jeri534

Does anyone have some tips on riding/keeping speed on flat parts of a hill? Ive been lately trying to get this blue run down, but theres a flat part of the run for a good part of it where its pretty hard to keep speed, I usually end of going real slow and barely getting back to the slope, or just die out before it goes back down.

Ive been trying to ride without counter-rotating, its work okay yet I still cant get enough speed.

I try and ride close to flat based but it does not seem very stable and I have caught a few hard edges that way...

Any help is appreciated, thanks!

Simply^Ride

The same thing used to happen to me in beaver creek, they have a section that is pretty flat. The way I did it was just riding flat, yet a caught a couple edges but after a while I got it to the point that I stopped catching them. Do you have fresh wax, if not get it waxed and make sure the wax is the correct temperature. That was another thing slowing me down, my wax job was old.

Another thing try ridding almost flat but slightly on the edge, that way you avoid those annoying edges from catching.

Snowolf

Dealing with the flats is the snowboarder`s bane! The best advice I can give you is to keep a good coat of wax on the board and hit the flats with as much speed as you can possibly maintain. Once you are in the flats there are a few tips that should help you some. First off, if you can butter at all this will really help. get way back on the board and lift the nose slightly off the snow. What this does is unweights most of the board reducing drag. Only do this if you can butter and ride stabilly this way. If you don`t have experience with this, don`t try it.

When riding the flats, you want to maintain some edge angle all the time. Do not travel for extended distances flat based for it is super easy to get just a bit of pivot and sideslip going and edge catch. What I do is ride on edge just enough to keep one edge up off the snow. This will cause a slight drift to one side of the run. When I am at a point that I need to switch edges, I do so with both feet simultaneously by shifting my weight off one edge onto the other. This quick edge change reduces the amount of time the board is flat based and reduces the drag. You have to be comfortable with this type of edge change so practice this a little. When riding on edge, I also counter rotate my shoulders. When on edge, the sidecut wants to turn you in that direction. By counter rotating the shoulders, the pivot this creates almost cancelles out the effect of the sidecut and the board remains travelling straight or nearly straight.

The flats just take a lot of practice and you need to do everything you can to reduce drag in order to maintain a glide.

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tboooe

Here is what works for me:

I lean on my rear leg just a bit and make sure I have slight pressure on the toe edge. I also try to squat just a bit more. This has a couple effects:

1. By unweighting the front I allow it to flow over bumps and ruts, with my front leg acting like a shock absorber
2. The slight edge on the rear toe keeps me from the dreaded edge catching
3. It seems I am able to maintain my speed because I actaully have less of the board actually on the snow, reducing overall friction,
4. By squatting, I reduce air drag.

These tips work for me. I am now able to bomb down hills and through flats with total confidence.

BTW, as always snowolf is right on. Listen to the man...he is truth!

Instructor

so nice job explaining it guys and ill just throw something else in, its all about your stance, balance and edges.
Have a good relaxed stance, knees bent, back straight, shoulders pointed where your going and eyes up!
be relaxed but maintain good balance.
you want to stay on your edges instead of just flat
well good luck man, one more thing: if you can avoid the flat areas, do so. you should try to become a better rider before you ride flats comfortably.
oh yeah and what tboooe said, listen to snowolf, he is probably the most experienced instructor here

Gustov

this is what helped me the most. it's important to not skid at all to keep your speed up. switchin edges with both feet at the same time makes you not skid, but be careful

AAA

The best thing, as mentioned, is to hit the flat with some speed to carry you across. A well maintained (waxed) base helps wonders, too. Staying centered over your board and keeping a neutral balance is great if you can manage that. If not, you can gentley alternate pressuring the toe and heel edges. (Don't skid!) Alternately, you can keep your base flat and bear an unusually high amount of your weight on your lead foot. This places a fulcrum further forward on the board so your tail will track straight behind, rather than the tail wanting to steer the nose, which will cause you to catch an edge.

pawlo

WAX!!!!
Another thing a friend of mine does is keeping telescopic ski polses in his backpack...when he gets stuck he pulls them out and keeps going without unstrappimg.
Weird I know, but pretty effective.

thelowerclass

Maybe its just me, but for some reason when I get on a sticky flat throwing it around to switch keeps my speed up.

Bobafett

Initially I had significant frustration with a couple of relatively flat bits at Heavenly. Firstly the top of Sky Express heading back over to the Nevada side is a nightmare... lots of skating. And then there is a bit over on the Nevada side where I ran out of steam again and had to skate. But when I got my confidence, weighted the front leg more and rode faster into the sections I managed to maintain movement for much longer. The top section I don't know if I'd ever carry it right through - it almost seems to go uphill before getting to Dipper Knob trail, but the other bit I struggled with I did manage on my second attempt without stopping. It always looks like the really competent snowboarders just bomb it down with a flat board, but I guess they also are slightly on one edge. I did find that staying on one edge got quite tiring though, and I think I was initially too scared of losing speed if changing edge (or going off the narrow trail!!).