"Skiers view snowboarders as a menace; snowboarders view skiers as Elmer Fudd." - Dave Barry
For some, snowboarding is a pastime; for others; it's a way of life. Whether you're just beginning or you've been doing this for a long time, you can make snowboarding more fun by learning some new tricks. Here are some of the basic tricks that will help get you ready for some of the more complicated tricks.
Surface Tricks
There are three basic surface (on the ground) tricks that will lead into more complicated tricks down the road. But you can’t get into the advanced tricks until you’ve mastered the following.
A wheelie is where the nose of the board comes off the snow (also called a tail press because, you guessed it, the tail presses down into the snow). Put all your
weight on your back foot and lift your front foot up to bring the nose up.
A nose press is the exact opposite of a wheelie because the nose presses down
into the snow instead of the tail.
The basic butter consists of doing two 180-degree turns back to back to equal one
360-degree turn. This full rotation can be done one after another down the entire
mountain as long as the terrain is relatively flat.
Aerial Tricks
There are two common types of aerial (above ground) tricks - an ollie and an air to fakie.
An ollie is where you lean uphill and pull the board up with your downhill foot.
If done right, the back of the board will follow, and you’ll have been airborne
even if just for a split second.
An air to fakie is an ollie with a 180-degree turn done while in the air. After
leaning uphill and pulling the board up with the downhill foot, you'll turn the
upper half of your body to the opposite direction to turn 180 degrees. Using your
hips and your arms will help make the turn before you land.
Rail Grinds
Many resorts have terrain parks and pipes for you to try out the following tricks. Many consist of rails, jumps, and funboxes for every ability, but you’ll want to make sure to practice as much as you can before jumping out there with the rest.
A 50/50 grind is where you slide the board on anything that isn't
snow. When done on a halfpipe wall, you’ll grind alongside the coping, which is
the edge of the lip that runs the length of the halfpipe wall. To do a 50/50 grind,
pull an ollie just before the rail and land with your board flat on the surface and
parallel to the rail. At the end, do another ollie to get up and get off the rail.
Similar to the 50/50, a rock-n-roll grind requires an ollie to get up on the rail, but
once up, you’ll want to turn your board 90 degrees so that the board is
perpendicular to the rail. You’ll need to have the rail be perfectly centered
underneath your board so that you don't lose balance and fall. When nearing the
end of the rail, turn back to parallel and ollie off.
A 180 grind is a lot like a 50/50, but before your board lands on the rail, you’ll want to
turn 180 degrees. To pull this off, you’ll do an ollie before the rail, turn 180 degrees
before landing on the rail, grind the rail, pull an ollie, do another 180-degree turn,
and land.
These are some pretty basic tricks to get you started. You’ll want to make sure you practice these in secluded areas with little traffic until you feel you’ve mastered them. We suggest practicing these steps in order so that you go from easier to harder-level tricks. Stay safe and have fun shredding!
