My first time on a snowboard was taking snowboarding lessons from a guy who (now looking back) did not really know what he was doing. I am sure everybody can recall their first day at the hill snowboarding. For some it was an amazing and rewarding day and for others it was the most frustrating day of their life. If you spend the extra time to ensure that you are ready to go before you start, you will minimize the frustration and maximize the rewards.
We highly recommend warming up and stretching before you start and take snowboarding lessons. For a detailed breakdown of how to get started and perfect your fundamentals check out the Learn to Ride program!
Many of the instructional videos we feature on our site are designed for intermediate to advanced riders. However, the newbie should not feel left out. We want to help you learn more about this amazing sport and improve your skills with a fun and safe program. This is the reason that we feature the Learn to Ride program for anyone serious about snowboarding lessons. It is designed to teach first timers how to snowboard.
Are You Ready To Learn To Ride?
Our Learn to Ride program consists of one 45 minute, in depth video broken into 7 sections plus a bonus video on setting up your board.
Learn To Ride Snowboarding Lesson Breakdown
Section 1: Inside Movements
Exercises to try at home to improve your balance and get you used to the feeling of snowboarding before you get to the hill.
This maximizes your on snow time and minimizes first day falls
Section 2: On Snow Movements
Exercises to try on the snow do get you used to the feeling of sliding around
How to skate around and get on the chairlift
Using the waddle technique to get around flat areas while strapped in
How to stand up from a sitting position
Section 3: Riding Downhill
How to find the “fall line” and get started going down hills
We start learning how to use our edge to turn
Section 4: Riding Across the Slope
Experiment with your edges and learn how to traverse
How to slow yourself down and stop
Learn how to ride across the slope while controlling speed and exploring with movement
Section 5: Turns
How to perform toeside and heelside turns
Linking your turns and making them flow smoothly
Carving
Section 6: Switch Riding
The best way to learn switch is to start early before your too used to riding regular
We show you the best technique for learning quickly with minimal difficulties
Section 7: Challenging Your Riding
We show you a bunch of little tricks that you can practice which are easy to do and look sick
Nose and tail presses, ollies and nollies, 180′s, hand drags, and spinning on snow are all covered
Bonus Video: Board Setup
This vid covers the ins and outs of getting your equipment ready to hit the slopes. We briefly cover choosing the right board, boots, and bindings for your riding style and show you how to set it all up for maximum shredability.
The Learn To Ride Program is a great tool for anyone interested in snowboarding lessons. Check it out today!
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Filed under How To Snowboard Videos, Learn How To Snowboard by on Jan 22nd, 2012. /icons/pixel.gif){kind=tracking}
Snowboard tricks are something everyone wants to be good at whether they are just a beginner or are a seasoned veteran. Spins and grabs are usually the first things you want to do when you learn how to snowboard. But after awhile your progression takes you to into the park where there are pipe tricks, rails, boxes, jibbing, buttering and more.
Below is our list of snowboard tricks and links to videos that will help you learn how to do these tricks. Enjoy!
The Basics
Just Getting Started? Check Out The Learn to Ride Program!
Switch Riding
Switch riding is performed when you ride in the reverse of your natural stance. i.e. Goofy instead of Regular
Frontside vs Backside
Frontside is any spin where you face the direction of travel in the first 180 degrees.
Backside is any spin where your back faces the direction of travel in the first 180 degrees.
CAB is riding switch into a frontside spin. AKA switch frontside.
Switch backside is riding switch into a backside spin.
Buttering
Buttering is done while you are riding on the snow. Basically its done by applying pressure to your nose or tail so that the other side of the board raises above of the snow. Think of a knife “buttering” a piece of bread.
We have a great video that will explain how to butter on a snowboard in no time.
Straight Airs
New To Jumping? Check Out This Video Jumping Tutorial!
Ollie
Popping off the tail of the board.
Nollie
Popping off the nose of the board.
Switch ollie
While riding switch, do an ollie.
Fakie ollie
While riding backwards, pop off of your ‘new nose’
Shifty
Counter rotate your upper and lower body in either a frontside or backside air.
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Spinning
Spinning tricks are all based off of 180° progressions. So they start at 180° and advance through 360°, 540°, 720° and beyond. Add a grab to a spin to amp up the steez factor.
Below are some great tutorials on how to get started spinning.
Just starting out with spins? Check this video on How to 180 on a Snowboard
Looking for something more advanced? Check this video on How To 360 & Beyond
Grabbing
The list of snowboard grabs that you can do is long indeed and with variations in names we decided to show you visually the plethora of grabs you can do. The graphic is for a regular stance rider so simply reverse it if you are goofy. The most common grabs are Indie, Mute, Melon, Stalefish, Tail, Nose and Method. This list is not exhaustive as there are variations on variations out there.
Created by Wikipedia user Nlin86
Jibbing/Sliding
Jibbing is when you ride on any surface that is not snow. When learning how to jib/slide rails and boxes you will hear frontside or backside thrown around. In this case, it is referring to the edge in which you approach the obstacle.
Frontside is when the object you want to slide is in front of your toe edge.
Backside is when the object you want to slide is behind your heel edge. This list is not exhaustive as there are variations on variations out there.
Check out these great videos all about jibbing!
50-50
Slide straight over the rail, box or whatever.
Boardslide
Front foot moves over the object, you slide perpendicular, the object passes between the center of your bindings.
Check out this great video on how to do a boardslide.
Lipslide
Back foot moves over the object, you slide perpendicular, the object passes between the center of your bindings.
Blunt Slide
You slide perpendicular using the tail of your board with the nose raised up over the obstacle.
Nose Blunt
Like the blunt slide except using the nose of your board to slide and the tail raised.
Nose Slide
You slide perpendicular using the nose of the board along the obstacle.
Tail Slide
You slide perpendicular using the tail of the board along the obstacle.
Nose Press
You slide straight over the obstacle with pressure on the nose and the tail raised.
Tail Press
You slide straight over the obstacle with pressure on the tail and the nose raised.
Flipping and Inverting
Flips and inverts are obviously more advanced tricks for seasoned riders. This is where a trampoline in the off season comes in handy! This list is not exhaustive as there are variations on variations out there.
Back flip
Rotating backwards in air.
Front flip
Rotating forwards in air.
McTwist
A forward-rotating backside 540°, in a pipe or quarterpipe.
Haakon flip
A backwards inverted 720°.
Rippey flip
Backward rotating flip with a frontside 360° and a method grab.
Michalchuk
Backward rotating flip on axis (like a cartwheel) with a 540° and a grab (melon, indy or method).
Doublechuk
The Michalchuk done with two backward rotations.
Lando-Roll
A frontside cork 540°/720° method.
Misty flip
Forward rotating flip with a backside spin off of a straight jump. Similar in style to a McTwist.
Rodeo
Forward rotating flip with a frontside spin off your toe edge.
Backside Rodeo AKA: Brodeo
Backward rotating flip with a backside spin.
Underflip
A backward rotating flip with a frontside spin off of your heel edge.
Handplants
Handplants are also known as Inverts. Invert refers to the handstand you perform on the lip of the pipe. This list is not exhaustive as there are variations on variations out there.
Handplant
Your rear hand is placed on the lip of the pipe wall and you rotate 180° frontside.
Elguerial
A fakie approach, invert off your rear hand and rotate 360° backside.
Eggplant
Invert off your front hand and rotate 180° backside.
Eggflip
An Eggplant but you do a frontward flip over instead.
McEgg
Invert off front hand and rotate 540° backside.
Sad plant
Melon grab inverted.
That’s it! This is the end of our list of snowboard tricks. If you really want to amp up your riding and learn from the best, head over to Snowboard Addiction.
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The 180 is your first step in learning how to spin on a snowboard. You will want to give yourself a solid foundation for spinning in all directions. Start by improving your switch riding. Swith riding is key to gaining balance and confidence in your spins and advancing your riding level. Also, how the heck can you ride away from a frontside 180 if you can’t ride switch?
How to 180 On A Snowboard (Regular)
How to 180 On A Snowboard (Goofy)
There are four kinds of 180 spins that you can do:
Frontside – front of your body faces downhill as you rotate. Easiest to perform
Backside – back of your body faces downhill as you rotate.
Switch Frontside (AKA Cab)
Switch Backside
Learn all four to be able to constantly change your direction while riding.
Spinning is a mixture of rotation combined with pop to lift you in the air. You want to focus on popping with weight distributed evenly over both feet to stay balanced. Popping off a flat base while going straight can be much more difficult to perform. Start by popping off of one edge (heel or toe side) by carving.
Begin by mastering the frontside 180 as they are the easiest spin to learn. In a frontside 180 your head never rotates but your body does. Backside spins require you to rotate your head to spot the landing adding a degree of difficulty (AKA landing blind).
How To Do A Frontside 180 On A Snowboard
Step 1
Start on the ground with your board off. Wind up and crouch down to initiate your spin. Pop up and release into the spin in the desired direction.
Step 2
Next grab your board and strap it on in a flat area where you can stand still. Wind up and crouch down to initiate your spin. Pop up and release into the spin in the desired direction.
Step 3
Find a gentle slope to practice on. Start on your heel edge moving down and across the hill. Pop and release into a frontside 180. Your using your heel edge to spin frontside and rotating up the hill.
Remember to windup, pop and release with your head pointed exactly to where you want to go!
Step 4
Add more and more pop to increase the difficulty. Look for little side hits all over the runs at your local mountain and get practicing. Side hits are great at automatically putting you on an edge to rotate from.
Step 5
Bigger park jumps can seem intimidating at first. Be sure to make a small setup turn to get you onto an edge before hitting straight off the jump. Make sure you land on the sweet spot of the landing (transition). It can be very painful to land flat.
Step 6
Add some flair to your spins with various grabs off various jump sizes.
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How To Do A Backside 180 On A Snowboard
Step 1
Start on the ground with your board off. Wind up and crouch down to initiate your spin. Pop up and release into the spin in the desired direction.
Step 2
Next grab your board and strap it on in a flat area where you can stand still. Wind up and crouch down to initiate your spin. Pop up and release into the spin in the desired direction.
Step 3
Find a gentle slope to practice on. Start on your toe edge moving down and across the hill. Pop and release into a backside 180. Your using your toe edge to spin backside and rotating up the hill.
Remember to windup, pop and release with your head pointed exactly to where you want to go!
Step 4
Add more and more pop to increase the difficulty. Look for little side hits all over the runs at your local mountain and get practicing. Side hits that set you up on your toe edge are great at automatically putting you into a spin ready position.
Step 5
Bigger park jumps can seem intimidating at first. Be sure to make a small setup turn to get you onto your toe edge before hitting straight off the jump. Make sure you land on the sweet spot of the landing (transition). It can be very painful to land flat. Spot your landing blind by looking at the knuckle (top of transition).
Step 6
Add some flair to your spins with various grabs off various jump sizes.
Want to really improve your riding by learning 360′s and more?
Head over to Snowboard Addiction and get all the best instruction videos from world class coaching on how to snowboard.
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