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Dave's Learning Journal

6K views 74 replies 17 participants last post by  dave785 
#1 · (Edited)
The goal of this thread is to chronicle my attempts to become an excellent snowboarder. I started about a month and a half ago and have a strong skiing background. I'm going to post the dates that I went, what I learned, what i messed up, the conditions, the gear changes, and other thoughts. My hope is that this will be helpful for all beginners. I'm learning at the same time as my GF so i'll post some stuff about that too.

About me: 29 years old and I'm 6'2". I've been skiing since I was 7 and have hit all the big Colorado spots despite living in SoCal. I can do pretty much everything on skis and have strongly cambered all mountain skis that hold an edge like crazy but also are wide enough to float in the powpow. My stance is goofy due to a football injury on my left knee when I was 13. I'm right handed and right footed.

My goal: being able to "bomb the mountain" on a snowboard. I care more about speed and directional control than I do about jumping. I have some friends that I go with who used to be sponsored snowboarders and I'm tired of waiting for them at the bottom of the mountain on account of being the only one in skis.

Note: All of these visits happened at Snow Summit in Big Bear, CA. No reason to waste a Colorado or Utah trip on a beginner IMO.

Date: 12/25/2015
Gear: full skiing outerwear, basic rental board, bindings, and boots. Initial stance is duck.
Experience: We arrived to the mountain at 11:00 due to heavy snow causing traffic. We strapped up and proceeded to spend most of the time on our butts. I learned how to flying leaf down the bunny slope, but the biggest challenge for me was getting back up (I'm not super flexible, and I'm 6'2"). The next day, 12/26, my GF snowboards all day and I ski with some friends. I take GF to the top of the mountain thinking she can falling leaf her way down, but it gets icy and I and have to carry her down on my skis.
Lesson learned: Buy buttpads and wristguards for me and the GF. Also, don't push the GF too much.
________

Gear Change:I decide to buy a used 2009 burton custom on ebay with Lamar bindings for $150. This was a bad idea.

Gear Change: I buy last season's version of the Flow Fusion Hybrid GT bindings. I love the rear entry. But my toe strap breaks when I'm trying to adjust it on the bunny hill for the lesson. very disappointed. customer service took four weeks to respond.

Date: 1/2/2016
Gear: new burton custom 2009, new wrist pads, new butt pads
Experience: My GF and I went and took a full day of lessons. We learned heel side stopping and we learned quite a bit about how important it is to lean forward. Only problem is that I had put ski race wax on my new burton custom and every time I leaned forward I went WAY too straight. I knew how camber works on skis, but I didn't factor in how much more of an effect it would have on snowboard (that whole 1 edge vs 2 edge thing). I try leaning forward and end up going WAY too fast. I try to turn at a very unnatural turning point, and I catch an edge and I fell very hard on my left shoulder and seriously injured my rotator cuff by overextending it. I get right back up and proceed to do the exact same thing again (did I mention that I'm usually pretty buzzed when I snowboard?). Day ends with me being able to do everything except heelside to toe side turns. GF can do everything and is better than me at this point. I start seeing a physical therapist about my rotator cuff because after this injury I can't do incline press at the gym...

Date: 1/4/2016 (a Monday)
Gear: no gear changes
Experience: I have the day off (stock market holiday wheee) but the GF is working so I head up by myself to try to catch up to her. I do not take lessons and instead come up focused on mastering the heel side to toe side turn. My board keeps wanting to force me to go downhill rather than turn, but I learn that by putting almost ALL my weight on the front foot and by actually lifting up my rear foot, I'm able to kind of force a turn. It isn't how it's supposed to be done, but it gets me to the bottom of the mountain and I'm now comfortable. I also realize that this board is way more than I can chew and I begin to look for something with rocker. The edge catches threw me around a bunch.
________

Gear change: I get the demon force flex upper body dx30 body armor. it has shoulder pads, elbow pads, and back pads. Apparently it also has rib pads but.. not really.

Gear Change: I buy a used-once (legitimately) 2015 never summer Snowtrooper 160w. Best change I ever made

Date: 1/9/2015
Experience: Getting off the chairlift I IMMEDIATELY feel the difference between the snowtrooper (rocker-camber) and the burton custom (full camber). I'm IMMEDIATELY able to do things that would've caused me to crash on the burton custom. I'm no longer being "forced" into going a certain direction by the snowboard and can now glide. I feel more comfortable leaning forwards because I am not worried about the snowboard trying to change directions on me and throw me off balance. I'm able to carv.. I mean skid turn my way through the blues and I can really pick up some speed. The GF is with me this time and she ends up getting clocked by a skier from behind. I make the horrible mistake of trying to give her advice ("babe, try leaning forward more") but she is now terrified of people behind her and is constantly looking uphill. I spend most of the day trying to build her back up but we end up arguing a bunch. Should've seen it coming. Life was much easier when she was the better boarder.

For myself, I notice that while my toe side turns are real turns, my heel side turns tend to bring me to a full stop rather than a gradual S turn.

I learned not to try to turn by throwing my rear, and I learned (after watching that video with the awesome Asian dude wearing tape and tights) to keep my shoulders pretty square and to turn with my knees. This was huge as it let me take turns at a much faster speed.
________

gear change: The elbow pads on my demon upper pads prove to be very useful as I'm testing out the edge hold on my new snowtrooper. My knees are bruised, so I end up buying some of the high end POC knee pads.

Stance change: I switch my binding angles from duck (-12, +15) to a forward stance (+9, +30). This was a great idea for my goal of going down the mountain quickly. Apparently this is bad for jumps/park, but I'm not worried about that. I also adjust my highback angle to have more forward lean on the front binding, and less on the rear binding.

Date: 1/15/2016
Experience: Great. The GF stays at home and is still upset with me. I go up by myself and end up going down a black diamond. The changes in the board, the stance, and the bindings have made my turns much more even. I'll still wipe out a few times when my edge stops holding on a steep turn, but that's just because I'm still trying to find out what I can and cannot get away with. I'm still wearing full pads, and the knee pads and elbow pads make everything feel much safer.
________

Gear change: I buy a 16L backback from Deuter. it has a nice camelback for my redbull vodka. It also has padding in the back which is nice.

Gear change: all this time on my butt is starting to show on my $400 soft shell ski pants. I buy some volcom snowboarding pants with a reinforced butt. It fits over my ass and knee pads.

Date: 1/23/2016
Experience: I get caught in a blizzard and it is AMAZING. turns out that the snowtrooper I got is a really great board for powder. I end up doing the only double black diamond on the mountain twice, and while I fall a bunch the first time, it's a nice and soft fall. The pads have really made me bold. I'm glad I have high end goggles from my time spent skiing, so visibility isn't a problem. What is a problem is that at 3PM a tree fell down on a chairlift due to the high winds and they shut down the mountain. It takes me five hours to drive back home because falling boulders had blocked all but one of the paths, and most people in LA don't know how to drive on snow. shoutout to infiniti for making my qx50 a great crossover for snow.
________

Date: 2/6/2016
Experience: Great. The GF came back up with me after we had a huge argument about how I was spending too much money and time snowboarding. (I work hard so that I can play hard IMO). She felt bad that I was pressuring her so I stopped pressuring her and she then decided to come up on her own. I brought another friend of mine who was having his first time and they took a lesson together while I bombed the mountain with one of my sponsored friends. We go hard and I'm able to mostly keep up, although I still don't have as much trust on my edges as he does (he uses arbor element premium). I am constantly trying to find out how i can take turns faster and faster without wiping out. I'm still wiping out, but i've noticed that the faster i go, the more of the wipeout force goes sideways and the less it actually hurts. I do the double-black diamond (not a real one, but a SoCal one haha) in groomed conditions and I fall through the first half but pick myself up and manage to skid turn my way to the bottom. So hard to lean forwards when the hill is at such a steep angle!

The GF is happy now too. She's not as afraid as she was before and she had a 1 on 1 lesson with the instructor. Now she is linking turns very effectively and while she isn't going fast, she isn't falling anymore either. My friend tears his rotator cuff when he crosses his skis on the bunny slope. Great pics of him getting loaded into the medic sled. (he's fine).

Utah trip scheduled for 2/28! I think I'm finally ready!
 
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#4 ·
Definitely helping - it loosens the muscles and makes me less afraid of leaning forwards. Combine it with the padding and I credit that with my ability to progress so quickly.

But I'm not drunk by any means. I don't care about putting myself in danger but I would NEVER put anyone else in danger. My biggest hang up right now is that I still don't feel too comfortable getting too close to other people. especially since I'm still learning the skid out point of my edges.
 
#3 ·
Awesome journal :)
Although i wouldn't recommend noobies going exactly the same way you did (especially going in "buzzed" for starters) but there are a lot of helpful stuff here :)

P.S: I'm not against going in "buzzed", i do it sometimes myself, but it is very dangerous for noobies. I know someone who went in "buzzed", flew off the track into a tree and his liver exploded... So take care dude...
 
#8 ·
Nothing personal...but why booze makes you smart? I am talking about half a spliff every hour or so, not backed after dabbing 3 times in a row... Use..not abuse.
 
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#9 ·
Booze doesn't make me smart but it doesn't demotivate me later on in the week. Some people can function really well with weed... For me it makes me lazy and tired with a hint of paranoia. I wish that wasn't the case but I work really long hours during the week and really can't afford to be anything less than 110%. It's a shame because I'd easily be able to get a medical prescription for my knee too.

High Dave = procrastinating and worrying Dave.
Drunk Dave = asinine but motivated Dave. Makes for better stories too ;)
 
#10 ·
Ok...so Cannabis makes you lazy..(maybe) but not stupid. That line I didn't like :) you sounded like my wife.

It actually helps me instead. Opposite as you. I work 6 days a week 10 hours a day.
 
#14 · (Edited)
:rotfl: thanks for a fun read. "I'd never put anyone in danger..." yep I'm pretty sure the drunk driver tells himself this very same thing. I'm sure I'm in the minority but I don't ride buzzed and dont wanna be taken out by anyone else who rides that way either! I get a major Buzz from adrenaline thou.


+1 absolutely!
 
#17 · (Edited)
Dude it started with a melodramatic journal entry don't blame me for where it ended up. "I got in a huge argument with my gf..." lmao!!!
Facing and conquering the fear is like lifechanging to me this season, that's more what I wanted to quote. :shrug:
kind of a big bull to grab teh horns of.
Haha ya nvm
 
#19 ·
agreed...

Anyway, I'm heading to the southeast next week for a vacation and I'm wondering if i should try to hit the mountains in North Carolina to practice before park city utah on feb 27th. It would definitely be a drive for me... in a rental car... but it could be fun.
 
#21 ·
My little 23yr old brother rides a lot at SS and Bear, if you ever want a riding partner I'm sure he'd join ya. He's an intermediate rider, may be faster, but riding with others that are better always pushed me. Hit me up on a PM if you want his info
 
#22 · (Edited)
I did sugar mountain and beech mountain on monday/tues/weds this week in North Carolina (in the south on vacation). I used ski track and my top speed was 35mph (Hit it both days) with a consistent sustained speed of around 25MPH when i was trying. i feel like i could get it higher in west coast / mid west snow.

I've gotten pretty advanced but my board keeps washing out at me if I turn on a steep incline. It's like i'll hit a slight bump and then when my board (or a part of it) lands, it does this skid bouncing thing and I end up falling/washing out. It happens much more often on very steep runs, and only when i'm trying to hold on edge... I don't even have to be going that fast for it to happen, if my weight ever straights going down the mountain then I know i'll fall. i feel like if i just went straight down the damn thing without ever putting too much pressure on an edge then i'd be ok haha.

My current goal is to keep my pressure even between both sides of an edge. In other words, I don't want to put too much pressure on the edge at once but gradually apply the pressure, and make sure that my left leg and right leg are putting equal pressure on the edges. I've gotten to the point where when I go over a bump my body kind of lowers itself so that my momentum stays where it is... knees are becoming shock absorbers. It's made me much more comfortable at speed... but it's so much harder to do on a steep incline.

On greens and easy blues I'm actually able to carve now. At least I think i'm carving because when i come out of the turn I'm going faster than I was going into it haha. I'm noticing that in order to do it i have to really lean back with my shoulders which has been an interesting thing to learn because it's exactly what I was doing unintentionally to turn when I first started learning snowboarding... and i would then bite it at speed haha.

Currently ride a 160W Never Summer Snowtrooper. I'm 6'2" and weigh 185. ride goofy.

Really looking hard at a "Yes Pick Your line" or a "K2 Joy Driver" for next season.

I have park city coming up in a week, and Mammoth CA in two weeks. Won't buy a new board for then but I'm excited to see how much better I can get.
 
#29 ·
On greens and easy blues I'm actually able to carve now. At least I think i'm carving because when i come out of the turn I'm going faster than I was going into it haha.
This is carving:



It's essentially tilting the board on angle and using the sidecut to turn instead of sliding through the turns. You'll know you're carving when you look back at your tracks and see nothing but a 4" wide little trench in the snow! >:)

It's a lot of fun to tear up the groomers with your body laid out like that!
 
#23 ·
oh and i didn't drink at all during that trip.

and it sucked (not drinking sucked, trip was great) drinking is fun. screw you guys and your interventions lol.

drinking to make a good time even better is a great idea. it's drinking to make a bad time good that'll get you in trouble. also, drinking by yourself (and i was by myself this trip)
 
#25 ·
....drinking to make a good time even better is a great idea. it's drinking to make a bad time good that'll get you in trouble. also, drinking by yourself (and i was by myself this trip)
I had sum of the Best Times I'll Never Remember with Alcohol! :grin:>:)
 
#24 ·
Good show on keeping track of your progress! Although it seems like you made a typical rookie mistake and went "down blacks" and double blacks before you're really ready. I know you said you're used to bombing the mountain on your skis, but there's a big difference between snowboarding, and snowboarding well.

Now that you've conquered the mountain, have you thought about trying more lessons to really work on getting the technique down pat?

Have fun!
 
#27 ·
Don't overthink board decisions for your first year. Honestly anything that's roughly the right size will be fine to learn on. The OP mentioning he was catching edges with camber is showing that at that time he needed more lessons and time working on technique.

Once you get over it, you should really never catch an edge again. If you do, you ride lazy.
 
#33 ·
I'm thinking about selling my board and buying a new one.

Torn between Jones Flagship, Yes PYL, and Jones Mountain Twin.

I really like the jones flagship and the way it looks... But I'm worried that it might not hold an edge as well as the Yes PYL on groomers or in ice/crud. At the same time, I've read that the flagship is easy to turn at low speeds while the yes PYL can be very catchy at low speeds.

I want a board that can kill it on groomers, but that can do well in Pow too... I'm gradually starting to realize though that I'll need to have two boards though lol.
 
#36 ·
yeah that seems about right, I can do really easy blacks, but there are a few blacks that'll have really short but really steep spots that I just wash out on every time. I'm sure that if I was better at controlling my balance and my application of downward force I'd be OK... but I need to practice more.

The blues are fun though and I can really practice real carving on them. I can't carve on the blacks though... not really. I tend to wash out on a heel side turn on the blacks... I'm trying to practice keeping the downward force on my heel edge to a minimum by leaning forwards more and having more of the force go sideways.. but i think i'm trying to turn TOO quickly and that's what's causing too much force on my heel edge and then the skid bounce to wash out. I've gotten good at keeping the downward force balanced between my two feet though.
 
#40 ·
Nice, thank you.

Quick question - if I had to have only one other snowboard to go with the dupraz, what should I get? I was thinking about getting an all mountain twin that performs well on ice and in the park... Basically fill the gaps in the dupraz. I was eyeing the jones ultra mountain twin... But the more I look at it the more it starts to look like the same board lol. Maybe an arbor element? I dunno.
 
#46 ·
how at a never summer type two?

I need to sell my current boards before buying it (burton custom and NS snowtrooper) but hopefully the T2 inventory will be back up by the time I'm ready.

honestly this is all mental masturbation at this point lol.

I'm REALLY hoping my dupraz arrives before I fly out to Utah on Thursday...
 
#53 ·
Just finished park city!

Had a friend record me for a run. Wasn't great because I had people on my blind side twice and had to do a heel side brake to ruin my attempt at a high speed carve...

But I'd love your critique! The one that has me in front, approaching... Should probably watch twice so that you can figure out which one is me the second time lol

https://youtu.be/cBwscbbiXtQ

https://youtu.be/aEhFGKFXsog
 
#56 · (Edited)
That was a bit painful to watch.

You’re very stiff - gotta get those legs pumping, get low over the board and balance. Also you're bending over at waist.

Skidded turns are ok as a beginner, but try not to swivel the board.

May be leave the Dupraz alone and get/borrow more of a mainstream board while you're learning the basics. That should help you improve faster.
 
#57 ·
Thanks I needed that.

I'm usually not so stiff but this was end of day two and muscles were tired. But even when I'm 100% im not that far off from what you saw.

Trying to keep everything upright is my current goal. I've stopped washing out heel side but I'm leaning forwards more than I used to. It's a strange trade off
 
#60 ·
damn... going from a custom>snowtrooper>dupraz in 2 months? haha crazy. Glad your girl is getting over her fear. The runs are a little bit longer at bear, you might want to try hitting that up.

A wider stance will help you with everything, you want to stay loose, it looks like you're still skiing :grin:
 
#62 ·
Dude now that you mention it, it DOES look like skiing! My knees are in skiing positions for parallel turns lol.

Good eye! Thank you.

I'm hitting mammoth in two weeks I should be good to go for then. Right knee is doing better and my shoulder is mostly healed now.
 
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