Just started boarding recently, on my 10th time out I finally got the hang of turns decently comfortably. I can line up, follow narrow tracks and have been hitting very small jumps...
I still have alot of work to do to look like I'm comfortably doing this I think, and I'm sure my first few runs Thursday are going to be ugly looking until I get it back in my head how to do this, but I really want to traverse into hitting jumps.
I see these big jumps with landing hills below them, and REALLY want to go for it, but as I get older, I'm rather afraid that I'm going to snap my neck, back, leg , arm, wrist , etc.
Im just ok at crash landings, but at my size and height and age it's kinda hard...
Anyone just say screw it and go for it? What was the result?
The problem with our resorts:
TINY TINY jumps in between trees/snowmaking equipment, or BIG jumps with BIG gaps in between takeoff and landing. Nothing in between.
I'd say if you get impulsive and hit those big jumps, make sure u watch a lot of videos on Youtube or something. Cause the first few airs are very scary if you don't know what you're doing.
my first tiny jumps that were just edges of cat trails pop ups, my first issue was leaning back (even after watching snowolfs video) and I landed on my arse and bruised my tailbone (is that possible?)
after that I fly over them, dont get the same air but carry further. In a split second, I know what edge Im going to land on and was able to shift my weight enough to make that happen more or less.
As I didnt have turns down, what happened afterwards was a lack of experience and confidence, usually I glide for a few feet and almost or do fall after the jump. But lately, it's been all clean..
just wish they had some bigger jumps to transition to first!
Okay, you put me in the "old" category. Asshole! Har.
I will hit small jumps (10' table) when there's soft snow on the ground, but that's about it for a terrain park. On natural terrain I will hit windlips, drops, cornices, etc. whenever the opportunity presents itself but there's usually a soft landing.
A few years ago while mountain biking I broke a collarbone coming up short on a big double and between the cost of two surgeries, physical therapy, helmet replacement, and bike part replacement the total cost was about $9000 out of my pocket (and that was without missing a single day of work). If I had missed any work the total would have been well into the five-figure range, so financial threat keeps me low to the ground more than anything else. I feel I'm in good enough physical shape and still have enough coordination to go bigger, but I'm afraid of landing in the poor house.
Go for the smaller ones between the trees first. Make sure you're going at a REASONABLE speed (ie slow) for the first little bit until you're comfortable with the jump and that you're not going to hit a tree. Continue to pick up speed and try again.
I personally would not hit up too big a jump, but don't mind a jump here and there.
Me and 2 of my best buds started boarding 5 years ago...I'm 33, and the other 2 are 33, and 40. We started riding park last year, and by the end we were hitting jumps, and have progressed beyond our belief from what our expectations were a few years ago.
Yeah we may not recover as well when we were kids, but I laugh when an early 30 something friend says they are too old for certain physical activities.
The way I see it, when you're 60-70 years old you'll kicking yourself for thinking you were too old or brittle in your 30's for physically demanding activities.
We definitely are the grey beards of the Park though.....
Just keep going to the mountain with progression in mind. Every time I go, there is a new something I set out to learn or practice. Watching video and seeking out tips before you go is key so you have an idea of what is successful and try and duplicate that success.
Example...started little side jumps off the trail. Decided that maybe mastering the ollie was a good idea and worked on that till I was comfy doing those, and then started to try and go bigger on those side jumps and then once I felt comfy in the air and landing I went to the park jumps.
I'm 37 and this is my second season boarding. I just started hitting small jumps in the park and find they are no problem but i am certainly a bit nervous to hit the bigger stuff which seems a LOT bigger!
go for it. my mom is 40 and she boards and at our terrain park she tries the jumps. not the kickers, just the jumps. the other day she came down the main park with the kickers with me and i made her do it. she said it was terrifying at first but once she landed it, she felt great. just go for it! your not gonna break anything.
I'll be 54 at the end of this month. I'm in the process of getting comfortable with the 25-footer at the top of Northlands on Seymour. I'm also learning to handle boxes and I eye'd a rail last night for next time up.
Screw age. Do what's fun. But work your way up to things. A little caution is ok.
I am 36. I am very experienced with over a decade of riding. I will do straight airs off kickers but gave up any rotation over 180 over a kicker. Its a business decision... I am a doctor... If I break anything my ability to practice medicine especially procedures is screwed.
As an old man I still love flatland rotations and butters and old man carving (seemd like all you young park rats love skidding around instead of carving).
Lots of commons sense advice here and good words from Snowolf as always. I started riding last year at 42 and am at a similar point in my riding. My park as minimal beginner jumps right to the large jumps. I have been hitting them slowly and carefully. We have a table top type jump, I frequent, as I'm still progressing and can't make the down ramp on the bigger ones.
Progress slowly, and at least for me, my body kinda told me when I was comfortbale enough to hit a bigger feature. NOT a huge gapper but a safer one in case of wash out, off balance landing etc....
I would also recommend impact shorts, wrist gaurds and helmet. Saved me many times
Good luck and enjoy, it'll come, even for us "older family guys"
I'm 53, we don't have much of a park (only a mini park) for jumping which I have done but its not much...rather boring and full of rats...so why bother...thus not very comfortable nor good at jumps. Which also seems to be rather weak to hit the same thing, over and over, with the same basic conditions and tranny. However have been hitting more natural hits, only on days with good pow landings and don't mind doing launching 10-20 foot drops and hits that will get you 10 ft of air. I find that scoping a natty hit and then going for it is much more interesting and challenging. But choose wisely.
i'm glad there's a thread dedicated to people like us! i'm 32 going on 33. i won't touch rails or boxes as i feel there's more risk to them. if i slide out, chances are i may hit something hard (eg - box, rail).
i ride with twenty people that are my roughly my age. they all ride hard.
i have been riding four years (this being my fourth).
07 - 08 (age 29) - began. took me like six outings to learn how to carve. i was horrible. started small hops at the end of the season.
08 - 09 (age 30) - learned to maintain speed and make a tighter carve. experimented my hops with mounds of snow pushed aside by skiers. BROKE my shoulder in the season simply going to fast and catching edge. two weeks after i broke my shoulder, i went back to riding, but learned switch. stupid decision but i didn't want to stop progressing.
09 - 10 (age 31) - learned fs 180s off the ground, experimented with butters, got much faster, could go off smaller jumps, rode switch proficiently.
10 - 11 (age 32) - current year. BROKE my wrist. currently still healing but i go out every weekend to teach my gf. recently started going off on my own again to progress. trying for fs 360s off the ground and small mounds. will do straight airs off small hits and maybe a fs 180. still can't do the bs 180. buttering a lot more.
what i realized is i PREFER it much closer to the ground. i feel as i get older, the less i want to be airborne and the more i want to perfect my ground attack.
note: i HATE to admit this but i figure i might as well. i get discouraged by all the teeny bopper park rats. yes i'm jealous and full of hate.
Wow thanks guys, didnt expect such a large amount of replies from this many older people.
I feel alot older than I am. Perm knee and back damage does that.
best advice I could give the youngins, stay sharp. Keep active even if that means playing bball or hockey one night a week. It kills you to sit in a class or office chair all the time, and when you go out and do stupid stuff like I do, you damage stuff easily.
My biggest fear is , like snowolf said, breaking something that will hinder my ability to work or worse, ride!
Where I live, we are JUST on the line of being able to have areas to ski/board. The weather here sucks. Rain after 8" of powder has me realizing that my time to learn to jump may be over for this year. Everything is going to be solid super packed, although I might try when it gets REALLY warm out and the landing is soft from melt
As for our jumps, not sure what they are called but all we have are 30' jumps with a take off ramp, a big gap in the middle that if you dont clear if you go for it, will hurt, then a landing ramp after. No table top type situation. Pretty sucky for the newbs like me.
Something snow mention has me thinking though, I could try to hit the side of the jump I guess but I would have to scope that out carefully as hitting it too hard and I will miss the landing totally and drop into the abyss.
Cheers! here's hoping I'm not posting xrays this season!
Thanks for the advice and words of encouragement guys..
learn to FALL on jumps before trying bigger hits... biggest thing is, if you can break your fall with any part of your board[other than immediate 90 degree landing edge snag] you should be okay... never really hurts too much bailing on a 30 footer if the board's under ya!
38 and I jump up to 35-40 footers. I was at PC a few weeks ago and though King's Crown was closed for a ski comp and I couldn't, I probably wouldn't have hit those monsters. I couldn't even ride through there, but they looked quite large from the lift. Three Kings was fun though.
I had to stop spinning, etc on medium to large park hits after a while... sometimes I'll send it if I know it's good and soft and the jump is groomed well, but mostly it's fun tweaks and grabs now.
I got bills. And I'm not even talking about the ones I acquire from board sports.
EDIT: This is a photo from the ski contest with the exact jumps I'm referencing.
I might suggest snapping off the lip of a dropoff, like where it gets really steep from a flat. Get used to the earth dropping out from beneath
you first. It took me a whole bunch of times to get used to the feeling of being so far off the ground.
Then once you are comfortable with that, then launch youself skyward.
Once you do decide to do it....COMMIT!
I am 36 and it takes some coaxing the mind to do what would have come easily ten years ago.
thank god i found this thread, 37 this august and have been boarding for about 8 years. still actively play hockey/box lacrosse and love to board.
one question i have is how do you keep your upper body "quiet" when jumping/coming off a rail. i can land small jumps/rails without any problem and starting to land 180's consistently. my arms seem to want to flail like a young bird learning to fly! i must look absolutely ridiculous.
i am thinking it is probably because i am not getting low enough/compressing board upwards/not ollie'ing enough. any help would much appreciated.
I'm nearly 30 and ride park probably 100 days a season out of a 150 days on the hill. It's about learning your abilities and muscle memory. The biggest jump I'm doing anymore is about 40 feet.
And you've got at least 30 more years of more of the same. You'll get a little more cautious as you get older, but you're lucky to be getting the skilz while you're young enough to be able to just huck it.
I wear armor head to toe. With a nice paint job, I can get a job from Darth Vader to kill some jedi. It won't help twists and stuff like that, but it reduces impacts. I think it helps to a certain extent and now I'm finding that I'm learning to fall on the armor. But there's always the quick reactions that will make you fall the wrong way, or if it's too fast.
my dad just turned 45 yesterday and he does them
granted, he cases most of them but he still goes for it haha
its cool we can ride together even if he isnt doing all the stuff i am
45 here...serious rider for the past 3, 35/40 days per season. Season pass = huge difference.
I have been climbing since 85 too and I alwats managed not to get hurt...because I would hate not be able to climb or ride. At this point, especially at Kirkwood, I know the place and charge pretty much anything natural, cliff excluded, but not as much in the park.
My real thing is powder and carving...jumps are fun, but also dangerous...I'd rather ride more mellow stuff longer
Dropped a couple of medium lips...but generally I don't go look for air.
I am 46 yrs old, 3 weeks ago I learned to do a 180 on a tabletop, 2 weeks ago I learned a boardslide on a box, last week I learned a rail and attempted a boardslide on said rail. Never to old to learn new things, just don't want to learn by trial and error so much when the consequences of the error is high. Work your way up, hitting the small stuff until you know it like the back of your hand. Repetition leads to muscle memory.
I used to say that "me and air don't get along". Tore ligaments catching air skiing a long time ago. Broke a collar bone catching air on a mountain bike in my 20's. Separated a shoulder catching air mountain biking.
Then I took a snowboarding class on a trampoline and realized I had absolutely no control of myself when in the air. The more time I spent on the trampoline, the more comfortable and control I got in the air. When your not comfortable in the air, there is no time to do anything, plus you don't know how to adjust in the air, wind up flailing. Once comfortable in the air, it is amazing how there is time to adjust.
The time on the trampoline translated into both mountain biking and snowboarding. I try to do other things that have little consequences but challange myself in the air. Jumping off the high dive at the local pool. Start out jumping feet first, then diving, then flips and twists. Adding jumping off a few bridges bumps up the nerves, but when I land okay the next jump is easier and in more control.
I am not going big yet snowboarding, but with both snowboarding and mountain biking I am doing things that I used to watch others do and say that I was too old for that.
It sounds like you need to be comfortable leaving the snow and compressing your body in the air while remaining stable.
Before hitting these kickers, you need to be COMPLETELY comfortable doing strong ollies over rollers (even if said rollers are the landings of the jumps) and compressing the body (knees to the chest) with your arms out for balance. Not a bad idea to be able to do small shiftys both bs and fs as that familiarity of the board moving under you while in the air will make it generally easier.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Snowboarding Forum - Snowboard Enthusiast Forums
1M posts
46.6K members
Since 2006
A forum community dedicated to all Snowboarding enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about equipment reviews, tips, traveling, gear troubleshooting, share photos, and more!