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Tricks to get the gf faster?

7K views 48 replies 32 participants last post by  Bamfboardman 
#1 ·
So my fiance is stil scared of going faster. It pisses me off knowing that she knows how to board on greens, but she gets intimidated on blues

I watched her the other day when we went boarding. I think she does fine when she goes on her toe edge, keeping the board angled enoug to still go down the mountain with slowing down too much. The problem is when she transitions to her heel edge. She turns it to the point of stopping because it scares her with the speed.

One major problem is shes stubborn... But she actually listened to me the last time.

What i had her do was to follow what i do. I basically went down the mountain on just my heel edge... Slowly going straighter and further down the mountain just by staying on my heel edge. She eventually was starting to get used to the angle of the board pointing closer and closer down the mountain instead of being perpendicular. Day ended when her legs got tired (her stamina sucks)

I think that by letting her get used to Going down the mountain staying on just an edge, and slowly decreasing the angle of the board, shell eventually get used to the speed... Hopefully making the angle of her turns smaller to maintain her speed

Thoughts???
 
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#7 ·
Put a pair of shoes at the bottom of the slope...
^ x2 :bestpost: ^ OMG! Those quotes are priceless!! LOL!


Don't force it, get her a lesson and go ride by yourself. If she wants to learn, she will. You can't make someone want to snowboard.
Seriously,.. ^this^
Lessons are not only for NooBs just learning to snowboard. Lots of experienced, intermediate riders (...and maybe even a few advanced ones,) take lessons from time to time to work on skills, progression, un-learning bad habits, etc.

Get her in a lesson or two with a competent instructor to help her work on her skills and confidence.



...otherwise, yeah! Just keep getting more & more aggravated! That will eventually solve the problem for you, guaranteed!!!! :blink::storm:
 
#3 ·
sounds like you want her to be ok with speed when she is not yet comfortable with her riding. She needs to feel confident in her ability to switch edges so that she will feel in control enough to go faster.

I would think that she should work more on engaging her edge and traveling on her edge not just sliding down on an edge.
 
#23 · (Edited)
I agree with Justin. She should not be just sliding down the mountain perpendicular on her edges, (that is not snowboarding, I see people doing this all the time when I am riding up on the lifts, shows incomplete training). She needs to get a smooth turn transition on a green first, which means she is not ripping the turn with her hips. Make sure you take her down a run that has plenty of space for her to do nice slow S shaped turns. She will not be confident to move faster until she is in control of her transitions, i.e. take a step back.

Here is a training tip to teach her confidence transitioning turns on the side she is having trouble with: Get onto a green, i.e. bunny slope, and have her point her board down hill with your foot on the back of her board so she doesn't take off. Depending on what side she has trouble with, you would be on the left side of the slope for goofy turning heel side or the right side for regular turning toe side. Now, instruct her to begin her turn to heel or toe side after about six feet once you let go of board. Her upper body should be straight and body perpendicular to the hill head facing in direction of turn, rear leg straight, front leg bent, weight forward on front leg. Foot should be flat on board at first. Once you release board (make sure she is ready and says ok to release) after six feet she should apply heel or toe side pressure (depending on which side she is turning too) all the while maintaining proper posture. If she is not maintaining proper posture in the turn and she is leaning on back foot she needs to correct this. Explain she will go faster if she leans back onto rear foot and leaning forward gives her control. Objective is for her to have a nice smooth and controlled turn on toe or heel side, whichever she is having trouble with. Once she has the turn on her difficult side flawless, have her link the turns. Then she can progress. :eusa_clap: Note that I have a very aggressive riding style yet to get to the point where I was carving and ripping turns with precision (I love being on the edges) a snowboard Zen master I train with explained I had to perfect my form and transitions. He was correct. :bowdown:
 
#6 ·
I've had some positive results with getting a friend going faster by having him follow my line. He was very capable, but had a couple of nasty edge catches that left him pretty bruised up and killed his confidence.

What you have to do is go on a blue, go just a little faster than their comfortable speed, make turns that you know they can make, do the turns far apart on a wide open trail that's well groomed, and most importantly, don't get far ahead. Tell them to stay close, which will end up being not so close, definitely not more than 1 turn behind. You make a turn, they should be starting their turn as you are starting your straight line edge leaving the same turn.

Do it on a steep enough blue that you can hold a little speed without linking turns back to back. In other words, go to the trees on toe side, turn to heel, ride heel edge for a few seconds until your gf can make her turn and get back on your line, then make another turn back to toe side, ride toe edg a few seconds, etc.
 
#8 ·
As others have said, lessons with a good instructor would be the best way. Even if you're an instructor it's still better to have someone else teach her.

The problem with teaching your gf is it's okay to give a few tips here and there, but once you get into teaching mode and you need to push her a little, it's going to be tough trying to avoid crossing that line where she sees you as her BF being mean to her vs. seeing you as the instructor trying to push her to progress... that's how fights happen.
 
#12 ·
SO much truth spoken above.
You also need to remember this is about finding your Zen spot and having fun riding with friends/family/bf's etc....

Maybe find a easy blue and ask her to lets go fast for 2 turns then stop. This way she is "slowly" building confidence and speed but knowing she has a stop point on that hill. The mental part of her wanting to skid stop on her heels will be met at the same time giving her the feeling of a little more speed.
Breaking the long slope into little sections it well be much like riding greens.

Embrace the time together on the hill. Be thankful you girl likes to ride with you. If you must have a hard core day, maybe picka day to hit the hill with your buddies. Is she willing to let you go take a 1/2 hour in the park then come back and met up with her? Some compromise on both your parts may be necessary, but sorry to say mostly on your side.

Hope it all works out
 
#14 · (Edited)
Pre mimosas...bubbyies and OJ. At least just a couple...so that she's loose, lubed and feeling giddy....then add a hot dude instructor....problem solved...maybe even permanently :giggle:

Its not about her going fast...its about her having a good time. Make sure she is having a good time but she will determine if she wants to go fast. If she likes to do other things fast...like drive, bike, jet ski, sky dive....she will pick up the adrenlin rush.
 
#15 ·
well me and my buddies always try to get our GF's into the stupid shit we do, dirt biking, dh mountain biking, snowboarding, etc. I'm convinced women just don't have the testosterone that allows them to repeatedly hurt themselves and find it fun. So I set the bar low with zero expectations and it has always worked well for me. I taught my ex to board but that consisted of showing her a few drills, leaving her alone with her friend on the bunny hill, and coming back every half hour to say "Ohhh good job you're doing soooo well honey!!!" (not) :laugh:
 
#16 ·
My experience: I had the exact same problem before my lesson this season (scared to go fast, always turning to an almost dead stop). The instructor drilled in dynamic turns. Result: vastly improved confidence and I'm now able to ride down at decent speeds (finding the greens way too flat lately, but don't trust myself on blacks by a mile!)

Oh, I still tumble sometimes and I've found that a small rolling fall at speed is a lot better than catching an edge while almost standing still. For some reason, it's those edge catches on flats that hurt the most!
 
#17 ·
Three drills for speed/confidence are 1. Point the board straight down, hold and pick up speed for a few seconds (count of 5 or more) then stop - shows you can stop no matter how fast you are going, takes a psychological effort to do for the cautious boarder. 2. Timed turns in ladders or not. Make each turn on count of three then two then one then two then three for example. A lot of slowness is due to asymmetrical turning, a tendency to ride out the traverse on one side. 3. Top gun or follow the leader, try to turn every time the person in front turns or follow their path in the snow turning wherever they turned. Again, can help get you out of a traversing rut.
 
#20 ·
My experience is that if she doesn't want to go fast, there is nothing you can do about it. Drills are great if they want to go fast. If not, they just get pissed at you for wanting to force them out of their confort zone. If you want to ride with your gf, you have to find a way to have fun at her speed. If you want to go fast, you have to find some guys with gfs that go slow too. Then the guys go bomb steeps while the girls slowly hit the blues.
 
#21 ·
^ amen to that

i'm tired of trying to push my gf. i know that when i'm with her i just have to fuck around. you gain nothing by trying to make somebody do something they don't want to do, especially if it is your gf. i've learned this the hard way.

now i'm off to VT with my gf and some friends...they are a little slower so hoping i can ditch them for some runs here and there.
 
#39 ·
^ amen to that

i'm tired of trying to push my gf. i know that when i'm with her i just have to fuck around. you gain nothing by trying to make somebody do something they don't want to do, especially if it is your gf. i've learned this the hard way..
This is pretty much right on. No matter what she will not be as fast, chicks are just slower. I just screw around when my wife rides with me. I try to get my wife to have friends ride with us and I meet them at a lift every so often.
 
#22 · (Edited)
yeh thats perfect if there someone else to entertain her, gotta master the art of the 'oh damn i got lost!' for about 5 runs, LOL

EDIT, oops i put thids in the wrong thread, this was supposed to be about 4 posta back, hah

does the GF in question actually want to go faster, is there any desire or is it just you riding her shit about it, if so, things will not end well

practice your switch riding, can you ride switch faster than she goes forward?

practice patience, and when she's tired go get a few laps solo, otherwise you gotta endure. remember, it's supposed to be fun
 
#25 ·
Lol! He threw you into the deep end of the pool to teach you how to swim too, didn't he! :laugh: Sink 'r Swim!!!!
 
#29 ·
my girlfriend skis. but thankfully not as often as i'm at the mountain. If i'm riding with her i'm just chilling, going slow, stopping all the time, going for hot chocolates. Pretty much gotta go their pace and just enjoy the time with them, if they go enough they'll get better. There's no point pushing them to the point where they start having a bad time, then you'll both have a bad time. Hopefully you have your own buddies to shred with then you can hit the park, find some tree lines.

point is if you're gonna ride with your chick do just that, dont push em, have fun and both enjoy it. if fun for her is greens you can always go hit the rest of the mountain later when you're not riding with her.
 
#31 ·
Hey, just throwing in the perspective of a beginner/still fearful of speed/wife of someone who rides much better.

First off, props for being patient with her AND encouraging her to get out of her comfort zone.

My 2 cents:

1) What has been working for me was being pushed in smaller chunks. Find a gentle blue run with sections of varying incline. Encourage her to try ONE little steep section a little faster and with a little less traverse across the hill, and then tell her, "if you can do that, then try the next several steep parts at whatever slow speed you want." Once the pressure was off to tackle the whole run in some speed that the I didn't like, I was actually doing better. Ironically, I would find myself thinking, "Hmm, he encouraged me to do one little section like that—maybe I'll do the next one a wee bit faster too." It's psychological game, but hey, whatever works!

2) Film her. What encouraged me to try harder was seeing how epically slow I was going. Once I saw how many people were passing me, I wanted to improve. It always feels like you're going faster when you're new and still freaked out, so an actual video will put things in perspective.

And the best thing you can possibly say, every single time you guys go, and no matter how sucky she did that day, is: "I am proud of you and I love seeing you out there." Ya gotta remind her that you're pushing her not because you want to be a jerk to her, but that you want her to discover how much crazy fun it is to progress to the next level.

(Also, when she finally conquers whatever goal/mental block she had that day, be prepared for her to beam ear to ear and yap about it for the entire car ride home :D)
 
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