# Newbie about to double my days on the snow



## myschims (Jan 11, 2010)

when carving, make sure you bend your knees, this will take in a lot of the impact of bumps or uneven ground.
also, speed is definitely your friend, and try to turn with your back foot, thats how you turn, you cant turn with your front foot, you do that, and you catch an edge, which im sure you've done haha.
good luck


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## Guest (Jan 25, 2010)

myschims said:


> ...and try to turn with your back foot, thats how you turn, you cant turn with your front foot, you do that, and you catch an edge...


this is an oversimplification and, at best is terrible, terrible advice.

Kinthur, read some of the other threads in this forum from people having trouble with their turns to get some great advice. e.g.

trying to improve my turns
Just went snowboarding for the first time, need pointers
among others.

alasdair


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## linvillegorge (Jul 6, 2009)

157 for a freestyle board should be just fine for you. That's a good board to learn on anyway. A softer freestyle board that's a tad on the short side for you is easier to learn to turn on anyway.

How are your riding skills now? How about your friends? The reason I'm asking is that if you've ridden 7-8 days in the last two years and your friends have been riding 20 days a year for 5 years, then your goal of keeping up with them on blacks by the end of a 6 day trip is probably not reasonable and you'll just be setting yourself up for disappointment.


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## Surrendermonkey (Jan 14, 2010)

myschims said:


> and try to turn with your back foot, thats how you turn


That is really terrible advice.

You turn by pressuring your board and shifting your weight, if you actively try to turn with your back foot it means that you're kicking out with your back foot*, which is at best terrible form. And it's exactly what is making beginners so sore and tired after riding, they are working against the board instead of with it. 

On keeping up, how much experience does your friends have? Remember that while it is annoying to be the one constantly lagging behind (I tend to ride with some *very* experienced skiers that gets roughly 40 full days per year, and has done so for the last 10 years - compared to mine ~10 days per year, I know the feeling), it's worse to get injured. Don't ride faster than you're slightly uncomfortable with, it's important to push yourself, but don't push yourself too much.

But really, the links that alasdairm has posted are quite throughout, reading them and a bunch of other "Help 'X' isn't working for me" threads there is so many of here.


*I learned to ride in a different language, but as far as I understand, this is called 'ruddering'? Correct me if I've got the term wrong please.


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## MunkySpunk (Jan 7, 2009)

Kinthur said:


> If anyone has any tips or comments on gear, carving, drills, confidence, fatigue, etc. please help. Not being good at this has turned me slightly obsessive :laugh:


You have had only a few days on the hill spaced by long periods of downtime. The most solid piece of advice I can give is to just stick with it. You will get it eventually. You'll get frustrated, you'll get hurt, you'll want to quit. Don't. If my wife can learn to board, anybody can, including you. 

It will come in time. Practice, patience, practice.

And read the stickies in this topic. There's lots of basic lessons and pointers on youtube.



myschims said:


> try to turn with your back foot, thats how you turn, you cant turn with your front foot, you do that, and you catch an edge, which im sure you've done haha.
> good luck


Kinthur, I also advise you don't listen to this guy ^^^^^^, he's got no clue what he's talking about.


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## dharmashred (Apr 16, 2009)

myschims said:


> when carving, make sure you bend your knees, this will take in a lot of the impact of bumps or uneven ground.
> also, speed is definitely your friend, and try to turn with your back foot, thats how you turn, you cant turn with your front foot, you do that, and you catch an edge, which im sure you've done haha.
> good luck


Are you high?????  Do you know (clearly you don't) how many riders, myself included, struggle for the longest time to overcome this? The rear foot merely follows, it's an afterthought and not necessary at all to initiate the turn. * FRONT FOOT.* Please don't give this new rider terrible advice when he or she is seeking to improve and is turning to people here for help. :thumbsdown:

And OP, you _will_ get it. Lots of hard work, frustration, and then one day, you'll just have this magical breakthrough moment that makes it all worth it. Keep it up! Keep taking those lessons. Get yourself some gear! Boots online is really a bad idea. Even if you buy boots in a shop, you really won't know if they fit until you are out on the mountain, without even trying them at all just decreases the odds of you buying a pair that work. pants and a jacket will probably be okay to buy online, but if at all possible, go to a store and at least try the stuff on for size.


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## Guest (Jan 25, 2010)

The skill levels in the bunch vary. My target is being able to beat my brother-in-law since I've seen him fall and lag more than the others. He's had about 5 years with 10+ snow days each. I might be at a technical disadvantage even if we disregard experience though. He rides a 156 and he probably weighs 140. There will be one or two other novice riders too. But I'm not gonna compare myself with noobs even as a noob myself.

I guess what I'm hoping for is a eureka moment where it all comes together and I take off. I like to set my goals to unreachable. As far as progression goes it feels to me that if I got my next goal too easily then I didn't reach for enough. It's basically a progression thing. I'm happy if I fall just short of where I wanted as long as I'm ahead of where I was before. The crossover turns are something that I didn't get in either lesson I took so I'm looking forward to trying it.

One thing I'm still wondering about is waxing a new sintered base. There seems to be dissenting opinions on it. It holds more wax so I can wax less? It needs more wax so I need to wax more? What happens on a dry base? Do I just lose speed? That might be optimal if I'm not risking damage to the board for the first day or two on gentle groomers. I'll probably take along a wax kit.


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## linvillegorge (Jul 6, 2009)

One other piece of advice...

I would recommend setting your own peronal goes as far as your progression goes. I wouldn't worry about comparing your skills to those of the people in your group.

Plus, don't worry about "beating" anyone. One of the biggest tips I picked up in the lesson I took was that speed didn't equate to skill. Just because you're riding fast doesn't mean you're riding well. The first thing the instructor did was have me slow down and really work on my technique. A couple of days of doing that and that's when I was able to start really progressing. You gotta get that technique down before you worry about speed.

Here's why I say this...

My riding buddies have been riding for about 15 years and average about 30 days a year on the snow. On the other hand, I've been riding 2 years and have a total of about 40 days on the snow. I'm just now getting to where I can keep up with them on blue runs and they still smoke me on blacks. It took them time to get to where they are and it'll take me (and you) time to catch up. Don't worry about it; you'll get there!


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## TomNZ (Aug 10, 2009)

Kinthur said:


> One thing I'm still wondering about is waxing a new sintered base. There seems to be dissenting opinions on it. It holds more wax so I can wax less? It needs more wax so I need to wax more? What happens on a dry base? Do I just lose speed? That might be optimal if I'm not risking damage to the board for the first day or two on gentle groomers. I'll probably take along a wax kit.


It will come with a thin factory wax for the purposes of stopping it drying out in the shop and when being transported. However, six days is a fair amount of time to go without a wax at the best of times, let alone with the shitty factory wax. I would definitely be giving it a wax before you go. I wouldn't worry too much about waxing it while you're there though, as long as you give it a good wax when you get back afterwards. Then again, you're not going to do any _harm_ by waxing it after 3 days or whatever, so your call really :dunno:


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## Surrendermonkey (Jan 14, 2010)

Kinthur said:


> The skill levels in the bunch vary. My target is being able to beat my brother-in-law since I've seen him fall and lag more than the others. He's had about 5 years with 10+ snow days each. I might be at a technical disadvantage even if we disregard experience though. He rides a 156 and he probably weighs 140. There will be one or two other novice riders too. But I'm not gonna compare myself with noobs even as a noob myself


Look, I can strap of 20kg sack of potatoes to my board and have it come down that double black in no time whatsoever, don't worry about beating people, worry about beating yourself. And yes, it's annoying always being the slowest, but just ride as well as you can.

On wax, you need to wax a sintered base more in fact, while it does hold more wax it is much more vulnerable when it doesn't have enough wax. A extruded base doesn't really get hurt all that easily, a sintered does if it's dry.


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## baldylox (Dec 27, 2007)

myschims said:


> when carving, make sure you bend your knees, this will take in a lot of the impact of bumps or uneven ground.
> also, speed is definitely your friend, and try to turn with your back foot, thats how you turn, you cant turn with your front foot, you do that, and you catch an edge, which im sure you've done haha.
> good luck


In the interest of not flaming people..... this is dead wrong and I'll leave it at that. I would guess, since you 'think' you know what you are doing, you must have decent edge control. A turn is initiated with the front foot. You're at a phase that A LOT of people get stuck at. Really good time to take a lesson. You won't regret it.


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## bassholic (Dec 22, 2009)

^ Maybe schims was being sarcastic? :/


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## Guest (Jan 26, 2010)

I'm naturally sarcastic, and I couldn't make that "advice" sound sarcastic.


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## Guest (Jan 28, 2010)

Thanks everyone for your responses.

I spent the last several nights going all through these forums and found some very helpful advice. Once I got my snowboard in last night I was able to practice some of it in my living room and I think I've corrected some poor habits. I think it kind of helped me not to have the pressure of moving down a slope.

Toe side: I was going up on my toes for this, making myself taller. When my friends were yelling at me before to bend my knees I really didn't understand how to get on my toes and bend my knees at once. Finally, I figured out I can get on that toe edge by crushing my boot between my shin and toes. And it's sooo much more relaxing than that pseudo calf raise.

Heel side: About the same problem. I was just leaning back into it without enough bend in the knees most of the time. So it seems that simply squatting gets me a heel edge. Or at least the toe edge comes up off my carpet ever so slightly. I guess only real experience will tell me how much I need. I can't wait to get back out there.

One of the posts from Snowwolf ( I forget where it is now ) was like a revelation. I can't catch an edge if I'm not skidding. It's not a matter of getting across the fall line at all to switch edges. So now it's a matter of getting a feel of the times I'm moving tip to tail (still likely the fall line if I skid turn).

My goal for the first day is to figure out carving on the greens. Hopefully this will give me enough confidence not to punk out on the cat trails. I've gone off of them a couple of times trying to brake for fear of my skid turns not getting me around fast enough. Knowing that I could redirect myself back down the path should stop me from doing this. If I can't do this myself then I'll pony up for a lesson.

So...I can carve by ruddering, right?


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## baldylox (Dec 27, 2007)

Kinthur said:


> Toe side: I was going up on my toes for this, making myself taller. When my friends were yelling at me before to bend my knees I really didn't understand how to get on my toes and bend my knees at once. Finally, I figured out I can get on that toe edge by crushing my boot between my shin and toes. And it's sooo much more relaxing than that pseudo calf raise.
> 
> RIGHT! Just to clarify, you want to push your shin forward against the boot toward your toes (don't lift your toes toward the shin though) To add the next step. Thrust your pelvis toward the inside of the carve. You want to be lower to the board at the onset of the edge change and extend throughout the turn to apply more pressure to lock your edge in.
> 
> ...


That last one is a joke right?  Once you get those additions down...you'd want to learn to shift your weight during the carve to load the tail for your edge change. Best way to think about is like you are feeding a dollar bill into a machine. You slide the board toward the tip during the carve. You'll be carving in no time. Best to practice this stuff on a real easy trail with good snow. :thumbsup:


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## stillz (Jan 5, 2010)

If you thought reading Snowolf's posts on here was a revelation, just wait until you feel the difference made by correctly applying that information. At some point, it will all just click into place and you'll wonder what took you so long. Keep the stoke going, I'm sure you'll progress a ton.



> Best to practice this stuff on a real easy trail with good snow.


That's how I learned it. Being in a low traffic area helps, too (though "low traffic" and "good snow" are basically synonymous). There were several occasions where I veered around erratically while trying to learn this.


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## Guest (Jan 29, 2010)

Just wanted to say all the advice on here is great. I started boarding 2 years ago with a week away but have been plagued by injuries which is in turn majorly messing up my confidence, and have probably only got in 8 or 9 days in total so far. The toe turns are still getting me, catching my toe edge or pulling out half way through. I think with all I've read here that I've got a really good idea of how it works (should, anyway!) and hope that I can pull it off when I head to Italy on Sunday. Cheers.


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## wrathfuldeity (Oct 5, 2007)

this is not like riding but will help with getting your body ready by working on strength and proprioceptive neuro muscle feedback for balancing.

take double steps when ever possible, do them like alternating lunges going up the stairs...but finish each lunge with calf rise on the ball of your one foot...try to pause and balance for a few moments to a few seconds

get a balance board or make one out of a old skate deck and a plastic liter bottle filled with water...start on carpet or grass and if you get good do it on cement

do crunches, you use alot of core muscles in riding


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