# When to hit rails?



## Snowboarder32 (Dec 11, 2012)

Ive heard rails are easier than boxes


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## Skinny Bam (Sep 7, 2012)

If you can 50-50 a box you can 50-50 a rail. My advice: go a little faster than you normally would because it will be harder to balance compared to the boxes, bend your knees as you get on the rail and ride it out smooth. 

Really, once you do it the 1st time your going to wonder why you waited so long. Its really just having the balls to do it.


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## IdahoFreshies (Jul 9, 2011)

Snowboarder32 said:


> Ive heard rails are easier than boxes


You have HEARD rails are easier than boxes? Have you ever actually tried them?

A box is much more forgiving to learn on because it does have a wider surface area to you can work on centering yourself and staying still and practicing spins. The cavet is that you have to be going faster for a box because it is stickier will slow you down more than a rail will. But if you hit it with decent speed you will be fine. Speed is key in the park, being afraid to hit stuff with speed is the first thing you need to work on if that is an issue. After 2-3 years, with 10 times a year, if you have carving mechanics and good comfortable edge control down that i would say its safe to start mixing in park.

Some of the best practice for park is to first work on natural features, little jumps, rocks stumps and gap type shit to get you comfortable with added features, and learn to spin flat ground 180s. I would work in the morning on carving down blacks and getting comfortable with high speeds on those and practicing and focusing on balance edge control drills, then for the second half of the day go hurt yourself in the park. Start on mastering ride on boxes and rails and small jumps and grabs. Then once you can get on all of those features work on hop on boxes and rails and grabs on bigger jumps, then once you have a good feel for most or all of the types of features start throwing down tricks for each feature. It will be a lot of shit eating and a lot of falling, but when you can bag that trick you have been trying over and over it will be a momentous achievement:yahoo:


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## Consonantal (Dec 12, 2012)

That is somewhat nice to hear. I guess I'll just have to bash my ass a couple more times though.


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## Skinny Bam (Sep 7, 2012)

Consonantal said:


> That is somewhat nice to hear. I guess I'll just have to bash my ass a couple more times though.


Dont go into it assuming you will fall, because then you for sure will. DO be prepared for it though and think about the best ways to fall if you do.


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## slyder (Jan 18, 2010)

If you start to loose it don't fight it to stay on or try saving it. Go with it, ride off, regain control and try it again. It usually hurts more when you try to save or stay on a feature when you should just cut your loss and get off and start again.

Don't be afraid to hike back up to the feature and keep practicing. Just be courteous to the uphill riders and don't drop in front of someone that is hitting a line of features and think you have the right of way. This bugs the hell out of me. A group of kids hiking a feature not letting me hit it from starting at the top of the run. I have been a dick and ridden right onto the feature like they aren't even there. Not sure this is proper etiquette but they moved on and seemed to get the picture that this is not their private feature.


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## Consonantal (Dec 12, 2012)

It's the first jump to mount the rail that scares the shit out of me. 

I have a gymnastics/tumbling background so I'm used to jumping around on stuff but when there's a 500kg board strapped to my foot, EVERYTHING changes.

Getting off the rail or falling off it is easy peezy; it's that first moment of jumping onto it from the side where things usually get really ugly.


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## snowklinger (Aug 30, 2011)

slyder said:


> If you start to loose it don't fight it to stay on or try saving it. Go with it, ride off, regain control and try it again. It usually hurts more when you try to save or stay on a feature when you should just cut your loss and get off and start again.
> 
> Don't be afraid to hike back up to the feature and keep practicing. Just be courteous to the uphill riders and don't drop in front of someone that is hitting a line of features and think you have the right of way. This bugs the hell out of me. A group of kids hiking a feature not letting me hit it from starting at the top of the run. I have been a dick and ridden right onto the feature like they aren't even there. Not sure this is proper etiquette but they moved on and seemed to get the picture that this is not their private feature.


:thumbsup:


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## IdahoFreshies (Jul 9, 2011)

Consonantal said:


> It's the first jump to mount the rail that scares the shit out of me.
> 
> I have a gymnastics/tumbling background so I'm used to jumping around on stuff but when there's a 500kg board strapped to my foot, EVERYTHING changes.
> 
> Getting off the rail or falling off it is easy peezy; it's that first moment of jumping onto it from the side where things usually get really ugly.


Being afraid of that type of feature is just something that is going to take a little bit of time and a few committed trys until you get the hang of what you need to do and aren't afraid to approach the rail. After you actually try it a few time you will get comfortable with features like a hop on rail and will be able to really get working on it.


Here, this is a recent thread on this topic and has some good info in it.
http://www.snowboardingforum.com/tips-tricks-snowboard-coaching/52042-tips-rails.html

My first post in there sort of covers it. One of the biggest things everyone else said that i totally forgot to mention is that when you are on the rail make sure you are looking torwards the end of the rail and past that. That will keep you on the rail longer and you will have better balance.


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## Consonantal (Dec 12, 2012)

Hate to rez a thread but I hit my first down flat a couple days ago. It's no rail....and I only 50/50ed it.....and I always came off a foot or 2 too early.....but it's something. 

It's still really frikking scary riding up to a feature where you can't see the rest of it. Going to probably stick to the down flats and get comfortable boardsliding it before moving onto down rails.


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