mangtarn

so this is my first season. i learned relatively fast and i can ride the green no problem. but whenever i pick up some speed or go down a steeper hill i usually don't feel as confident and feel the need to slow down. when i do try to slow down i often end up using only one edge and result in catching an edge. i've been forcing myself to switch edges as much as i can but i still go quite fast. is there a technique that i am missing or do i just need more practice to get used to it and control my speed better?
p.s. whenever i go down a steeper slope (blue) i just go really fast no matter how often i switch edges. i never really feel steady as i go down.

BurtonAvenger

steer with your ankles.

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Angry Snowboarder Because someone has to call it how they see it!

mangtarn

please elaborate

cocolulu

You will go faster on blue runs... that's just the nature of steeper terrain.

For me, a big part of learning to do blue runs was just getting comfortable and confident with the speed, keeping my body square and loose. When I freaked out, I leaned back, or tried to force a turn too quickly, and that just threw me out of balance and caused me to fall.

For practice though, what I did was zoom down green runs and practiced doing clean linked turns quickly... less plowing and more turning with the sidecut. It seemed to really help with control in the blues.

Frostee

This is my first real season riding as well, so I know exactly what you're feeling. I say "real season" because I did go snowboarding about 5 years ago once, but haven't been back until this season, and I've gone like 8 times I think this year alone, so I've made some serious progress.

Anyway, getting comfortable with speed mostly just comes with practice. I was in your shoes not even two months ago, feeling that I wasn't stable at all when I picked up speed, but part of my problem was that my equipment was cheap bottom of the line Lamar stuff, so I did some research and bought a Ride Machete, Rome Targa bindings, and Salomon Savage boots, all new for this year, and it made such a dramatic difference in my riding ability and confidence. My goal for this season was to be able to ride the blues by the end of the season, and I'm already cruising down blacks. What I did is I went to the top of the mountain to try out some blues even though I still wasn't comfortable with speed on the greens, and after going down a few blues and linking turns all the way down, I really got the hang of riding at higher speeds, partially because the blue runs are much longer than green runs where I go so you have more room and time to practice. You just have to throw yourself out there and get real aggressive with controlling your board.

Here are some pointers for your technique. Start riding dynamically, as in bending your knees when you initiate a turn, then slowly "stand up" on your board as you cross the fall line to plant the edge of your board into the snow. Imagine that you're pushing your board through the mountain as you turn. You can really feel a difference between a skidded turn and a proper carve, and you'll notice that you have much more control of your board when the edge carries you through the turn. Skidded turns are useful when you need to bleed off some speed on steeper terrain, but other than that, get those edges up. Something else to pay attention to is how much weight you put on your front foot as you ride. Essentially you want the weight even between both feet, which means you should be leaning slightly down the hill as you ride, but when you initiate a turn, really get aggressive with bending your front knee and putting weight down on your front foot to dig that edge. I figured out that was my problem when going down blacks, because my toe side turns felt really good and comfortable, but I would always wash out on my heel side turns because my board would bounce around like crazy. I discovered that I was leaning back on my heel side turns and had almost no weight on my front foot, so I was always losing the edge. You should think about leaning forward and plowing through those turns, especially on steep terrain.

TheJetCityFix

This is my first real season as well, and I went from falling down all the damn time, to now riding black diamonds, hitting 10-15 foot kickers and riding boxes, flat and rainbow. I know this won't help much as it didn't when my friends told me, but it will "just click". It clicked for me when I told my self to shut my brain off and feel it instead of over-analysing , and just grab my sack and ride. The more scared you get, the more chance of a nasty wipeout.

twin89

It will come with time. I would just keep riding and it will come naturally

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Too Fast!

schmitty34

check the thread at the tope of this forum for the "Basic How To Guide" or something like that.

It has some pretty good videos of what proper turns look like and how to execute them. Switching edges won't control your speed unless you are make good turn once you get on those edges. My guess is that you're not turning enough. The vids will give you some great tips.

mangtarn

thanks a lot for the tips guys! too bad spring break is over for me so I can't hit the slopes everyday like i did the past two weeks hopefully i'll go a few more times this season to get carving down