# Park Ready?!?!



## Phedder (Sep 13, 2014)

To be blunt, when making it down a run without falling is no longer an achievement. You need good board and edge control otherwise you'll wipe out often and just end up in the way and hurting yourself. A lot of parks have a 'baby' park which are fantastic for learning on, so you could start taking runs through there and just ollieing off rollers, and straight lining (50/50) boxes. DO NOT TRY TO TURN OR ENGAGE YOUR EDGE ON A BOX.


----------



## Nivek (Jan 24, 2008)

When on a decently fresh groomer you can very comfortably make turns where you actually set your edge, not skid turns, and can do so for 3-4 turns with your eyes literally closed. Learning to ride park starts with fine edge control. If you learn park before you learn fine edge control you'll be starting your park riding off with bad technique that will be hard to remedy later on as tricks get more technical and features get bigger and faster.


----------



## stillz (Jan 5, 2010)

Try some freestyle outside of the park first. Do you need a box to do a tail/nosepress or spin butters? No. Do you need a shaped park jump to learn how to ollie/nollie/pop? No. How about for 180's and 360's? No. Look at some ground trick contests in Japan and you'll see guys throwing nollie 900's on FLAT GROUND. When you're solid on this stuff outside the park but are starting to want just a little more air time to really tweak that grab you've been working on, you're ready for the park.


----------



## speedjason (May 2, 2013)

Making it down the hill without falling is hardly park ready. You need absolute edge control or you gonna hurt yourself in the park.
Learn ground tricks before you go airborne.


----------



## f00bar (Mar 6, 2014)

There's parks, and then there's PARKS. If you can make it down there's probably some stuff in the progression parks you can do, namely the boxes. Plenty of youtubes on boxes. They are pretty simple and will give a taste.


----------



## Mizu Kuma (Apr 13, 2014)

Edge Control, Switch, and stock up on ibuprofen!!!!!


----------



## rhymeboy89 (Dec 16, 2015)

this question interests me as well. I have been riding blues since last season which was my first season. i hit a couple straight boxes last season as well but they were roll ons. I am heading up this weekend and wanted to know whats my best strategy as my goal is to be able to ride park. 

Season goals: 
- smooth riding
- small medium jumps
- 180 off small jumps
- boardslide/50-50 jump on boxes

Does this seem reasonable for someone that probably will only make it out there 10 times for the season or is this too much? 

More in line with the OP question, would we need to be comfortable doing black diamonds/double blacks before hitting park?


----------



## TooNice (Feb 7, 2014)

Phedder said:


> DO NOT TRY TO TURN OR ENGAGE YOUR EDGE ON A BOX.


Ah, wished someone told me that beforehand. First time I went to a park:

Sees a box. Rode over it. Thought "Oooh, that's a new sensation". Landed. Thought "Hey that wasn't so bad". 

Sees another box. Rode over it. Thought "Hey, maybe I should try that thing I saw other people do where they turn their board 90 degrees". Initiated turn. SPLAT. (No serious damage if any, but it probably could have).


----------



## Phedder (Sep 13, 2014)

TooNice said:


> Ah, wished someone told me that beforehand. First time I went to a park:
> 
> Sees a box. Rode over it. Thought "Oooh, that's a new sensation". Landed. Thought "Hey that wasn't so bad".
> 
> Sees another box. Rode over it. Thought "Hey, maybe I should try that thing I saw other people do where they turn their board 90 degrees". Initiated turn. SPLAT. (No serious damage if any, but it probably could have).


Pretty sure we've all been there hah, and it always sucks.


----------



## zenboarder (Mar 5, 2009)

rhymeboy89 said:


> this question interests me as well. I have been riding blues since last season which was my first season. i hit a couple straight boxes last season as well but they were roll ons. I am heading up this weekend and wanted to know whats my best strategy as my goal is to be able to ride park.
> 
> Season goals:
> - smooth riding
> ...


Way too much... You can't 180 without learning to ride switch and learning to ride switch well enough to land properly is going to probably take 10 days on it's own.

With 10 days you can probably learn to hit small jumps and learn to backboard boardslide.


----------



## rhymeboy89 (Dec 16, 2015)

makes sense. So far with going three times I have been able to do quick grabs when jumping off the side of rail jumps (those small jumps that lead to rails) and a somewhat slow boardslide and 50-50. I was able to land a 180 of the small jump but it was not clean. Maybe I will focus more on switch riding which I did a little of so far but not much. Killington doesnt have any jumps with landings so maybe when I go to a different mountain i can find one.


----------



## zenboarder (Mar 5, 2009)

rhymeboy89 said:


> makes sense. So far with going three times I have been able to do quick grabs when jumping off the side of rail jumps (those small jumps that lead to rails) and a somewhat slow boardslide and 50-50. I was able to land a 180 of the small jump but it was not clean. Maybe I will focus more on switch riding which I did a little of so far but not much. Killington doesnt have any jumps with landings so maybe when I go to a different mountain i can find one.


Just a heads up... It's *very* bad park etiquette to jump off the approaches to rails if you are not hitting the rails. First you are jumping away from the rails and ruining the approach for the other people who are actually trying to use the rails. Second it's a great way to get hurt or accidentally hit the rail if you botch your jump attempt. Third at some point someone is going to yell at you and tell you off for snaking the rail lines.


----------



## freshy (Nov 18, 2009)

I'd say your ready when you can do side hits and ollie off rollers with speed. Basically when you can already get in the air and want to go bigger. 
If your still in the linking turns stage then you have no business in the park. Go hike a small hill you would sled down and build a jump.


----------



## rhymeboy89 (Dec 16, 2015)

zenboarder said:


> Just a heads up... It's *very* bad park etiquette to jump off the approaches to rails if you are not hitting the rails. First you are jumping away from the rails and ruining the approach for the other people who are actually trying to use the rails. Second it's a great way to get hurt or accidentally hit the rail if you botch your jump attempt. Third at some point someone is going to yell at you and tell you off for snaking the rail lines.


Interesting, I did not know that. Realistically, I only have until the 2nd week of February to board due to work getting crazy afterwards and I have yet to come across a small park. What would you suggest to do then? Just doing those side jumps have gotten me a lot more comfortable with jumping and considering attempting jump on boxes or low jump on flat rails if i see one.


----------



## zenboarder (Mar 5, 2009)

rhymeboy89 said:


> Interesting, I did not know that. Realistically, I only have until the 2nd week of February to board due to work getting crazy afterwards and I have yet to come across a small park. What would you suggest to do then? Just doing those side jumps have gotten me a lot more comfortable with jumping and considering attempting jump on boxes or low jump on flat rails if i see one.


I've never been anywhere that doesn't have small jumps or rollers to practice from but has rails... Generally the point here is to use the jumps and not to jump off the rail approaches.


----------

