Learn Snowboard Freestyle Basics For Jumps, Boxes & Rails

This online snowboard lesson will go over Freestyle Basics For Snowboard Features. If you’re like me you love flowing with rhythm through your line in the park. You do not want to hesitate when hitting freestyle features because speed is what’s going to give you the momentum to get air and flow with style when doing tricks. I like to go out and practice getting tons of speed outside of the park doing flat board drills. This is where you keep your snowboard straight and flat. The snowboard follows gravity or the fall line gaining lots of speed. You want to Stay In Control but build up your confidence to get more speed. Other Snowboard Videos on YouTube & Flowing Freeride go over proper snowboard alignements, movements & techniques to get you flowing with freestyle rhythm. You’ll have access to all our snowboard tutorials when you signup that cover every step and feedback from your coach. We also have some free snowboard videos to prepare for snowboard safety on our YouTube Page. I recommend watching these snowboard videos; Building Rhythm, Advanced Snowboarding Getting Air, Snowboard Dynamic Flex & Extend, Advance Snowboard Lesson: Dropping Cliffs, Snowboarding Off Piste, Snowboarding Chutes, Snowboard Lesson Navigating Trees & Obstacles, Active Passive Absorption, Upper/Lower Body Separation, Basic Carving: Circle Drills, Basics For Freestyle Features, Advance Snowboard Carving: Surfer Turns & Grab Carves, Funnel Turns For Navigating Obstacles, Snowboard Jibbing & Snowboarding Moguls. Learn to snowboard online with flowingfreeride.com, Take Our Placement Quiz, take a look at Our Blog for more free content, and Learn To Snowboard Right!

In the American system or AASI in freestyle we talk about ATML which is Approach, Takeoff, Maneuver, and Landing. Remember the acronym by thinking that having good freestyle is money and you get ‘money’ from an ‘ATM” and know your Landing or ‘L’ is always at the end. You don’t need to remember that unless you’re training to be a coach in the US. I’ve taught and trained in other countries and they have similar verbiage but once you become a full certified instructor you’re riding and teaching techniques are very similar. I like to blend all systems and use my own techniques to make my style unique. Think of your start as being a race going straight and to win you need to be the fastest. In freestyle to carry speed you don’t need to do nice carvie turns but rather we go fast and make short quick power turns or hockey stops using a lot of pivot motion because we want our upper and lower bodies to be able to seperate. Upper and Lower Body Separation allows your upper body to stay aligned to the hill and not move much while your lower body is being very dynamic. Do not hesitate and if mess up this part maybe just hit your feature next run so you don’t get hurt. The first thing to remember is a good Fast straight line coming into your feature and don’t hesitate. Go Fast.

The next part is the Ramp. You want a nice gradual ramp that shoots out and up to get nice air. You can find natural ramps on the mountain or man made ones in the backcountry or parks. When you’re on the ramp get lower bending your hips, knees and ankles more. Keep your back straight and have your upper and lower body aligned so you stay balanced as you get air. This will help you to create more lift off of the ramp and jump higher to perform the Feat. I’ve been snowboarding up at Alta, Utah and there have been a lot of people who have come out and built some ramps for jumps. They started blowing snow up there and created some snow whales that had some nice shaped ramps. I was getting some good air and spins. There are resorts open in my area out East and in Colorado. Lots of resorts are opening in the next few days.

The Feat is your Flow and Boldness. It’s the skill or trick you pull. It’s whatever you do off the ramp. It might be a box, rail, gong, mailbox, jump, grab or kicker. While I’m in the air I like to pull up my landing gear, my legs and reach down to grab my board. Folks that go off the jump out of control or off balance will a lot of the time roll down the windows throwing their arms in circles trying to get back on balance. If I’m on a box or rail I stay low and keep my snowboard flat. Start with straight airs pulling your legs up. Then start to reach down and grab your snowboard. Grabs that are on your toeside edge are easiest to begin with. Once you feel good with those start to spin frontside 180’s to begin then backside 180’s. After those you can start spinning full 360’s.

The last part is to Stomp It. We want to Stomp our landing extending into it and as we’re landing were can flex to absorb. You can land with you tail first and then nose stomping it down just how a beaver smacks its tail down on the water. We’ve all seen airplanes land when they come out of the air. We want to do that or all at once extend into the landing with both legs. Keep your snowboard flat and use to absorb the impact. The board will bend and flex which will spread out the impact of landing huge jumps. Just like at the beginning you want to keep your body aligned when you land so you don’t crash or get hurt. Landing on your edge does not allow you to spread the pressure out. You can also catch and edge if you’re not landing flat and straight. Have good technique and start on small jumps and features first and progress up to ones that are more difficult. Check out this freestyle snowboard video Getting Air for more technique.

So remember FRFS Fast, Ramp, Feat and StompIt! Those techniques will help you build up your snowboard freestyle. I like to go fast and it really helps me in the park to go fast. If you don’t already you should Wax Your Snowboard to give you that extra viscosity. You’ll be Flowing Your Freestyle soon just follow the tips. You can practice efficiently and get Hooked On Snowboarding with Snowboardclass/FlowingFreeride’s techniques so go back to other snowboard videos that teach you about other snowboard equipment. You can signup to get access to all of our snowboard lessons, study guides, textbooks, glossary, tests and direct feedback from your coach. Learn to snowboard online with flowingfreeride.com and take a look at our YouTube Page for more free content and learn to snowboard right! My name is Blake Tholen Clark Contact Me if you want to book a lesson or have any questions about Snowboarding.