# Technique to jump safest possible (how to avoid falling on your back!)



## speedjason (May 2, 2013)

Seems like you were not anticipating the jump and your weight was on the heel edge.
Suck up the knees while you are mid air.


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## Nerozor (Dec 2, 2011)

Its not me in the video btw. 
But I had a very similar fall. 

What you mean suck knees up mid air? Such falls happens manly from take off?


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## linvillegorge (Jul 6, 2009)

Don't hit big jumps until you get your technique nailed down. I just don't hit big jumps. I have too much else going on to take those risks.


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## speedjason (May 2, 2013)

Nerozor said:


> Its not me in the video btw.
> But I had a very similar fall.
> 
> What you mean suck knees up mid air? Such falls happens manly from take off?


Well its both. Take off is important so you don't end up rotating mid air unless that's what you are trying to do.
Most people don't suck up their knees for landing and with legs extended which can throw off balance very easily.


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## tokyo_dom (Jan 7, 2013)

That guy had no chance. He was not ready for that size jump, and shouldnt have been trying it. He was way over speed and he tried to suck up the kicker of the jump with his knees so that he could just roll over it instead of popping off it like anyone competent would do.

Up until last year i had the same idea as most people, doing bigger and bigger jumps "because i cleared the medium one, and it was fun", until i ate shit on a 50 footer. Broken collarbone and wrist, end of season (not so bad it was mid april), but also a very uncomfortable summer.

What i realised is that i was NOT ready for that size jump. Clearing a jump does not mean you have mastered that jump and ready for the next size. Its super easy to just roll off a jump onto the landing. You see beginners do this all the time. Shit a few years ago i posted a video asking for critique and people pointed it out to me: http://www.snowboardingforum.com/ti...86-straight-airs-flatbasing-2.html#post831114
(note i did take their advice but i continued to try for big jumps after that)

On Saturday I saw a kid who could barely link turns hit the 20 footer (hands looking like a baby chicken trying to fly), and then continue on with that speed to the second 50 footer... Of course he didnt have enough skill or board control to speedcheck so he hit it off balance and at more speed than he needed. I thought "holy shit he is doing a backflip" as he turned upside down in the air, but then just stayed in that position to land on his head almost at the flat. Ski patrol carted him off, and when i looked later there was a pile of blood where he landed.

So before you decided to hit the 50 footer, ask yourself what sort of tricks were you doing on the 30-40 foot jumps? My guess is you were like me. Straight airs, no grabs, no spins. You cleared them and got a mad rush. Maybe you did them a few times so that rush went away so you thought you should go to the next one up. 

But after last year I went back to basics. Went back to the beginner jumps and worked until i could do whatever i wanted on them with full confidence. I'm still not going for jumps over 25ft, but then i am not really concerned by that. I can do 360s, all sorts of grabs and as of this weekend, tamedogs on the 20 footers and its fun as hell.


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## Argo (Feb 25, 2010)

Learn how to jump first. Even with that, you can hit a jump 50 times and still eat shit, it's gonna happen. So, how do you avoid eating shit on jumps? Don't hit them. 

I want to see a picture of the jumps your hitting, I doubt it's 50' unless you are measuring from take off to the flat. The professional jump lines are in the 50' size range for a first jump of the line in something like dew tour or burton open.


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## Nerozor (Dec 2, 2011)

Argo said:


> Learn how to jump first. Even with that, you can hit a jump 50 times and still eat shit, it's gonna happen. So, how do you avoid eating shit on jumps? Don't hit them.
> 
> I want to see a picture of the jumps your hitting, I doubt it's 50' unless you are measuring from take off to the flat. The professional jump lines are in the 50' size range for a first jump of the line in something like dew tour or burton open.


Sorry, I see it says 40ft on their webpage. 

Thanks for the tips guys. Yeah I guess I should indeed go back to basics and start from scratch! 

Here's a bad pic of the jump. Its the jump in front.


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## timmytard (Mar 19, 2009)

Nerozor said:


> Sorry, I see it says 40ft on their webpage.
> 
> Thanks for the tips guys. Yeah I guess I should indeed go back to basics and start from scratch!
> 
> Here's a bad pic of the jump. Its the jump in front.


Why the fuck are you hittin' jumps that fuckin' big?

If you don't know if you should be on your toes or anything along those lines.

I don't even like hittin' jumps that big, because there's always that uncertainty.

Last spring I hit a medium size jump in the whistler park & as i was coming up the tranny I hit a huge rut that put me way out of position when I left the lip.

I flew through the air similar to that guy, luckily I didn't over shoot the landing, but I didn't have a shirt on & got road rash all down my back on my nice fresh sun burn. Fawk


TT


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## timmytard (Mar 19, 2009)

This jump right here.

I landed on my back & slid down the landing.

What prolly made it worse, when I'm in that position now, I arch my back & try & take it on my shoulders.

I shattered my tailbone a long time ago massively over shooting the landing.

It was the worst injury I've ever had by far. You have no idea.
You can't blink without it hurting. I never knew your eye muscles were connected to your ass, but they are.


TT


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## Nerozor (Dec 2, 2011)

Ive been snowboarding and skateboarding for over 10 years (I only ride snowboard on avarage 2-5 days per season tho). I can do such jumps on skiis no problem, but skiis are obviously much easier... So I thought, how hard can it be? 
As I mentioned, I hit all the jumps in the park all day, including that big jump. I did only grabs on it tho.
And then last time I did the big jump I eat shit ofc... 
Compared to the other jumps, this jump has more "kicker" to it.


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## shitty shredder (Feb 6, 2016)

So far, everyone has said "don't hit those until you know how" but nobody has said what causes landing on your back like that.

What did he do wrong that leads to relaxing in the bathtub?


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## linvillegorge (Jul 6, 2009)

shitty shredder said:


> So far, everyone has said "don't hit those until you know how" but nobody has said what causes landing on your back like that.
> 
> What did he do wrong that leads to relaxing in the bathtub?


What causes it? Fucking up. What makes fucking up more likely? Hitting big jumps before you're ready.

If you're landing flat on your back you're badly off balance. Impossible to tell if it was a mistake on takeoff or a mistake in the air without video. Probably takeoff. If you aren't balanced at takeoff you're not going to be balanced in the air.


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## pointblank (Feb 26, 2015)

when you pop, make sure your shoulders are parallel, hands over tip and tail, hips squared and the your weight centered over the board. In the air, suck up your knees and spot your landing.


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## Nerozor (Dec 2, 2011)

pointblank said:


> when you pop, make sure your shoulders are parallel, hands over tip and tail, hips squared and the your weight centered over the board. In the air, suck up your knees and spot your landing.


What do you mean by hips squared?


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## pointblank (Feb 26, 2015)

Nerozor said:


> What do you mean by hips squared?


straight and even.

there is a great video of a creepy old guy in his dungeon which explains this well...somebody post it 

oh another thing that worked for me when hitting kickers is to pop when your back foot is crossing the lip. this gives you an ollie like sensation which gets you some massive air. try it on the 15 footers first to get your timing down.


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## Nerozor (Dec 2, 2011)

Oh yeah, ive seen that vid!

Hip to be square


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## speedjason (May 2, 2013)

pointblank said:


> straight and even.
> 
> there is a great video of a *creepy old guy in his dungeon* which explains this well...somebody post it
> 
> oh another thing that worked for me when hitting kickers is to pop when your back foot is crossing the lip. this gives you an ollie like sensation which gets you some massive air. try it on the 15 footers first to get your timing down.


Oh poor @wrathfuldeity


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## f00bar (Mar 6, 2014)

The load that you drop in your undies after you hit a big jump can throw off your center of gravity. So I hear....


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## tokyo_dom (Jan 7, 2013)

Going out like that is pretty much a direct result of popping off your heels rather than flat based or with a slight bias on your toes.

If you are popping off your heels and you arent doing a frontside spin, you are probably going to have a bad time 

My wife used to have a 50-50 success rate on jumps until i told her to make sure she never jumps off her heels. Jumping off the toes isnt perfect, but it wont make you go horizontal mid-air


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## timmytard (Mar 19, 2009)

f00bar said:


> The load that you drop in your undies after you hit a big jump can throw off your center of gravity. So I hear....


must be it? I only go commando though, since about 10 years old. 
It must go down my leg into my boots causing me to lose my balance.



TT


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## Jed (May 11, 2011)

Meh a bit late to the party on this, but my 2 cents:

1) A big jump is exactly like a smaller jump except way worse for you

In terms of pure technique, you'll be using the exact same method to hit a big vs. small jump... except anything you're doing wrong on the smaller jump will become 10 times worse on a bigger jump.

So what may not cause issues on the small jump will become more obvious and cause crashes when you take it to the big jump before getting your technique 100% figured out.

2) Pop and balance is where most people go wrong

Now obviously it's impossible to say what you're doing wrong exactly (since we don't have video of you), but in my experience almost all jump issues like the one you described are from lack of proper pop.

You need to be popping evenly off both feet, with slight pressure on your toes.

Think of it like when you ride in a straight line on a cat track, but keep a little toe edge pressure to avoid catching an edge. Same idea when keeping pressure on your toes while popping for a straight air.

Also - you need to make sure you're actually giving a nice firm pop that's strong enough to counter the pressure of the take off ramp. The more curved the take off ramp, the more power you need to use to push up evenly and pop as you ride up and off the take off.

Pop basically cancels out that 'oh god my legs just got sucked out from under me and I'm flying sideways in the air' effect. The bigger the jump, the more a lack of good pop technique will show because you won't be cancelling out the pressure being put on your legs by the curve of the take off ramp.


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## Nerozor (Dec 2, 2011)

Thank you for your 2 cents, Jed! 

Yeah I belive I had too much weight on the heels and soaked up the jump instead of popping. 

Cant wait till easter! I'll jump alot and hopefully improve my jumping technique alot. 
When is it naturally to graduate to bigger jumps?
When you can land 720s of smaller jumps? 
I can do 360s pretty consistently and 540s is decent


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## Jed (May 11, 2011)

Nerozor said:


> Thank you for your 2 cents, Jed!
> 
> Yeah I belive I had too much weight on the heels and soaked up the jump instead of popping.
> 
> ...


Spins are very different skill sets vs straight airing, so I wouldn't be using that as a measuring tool for when to hit bigger jumps. Not to mention there is such a big difference in ability between someone with a hucked spin vs. someone with a smooth spin using good technique.

My rule of thumb for taking anything to a bigger jump is that you should first be able to do the that exact same trick on the smaller jump 10 times out of 10 with good technique first. No sense taking something to a bigger jump if it's still a little sloppy and unpolished - that's just increasing risk for low reward.


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