# Freeride progression



## dreampow (Sep 26, 2011)

This is a round up of shots of me freeriding.

Any helpful advice to help me improve my riding or things to be aware of are welcome.

I put a similar vid up at the start of the season and got some really useful tips.

My ego can take it and I am determined to improve so don't be shy.


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## Chris (Feb 6, 2012)

dreampow said:


> This is a round up of shots of me freeriding.
> 
> Any helpful advice to help me improve my riding or things to be aware of are welcome.
> 
> ...


you always ride powder?


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## dreampow (Sep 26, 2011)

pretty much, although I do ride some groomed runs to get to the powder.


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## ShredLife (Feb 6, 2010)

looks fine to me. just go faster off everything and you'll go bigger but as you get more comfortable you will. the thing is on alot of that stuff if you went way bigger you'd actually find a better landing.

you might widen your stance. it looks better on video and it looks like you want it wider by the way you're standing sometimes.

so ya just maybe turn a little less, take it down the fall line more, and blast those hits going really fast


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## Liv4Sno (Apr 1, 2010)

Yea. Share the powder! lol


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## gprider_capita (Feb 17, 2011)

keep your hands closer to your body while riding and widen your stance a little


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## HoboMaster (May 16, 2010)

Agree with Snowolf, most of the improvements you can make will just come with riding more over time. Once you get to the advanced level it's all about making fine-tweaks. You don't make leaps and bounds of progression as a rider, but your riding become more refined, stylized and consistent.


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## poutanen (Dec 22, 2011)

Looks good to me :thumbsup:

Powder much?  Looks like really light powder, nice!


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## dreampow (Sep 26, 2011)

Thanks a lot guys.

Firstly on stance I am 6ft tall and I was at 22.5" in most of these shots and the board is posi camber. 
Its not in the vid, but I am now riding a 157 proto CT as my main board and I stand at 23". I have another board plus 40cm days.
I like the 23" stance better it feels lower and more controlled.

What are your stance widths?

Do you recommend I go wider still?

My arms are definitely quieter than at the start of this season thanks to your advice before and I will keep working on getting them quieter.:thumbsup::thumbsup:

I love to turn and send up big clouds of powder, will work on making a few less and more smooth turns.

I could definitely take a lot more speed into those jumps and even purposefully shed some speed because there are some large trees not too far from the landing area. If you went very big and lost control on the landing it could be lights out.
Still I can definitely safely take it up a notch or two and I have gone quite a bit bigger on that main one, but its not on film. 

Will try to keep a little more leg flex in the air. 

I now have in total over a 4 year period about 80 days on the snow and I am pretty happy with the level I am riding at in that space of time.

Next season I am going to go for 50 days as I realize more time on the snow is the key to improving. I am going to get some lessons too just need to find the right person to teach me.

Powder season is over here, but watching this vid reminds me of the powder hit. 
Nothing quite like the Japanese white room its so light and fluffy and as you can see its easy to send up clouds way above my head height.


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## ShredLife (Feb 6, 2010)

if you go faster you'll go bigger and you'll have more time in the air and you can grab and it will fix your legs automatically  see, it's all full circle.

i'm about 5'10", 150# and i ride a 23.5" stance on a 155 Heritage. one thing you should have noticed about the rockered board is that even in pow you have alot more freedom to pump weight onto the nose of your board for speed. do this. 
if you pretty much only ride powder then get your stance to a point where you can put weight onto the nose without sinking and leave it there. you shouldnt have to lean back all the time. 

if you start going way fast off everything you'll be going bigger than that vid on stuff that looks like a much smaller feature then those abrupt kinda things you were hitting. look for the long, safe, drop-out landings and you'll be going 30ft. off of natural rollers. 

i am not against turning per se - and i have logged serious time in the white room. i just try not to turn at the cost of speed, so sometimes that means straightlining it to a point where i can throw my slash and gain back my speed out of it. on flat stuff you won't really catch me swishing about.

as far as stance and form just play around with it. if you want to be an aggressive freerider then watch some video of Blauvelt and Pat Moore before you go shred next time and channel their style.


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## hktrdr (Apr 3, 2012)

dreampow said:


> Thanks a lot guys.
> 
> Firstly on stance I am 6ft tall and I was at 22.5" in most of these shots and the board is posi camber.
> Its not in the vid, but I am now riding a 157 proto CT as my main board and I stand at 23". I have another board plus 40cm days.
> ...


Suggest you experiment some more, as 23" still seems a bit on the narrow side for your height and weight. However, it is a pretty good stance width for your 157 board and by no means too narrow per se.

For comparison, I am 5'9"/150lbs and ride a 23" stance as well.



dreampow said:


> Powder season is over here, but watching this vid reminds me of the powder hit.
> Nothing quite like the Japanese white room its so light and fluffy and as you can see its easy to send up clouds way above my head height.


We are lucky people to get to play in dry and fluffy Japanese powder every year  And so much of it this year!


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## dreampow (Sep 26, 2011)

ShredLife said:


> if you go faster you'll go bigger and you'll have more time in the air and you can grab and it will fix your legs automatically  see, it's all full circle.
> 
> i'm about 5'10", 150# and i ride a 23.5" stance on a 155 Heritage. one thing you should have noticed about the rockered board is that even in pow you have alot more freedom to pump weight onto the nose of your board for speed. do this.
> if you pretty much only ride powder then get your stance to a point where you can put weight onto the nose without sinking and leave it there. you shouldnt have to lean back all the time.
> ...


I'll try out a 23.5" and a 24" stance and see how it feels. 

The rocker on the proto is as you say allowing me to get over my front foot way more and have way more control in the powder. I like that.

I watch everything Blauvelt has to offer and love his style, will check out Pat Moore:thumbsup:.

Also Snowolf any thoughts on stance width. I guess its just personal preference, but would be good to hear your thoughts.


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## wrathfuldeity (Oct 5, 2007)

looks good, nice and fun. 

idk but perhaps compress abit more coming into the jumps, wait for it and suck up your knees more while in the air and then land with more knees...you land too stiff legged and your timing is off just a bit.

you still got some of the trailing arm girlfriend thing going on and perhaps it makes your heelside alittle weaker...and i think that straightening your back, bending your knees more for squat will add a bit more power and definition to you heelside.

and imo you use your upper body too much to compensate for lack of lower body dynamics. perhaps straighten your back up, instead of hunched, bend and compress you knees more and think about of moving your board under you more instead of lining up your upper body to make the turns.

lastly try riding steeper stuff to make you ride more compact. the terrain looks fun, fairly mellow and no consequence snow which perhaps lulls you into riding more open and standup and if you ride steeper stuff i think it would force you to ride more compact. i think you can ride more open to gain speed but then when you slash compact like a spring and then explode out of the white room with your board pointed right down the fall line so that you are in position to quickly accelerate for more speed or if it is steep and you need to be on the next edge.

I say again ride a bit more compact, glue your elbows to your ribs, bend your knees more and ride more aggressively. I think you could ride a bit more centered and less on the tail for more aggressive style instead of surfing...but dude I'd be surfing that shit.

but idk...i'm just some hack than can't ride any better and would defer to Snowolf


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## dreampow (Sep 26, 2011)

wrathfuldeity said:


> looks good, nice and fun.
> 
> 
> I say again ride a bit more compact, glue your elbows to your ribs, bend your knees more and ride more aggressively. I think you could ride a bit more centered and less on the tail for more aggressive style instead of surfing...but dude I'd be surfing that shit.
> ...


Not sure that elbows pressed to ribs will make my riding look better or be more effective, I take your point and I know my arms need to stay closer to the body. Specially the rear arm hugging the invisible GF:thumbsup:. 

Didn't get any footage from the second half of the season and I know that all the points mentioned here are better while not 100% by any means. Spent a few days solo riding working hard on all these points especially jumps into powder.

Also spent the last part of the season on a proto as opposed to the posi camber stick you see here.
That changed things up quite a bit too especially being able to get over the front foot more in powder.

I tend to spend a certain amount of time each day really focusing on improving and then also spend a lot of time just enjoying the epic powder. Sometimes its just relaxed surfing mode. Who could blame me with this kind of powder.

Oh and I do ride a lot of steeper stuff with trees, but my riding partner is not very comfortable with it yet so we don't crack out the camera. He is more concerned with just staying alive. 

One thing I would love is a riding partner who is a better rider than me. I know from playing a lot of soccer that its a great way to up your game and learn.

You all need to get over here and show me some moves.


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## ThunderChunky (Oct 1, 2011)

You're a bastard. Try going faster off those natural booters. The thing I find to be super helpful is to be confident. Go off stuff relaxed and confident you can do anything off it. Makes stuff less scary and makes it look way better. Just a general jumping suggestion. Freeriding natural hits are some of the funnest things in snowboarding.


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## srdeo (Jan 29, 2012)

Push yourself with more challenging terrain. More natural hits, drops etc. Your riding skills look good especially since you've been only riding for 4 years. And you look like you can ride much more challenging terrain than what you are showing on the clip. Or ride faster, that will make same terrain little more challenging, but with all that powder it would be hard to ride any faster unless pitch gets steeper.

As far as stance goes, go with what feels best to you. It is really more of personal thing and it depends on the board also. With stiffer boards narrower stance feels better and with softer boards, wider stance feels better. You don't always have to ride same stance and same angle with all your boards. 

And if you feel like getting bigger board, I would get narrower longer board vs wider shorter board since you seem to ride a lot of trees.


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## HoboMaster (May 16, 2010)

I don't think your arms need to be glued to your ribs either, I ride with mine hanging about 4-6 inches off my hips in the air. They're generally kept below my waistline except when making big turns, then I rotate them to gain inertia. Having them floating at your hips really helps keep you balanced, dynamic riding involves using your entire body.


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## cjcameron11 (Feb 5, 2011)

I have nothing to contribute riding wise but i just wanted to point out that i really hate the sound track you used. I know its not very constructive criticism but hey thats all i got, btw i like the riding.


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## IdahoFreshies (Jul 9, 2011)

well it looks like you had a very productive year! Looks like you had some amazing pow to ride in. Looked pretty good. Now its just cleaning up the form and hitting bigger features. i get super pissed if i ride a line and know that it was sloppy and my stance and turns weren't clean and up to my standards. Cant wait till next year when i can actually ride some good snow hopefully.


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## wrathfuldeity (Oct 5, 2007)

The elbow glued to the ribs visualization/idea was a point an instructor bud cued me in on...it is that when you are compact you can slash harder or perhaps decamber and then explode/pop to the next edge while having more power and less movement. It has helped me this year, in that when I was flapping away, sometimes my body and arms were not in position (or counter rotated to what I wanted to do) to quickly maneuver. And when I tried to keep my elbows tucked it forced me use my upper body more efficiently and resulted in more quick, dynamic and forceful turns...it seemed I could then snap turns. I guess it helped get the upper body together for anticipatory rotation verses with arms flapping, which seemed that I was abit late/lagging and trying to play catch-up...thus responding instead of strategically anticipating. I think it has also helped with my fore/aft movements and also the up/down compression/absorption stuff when flying blind in our flat light conditions. And I really noticed it when trying to keep my leading shoulder pointed down the fall line when riding moguls.

Perhaps Snowolf will offer a comment about this.


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## skip11 (Jan 28, 2010)

I don't know, but watch guys like Terje, Dirksen, Nico, or Blauvelt. Terje for example you can see his backhand is most of the time in front of their body especially during heelside turns. And Blauvelt ride with a kind hunched back and crouched really low if you compare him to other riders and he still has one of the nicest turns in snowboarding.


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## dreampow (Sep 26, 2011)

Makes sense about keeping the upper body quieter and having it compliment the lower body movements rather than go against it. Interesting comment someone made that pros form is not always textbook but looks great still.

Anyone have any video footage of themselves freeriding aggressively with a quieter upper body?

I learn better when I can visualize.


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## CoreLimey (Apr 19, 2012)

Hello 1st post, nice site...from the u.k and have been to the PNW and rode Mt Hood. Seems like a lot of people on here from that neck of the woods. Fckin love that place, would move there in a heart beat 

Back to post, as an improving rider I'm now looking into upper and lower body seperation and will try and get some coaching through the summer on this.

Just wondering if any one had some tips or drills to practice/use!

I'm riding a bit like a robot now (BASI) and need to get more relaxed with my arms and getting a natural style (if pos).

Trying to understand/get the difference of the invisible girlfriend arm and then say the arm movement of a Nicolas Muller in full flow!


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## skip11 (Jan 28, 2010)

@corelimey: Yes, that was what I was talking about in the above post. You see lots of rider with their back arm in front of them or just moving a lot in general. You cannot watch clips of Terje, Josh Dirksen, and Nicolas Muller and tell me that their back arm is not in front of the body. Snowolf any comments?


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## JeffreyCH (Nov 21, 2009)

Snowolf said:


> You are obviously an *advanced ruder and your riding us very effective* so these ideas are just to make it look a little sexier overall....:thumbsup:


Aint no ruder riding me bro...don't care how advanced or effective :cheeky4:


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## chub11 (Apr 8, 2012)

Snowolf said:


> One of my favorite "drills" for learning extreme upper lower body separation is Pivot Slips.
> 
> Start out on a medium blue pitch or even a black if you are comfortable with it. Begin in a heel side side slip facing down the mountain. Hold both hands out in front of you clasped together like you are shooting a pistol and point straight down the run.
> 
> ...


I'm a little confused. This drill will make you use the upper body less. So what is the point of all the arm movements pro riders make? Is there a way to practice making correct or meaningful arm movements? Or should the arms be loosely held at the sides and not used at all?


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## MistahTaki (Apr 24, 2010)

your guratori is so weak sauce.


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## dreampow (Sep 26, 2011)

As always very useful, clear and informative posts from Snowolf:thumbsup::thumbsup:. 

I agree with others you should collect your posts like these and put them into different categories on your website and on here.

They are genuinely helpful for me and I'm sure for many others.

I am determined to get my arms quieter and get the back arm in closer. I will spend some time with this each day out next season.

I won't forget to switch off and just have fun either, but after reading your posts and watching my video again I can see quite a few places where my arm movement (hanging toeside) is getting in the way of smooth turning.

I can also see one or two places where my arms seem to be moving back and forth more in sink with my lower body movements.

Although there is still snow here the powder season is over and with it my season too. Already swimming in the sea and hiking more though. Will crack out the surfboard soon. Also thinking of getting a skateboard.


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## dreampow (Sep 26, 2011)

Sweet, maybe in a few years when my son is a little older (he is 7 months) I will get more into split boarding and try to prolong my season in Hokkaido. For now its on to other activities.

Looking forward to those videos.

Slash some powder for me.


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