The groomers and cats are working hard getting ready for the FIS World Champs Events being held in Utah moving a ton of snow around. Utah is going for another Winter Olympic Bid having Events like Boarder X, Big Air, Slopestyle, Snowboard Halfpipe, Snowboard Parallel Giant Slalom & Slalom. Events start Feb. 1 through 10. Groomed runs are great for riding park or for making big carves and surfer turns. If you want to get into the powder you need to be able to handle bumpy terrain. Start riding the sides of the groomers and move fore and aft on your snowboard. You’ll need to carry more speed to power through the extra deep powder.
We’ve had some epic snow conditions this year in Park City, Wasatch Front and Cottonwood Canyons in Utah. It would be a great place to have the Winter Olympics again because we’ve got all the infrastructure already built. We’ve got big mountains and the snow to support another awesome Winter Olympics. The Ceremonies for FIS open Feb. 1st. Come out and support your local mountains from Solitude, Park City, Deer Valley & Canyons PC. Good luck to all the athletes competing over the next two weeks.
Start by Developing Dynamic Rhythm on groomed run, then steeper runs and then carry your confidence into the ungroomed snow on the sides of groomed runs. Watch this video on learning moguls to help you start pressuring your snowboard and How To Ride Moguls Or Bumpy Terrain.
These movements, skills and experience are what you need. You will gain these snowboard talents by training with Flowing Freeride.
You can learn more about Powder In The Backcountry and get Hooked On Snowboarding with Snowboardclass/Flowing Freeride’s techniques so go back to other snowboard videos that teach you about hiking the backcountry. You cansignup to get access to all of our snowboard lessons, study guides, textbooks, glossary, tests and direct feedback from your coach. Learn to snowboard online withflowingfreeride.com and take a look at ourYouTube 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.
Wow what a treat to go out in the backcountry to Rip untouched freshhhhhh powder. It’s the Best Thing Ever!! If you have ever got that chance I’d agree that it’s going to be the memory that you’ve ever had. Imagine a fresh powder field with tons of snow that has no consequence if you eat shit! If you suck then bullocks you eat a mouth full of snow. That’s what I was seeing today and the last few day. Mates this last week has been the best snow showers I’ve been in for years. I’ve been all over the world from Utah, Colorado, Californias, Canada, Austria, Australia, New Zealand, England(Indoor and Carpet), New Mexico, Vermont, Maine, Washington, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, Arizona, Oregon, etc., My board puts me on top of the powder and it’s a love that just connects. I love to Rip through that Fresh POWDER!
There is a ton of great inbound terrain now so I don’t recommend you go out in the backcountry by yourself. It is always going to be tempting to hit that Virgin Powder no matter where you are. I have become more of a guide to tour high level riders around the awesome terrain. The best part of riding a new mountain is to find the best terrain. Mountains have little hidden secrets that only a local may know. When there is a huge blizzard the mountain will change a ton. That is the same with the backcountry. You need to have a guide to help you tour through that ruff terrain. I know many mountains have cliff faces that will tear you and your snowboard apart. I’ve been riding Super Steep Terrain these last few days because of all of these powder days. Things are filling in making conditions excellent. I dealt with a crushing commute normally 30 minutes to 2.5 hours but I made it up the Canyon.
Park City, Utah is where I live. Check it out on the Map. We have one of the best locations for Winter Sports. Salt Lake City, Utah had one of the best Olympics on record. We are a Snow Town! We have huge mountains and an international Airport within 35 Minutes of Multiple Snowboard Resorts. Making FFR a huge destination Snowboard School. What are you waiting for? Come visit the Best Snow On Earth and Book A Lesson with a Pro. There are a ton of things to do with your family or got tons of Night Life for whatever age you are. Visit Main Street in Park City to visit an Old West Atmosphere and visit High West Distillery to get a taste of Utah. All the transit or Buses Are Free to travel around Park City. There are many ‘Hidden Gems’ that have excellent terrain but they take so long to drive to or little airports that make things difficult to arrive. One of my favorite resorts Jackson Hole has steep mountains on both sides of the airport and a short runway making it my least favorite airport. I’m a TV Producer and visited JH, WY many times. In deep snow with short runways makes for fishtailing on the runway. Yes Planes Fishtail!
When you head out into the backcountry you need to have some basic skills to survey the terrain. Slopes that are 30º or less won’t slide because they don’t have the potential energy to slide. Slopes that have a sharper slope will slide when there is a layer of faceted snow. You should hire a guide and take avalanche classes to prepare you for the backcountry. You can learn more about backcountry terrain and get Hooked On Snowboarding with Snowboardclass/FlowingFreeride’s techniques so go back to other snowboard videos that teach you about hiking the backcountry. You cansignup to get access to all of our snowboard lessons, study guides, textbooks, glossary, tests and direct feedback from your coach. Learn to snowboard online withflowingfreeride.com and take a look at ourYouTube 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.
This snowboard video will give you tips on Riding Deep Pow At Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It was a long drive in a blizzard to get to Jackson Hole, Wyoming but it was worth it. There was 1 ½ feet of fresh powder when we arrived. Our first day was short due to the storm but it made the conditions epic. We almost slid off the road several times. We were on a highway with cars cruising in the other lane. Snow plows created white outs where we couldn’t see for 3 seconds and then seeing a line of cars. The snow drifts were a foot deep. We saw plows go by and a few miles down the road the drifts were back only allowing one lane of traffic through.There was a large group of AASI Level 3 Full Certified snowboard instructors training together. We ripped this steep mountain doing tons of trees, chutes and cliff drops. To get you prepared to ride this steep mountain watch this snowboard tutorial on steeps and alignments.
There is a resort in town called snow king that we could see from our hotel. The town has a great vibe and is fun. We drove up to the village catching some amazing views. When Jackson Hole gets tons of snow conditions are epic.
It’s important to really move fore and aft on your snowboard in these conditions. Build up your fore and aft riding skills before you get into powder and steep mountains. Jackson is one of the steepest mountains around having over 4,000 feet of vertical from the top of the tram to the base. To help you train yourself to move fore and aft on your snowboard watch the snowboard video Dolphin Turns.
This progression will help you move towards the front of your board at the beginning of your turn then to move towards the tail at the end of your turn using your whole board as it was meant to be used. Your core is moving fore and aft from edge to edge making a circular motion. Start to flow down the mountain with more rhythm getting dynamic on your snowboard. You can submit video clips to get movement analysis back of your riding by clicking here taking you to Flowing Freeride.
I strongly recommend that you ride Jackson Hole, Wyoming at least once to see what we saw. We met some cool people at Franco Custom Snowboards and you should check out their shop. It takes a bit of a drive through steep passes to get there but it’s worth it. Riding with other high skilled riders pushes you to ride more aggressive. This will improve your riding. Seeing how others ride the mountain and the lines they take will train your eye to survey the terrain. I hope that the snow gods are sending snow to your mountain. 2019 is off to a great start! You cansignup to get access to all of our snowboard lessons, study guides, textbooks, glossary, tests and direct feedback from your coach. Learn to snowboard right online withflowingfreeride.com. My name is Blake Tholen Clark Contact Me if you want to book a lesson or have any questions about Snowboarding.
I’ve been talking to my brother about taking his kids out snowboarding but they live in Phoenix, AZ. We finally got the chance with the great early conditions this Thanksgiving to get up on the slopes. My boys went out with their cousins. I knew this had a good chance of being successful because I brought several adults along. They were willing parents and grandparents that had a stake in outcome. They helped with the difficult times. A big part of teaching kids is the preparation. Some of the cousins had taken a snowboard lesson with a negative result. One was good at skateboarding. Their parents had prepped them to be excited and grateful. That made it easy for me to teach. The kids ranged in age from 3 to 12 so I was dealing with multiple cognitive developments. I studied child development in college and have my Advanced Children Educator ACE 2 certification. I talk to the kids to see what hobbies/interests they like. If you have knowledge of the shows they watch, sports they play or books they read you can talk about those subjects to get them to relax and not over think snowboarding.
When you have really young kids just be prepared for them to break down. Every child has a unique personality. Get down to there level when teaching them. Some kids are happy and stoked to be out snowboarding while others will throw tantrums and outbreaks. These kids are too young or need extra attention. You might have an idea of difficult kids before you take them on the slopes but you won’t know until you take them up and try. You can use the leash systems or hold their hands but they need to be able to go by themselves. When a child starts crying take a break or call it for the day if it’s a real bad outbreak. Remember this is suppose to build positive fun memories, so that they want to do this with you in the future.
The older kids are more likely to be coachable because their brains and bodies have developed. I will teach things to the group and then let a stronger rider demo things for me. I like to use a reward system or let the children compete amongst themselves. If you can make things a game and fun it will keep them engaged. Some games are to see how long you can ride without a fall. Time them to see how long they can go straight. Who can do the best stop and so on. I know last Easter I brought an egg up with a toy in side. I let my son find it and told him it gave him magic powers to snowboard better. He was so excited and confident. It was his best day snowboarding ever. I might have to teach the skill differently to kids that don’t have much of an attention span or don’t listen. Teach something and then let them discover things on their own. You don’t have to always be teaching, give them time just to practice on their own.
I took them to our shop where I sized their boots, boards and I set up there snowboard angles to 9º, -9º. I’ve talked about how to setup a beginner binding angles in an earlier video. Binding Angles.To get the kids going we strapped in one foot and skated around doing circles, figure 8’s and straight glides. I taught them that it was important to lift the board up and not keep it flat. Using big strong power moves would make them crash. It took a bit but they started to edge their boards. Get the kids to lift the snowboards up. Practice with them by spotting them so the can get the right balance. I talk about this in some early videos but the twist drill is something you should know by watching this video, to help teach your kids edging and to twist the board. Once they’re doing that they are ready to practice gliding and stopping. If they aren’t stopping have them practice lifting their edge up. They can drag their toes or heels in the snow to act as an anchor but I’ve found it better to just go right into edging the board to stop. They want to step uphill or towards their uphill edge. Kids want get the board around quick using upper body strength but they keep the board flat and unless they lift the edge up they usually will fall. (crashes)
This first part is where they hike and skate in flat terrain. This are is where you can help kids get their balance because it’s flat and they’re not moving a lot. They will build muscle memory by repeating the drill of skating and stopping. Bring water and take breaks because the kids will get tired. If you have other adults during a break you might get to go take a quick run to get your shred on. After they can stop on toeside and heelside let them start going down the beginner slope. This slope should be fairly flat but steep enough to keep speed. Have them make laps on this area stopping one foot in. Surface lifts are the best for beginners so find an area that has a conveyor belt or a gondola to make laps. Refer to this video to help with lift knowledge.Getting on and of the chair lift comes later. You may need to help the kids but use caution because this is where they move and more likely to fall. I will have them practice the ankle, knee, hips and spine flex and extension movements for toe and heel stationary and then while they go down the mountain.
You might have to stay on this practice slope for a while doing one foot in stops. When they’re doing toeside and heelside stops strap in the back foot. I will sometimes help spot the kids to transitionfrom toeside and heelside or making C-turns. Get the kids to do that and make sure they can stop with two feet in. If one kid is advancing faster then teach them S-Turns. The focus is steering the board with their front foot, getting the board to across the fall line then parallel to it. Let the board flow down with gravity and focus energy to their ankles/lower body to steer not their shoulders and arms. When they balance on the edges and stop they’re ready for the lift. Check out loading the lift video.
The next Teaching Children Snowboarding video I’ll give tips on how to load and unload the lift safely with kids. You cansignup to get access to all of our snowboard lessons, study guides, textbooks, glossary, tests and direct feedback from your coach. Learn to snowboard right online withflowingfreeride.com. My name is Blake Tholen Clark Contact Me if you want to book a lesson or have any questions about Snowboarding.
I’ll go over what I like to wear snowboarding. It’s a good idea to wear clothing that doesn’t restrict your movement. I start with comfortable athletic underwear and undershirt made from cotton. My socks I try avoid cotton because if they get wet they won’t insulate. I then like to wear a pair of jogger pants, sweatpants, or shorts if it’s hotter above 45ºF or 13ºC. When I’m hiking I will just wear my underwear and snowboard pants because of how hot I get. If it’s below 20º F or -10º C I will put on long underwear as an additional layer. My next layer will be Under Armour or a material similar that’s breathable, flexible it and allows your sweat to breath out but blocks out weather, UV rays and wind. If it does get wet it will still insulate and keep your warm. Having clothing that is breathable will allow to keep in your body heat but allow perspiration to escape that can make you much cooler. My snowboard pants and coat are the final outside layers. They need to be waterproof and to have vents again for letting heat out to breath. If you don’t have this waterproof outside layer wind will get in making you cold or even worse the snow sticks to it and then melts absorbing into your clothes. This makes you have to carry the extra water weight making you use more energy to make movements. It’s not efficient, makes you cold, uncomfortable and your style points go way down. Looking good while you snowboard is what everyone wants so get the right snowboard clothes.
If I’m not wearing the proper clothing I will work very hard when I’m snowboarding Deep Steep Powder or hiking backcountry, when I get on the chairlift I’ll freeze because I’m drenched in sweat. I recommend you have this breathable clothing it can really make or break your day. This layer stretches and as we bend over to strap in your bindings or when freestyle riding grabbing your board, this layer will stretch and stay covered over your lower back and butt. Make sure it’s longer too so that it will tuck into your snowboard pants. If you don’t have this layer that stretches the skin on your lower back will get exposed and snow can go up your shirt or down your pants when you sit down or crash in the snow. As you ride you will feel wind on your skin and you don’t want wind burn or frostbite so get this longer stretchy breathable layer. In powder conditions no matter how good you are you’ll be covered in POW from falling in it or riding in it making huge turns spraying snow walls and Face Shots (snow sprays your face from powder turns). If you’re not dressed properly you won’t last long in powder.
When I have everything working I ride well. If my goggles are fogged up, I’m overheating, using more energy and breathing harder. The resorts aren’t open yet but I’ve been up hiking at Alta, Utah. We got a ton of early snow up in the mountains and I’ve been able to get up there four times already. The first day I went up it was snowing pretty good. I brought my winter coat up, neck gaiter and had sweats under my snowboard pants. I was overheated and I couldn’t see. When I finally went snowboarding I lost my balance and crashed because I was dealing with exhaustion and couldn’t see. If I took my goggles off snow went into my eyes and when they were on they were too foggy to see. It was already foggy conditions so visibility was low. The next 3 times I dressed much cooler and ripped some awesome powder turns. I released Snowboarding Alta In Roctober 2018 that gives some early season riding and gear tips.
I was a beginner once and have experienced snow going up my back and freezing my ass on a crash in deep powder. I have learned a ton from my experiences and I want to share that with you so you don’t have to have these experiences. If I could of learned snowboarding online when I started I would have avoided many pains. One way to avoid miserable feelings is to have the right snowboard clothes. 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.
When I know I’m going to be traveling to an area during the snowboard season I stay aware of the conditions in that area. I look to see how much snow they’re getting and what the temperatures are. They are many times that a mountain gets a ton of snow but then gets a lot of warm temperatures. There was a lot of snow but it melts making conditions sketchy. During bad winters I may just look to go where the temperatures are the coldest and they have the best snowmaking. I watch weather patterns to know where the snow is piling up or staying fresh. I know the wind patterns around my area but they may differ greatly at another mountain. It is rare but some places actually get too much snow making it very difficult to travel there and no lodging. The big thing is when you have some time warning that you’ll be traveling to a different mountain look at their forecasts and pay attention to there weather so you know what types of snow layers are underneath your board and how to prepare for those conditions.
It’s important to watch the weather when I surf, water ski, wakeboard, snowboard, paddle board, fish, kayak etc,. When I surf I want to know when the waves are going to be bigger. There are tides, winds, currants and temps to consider. If you get into to surfing or you already do, then you know that weather patterns play a big role into when the surf is best. You may chase storms for the best waves. I watch the weather and look to see where the winter storms are building up and will travel to the powder! The best water to ride on is glass when surfing, wakeboarding or water skiing. It’s usually going to be good water early in the morning or later in the evening. The wind usually picks up in the afternoon. Just having some basic knowledge on weather can help you schedule activities in the future. I know that when I go snowboarding it’s probably going to be cold but temperatures can vary. When you snowboard in a blizzard you’ll want to wear different clothes and goggles than on a clear sunny day after a storm. You might be going somewhere that is very windy or somewhere that is very high up with a very different climate that you’re not use to. I’ve been in Colorado when the snow has been so cold making the the snow crystals very sharp that no matter what wax you put on your board you still went slow. In cold conditions I wear more layers to keep me warmer or I break out my puffy jacket made with down feathers keeping me super warm. I look at the weather forecast to help decide on google lens to wear depending on how much light we’ll get. Weather is a huge factor when you’re going out snowboarding.
Wind lets you know where the snow will be piling up or if the storm will be a warm, wet, cold etc,. They actually know by wind speeds and directions how much snow to predict and that helps you as a snowboard to prepare. Snow weighs a lot and when there is 3 or 4 meters of snow out there a slide could be deadly. Depending on the snowpack and where you go there could over 10 meters or 30 feet of snow and an avalanche like that could easily bury anything in its path. Before you go out in the backcountry take some training or a class. You can practice efficiently and get Hooked On Snowboarding with Snowboardclass/FlowingFreeride’s techniques so go back to earlier snowboard videos that teach you about weather and hitting the backcountry. 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.
Human nature is to lean backwards when we are going forwards fast. Think about that. When you are moving down the mountain you gain speed and instead of leaning backwards you need to fight that urge to lean forward putting weight on your front leg. Let’s review what are alignments are. We want to be perpendicular to the slope. Our board, knees, hips shoulders are parallel to the slope. When you start to lean back on steep terrain snowboarding is harder because you’re using movements that are out of alignment. An easy fix to leaning back is to reach down towards the nose of your snowboard and grab it. Start doing this in a flat area so that you’re stationary or static. Then start snowboarding and at the beginning of your turns each for the nose of your board and at the end of your turn release and stand taller in your stance. As you feel more comfortable doing this drill start going on steeper slopes doing these movements. You will gain more confidence in your riding doing this movement pattern.
Speed and going down the mountain is what snowboarding is. We want to be able to control our momentum and that’s what I’m teaching in this snowboard tutorial. I just went over being aligned when you’re going down the fall line or parallel to it, now let’s focus on going across the fall line being perpendicular to it. I want my turn shapes to be the same size on both toeside and heelside edges. It happens all the time where people don’t finish their turns in steeps and then they carry too much speed for their next turn and skid. The fix to this is to turn up the hill on your turns for a second or two longer than you normally do. It’s usually the toeside edge that people do a quick short turn because they keep their upper body facing down the mountain creating upper body separation. Their bodies are out of alignment on their toeside edge and aligned on their heelside edge. To balance this out I’d have them spend more time on their toeside edge and have them look uphill to actually see what is behind them. When you finish a turn on your toes and look uphill you’re aligned. It’s a good idea to look uphill once in awhile when you make toeside turns. Clean up your heelside edge too by looking uphill to finish your turns. Finishing you turns is at the end get your board perpendicular to the slope or even turn up the hill the slow down your turns. This will keep you a symmetrical and balanced snowboarder.
To make faster more efficient turns in steep terrain bend your front knee excessively so that you can reach down and grab your nose on your snowboard at the beginning of your turns. As you finish your turns stop grabbing your nose, stand taller in your stance and look uphill to bleed off extra speed you gain from being in steep difficult terrain. Learn how to Rip Steep Terrain by keeping your body alignments good and finish your turns to stay in rhythm. You can practice efficiently with Snowboardclass/FlowingFreeride’s techniques so go back to earlier snowboard videos that teach you about stance alignments. 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.
I know it’s tempting to jump a rope when you see a perfect powder field on the other side. Those ropes are there to keep everyone safe. Use the gates to enter the backcountry or side country. Ski Patrol has gone through and made sure conditions are safe. It might look great on top but underneath there’s rock and other obstacles. There might be machines on the trail or wildlife. I like to hike and rip powder but I want to return home safe and able to snowboard another day. The big thing to signs is staying out of closed areas. You might duck a rope and land on another trail or end up at the bottom of a huge kicker in the park. It’s not smart and it’s not safe to jump over ropes or duck under them to go into closed areas.
The other signs out here on the mountain are for safety. Look up the trail when you see trail merging signs and really be careful in the slow areas. There’s a joke amongst us snowboarders that we say if snowboarding was invented first all the slow signs would say speed up. Slow signs are at the bottom or in flatter areas and ironically we need to keep our speed to get through the flats. I like to take trails that avoid these areas if possible or ones with the least amount of traffic. Let’s face it we need our speed. When we see these signs try to take paths that are safe and to stay in control at a safe speed. I always look at my terrain and pick a line where I’m higher up on the mountain. You need to have some basic skills on how to survey the terrain to pick the best line that avoids the flats.
If you’re a beginner try to avoid crowded slow areas and know bamboo rope fences are closed areas. Bouncing and jumping on the lift can damage it and endanger other passengers. Other signs exist and depending where you are in the world you’ll want to have some understanding of their language and what warning signs are. In Europe Blue trails are equivalent to Green trails or easy in America, Red equals Blue or Intermediate and Black Trails are still Difficult. There were other things that differed from the US but I researched and talked to locals about safety signs and topics to think safety first. You can practice efficiently with Snowboardclass/FlowingFreeride’s techniques so go back to earlier snowboard videos that teach you about kids and beginner movements. 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.
Some tips for powder riding are to keep your nose up and your weight back. I set my bindings back so I have a longer nose when I’m riding deep powder. I still steer with my front foot but my back leg is doing a lot of work. Speed is a big part of riding powder, you need to keep enough speed and stay on steeper slopes when you’re in deep powder so you don’t sink, crash or get stuck. I like to keep my snowboard a little bit more flat in powder. When you lift your edge up too high the edge digs in causing you to lose balance and throw your rhythm off. That’s all it takes to make things go wrong in powder conditions. Stay stacked over your snowboard and what I mean by that is keep your center of mass over the snowboard. If you’re using body movements that aren’t efficient it will be hard to ride powder because there’s more snow to push. It’s usually making the toeside turn. People try to turn the snowboard by counter rotating, chucking their meat, and steering with their upper body. I progress my students through proper body movements and it’s easy to see when snowboarders aren’t using the best movements. You can send footage of your snowboarding to Virtual Pro and I can go over the timing, intensity, duration, edit and add voice over of your movements to improve your riding. Virtual Pro Example. Once you get comfortable keeping you balance start going to steeper terrain and do whatever you want.
I like to call powder conditions “Hero Snow” because you have tons of confidence with soft snow. You can do almost anything with smaller consequences. It’s like jumping into a foam pit. I like to got out in the the backcountry and build huge kickers and jumps. You can shoot out and do big grabs, flips, spins and get huge air and land in soft powder pillows. I lived on Donner Summit near Truckee, CA at Donner Ski Ranch and there’s some awesome places to build jumps in the backcountry. The old stagecoach trail is still there and we’d hike out along that and build kickers on it because it was perfect terrain. It’s steep, flat and then steep making building jumps easy. If you know a place that has a road cut into a mountain that can be a great place to build your kickers. A lot of roads are closed during the winter and aren’t plowed so find some terrain like that if you’re wanting to get your Big Air on. Take caution and scope out the landing. There needs to be plenty of snow. There are obstacles under the snow. Landing on snow is soft so make sure it’s snow and not rocks. In all my freestyle snowboard videos I always say to look before you leap so you can enjoy snowboarding for the rest of your life.
Jumping into deep powder is awe-inspiring and shredding the pow is awesome! I build up my students confidence in powder by taking them down trails that are groomed and have powder on the sides. I tell them to keep their speed and carry that speed into the powder and make just one turn so they can get back on the groomer. If they don’t do well they’re close to the groomed trail and can get out of the powder. Powder get chewed up as people rip through it and that makes it bumpy. If you surf, water ski or wakeboard you know how great it is when the water is glass. It’s easy to turn, the water is soft and the conditions are perfect. When the wind picks up or other boats create waves the water is bumpy similar to when the snow gets chewed. You need to be able to absorb these bumps and when you can you’re a Ripper! The powder will spray and you’ll get face shots. I was in Ripping Kitzbühel, Austria last year and was getting face shots every turn. It was amazing powder conditions and the people there were great! I stayed inbounds and got tons of powder.
When I go out in the backcountry I take safety seriously. You need to have a beacon, probe, shovel and you should have a buddy. There is a lot to know about going into the backcountry. You need to have some basic skills on how to survey the terrain. Slopes that are over 30º can slide and create avalanches. I go over avalanche safety and teamed up with the Utah Avalanche Center to create a video on Snowboard Avalanche Safety 5 Red Flags. It’s a good idea to take a class and watch FFR’s videos to prepare you. You can practice efficiently with Snowboardclass/FlowingFreeride’s techniques so go back to earlier snowboard videos that teach Steering, Balance, Stance and Body Alignments. 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 through my local resort or have any questions about Snowboarding.
The skills you’ll want to have when thinking about Heli Boarding is to be able to ride steep and deep terrain. Steep slopes with deep powder. Resorts will usually have areas to hike. I like to hike inbounds meaning they avalanche patrol but you have to hike to get to that terrain. If you start hiking out of bounds take an avalanche course or look back at some of FFR’s Avalanche & Resort Safety to know what to take with you and what to know in the backcountry. There are skills and body movements you’ll want to be proficient and solid with but also knowledge of slope aspects, snow conditions, slope angles, safety and survival.
The price to go Heli Boarding provides a guide. They’ll take the group out, find the best snow for your ability and keep you safe. Taking a snowboard lesson is like hiring a guide. Folks get to the intermediate level and don’t excel because they don’t have someone there to guide them to the next level. I’ve talked about deep practice or efficient practice and that’s what these snowboard videos are here to do if you can’t hire a coach. If you’re able to afford Heli Boarding then you should take a higher level snowboard lesson every so often to improve your technique and skill efficiency. Some snowboard tips to ride powder is keep your nose up so you don’t dig in, keep your board flatter to make turns so your edge doesn’t dig in, and pump through the powder to keep speed in flatter terrain. You’ll need to be comfortable with speed and have good balance.
Be aware of wild animals because they can charge and be aggressive. When you’re out in numbers usually that extra noise will frighten them off. You don’t want to stop in a avalanche zone or where there are steep slopes around you. Snowmobiles can make the snow icy under the powder. Try to avoid snowmobile tracks or riding lightly over them by unweighting your board. Heli Boarding was one of the best days that I have ever had and if you love snowboarding it’s an experience you should have! You can practice efficiently with Snowboardclass/FlowingFreeride’s techniques so go back to earlier snowboard videos that teach Backcountry, Steep & Deep Terrain, Moguls & Off Piste Terrain. 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 through my local resort or have any questions about Snowboarding.
