Hi everyone,
First post. I've been lurking all summer and fall in an effort to relearn the basics.
I first tried to learn snowboarding five seasons ago with lessons. By the end of the third lesson, I was able to link turns and keep my weight centered or even forward. I remember a drill where the instructor had me go straight down a green run with the board flat to get used to the speed.
I couldn't go the following season for various reasons.
In my third year (second season), I injured my knee and ankle pretty badly on my first day going up a tow lift (one foot strapped in, board caught an edge, twisted my left (front) knee as the board did a 180). That wiped me out for the season but worse, set up a pretty bad mental roadblock. Fourth year, I couldn't get past the garlands; I was terrified of catching an edge when making a transition to link turns and so after a day or two, I gave up for the season.
My fiance loves to ride, so this year, I commmitted myself to at least being able to learn to ride on blues so that I can join her. I took two hours of private lessons and learned about twisting the boarding to initiate turns, rounding the turn with the front knee,etc, as Snowolf talks about in his videos. I was able to occasionally link turns, but I was pretty sure that I was still in the backseat and I think I was kicking my rear leg out rather than cleanly using the front toeedge. The instructor was not good at pointing out what I was doing wrong. I think blues are probably going to be beyond my ability this season, given that the pacific northwest only has another month or so left in the season, but I'd like to get to the point where I can comfortably do greens and be "bored" of them so that blues are within reach for next year.
In many searches of this forum, I've learned about the italic A, inverted T shape, shoulder dipping towards the slope etc. I've learned that overcoming the fear of speed just comes with more time on the slopes.
However, almost everytime I am at the top of the greens, I'm mentally unable to lean forward, when doing a toeside turn. I have been trying to push myself to bomb down the green run with a flat board to get used to the speed, but somewhere along the line, I heard that a flat board for anything more than a milisecond is how edge catches happen beause a flat board is not gliding true nose-to-tail. Every time I chicken out, of course, it reinforces the mental block that was created when I injured my knee.
That leads to my questions (hopefully, Snowolf is reading this as well!):
1) Is it safe to run bomb down a green run on a flat board as an exercise to get accustomed to the speed?
2) What are some drills on that I might try to develop the muscle memory and posture for keeping my weight centered or slightly forward?
3) I'm recovering from knee surgery on my right (I ride regular) leg as well, so i can flex the knees and ankles to an extent, but my quads get fatiguied pretty quickly. I'm building strength in rehab so this problem will eventually go away. However, when people say "get low" how low do they mean?
Apologies for the long post and thanks in advance to anyone who replies!
First post. I've been lurking all summer and fall in an effort to relearn the basics.
I first tried to learn snowboarding five seasons ago with lessons. By the end of the third lesson, I was able to link turns and keep my weight centered or even forward. I remember a drill where the instructor had me go straight down a green run with the board flat to get used to the speed.
I couldn't go the following season for various reasons.
In my third year (second season), I injured my knee and ankle pretty badly on my first day going up a tow lift (one foot strapped in, board caught an edge, twisted my left (front) knee as the board did a 180). That wiped me out for the season but worse, set up a pretty bad mental roadblock. Fourth year, I couldn't get past the garlands; I was terrified of catching an edge when making a transition to link turns and so after a day or two, I gave up for the season.
My fiance loves to ride, so this year, I commmitted myself to at least being able to learn to ride on blues so that I can join her. I took two hours of private lessons and learned about twisting the boarding to initiate turns, rounding the turn with the front knee,etc, as Snowolf talks about in his videos. I was able to occasionally link turns, but I was pretty sure that I was still in the backseat and I think I was kicking my rear leg out rather than cleanly using the front toeedge. The instructor was not good at pointing out what I was doing wrong. I think blues are probably going to be beyond my ability this season, given that the pacific northwest only has another month or so left in the season, but I'd like to get to the point where I can comfortably do greens and be "bored" of them so that blues are within reach for next year.
In many searches of this forum, I've learned about the italic A, inverted T shape, shoulder dipping towards the slope etc. I've learned that overcoming the fear of speed just comes with more time on the slopes.
However, almost everytime I am at the top of the greens, I'm mentally unable to lean forward, when doing a toeside turn. I have been trying to push myself to bomb down the green run with a flat board to get used to the speed, but somewhere along the line, I heard that a flat board for anything more than a milisecond is how edge catches happen beause a flat board is not gliding true nose-to-tail. Every time I chicken out, of course, it reinforces the mental block that was created when I injured my knee.
That leads to my questions (hopefully, Snowolf is reading this as well!):
1) Is it safe to run bomb down a green run on a flat board as an exercise to get accustomed to the speed?
2) What are some drills on that I might try to develop the muscle memory and posture for keeping my weight centered or slightly forward?
3) I'm recovering from knee surgery on my right (I ride regular) leg as well, so i can flex the knees and ankles to an extent, but my quads get fatiguied pretty quickly. I'm building strength in rehab so this problem will eventually go away. However, when people say "get low" how low do they mean?
Apologies for the long post and thanks in advance to anyone who replies!