# Riding blue runs?



## Donutz

I second this. While it's nice to ride with your friends, if they're that much better than you they'll either get pissed off or leave you behind anyway. If instead you go off on your own to a slope that you find easy -- and I mean _easy_, not just barely tolerable -- you'll progress a lot faster _and_ have a lot more fun (which ultimately is the point). Arrange to meet your friends a couple of times a day, so they remember what you look like.


----------



## patongue

Hmm.. might be too early if you are catching edges more often than you should be.

I'm a theory-oriented person too. I've taught dozens of friends how to snowboard, so I may have some tips that may help. First, if you're finding you catch too much speed going flat down the hill - is all your weight on your back leg? Basically 100% of the time, I see people new to steeper terrain picking up too much speed because all their weight is back. Keep your weight on your front leg or even.


----------



## evilfeline007

I really focus on leaning onto the front leg.

I think what happens to me is I start out fabulous in the morning... i fall a couple of times and then once i have a hard fall (usually on my butt or knees) i get sore and scared of falling... then it all goes downhill (literally...lol)

I turn, but then i level out and sometimes almost go uphill a bit and slow right down, nervously anticipating the next turn, which is jerky bc i'm going from sloooow to fast to slow again...

I only really catch my edges when I get tired and lose focus... mostly i'm super paranoid about catching edges. 

All my problems are personality problems... in the mornings when i'm fresh and not sore, I can just scoot down the greens no problem. I have an "azzpadz" that I wear bc i do have a somewhat sensitive tailbone but I almost think it makes it worst.. it's like the only place I hurt is my tailbone.

I'm convinced if I could only stop being afraid of going fast, and have a more constant speed... all my problems would be solved. I had this exact problem when i started parallel skiing... i'd traverse to slow right down, and speed up in the turn and then slow right down again. It wasn't until I went on a blue run that it all came together.

Overall, I don't know how to control my speed other than to slow down in between turns... there must be a way to control your speed on a board, and keep the speed constant???? Does it have to do with pressure like it does skiing? (ie weight shifting with more pressure causes you to slow down). I need to go see the wizard of oz for some courage


----------



## doylerules

If i can chime in my to cents ont his topic:

As a rider that literally picked this up at the beginning of last season, I think that i can help you out with this a little bit having all those fears still fresh in the brain!

First i will tell you about me, i live in alberta where the mountains are all around me....so went once last year, got hooked right away. bought an old second hand board that week. with in a few trips to the mountains(3 or 4) i was the exactly where you are. i could link my turns, i could go straight riding switch(only going toeside), and when riding my regular stance i couldn't go heelside very well, only riding greens and the odd blue(with extreme caution, aka snowplowing)......fast forward to today. i ride blacks regular, moguls(not that i like them) trees/off track, the odd double black, and can ride switch(full on carving), along with small jumps(nothing to write home about, but still landing them). and to top it off unlike last year i have a need for speed! i love to get that plank up to top speed!

so to your problem at hand, here is what i did....

1. first stick to the green runs until you have mastered them(or at least think that you have) and you will know when this happens pretty quick, when you are the one looking at people and knowing what they are doing wrong. 

2. practice doing low speed 360's if you are all ready comfortable riding straight switch then start by riding switch, go toeside applying more pressure on the back foot, until you are almost back around at your regular stance(this is where it gets tricky) you need to learn how to transfer your weight to straighten your board and switch edges at the same time. then keep this motion going and go heelside, applying the pressure to your back foot again and spinning around another 180 to riding switch again. keep doing this, the benefit that will come from learning to do this is amazing! you will feel how the edges work on the board and you will learn how to heelside without even knowing that you are! once you are comfortable with this do it the other way.... AND look at that you know a trick! 

3. start doing what i call spot turns, look at a spot in the snow, and tell yourself that you are going to turn when you hit that spot and DO IT! and practice that for both heelside and toeside! 

4.riding the big hills is cool, and i know this isn't really advice to help you this weekend, but what i did was got a pass for a local hill to where i live, it isn't that great, and pretty short....but i went there for a few hours every couple days with one thing in mind for the day, so i would pick something weather it was learning how to carve switch or just simply practicing my heelside carving. this will improve you riding by leaps and bounds!

5. Practice practice practice! the more that you practice the better that you are going to get ! the more that you have the board on, the more you are going to know the physics of snowboarding work!

6. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT AND THAT IS WHY I AM USING CAP LOCKS...........

STOP THINKING ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE DOING!!!!!!
my biggest problem was probably a lot like what i assume you are doing, over thinking what you are doing at the moment or what your next move is, you are concentrating sooo much on it that you are screwing yourself up and probably causing you to fall. just do something as simple as carving a green run, don't try anything that you haven't already done before, but don't think about what you are doing!


hope this helps your cause, and sorry about being so long winded


----------



## evilfeline007

thank-you for your tips! you're right i do overthink.. 

I just went out today and bought my first pair of snowboard boots!! I did NOT realise how poorly those rentals fit until I put these puppies on! I either got stuck with 7's which were too tight or 7 1/2's which were too big in the rentals (in a brand new pair i'm a size 9...lol). Last time I went my boots kept loosening... I'm sort of hoping that my lack of board control came partially from the fact that my heel was coming probably close to a 3/4 to an inch off the bottom of the boot everytime I went onto my toeside which in turn constantly loosened my boot.


----------



## fatboyj711

it sounds like you need to make bigger turns


----------



## Chaos Theory

Just to play devil's advocate, but I find my riding progressed the most when I surrounded myself with those who were better/more advanced than myself.


----------



## fayewolf

Dude, listen to snowolf. I had the EXACT same situation down to the T. I can link turns when I'm going slowly, really think about what I'm doing, and careful when my board goes straight down to try to have my rear edge still engage so I'm not going down super fast, then i allow it to go flat for one milisecond and I immediately turn either toe or heel side.
I was really happy when I was on the green run, linking turns, eating some shit, but not much. So happy about my progress, had lunch with friend, she decided we should try the blues. Since northstar was famous for their runs being flat, i thought okay... worse i can do is plow down. 

And for someone who's not good with snow, never been on mountain before, that was shit. I got off the lift, managed to not fall down, but looked down the slope and went "WTF". I stopped at every single trail crossing point to ask people which one is the least steep. I encountered cat track which I had absolutely no idea what to do. I was using heelside edge to falling leaf down the whole time, my quads were burning in order to control speed. I attempted one toe side turn and i immediately fell over, rolled down the slope a few times. I was miserable. 

Then I encountered an area that was a steep turn, on the right, if my turn is nasty, I'll fall down the black mountain side which looks just like a cliff, or if I was able to go by the turn, i will go down this nasty steep slope. I unstrapped, walked to the slope, it was SO freakn steep i can't even get up. I was wondering if I should just sit on the snow and ride down on my ass. Finally i was able to stand up and plow/heel side down. I think this traumatized me. Everythign went downhill then. 

I got scared to fall, when i fell in the blue run, impact was larger, i rolled a few times (doesn't happen on green). I became very paranoid about falling. I started to use my wrist and somewhat hurt it. (not bad at all though).

By the way, my friend wore a wrist guard and broke his arm right where the wrist guard ended, broke both the large bones on is arm!! Scary!!

So long story short, my advice is to stick to green until you like carve down like you own the mountain, don't do it. 

But do share your storey afterwards please!


----------



## gjsnowboarder

Chaos Theory said:


> Just to play devil's advocate, but I find my riding progressed the most when I surrounded myself with those who were better/more advanced than myself.


Yes, by riding with better riders you can progress just by watching if you are a visual learner. However, this can backfire very quickly if the split between you and the "Better" riders is too great. Because the difference in speed to keep up a lower rider will end up taking more chances, at higher speeds, and create bad habits doing this. I taught a girl that thought she was a level 5-6 because she rode blues and blacks with her friends and could keep up. She wanted the lesson to stop the buring and pain in her legs. She couldn't ride her toeside to save her life. She was experiencing the burn because she rode the same way the whole time. It was like sitting against a wall for half an hour. She kept up by being the fastest heelsider I have ever seen. Needless to stay it took awhile to get her to break through that need to see straight down the slope, feel safe from going to heel to toe, and to slow down enough to start building the blocks for good riding.

By the way this started off a little game where I and some friends would have heelside races. Tons of fun.


----------



## Zak

I started snowboarding after my brother got me a used board for x-mas. I've been progressing really fast, I can go on the harder runs without much effort.
The real point is to stop thinking about what you're doing. You need to be able to know what to do by pure instinct. Once you can do all of the basic stuff when you're supposed to without having to think twice about it, then you should be able to start to do some of the harder stuff.
Also, you're gonna want some pads. I took a bad dive my first day and my kneecap (the bone) was bruised. much pain.


fayewolf said:


> By the way, my friend wore a wrist guard and broke his arm right where the wrist guard ended, broke both the large bones on is arm!! Scary!!


to be fair, your wrist has a more complicated bone structure (longer to heal) and hurts a LOT more. breaking 2 straight bones in your arm is much better than shattering all of the tiny stuff in your hand.
wrist guard = :thumbsup:


----------



## photohunts

gjsnowboarder said:


> By the way this started off a little game where I and some friends would have heelside races. Tons of fun.


so you and your friends are the reason why skiers don't like boarders. aha! jk


----------



## gjsnowboarder

It does seem to have that added benefit of pissing off people that don't know how to have fun. We'll have to take it to the bumps to really get their blood pressure high.


----------



## evilfeline007

So I'm on the mountain and I know what has happened:

I switched to smaller bindings...... I have wwaAay more control now

I'm not leaning forward enough... The "reaching" doesn't work for me so I reach for my downward knee with both hands...which helps but now my shoulders aren't straight.

What should I think about in order to get my weight forward? Like I said "reach" doesn't really make sense me...


----------



## doylerules

STOP THINKING!!!!!!!

Your shoulder shouldn't be straight down the hill , at least not for me it isn't! You needto remember that this is only your first couple of times out. You aren't going to be a pro by the end of the day, you should be happy if you are linking turns and stoppig at this point! Stop over thinking and natural instinct will kick in and help you out! Eventually it will all become second nature, but that isn't going to happentoday!!! Go have fun!


----------



## evilfeline007

I keep landing on my right seat bone and wiped out from the lift reaLly hard... Now I got a huge ass painful swollen welt.

I can't seem to engage my heel side edge properly when turning from toe side... its hard to not think about it when you're constently hurting yourself


----------



## evilfeline007

Omg... That all makes a lot of sense... The italic letter A, the sitting...

I was told by a boarder to get my bindings switched to goofy stance instead of duck? Not really sure what that means but hey...lol

I was so fustrated and injured (my eyes were watering hardcore) I was ready to trade in my board for skis but after a hot bath and some ibuprofen I think I'm going out again on the board. I feel like I'm on the verge of a revelation... Lol


----------



## Toecutter

evilfeline007 said:


> I was told by a boarder to get my bindings switched to goofy stance instead of duck?


I prefer a Mickey stance...


----------



## evilfeline007

I don't know what that means?


----------



## doylerules

Toecutter said:


> I prefer a Mickey stance...


I see what you did there!


----------



## onji

evilfeline007 said:


> I was told by a boarder to get my bindings switched to goofy stance instead of duck? Not really sure what that means but hey...lol


Toecutter's taking the piss 

As far as what that random boarder said to you, it's a bit confusing. You can't have goofy stance instead of duck. You CAN have goofy instead of regular.

Regular = left foot forward, this means you normally ride with your left foot leading down the slope.
Goofy = right foot forward, this means you normally ride with your right foot leading down the slope (this is the opposite of regular).

The way you angle your bindings will determine if you're duck or not.
Duck stance means your bindings are done in a way so that your front/leading foot is pointed slightly toward the nose of the board, and your back/rear foot is pointed slightly toward the tail of the board.

Duck stance is a bit better for riding switch (using your non-preferred foot forward), spinning and jibbing in the park. Even if you don't ride switch and stay out of the park, you might actually prefer duck stance. I have weird ass feet so I actually prefer to ride duck all the time, even in powder.

Edit:
My advice, although I've only got 1 season of snowboarding under my belt, would be not to push the envelope too hard if you're not ready. I probably wouldn't recommend following your mates down the blue runs if it scares the hell out of you. You'll probably make it down, but will you enjoy it? You wanna be out there having an awesome time!


----------



## doylerules

evilfeline007 said:


> Omg... That all makes a lot of sense... The italic letter A, the sitting...
> 
> I was told by a boarder to get my bindings switched to goofy stance instead of duck? Not really sure what that means but hey...lol
> 
> I was so fustrated and injured (my eyes were watering hardcore) I was ready to trade in my board for skis but after a hot bath and some ibuprofen I think I'm going out again on the board. I feel like I'm on the verge of a revelation... Lol



stick with it bro, you have only been out 3 or 4 times now right??
you are getting it, and you already understand most concepts, i have known a few people in the last year or so that have tried it a few times and didn't get off the bunny hill due to fear and lack of effort. 
Snowolf really knows how to explain it too! 

as for the goofy/duck thing.....what are the angles that you are riding at? (the angle of your bindings on the board) most times when the shops set them at duck it is a standard =15 in the back and +15 in the front.
i started out with a -6 in the back and +12 in the front, maybe that will help you a little better, and once you have the turns/stops/edges down a little better you can play around with the angles

so all in all how was the day ? did you stick to the greens, or smash the blues?


----------



## Toecutter

evilfeline007 said:


> I don't know what that means?


The riding stance looks like this:










Sometimes when I do something wrong and Patrol gets mad it looks like this:


----------



## evilfeline007

I stuck to the long greens which involve fustrating fall lines that involve being on one edge for a long time because the trail traverses. Today I'm going on the green run that's short straight wide but semi- steep (for a green) all day or until I figure this thing out. Crappy part is for whatever reason that lift is the hardest to get off of...(Ironically its the beginner chair). its very steep and icy and you barely have enough time to even stand up let alone lean forward and there's always kids in the way...its how I busted my hip yesterday.

My bindings are at 6 and 12? Or 12 and 6? Was told its the easier duck stance. Last time I had one foot perpendicular and my downhill foot pointed slightly and I could turn much better but they said I can't have that bc my toes would hang over until I switch to the board with the medium bindings which are too big and I get little contact with the board.

Stupid rentals...

Thanks for all the advice. Yes today will be my fifth time and my goal is to smoothly link turns by the end. The conditions are crap right now... All hardpack...no wash...


----------



## fayewolf

Speaking of rentals, how should I tell them to do my binding angles when I rent the board? Last time they had my front foot out in a quite strong angle, and this time it wasn't. Also, should i tell them to detune my board (whatever that means), to minimize the chances of catching edges? The place I rent uses Burton cruzer.


----------



## Donutz

fayewolf said:


> Speaking of rentals, how should I tell them to do my binding angles when I rent the board? Last time they had my front foot out in a quite strong angle, and this time it wasn't. Also, should i tell them to detune my board (whatever that means), to minimize the chances of catching edges? The place I rent uses Burton cruzer.


You can tell them the angles you want. In fact, they _should_ be asking you. If you don't remember what you had when it felt good, try 12 and -9 for a good start. If it's not right, you should be able to go into the shop and have them change it for you.

No to the detuning though. That involves filing the edges.


----------



## evilfeline007

PHEW! So a few things helped... I got them to set the angles at 9 and 15 and had instant results...

i wasn't squatting enough and wasn't leaning forward enough (though it felt like I was) because the angle of my bindings was making it extremely difficult to do so... one of those "but i don't bend that way" things...

The second i convinced them to change it (the girl's like no no, this is better for a beginner) it was better... having my downhill foot point more outwards makes me naturally lean.

I listened to the advice you guys gave and in the end every time i thought i was going to lose my balance i thought "sit" and it totally worked! It turns out squatting makes your edges engage automatically pretty well. Once i got my heel edge in the snow i felt comfortable going faster which made everything so much easier. I still straighten out a little (go perpendicular to the slope) on my heel edge but for the most part i was ripping down the run, nose pointing down and just shifting from edge to edge to control my speed..

*DING* the light bulb went off....

And i only fell once during 6 hours of riding... imagine that.

You guys helped soooooo much!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!

oh and ps... i told my friends to ditch me and leave me alone for the day also... we met up at the end and did those longer green runs and this time i had enough speed to make it through the flat parts without having to skate along.


----------



## Toecutter

Nice! Well done!!!


----------

