- Hi, I'm Amy Gan
with the American Association of Snowboard Instructors.
I'm here with REI to show you some things
you can do on your snowboard to have some success out there
if it's your first time out
or you've only been out for a few times.
So that you can get moving on your snowboard
and have a great time.
(techno music)
In this video we're gonna go through
a basic progression of how to snowboard,
starting with standing on flat ground.
Just getting comfortable in our gear.
All the way up to starting to connect our turns
and getting around the resort.
If you haven't seen how to strap into your snowboard yet,
please check out that video.
(techno music)
So now that we're strapped in and on a flat,
we can also start to think about our snowboard stance.
A good snowboard stance is very similar
to any athletic stance where our ankles,
knees and hips are all in line, nice and relaxed.
And standing right in line with our snowboard.
So you can see how everything gets a little bit lower
but is pretty relaxed, nothing too aggressive and just calm.
The first thing we're gonna do is find a really,
really good flat spot.
Somewhere when you put the snowboard down,
it's not gonna slide away.
Strap both feet in and while you're here,
the whole goal is just to start moving with two feet in
without feeling like you're gonna slide away.
And feel what it's like to have a snowboard
on your feet for the first time.
So I like to just wiggle around,
jump a little bit and get moving.
(Snow crunching)
Alright, now that you've had both feet in on your snowboard
and you're starting to feel comfortable with that,
it's time to go ahead and take one foot out
and we'll learn how to skate.
If you're not sure which foot to take out,
I just recommend doing whatever ones going to feel
the most comfortable to be the one that you're kicking with,
which will as well be your back foot.
You can start with your foot behind the snowboard
or in front of the snowboard.
Whatever feels more comfortable to you.
I like to stand behind my snowboard
because it just keeps my body nice and in line.
Start off with really, really little steps.
And try to make sure that your back foot
doesn't go too far past your back binding,
else you might start to do an accidental split.
Practice both behind and in front.
Which is just good practice on how to get around
people if you're standing in the lift line
or wherever you need to go when you're out on snow.
It's also good to put a little bit of weight
on the front foot and start to balance on it.
Once that feels good, you can start to glide
which is when we put our back foot
right up against the back binding and coast.
(Techno music)
Now that you've practiced
and gotten comfortable on the flat ground,
it's time to take it to a little bit of a slope.
So when picking out good terrain for this,
what I really focus on is that my slope
will naturally stop myself.
It's totally flat at the end, so I don't have to worry
about getting myself to stop snowboarding.
It's gonna naturally do that.
So for this, just like we were doing on flat ground,
I'm gonna point my board right down the fall line,
which - fall line is wherever the slope
is actually gonna pull you.
So where gravity is gonna take you.
And I'm going to put my back foot
right up against that binding again,
sink into this nice low snowboard stance.
Looking where you're going,
until you come to a stop.
Make sure that with this we're practicing this quite a bit,
so that this feels totally comfortable.
If at first, this is a little scary
just start a little bit lower down
so you don't have as much speed.
As you get comfortable though,
maybe work your way up just a little bit.
When practicing the straight glide,
this our time to reinforce our stance
make sure we're standing nice in line with the board.
And this is gonna set up us for success later on.
Alright, so now that we've gotten comfortable
riding straight to a stop,
we're gonna start shaping our board
and starting to turn it just a little bit.
This is what we call a J-Turn
and you do it both heel and toe.
But we're gonna start off with the heel side.
What I mean by heel side is that we're gonna be turning
towards the heel side of my snowboard,
which is the back side here.
And what I'm gonna do is start to shift my weight,
my hips right over the board.
And as I do that, I'm gonna start to feel my legs
and my calves specifically hit the high back,
the back of my binding
and just start to feel some pressure there.
As I lean back very gradually,
I wanna keep my knees nice and bent
and I'm gonna pick up the board just a little bit.
So pick up the toe side and I'm feeling the top of my boot
while I do that.
So let's go try it out.
Alright so I head down the hill,
I get in that athletic stance
and then I'll start to move into heel side J-Turn.
(snow crunching)
Alright, so as I head down the hill
I'm gonna send it nice and straight in that
nice snowboard stance that we were practicing.
Back foot against the back binding.
And then I'm gonna slowly shift my weight towards my heel,
feeling that high back and slowly lifting my toes up.
(snow crunching)
Once that's feeling pretty good,
we can start to practice toe side.
Just like we started with the heel side,
we're gonna get in that nice
athletic stance, even on both feet.
And as we wanna start that toe turn,
we can start to flex our ankle
so that our knee is going out over our toes.
And I'm starting to shift the weight towards the toes
and I can just very slightly pick up my heels.
You don't want to be way up on your tip toes
or anything like this, it's pretty subtle.
Let's try it out.
Alright, so I'm gonna head down the hill
that nice, even stance.
And as I sink into that stance,
I'm gonna start to shift my weight towards that toe edge.
Again flexing the ankle, squishing that ankle strap
and getting our knees out over our toes.
And bringing up that heel just a little bit.
(snow crunching)
Alright, let's practice those toe turns a couple times.
Get low, then slowly move towards that edge.
(snow crunching)
(techno music)
Alright so now that we're comfortable,
starting to get some direction with our J-Turn,
our foot out of the binding.
Now we're gonna strap two feet in
and get going with both feet in our snowboard.
So I'm gonna go ahead, start on toe side
just because it's a little bit easier to stand up that way.
Get up nice and slow, find that balance point on that edge.
It's hard to stand still when we're on a snowboard,
so let's get moving.
So right now, I'm on that edge.
My hips are over my feet and I'm on the toe edge.
I'm gonna start to shift my weight towards that front foot.
Give it a little bounce, start to go
and as I move my weight towards this foot
flatten the board just a tiny, tiny bit.
I'm gonna start going across the hill.
Only go a little bit at a time to start off.
When I wanna stop I'm just gonna
shift my weight to the middle,
lean a little bit further uphill and I'm gonna stop.
And it's okay if you're sliding just a little bit,
you can also go ahead and sit down.
Let's try that again.
Stand up, get balanced.
I'm gonna slowly shift my weight over that front foot,
flatten just a little bit and here I go.
When I wanna stop, get my weight to the middle.
I lean a little bit further uphill
and move my hips across the board as well further uphill.
It's also really important that when we're starting
we're making sure our board is totally across the fall line.
If I try to stand up and I'm pointing one way or the other,
gravity is gonna start taking me
and I'm gonna have to try to get myself to stop
rather than being in control from the start.
(snow crunching)
Alright now that I've made it across the trail on my toes,
I'm gonna roll over, get to my heels
and start traversing on my heel edge.
Alright, so standing up on the heels
crab walk yourself towards that edge of the board,
make sure your board's not sliding away.
Get your arm out in front to counter balance yourself.
Slowly stand up.
Now same thing as we we're doing on the toes,
we're gonna slowly shift our weight over our front foot.
Start to get creeping.
When we wanna stop, weight to the center
and lean uphill just little bit more.
To get going again shift that weight over the front foot,
flatten that toe edge just a little bit.
Weight to the center, picking up the toes a little more
and getting my weight back uphill.
(snow crunching)
And as I get really comfortable doing this,
I can go for longer and longer stints.
Maybe playing with a little bit more speed,
little bit less speed,
making sure I can stop when I want to.
Remember that when we stop, that board needs to come
totally across the hill to be able to come to a stop.
If we're still pointed downhill,
we're gonna keep gaining speed.
(techno music)
Alright, so now that we're getting really comfortable
going across the hill traversing both toe and heel side,
we can start to changes edges and go into our first turn.
So for this, what I'm looking for is a spot on the hill
that just like when we're practicing our J-Turns
is gonna have a nice run out.
So I'm not gaining too much speed
when I do point down the hill for the first time.
We want us to be pretty comfortable and not afraid.
So when I stand up,
I'm gonna shift my weight towards that front foot,
get me moving in a traverse just like I was doing before.
This time we're gonna start to flatten the board slowly
so that I start pointing down the hill.
So I'm traversing,
shift a little bit more weight towards that front foot
and let my board go a little bit flat.
Now I'm totally flat and down the hill,
I can roll on to that toe edge
just like we were doing the traverse and our J-Turn.
There's our first turn.
Alright so now we're gonna go onto our first heel side turn.
We're gonna start off on our toe side traversing
as we start to go we're gonna shift our weight
towards that front foot.
Then we're gonna shift our weight so the we start
to flatten the board and come off the edge.
That's gonna let us come down the hill.
As we head straight down the hill
with the board totally flat,
that's when we can start doing that heel side J
like we've practiced with one foot
into that heel side traverse
like what we've been practicing on the hill.
Standing up, traversing.
Weight over that front foot.
Start to flex, get even lower.
Let that board go flat and straight.
And then rock onto those heels.
Come to a stop.
There's our first heel side turn.
Alright so now that we've done both the toe side turn
and the heel side turn back to our traverse,
we're just gonna start to get more comfortable with them,
put in some practice and get some mileage.
So as we get going, I'm gonna go ahead and make those turns.
And in between I'm just gonna give myself
a second to slow down, stop,
get back into my good athletic stance
and make sure I'm ready for that next turn again.
And as you get more comfortable with these,
they'll start flowing together
so you don't even need to stop.
Alright I'm on my toe side edge,
I'm heading across the hill.
I'm starting to head down the hill, let the board go flat.
Now I'm gonna move across to my heels.
(snow crunching)
We hope you find these tips helpful.
Make sure you're taking the time to practice
each one of these steps before moving onto the next.
If you'd like to find out more info,
please check out our other videos.
(techno music)