Coop

Hey, I've been snowboarding for a few years now, but have never really attempted any tricks. I'm pretty sure this is mostly down to fear. I want to learn some tricks that are pretty easy, but also look good.

If you've got any suggestions of good begginer tricks or tips to combat fear it would be much appreciated.

Leo

Flat land jumps. On mellow and slower parts of a run, start practicing flat jumps. When you get good at these, you can start to do Ollies and Nollies. Then you can progress to natural features. Hit the small bumps throughout the runs and get some air. Take it slow and work your way up faster and higher. Tail presses are also a beginner friendly trick that can look steeze when you dial it in.

Get a helmet, and some padded protection if you can. I'd say a helmet is a must when learning and the padding will help reduce the pain from falling which in turn will build confidence.

Most importantly, have fun. Oh, don't forget to work on your switch riding. Start on the bunny hill and when you can ride that out switch the whole time, start moving to bigger runs. Good switch riding is important for when you start doing bigger tricks.

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gjsnowboarder

One way to start conquering fear for the speed it some times takes to hit jumps try riding a flat board down the hill for a ways. Start on mellow groomers and then work up to steeper terrain. Remember to be cognizant of others on the hill when doing this.

jputtho2

One thing I tell myself when I want to try new things is something I picked up from a friend that I ride with and that is that the fear in most cases is greater than the trick. Obviously don't expect to go in with that mindset and think you're gonna BS 540 a small gap jump but it's good in finding confidence to progress.

You just have to not be scared to fall because it's going to happen. One thing you should do is read up on the tips on his site on how to fall as it'll make the experience much better.

But yeah, now when I want to try something new I just picture how I want it to go in my head and just hit it. Most of the time it doesn't work out how I picture it in my head the first time but I just keep at it until it does.

david_z

Indeed. The fear is always greater than the trick. Well, almost always I'm afraid to do 3s, even though I landed my first few attempts. Don't know what it is, but I need like a perfect jump setup otherwise I chicken out.

And 9 times out of 10, it doesn't hurt anywhere near as badly as you thought it would. I busted my ass a few times last Thursday frontboarding this rail. Got up and did it again. Didn't stick any of them, and got a real nasty bruise right on my ass crack, but honestly, it never really hurt. I've washed landings on jumps, I've caught edges over-rotating a spin or coming down off-balance or whatever, and you think it's going to really hurt. It almost never does.

I'm not saying your bulletproof (none of us are) but the psychology is what's keeping you scared. physically, you're not likely to really hurt/injure yourself until you start throwing yourself off 30+ footers and inverting and kinked rails over 20-stair sets on concrete. When you get that good, you won't be worried about getting hurt

Dood. If you can get yourself on video, even crappy video from a digicam or cell phone, it helps. you can usually watch it and watch one of snowprofessorrick's videos or the guys from snowboardaddiction.com etc., and you should be able to see what you're doing wrong. From there, you gotta force yourself mentally to adjust and overcome the bad habit(s) that you've built up over the years, but it's a great place to start.

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damanb

Was going to start a new thread but found this one.

I'm a newer rider. I've done about four different 3-4 day trips and that's all. Picked it up pretty quickly in those trips but am still nowhere near what I'd call good.

I am spending my first full season at Brighton now that I moved to SLC and want to get into freestyle. I've always wanted to progress my buttering a lot. Any tips on some good foundation butter tricks that can help propel me along? Obviously there's the nose/tail press. I was just curious of anyone's opinions on other tricks or techniques to try out to improve my buttering/general riding.

j.gnar

make some friends and ride with people that are better than you....its the fastest way to progress your riding ability

ThunderChunky

Snowboarding is really all about mindset. Go into stuff fast and confident. You need a lot more speed than you think, and if you do something too fast and nothing happens (which it most likely won't) you gain a lot of confidence. My experience with progressing is just being confident and doing it. I've been riding seven years and never gotten hurt, and I fall a lot, fall hard, and fall fast. I get more and more surprised how durable the body really is every year. But this don't mean were indestructible, so be a little cautious, believe me a helmet makes things a lot less painful.

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IdahoFreshies

god, this 10000x over. aside from private lessons that is the best way to get better, fast. And i dont mean people that think they are better than you, or are more confident than you, or people that have been up 5 more times than you. Its people that are at least 2-3 years ahead of you. When me and my friend first got into it by the end of our first season riding together we could do the black diamond groomers confidently and with little to no falls. Fast forward 4 years and we bring up another friend, first time on the mountain, he takes a private lesson and we start riding with him. After his 5th day up with us he is at the same level it took us an entire season to get to. If you can find some friends at an advanced enough level that are willing to put up with your slower pace, you will get better very very fast.

oh, also have balls. The only reason he progressed so fast was because if we told him to hit something, he hit it, and if we told him you better take the blue run and we will meet you at the bottom, this section is pretty difficult, he ignored us and followed us anyway.

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WasatchMan

be really cocky and act like you know you're going to land whatever your attempting. Also eat shit/fall hard - get it over with and out of the way.