sTokeD1

Please Help,

I'm 18 and I live in CT. I go to a mountain called Ski Sundown 3+ days a week. It has a fairly decent terrain park with various types of rails and jumps. It's my 6th year snowboarding and my 2nd year doing park. I get so stoked when I watch snowboard videos and I really want to take my boarding to another level. My problem is that on my way to the mountain I want to hit every jump and rail there is but every time I go to the terrain park and actually see how big the jumps and rails really are I start to get nervous and start second guessing myself. Then I hesitate when I go off the feature and 80% of the time I get messed up badly. I don’t ride with anyone who is better/equal skill level than me and I feel like I need that extra push. Is there any way that I can overcome this or do I need to stop being such a little bitch about everything and just hit it?

Thanks,
Dan

kri$han

Just effing hit it, man.

You're 18... shiet I'm not that much older, but i can recall football or baseball practices and games where I'd get a bad injury from a hit or a ball, and I'd be healed in two days. 7 years later and any injury takes an effing WEEK to heal!

I'm in the same boat as you tho; willing to try the 'M' and 'S' features, but shy away from the large ones so far... I'm also a little afraid to take jumps and rails with a lotta speed.

Do you have a helmet? kidney protectors? wrist guards? I only have a helmet, but I find it's given me more confidence to try stuff and know that i won't end myself on a rail or jump. Also, work your way up to the big features: start with the small rails, and work your way up to bigger ones... some of them look really big, but they're not bad once you try it out.

I just tell myself that I did't drive all the way to the hill to puss out... haha, that seems to work well

__________________
Official 'Eh' Team representative

Kris
Toronto Prelude Club

PaoloSmythe

nothing worth doing ever came easily.

the reward for over coming your fears, will be proportional to the fear itself!

if you confront something terrifying and live, you will be elated!

if you spend your life doing dull stuff, you will get bored.

you have to come to terms with your ambitions and desires!

start small... but make sure you START!

enjoy! this is ONLY snowboarding!

__________________
Just coz you don't understand it
Doesn't mean it makes no sense!

Snowolf

Don`t sweat it. Your are going through what every sane person goes through or has gone through. Push the envelope, but progress in a logical and reasonable manner. Lack of confidence will cause you to mess up. What you have to determine is the root cause of the lack of confidence. Is it lack of experience? if so, then it is justified and you must work more on smaller stuff and progress to the point where you know without any doubt you can pull off whatever you are trying to do. Keep working up to bigger stuff.

If it is just a big mental block, hiring an instructor for an hour to session with you can give you the added confidence you may need. Not all snowboard instruction centeres on noobs. Our level 2 and 3 instructors with high freestyle certs know their shit and can really help you out. As an instructor myself who is very afraid of rails and big features, I "borrow" a fellow, higher level instructor to teach me how to do stuff safely.

__________________

Slaughterhouse

THAT, for me, IS the very definition of snowboarding!!! Thanks, Paolo!

The first thing you should do is start off small and then progress. When you start to notice that what you are doing is becoming mundane, then move to a larger feature. You will always have an element of fear when trying something new. Don't hesitate, because you will regret it later in the day when you think "Wow, that would have been something, I'm sure I could have hit it."

Everyone of us has conquered the fear of strapping both feet onto a waxed slippery piece of wood at the top of an icy hill. Many people are envious of you because snowboarding is still something they deem insane. Remember your first run on a Bunny Hill? Wow! Now fast forward and you are on the side of a mountain with a 45 degree pitch. New fear altogether. Yet, when you've done it you become SO FUCKING STOKED and you feel you have totally kicked ass! Then you progress to something even more... sorry guys, extreme.

__________________
STICK OPPOSITION MOVEMENT
If you want to act 'serious',
then become a skier!

lisevolution

I agree with everyone else but I have to say cuz no one else has... stop being a puss and man up!!! LOL ok seriously I'm with you, I'll pop in one of my movies the night before I go and I get all amped me and my friends on the way up talk about all the sick lines we're gonna try and this and that then we get there and just bull shit on the blues because we don't want to go to work on Monday with a broken shoulder or some shit! When I was 18 doing this I was way more fearless than I am now and even then when you look at big features or steep faces you get a certain amount of fear. Just trust yourself to make it and you should be fine. Wear a helmet, and I also recomend ass pads as they give you a nice level of butt protection on the falls