer sideways, you will be rotating.

good luck man.


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## Bama (Jan 23, 2016)

I'm 6'2 and 206 pounds
156W LibTech Attack Banana board
Burton Cartel Bindings

Knee Pads
Wrist Pads
Elbow Pads
Azzpadz (Best Investment EVER)
Helmet
Electric Goggles



emt.elikahan said:


> Bama said:
> 
> 
> > So after reading here is where I'm at... And I'm currently riding 26" wide stance at 15/-15 Duck.
> ...


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## Bama (Jan 23, 2016)

The way I came up with my stance width is measure between the center screw on the bindings. That measurement is just at 26 inches.

And thanks for the landing gear post. That's a great way to visualize it.


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## XxGoGirlxX (Jan 15, 2016)

Holy cow bottle me some of that crazy ... I am just starting kickers now, my 5th season. Granted I waited extra long but yikes too early imo. How can you commit safely without peace & trust


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## emt.elikahan (Mar 12, 2014)

Bama said:


> The way I came up with my stance width is measure between the center screw on the bindings. That measurement is just at 26 inches.
> 
> And thanks for the landing gear post. That's a great way to visualize it.


26" seems quite wide, but if you like it... I'm 5'10" and just widened my stance a bit to 23".. 
When I was first learning to hit jumps someone told me to keep my front hand over the nose of my board and my back hand over my tail. That really helped me to stop the unwanted rotating. Once you get that down, you should definitely start working on popping as described above (the landing gear speech..) then you can eventually start rotating on purpose :grin:


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## speedjason (May 2, 2013)

I am in the same boat as OP. Started snowboarding at 28 and now I am 30. I want to progress but just the idea of hurting scares me away. I hit my shoulder 2 weeks ago might've torn an AC joint or partially torn. It's almost done healing but just makes you think how easily you can get hurt. That's the worse injuries I've had so far.


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## FooteSoldier (Dec 10, 2015)

This is a useful thread for all of us. I just turned 40, started boarding this season and I love it. I'd be psyched to get into the park and start trying kickers and rails, coming from a history of skateboarding, but between my age, my ability level and having knee (strained MCL/PCL a couple years ago) and shoulder (non-union heal of broken collarbone), I am definitely thinking about what COULD go wrong every time I strap on the board.

I'll hopefully get there in the next season or two, but I've learned from enough sports experience to really make sure I've got the basics down before I start trying to get cool and fancy. Especially since I'm not one of the young bucks anymore...


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## f00bar (Mar 6, 2014)

I'm perfectly happy playing on boxes and the small jumps in the progression park. If nothing else it gives the young kids something to laugh at. I didn't think I'd move on to rails, but last time out the only box they had up with a really narrow one, probably 6", and I didn't freak out on it, so who knows.

My issue this year is we've had 0" of natural snow, so the park is all man made and very fast and hard. So I'm not pushing anything.


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## XxGoGirlxX (Jan 15, 2016)

speedjason said:


> I want to progress but just the idea of hurting scares me away.


I am in my 5th season, but it's my first season back after a _ 5 yr break with 0 riding. _ (not time off due to an injury)
I literally think I forgot how much pain I went thru, my brain was kind of a blank slate and mostly all I have now is excitement, even thou ive taken some pretty serious licks due to wanting to progress aggressively and make up for lost time before I hit an age wall. I feel like I'm a lot better now than where I left off 5 yrs ago, one of the main differences being my level of fear. Just goes to show how much it can hold you back. Another big difference being I lived thru childbirth and that kind of puts a perspective on what you will recover from :grin::grin: now here I definitely have an advantage over the boys!!!!!


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## Bama (Jan 23, 2016)

I hate to think that my age limits me, but maybe that's why I'm in the situation I'm in. Had I found this forum before my injury I might not have even needed to post. But as you can hear from my friend in the video, I've learned that hitting things "faster" isn't always the answer.

But now I've got a clear and set out plan to tackle jumps when I'm able to get back at it...

Thanks Again...


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## emt.elikahan (Mar 12, 2014)

Not sure if you've seen this, but it will probably help..


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## Bama (Jan 23, 2016)

It gives me an error when I try to watch the video. What's the name and I will search it in YouTube? Thanks




emt.elikahan said:


> Not sure if you've seen this, but it will probably help..


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## XxGoGirlxX (Jan 15, 2016)

Bama said:


> It gives me an error when I try to watch the video. What's the name and I will search it in YouTube? Thanks


Snowboard pro camp How to Hit a Jump - try this link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLA19FB9E97B04121%20%202&v=8rimo9x4qqw


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## Bama (Jan 23, 2016)

Thanks everyone, this video literally put it in perspective for me. Pulling the knees/landing gear up is crucial in my opinion to maintaining good balance and landing in balance. And the pop makes it seem like you can get much more air without having to approach the jump with so much speed.

Watching this video and my video makes me realize I was just flying through the air with everything extended and locked. Now I see why planes pull their landing gear up at takeoff...




XxGoGirlxX said:


> Bama said:
> 
> 
> > It gives me an error when I try to watch the video. What's the name and I will search it in YouTube? Thanks
> ...


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