Improve Your Snowboard Skills By Riding The Snake Course
One of the best ways to improve your race skills is to Build & Ride The Snake Course. Turning over and over in the same spot pushes the snow and creates a berm or banked slalom course. This is a great way to improve your skills! Follow us by subscribing on YouTube to get all our new videos & tips. Flowing Freeride will teach how to pick the right snowboard gear best for you and drills to improve your skills. You’ll have access to all our snowboard tutorials when you sign up 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 Bumpy Terrain, Snowboard Dynamic Flex & Extend, Advance Snowboard Lesson: Dropping Cliffs, Snowboarding Off Piste, Snowboarding Chutes, Building A Race Course, Active Passive Absorption, Funnel Turns For Navigating Obstacles & Snowboarding Moguls.
I have a video that gives some Tips On Building A Race Course that is similar to a snake course. The big difference is that a snake course requires several riders to turn in the same place to move the snow. This is what happens on steeper slopes. This is how we create moguls or bumps. Peeps turn in the same place pushing the snow into mounds. Skiers and snowboarders have a slightly different timing when turning. The ski is much more narrow than a snowboard is. It takes a ski less time to go from edge to edge. A snowboard is wider so we ride moguls a wee bit different. We turn on the bump and avoid the trench. Turning in the same place will create a trench and that’s way in races they have folks slip the course to fill in those trenches so it stays smooth.
The snake course is for someone that is more of an advanced rider. Start by riding a race course and once you feel good doing that then we can step it up by riding a snake course. It’s easy to create a snake course when the snow is softer. I see these courses pop up when the weather warms up. It will only take a couple runs if you have a larger crew helping to shape it. It’s great to go out with other riders that are at your level or better than you so that they push your limits. If you like to snowboard, find a crew that will go out and rip with you. You’ll get better when you are riding with advanced riders on steeper terrain.
Get dynamic when you snowboard the snake course. I talk about this in Snowboard Dynamic Flex & Extend if you are wondering what I’m talking about. The snake will really get you to vary your Timing, Intensity and Duration. TID will create a different rhythm when you snowboard. Try to turn every 3 or 4 seconds so that your turn shape is the same on both edges. This will create symmetrical turns and people behind you can predict when you turn. After you can make turns in rhythm, get more dynamic and you’ll be more of an efficient snowboarder. Get low and extend through your turn. This will let you flow and ride the bump or berm.
I like to turn in the same place to make a snake course but I can also create jumps by doing this. I teach on the beginner slope and it’s nice to create some features that I can jump and spin off of. Making the lips, berm and bumps can turn plain terrain into more advanced terrain. This will help to take your riding to the next level. You can sign up for the full course to gain 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! Online snowboard resources like videos on our YouTube Channel and articles like these can help you a ton. Professional snowboard lessons help even more. My name is Blake Tholen Clark Contact Me if you want to book a lesson or have any questions about Snowboarding.