How to snowboard for beginners

Snowboarding / Popular

Your first day: strapping in, sliding and finding your edges.

What coaches agree on

  • Practice skating and one-foot sliding, free foot behind the board with weight on that back foot, before your first run, since that is how you get to and from the chairlift.
  • Control your speed on each edge by lifting your toes on your heel edge and lifting your heels on your toe edge.
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  • To point your board straight down the hill before a turn, shift your weight onto your front foot and point your front hand down the slope.

Common mistakes

  • Beginners often get stuck doing only heel-side falling-leaf and avoid ever committing to their toe edge, because riding backward and the fear of catching an edge feels scarier.
  • Catching an edge, where weight ends up over the wrong edge, happens most easily on flat terrain or in a skidded turn, and it is a common cause of beginner falls.
LEARN TO SNOWBOARD IN 10 MINUTES
Beginner

LEARN TO SNOWBOARD IN 10 MINUTES

Coach's take: Clean, correctly sequenced, and it fixes the posture mistakes before they become habits. Actually teaches, doesn't just show off.

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