Tag Archives: snowboard lesson

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How To Actively Snowboard Bumpy Terrain & Moguls

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There are perfect conditions for snowboarding and wakeboarding. Lakes are glass when there aren’t many boats out and there’s no wind to make the water choppy. In snowboarding we get fresh powder or the snow gets groomed but can get bumpy when folks turn and push the snow around. We need to be able to Absorb & Ride Bumpy Terrain. 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, Snake Course, Snowboarding Chutes, Building A Race Course, Active Passive Absorption, Funnel Turns For Navigating Obstacles & Snowboarding Moguls.

We learn how to snowboard on flat groomed terrain with a gradual slope. After you get comfortable with this terrain step up to steeper slopes. When there is more of an incline you gain more speed. This steeper terrain requires you to turn more to keep your speed in control. On powder days snow is pushed around much more and easy blue slopes that were groomed in the morning might have moguls to start forming in a very short time. You will have to be able to navigate this bumpy terrain to get down. If you use some basic movements and can survey the terrain you’ll do fine.

When I’m teaching students how to ride moguls I choose good terrain. I like to start on blue groomers and get them to start developing rhythm. There are different types of movement patterns and some are better than others in certain situations. Check out Dynamic Flex & Extend Movements For Snowboarding to get a better idea about what I’m referring to. After students are moving their bodies dynamically I can get them off piste. I choose blue terrain that has moguls on one side and is groomed on the other. This way they can try to ride bumps and if they’re not getting it they can jump back onto the groomed terrain.

I like to use Active Absorption Versus Passive Absorption. I will actively lift my front leg up as I approach a bump and then push it down as I go over it and do the same with my back foot. You really want to use independent foot steering, flexing and extending your legs. One might be extended while the other is flexed. It is a good workout to ride moguls. If I only have a short time to ride and want to burn the most calories I ride the moguls. Moving more creates more energy. If you want to be cruisy stay on the groomers and if you’re looking to be more aggressive get off piste and into the bumps. 

Look down the hill and try to plan your line at least 5 turns in advance. I like to just follow the fall line or gravity and choose the path of water or the least amount of resistance. I will change edges across the fall line and will turn uphill to bleed off speed. Snowboarders and skiers both make moguls but because they are faced downhill with narrow skis and boarders are sideways with wider boards we ride the bumps a bit differently. I turn on the bump using it as a berm. I can ride moguls like a skier or a zipper line but my upper body gets out of alignment on my toeside edge and this can cause injury. I prefer to stay stacked over my board finishing my turns in alignment. I plan ahead and if they are obstacles I have no problem avoiding them and keeping my flow.

You should work on being consistent in your turn shape staying on your toeside as long as you stay on your heelside. It will take some practice to get these movements fine tuned. You might get it right away or it might take you a long time but keep with it. 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.

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Improve Your Snowboard Skills By Riding The Snake Course

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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.

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Snowboard Scouting and Fishing Alaska

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With the pandemic closing everything folks started doing things outdoors more. We saw outdoor recreation increase by three times last year. We had booked our Alaska adventure before all this happened. I got to Scout Alaskan Terrain For Snowboarding & Caught Big Fish. 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, Snake Course, Snowboard Dynamic Flex & Extend, Advance Snowboard Lesson: Dropping Cliffs, Snowboarding Off Piste, Snowboarding Chutes, Active Passive Absorption, Funnel Turns For Navigating Obstacles & Snowboarding Moguls.

I know a lot of my mates that snowboard in the winter participate in other outdoor recreation activities in the summer like rafting, biking, hiking and fishing. I’ve started raft guiding on the Weber outside of Park City. I’ve fished the rivers around here too. I like going to the lake to fish because they stock the lakes and it’s easier to fish on lakes because you don’t have to deal with fast moving water. Taking kids to the lake is good fun and I just use worms for bait. It is usually non-stop and I’m constantly baiting, tying hooks and casting. I release most of them or give them to friends I meet out there that aren’t catching. Being outdoors is brilliant and good for the mind and soul. Fishing is something I can do with the wee lads. They can swim and play around the water.

Alaska has a ton of great snowboard terrain. I was out deep sea fishing on the Cook Inlet and I saw a ton of peaks that still had tons of snow on them in the middle of July. I asked my captain about those peaks. He said that people go out there to snowboard in the summer. It does cost lots of money to get there and usually use helicopters to fly them to the top. I would love to go Heli-Boarding sometime up there. The best day I’ve ever had snowboarding is when a client took me out heli-boarding. The snowboard resorts have good terrain but if you can book a guide to take you heli-boarding in Alaska.

We went out deep sea fishing three times whilst there. We went out from Ninilchik, Seward and Homer. We caught lots of halibut, sea bass, rockfish, cod, dogfish and stingray. We didn’t keep the dogfish or stingray but had loads of the others. I also fished on the Kenai and Russian River near the falls. The Kenai has been overfished and we only caught one king salmon that was too big to keep. It’s not the river but out in the ocean they use a drag net or other nets that catch anything. If they catch fish that they’re not fishing for then they throw them overboard and most die. It’s too bad what is happening to the fishery. We caught lots of sockeye salmon below the Russian River Falls. It’s called flossing because the fish aren’t feeding and you snag them. They weren’t as big as the halibut we were catching but much more fun and sporty. Deep sea fishing was much easier and everyone could catch out on the boat.

Fishing in the Rockies in the lower 48 is a great time and when you are good there, step it up and fish Alaska. The snow lasts much longer in Alaska and April is one of the best months to snowboard up there. There isn’t much daylight during the winter and almost endless sun during the summer. 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.

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Why Alta Doesn’t Allow Snowboarding

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The world as a whole has changed drastically over the last year. We’ve had the Covid-19 pandemic, a president that had his base raid the capitol and cops that have killed innocent people. There is a ton of hate that needs to be changed. Fight To Free Alta & Allow Snowboarding! 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, Snake Course, Snowboard Dynamic Flex & Extend, Advance Snowboard Lesson: Dropping Cliffs, Snowboarding Off Piste, Snowboarding Chutes, Active Passive Absorption, Funnel Turns For Navigating Obstacles & Snowboarding Moguls.

The term Free Alta came from my mate Michael Johnstone. He along with his other 2 business partners George Media and Brandon Peterson had a snowboard shop called Experience in Angel Fire, New Mexico. I took a position down there. The determining factor was that they had a race team that I was on. I wanted to make sure that I could take time off to compete. Most of the competitions for that region were all at Angel Fire Resort. I quickly got sponsored and was spending a lot of time at the shop. I coached the race team. I was getting paid to compete and coach. The Experience team had come up with the saying Free Taos because they wanted Taos to allow snowboarding. They were successful and in 2009 Taos started allowing snowboarding! Johnstone saw on social media that I was hiking and snowboarding Alta a lot. Alta still doesn’t allow snowboarding and he would always post #FREEALTA!

I knew Johnstone had brain cancer and was in a constant battle. I made sure to follow his stories on social media. Johnstone and I started making plans to ride Alta and I started posting hashtag Free Alta whenever I was up there. Folks started to see that they could snowboard Alta when the resort closed. The resort leases the land from the Forest Service and anyone can come up and use the land. We never got to ride Alta because he passed away last year. George was his best friend and he rolled his cement truck and died. This was too much for Johnstone and a few days later he went to sleep and didn’t wake up. 

Why do skiers think that snowboarders are bad people and shouldn’t be allowed on “their” slopes? When snowboarding first came out there weren’t schools teaching you how to ride. You learned on your own. They would just get down however they could. Slide slipping or skidding down scraped all the good snow off and made conditions worse. Folks were out of control and crashed sometimes into others. We snowboarders got a bad reputation. Resorts started making snowboarders take a safety test before they could ride. Really I think everybody should be tested because I’ve been hit by skiers that don’t know how to stay in control. Skiers have kept that hate for snowboarders for over 40 years. Snowboard schools have been teaching students how to ride for over 30 years. A lot of snowboarders are younger and older folks don’t like change. Well, times have changed and hating somebody for the color of their skin or the way they get down the mountain is segregation and discrimination. Skiers that hold this hate might realize that this behaviour is not acceptable anymore but closed minded folks can’t see the writing on the wall.

Resorts like Mad River Glen, Deer Valley and Alta pride themselves on not allowing snowboarding. I don’t think they will ever change. When Alta first opened in 1938 only men were allowed. No women and children permitted. I would like to think they could change since they did start allowing women and kids. People come to Utah to ski Alta because there are no snowboarders. I’ve traveled all over the world for snowboarding/video and I was told by a few folks in management that when Colorado resorts allowed snowboarding at all their resorts they saw that they lost clients that would rather go to Utah and have no snowboarders. I have given up hope on people to change. I will keep enjoying my time snowboarding Alta but will just have to hike up it or access it from Snowbird where snowboarders can ride the lifts and are welcome.

Snowboarders got a bad wrap and have been banned. Snowboarding is an Olympic sport that is recognized around the world. Resorts like Alta could give a shit less and will remain prejudice to anyone that snowboards. The mentality of skiers are better won’t change unless you are a skier and tell others that we are equals and that’s what FREE ALTA means! 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.

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Learn How To Carry Your Snowboard Right!

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You will need to carry your equipment and might as well Learn To Carry Your Snowboard Right! I can spot a gaper from far away. A gaper is short for gaper gap, that’s when there’s a gap between your goggles and helmet. Folks that don’t know what they are doing walk, dress and carry their equipment not quite right. 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; Great Tips To Tune Your Snowboard, How To Repair Snowboard Part 2, How To Repair Core Shots, Learn The Pros & Cons To Snowboard Bindings, Snowboard Binding Types, Binding Angles, Picking The Right Size of Snowboard, Demo Snowboards, Snowboard Camber Technology, & Sizing Boots & Bindings.

To carry your snowboard correctly, put your arm under your binding and let it hang. This will help relieve pressure on your fingers from the sharp edge. The board should be parallel to your body especially in crowded areas like lift queues. If the board is perpendicular to your body you hit others when you move or turn. Skiers are infamous for doing this when they put the skis on their shoulders. They turn and will hit others in the head. I’ve had to dodge skiers doing this or block the skis with my hand. A big thing I teach is safety and this is a big safety tip.

You don’t want to be a gaper. There are racks that hold your equipment. The thin longer slots are for snowboards. The wider slots are for skis. I like to strap my board to the rack if there aren’t thin long slots so my snowboard doesn’t fall over. If there aren’t racks then flip your board upside down so it doesn’t blow away. If you snowboard starts going down the hill by itself it becomes a projectile. I’ve seen some bad accidents when this happens so be safe and not a gaper.

Make sure when you come up to the slopes that you’ve watched videos on how to Ride Right™ like How To Put Your Snowboard Boots On Right! I talked about a gaper and not having your boots on right but having the right clothing also. Do not come up in sweat pants and no gloves. You need waterproof clothing or you’ll be having a bad time. I see Raw beginners coming up to lessons with things not zipped and clothing hanging out. I don’t even ask what level they are because I know they’re beginners with no clue to what they are doing. If I’m new to something I will research it and usually watch YouTube videos that give me some basic knowledge.

Lose the gaper gap. Put your snowboard clothing on right. Make sure you carry your equipment correctly so you’re not injuring others. Take the time to research and that way you don’t look silly. We’ve had some hard times with Covid-19 so make things better. 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.

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Celebrating Our 100th YouTube Video

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We have over 200 videos on YouTube and our website FFR. We provide a ton of free content and this is our 100th Video On YouTube. We are looking for more good riders and videographers so we can continue providing free content to our subscribers. Hit us up in the comments or click on Contact Us here or on our site. 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, Snake Course, Snowboard Dynamic Flex & Extend, Advance Snowboard Lesson: Dropping Cliffs, Snowboarding Off Piste, Snowboarding Chutes, Active Passive Absorption, Funnel Turns For Navigating Obstacles & Snowboarding Moguls.

We have started collaborating with other folks and companies to promote snowboarding and other businesses. If you are in the Park City area, have good riding skills and good video talent then we’d like to chat. We’ve discovered that YouTube is our main source of income. Our website always needs updates and that takes time and money. YouTube videos are free and once we post a video it’s done. Websites have hosting charges and our videos for the site live on AWS. The site was making more than YouTube for the first few years. We now have over 100 videos and have lots of ideas on creating new content. We are looking for Rippers like yourselves.

I’ve been hiking up in Alta a lot and created a ton of content up there in early and late season. The snow isn’t always great during these times. I’ve been working full time as a snowboard coach, trainer, TV producer and instructor during the last few snowboard seasons. During this time I’ve only been able to release a few videos on YouTube. I’ve taken a full time position at PCTV and will not be teaching near as much. It will be good to work more on my own riding instead of others. Last season was not a fun season and we had a low snowpack. Our summer run off wasn’t much and our reservoirs are turning into puddles. Motor boats aren’t allowed in some lakes because there isn’t enough water. It will be good to get some video when winter is at its peak instead of spring conditions up at Alta. 

I just looked at the conditions in the southern hemisphere and they are getting snow. I’ve snowboarded in Australia and had a job in New Zealand but Covid hit and changed everyone’s lives. Keep on ripping mates! 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.

 

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Learn To Snowboard & Snowmobile

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When Covid hit everything closed up including the resorts. I was laid off and only got 1 week of pay. I had a job at Cardrona, New Zealand. It would have been exquisite to live and ride there for a season. Covid hit some of us real hard. We were getting good March storms and I called around for snowmobile rentals. I found a place on Daniel’s Summit & Went Snowboarding Behind A Snowmobile. I’ll give you some tips on how to snowboard whilst snowboarding. 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, Snake Course, Snowboard Dynamic Flex & Extend, Advance Snowboard Lesson: Dropping Cliffs, Snowboarding Off Piste, Snowboarding Chutes, Active Passive Absorption, Funnel Turns For Navigating Obstacles & Snowboarding Moguls.

If you are not a good snowboarder already I do not recommend you doing this. I’ve waterskied and wakeboarded behind boats since I was a wee lad. If you have experience getting pulled then you should be able to do this. You want to get all the slack out before you start. It is important to get the slack out or you can get injured pulling your shoulder out or catching an edge. Start slowly and increase the speed. The driver needs to have the skill to pull you just like in wakeboarding. Once you start going, keep your knees, ankles and hips slightly bent. You will still initiate your turns with your front foot but I put more weight on my back leg. I’ve done this by being pulled by a car when I lived on Donner Summit, California. Two of us were pulled behind my car. If you do it on a road, keep the board flat. Too much edge angle will dig down to the street and you’ll crash. It hurts, believe me!

It’s best to do this with fresh powder. Good snow conditions give you more confidence with big rewards and smaller consequences. It’s easier to go up the snow walls and banks. The powder will spray out and look cooler. If the conditions aren’t good then you probably should reconsider getting pulled. Nothing wrong with being safe rather than sorry. As a well weathered veteran I want you to learn from my mistakes.

Riding the snowmobile is fun. I started renting and driving snowmobiles when I was 14. My mum told the snowmobile outfitters that I was legal to drive, thanks mum! We went up to West Yellowstone a couple times and all the streets have snow on them sharing the roads with the snow machines and automobiles. There are tours into the park if you don’t want to drive. I recommend doing it at least once just to see nature’s beauty. I grew up near the mountains and we had 4 wheelers and motorcycles. At 14 I drove the snowmobile like a 16 year old. You might have to wait until you’re at least 16. Most folks reading this according to YouTube analytics are over 18. That means you should be able to rent and drive a snowmobile and have a marvelous time!

Holding the rope with one hand will keep your upper body aligned with your lower body. When you’re going uphill you should hold on with both hands because you get worn out. When it’s flat is when it’s the best to cut back and forth. Your driver needs to keep the rope tight and keep a constant speed. The driver needs to look back or you can use your mirrors but they need to keep an eye on their rider. If you start going downhill be careful the rope doesn’t get caught in the snowmobile’s tracks. The rider should let go of the rope and just snowboard like normal.

I recommend doing it on a machine that holds two peeps. That will let you be able to ride back if you’re not keen to continue. It was a great way to get my snowboard on during the pandemic of Covid-19! 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.

 

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Snowboard Bindings Pros & Cons

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Equipment can play a big part in your snowboarding. Learn The Pros & Cons To Snowboard Bindings to help you have a better time on the slopes. 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; Great Tips To Tune Your Snowboard, How To Repair Snowboard Part 2, How To Repair Core Shots, Snowboard Binding Types, Binding Angles, Picking The Right Size of Snowboard, Demo Snowboards, Snowboard Camber Technology, & Sizing Boots & Bindings.

The most common snowboard binding is the two strap ratchet system. There are different types of snowboard bindings, but I prefer the 2 strap ratchet system and here’s why. They keep you locked in and if one strap breaks whilst you’re on the mountain you can fix them or at least get down the slope. The most important strap is your ankle strap. If your toe strap breaks it won’t be that difficult to snowboard down the run. If the ankle strap does break you can try to connect the toe strap or use its parts to fix the ankle strap. If that doesn’t work you can skid down on your heelside edge. If you go to your toeside then your heel can lift out and your foot can come out completely. You don’t want that to happen and it can cause injury. I’ve found this system keeps you locked in the best and most reliable. The con to this system is that you have to reach down to put it on and off. You have to be able to touch your toes. This is hard for heavy set folks and it takes more time.

I have to give a shout out to the late Jake Burton for pushing snowboard technology. I found one of the first Burton setups with bindings that had three straps at a pawn shop in Truckee, California over 20 years ago. It must have been built in the 80’s. The snowboard was convex and shaped like a boat, great for powder but that’s about it. I didn’t like Burton bindings and boards because you had to buy their equipment. They are definitely the Mac of the snowboard world with all the Fucking Dongles! Their boards had a three hole screw system and you had to have a base plate that was compatible with their system. Bindings had to provide 2 base plates, one for normal four screw holes and the three screw holes for Burton. I call bollocks on that and now they’ve gone to just two screws, even worse. I’m an advanced snowboarder. I have the highest level of certification and bought one of their bindings that only works on their snowboards. I’ve had to really research what all their equipment does so I don’t make that mistake again. I ended up buying a used Burton demo board so I could use those bindings. With fewer points of contact to hold your binding to the board the screws come loose. Your toes and heels come off the board causing inefficiencies. They have pushed snowboard companies to make better products.

There are step-in or step-on binding systems. Flow is a company that developed a rear entry binding. You release the system by opening the high back or the rear and your foot slides in. You then pull the highback up and that locks the binding. It’s less work and much quicker than the 2 strap system. The bad thing is that if the wire that holds that in breaks you’re screwed. No way to fix it and you’re walking down. Another negative is that the locking system can fail. It happened to me at a high speed on my toeside. My foot came out and I flew out of control off the run. Lucky for me it was soft powder. I could have been seriously injured and haven’t ridden them since. You might be able to find older systems but they’ve had too many problems and you had to have their boots to fit their binding. Some didn’t even have a high back.

Burton has a step-on system that has a high back. These are very fast to get into. All you do is lineup your boots and step in. To release you do need to reach down so you still need to have some flexibility. Jake Burton designed these bindings so older guys 50’s plus good go out and ride. You do have to buy their boot and binding with this system. They are not great because snow gets into the binding and boot making them jam up. They have tried to perfect them but your snowboard pants can get jammed in them and then you can’t release them. If that happens you’re either ripping your pants or taking the binding off. That doesn’t save time and if you rip your pants you’ve just spent a good chunk of change for new pants. I feel a wee bit more of movement with this system. They are also very expensive.

The best thing to do is demo different types and see what you like. Most aggressive high end Rippers use the two strap system because of how reliable they are. I like being able to buy any boot that will work on any binding and give my money to a company that wants to be a monopoly. 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.

 

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Get In Your Flow Zone Like Basketball & Baseball Athletes

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The snowboard season is a few months of the year but you can develop athletic skills by playing other sports. You can learn to be efficient in your movements and Get Into A Flow Zone Like Basketball & Baseball Players. 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, Snake Course, Snowboard Dynamic Flex & Extend, Advance Snowboard Lesson: Dropping Cliffs, Snowboarding Off Piste, Snowboarding Chutes, Snowboard Lesson Navigating Trees & Obstacles, Active Passive Absorption, Funnel Turns For Navigating Obstacles & Snowboarding Moguls.

I love sports. I was hired at PCTV as a TV Sports Producer because of my knowledge and passion for sport.  I grew up playing baseball, basketball, soccer, boxing, wrestling, football, track, wakeboarding, skateboarding, skiing and of course snowboarding. If I had the knowledge that I have now I would have been a better athlete. When I was taking my AASI Snowboard Level 3 exam I was told that I was too strong and they failed me. I didn’t understand what that meant. I had to pull teeth from examiners to get the information I needed to snowboard with flow. I powered through terrain and wasn’t using efficient movements. Now that I’m a full certified level 3 snowboard coach, I teach that same philosophy. When pivot or rotate the board the upper and lower bodies are out of alignment. If you’re out of alignment you can’t absorb as well and it will affect your balance. After a lot of training and study I understood good Timing, Intensity and Duration or TID. My snowboarding improved so much and I was able to ride all day without the aches and pains I used to get. By taking professional snowboard lessons or using Flowing Freeride’s techniques you’ll improve much quicker than riding alone or getting wrong advice from someone else. 

The state of Flow is something folks should research. My good mate Greg Gibb (Develop Our Snowboarding By Mountain Biking) told me about the state of Flow when we were hiking/snowboarding up at Alta a few years back. I was telling him about FFR and how I came up with the name. I liked Bruce Lee and how he would say “be like water.” As I snowboard I flow down the mountain efficiently with the least amount of resistance. I like to use gravity to slow me down by turning up the slope instead of muscling and skidding to stop. I love carving and carving is using your sidecut and not skidding. I explain Basic Carving in this video if you’d like to go down that rabbit hole. There are videos on the internet that explain The State Of Flow with Steven Kotler. You are much more efficient and fluid when you’re in the Flow State. I know I can get a full week of work done in just a day if I’m Flowing. It would be great if companies would know about this but unfortunately most of us have to be in the office from 9 to 5 because that’s how the system is set up or even worse punching the time clock. I would like to have a four hour work week instead of 40 hours. You can read The Four Hour Work Week, by Tim Ferriss if you want to get deeper into that subject.

Practice does not make perfect, perfect practice makes perfection. When I see snowboarders with bad technique they aren’t getting better by doing the same inefficient movements and unlearning is harder than learning it right the first time. Basketball athletes have said in interviews how when they were playing that things slowed down, that their rhythm was on. When they’re playing that well “they’re on fire” and any shot they take goes in. They can’t be stopped. Baseball players say the ball gets bigger or that it slows down. It’s like they see the future. Baseballers have just a fraction of a second to decide whether the pitch is going to be a strike or a ball. They are able to do this because they’ve had many lessons, they’ve watched video of themselves, they have good coaching and they had perfect practice. 

With Covid destroying lives our world has changed and we’ve had a shift. People have realized that they can be just as productive by working from home. If they can stay focused for a few hours they get all their work done instead of being in the office all day. A lot of us lost jobs and companies only kept workers that were vital to surviving. Park City Resort merged with Canyons a few years ago. They kept all the management on the PC side and got rid of almost all on the Canyons. This season they made sure almost all the runs and parks were open on the PC side. They didn’t even build a park on Canyons side. It takes about an hour to snowboard from 

Canyons to PC. One hour to get there and one hour to get back gave us about three runs in the park, not enough practice. Our group lessons were shortened to just 3 hours instead of 6. This made it very difficult to get into the park. I only rode the park this last season for a few hours. My park skills deteriorated. I had to be at work for almost 2 hours more this season and didn’t get compensated for it. I didn’t get to freeride as much either. This season was the 4th worst snowpack on record. We really didn’t have much off-piste terrain open until the end of January. The slopes were super crowded and it was dangerous. These factors made it difficult to get into the state of Flow and I hope next season is much better.

I heard other peeps express their opinion of this season. When I did have good private lessons they were all day. We got to eat lunch together and instead of two three hour lessons we got 7 straight hours together. The results were a huge difference when we were able to get our Flow Zone on! 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.

 

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Summer Snowboarding Main Chute, Alta

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My 2018-19 snowboard season was epic. We had record snowpack and I was snowboarding until July 7th. I got over 200 days on snow and this video is My 200th Day Snowboarding Main Chute, Alta. 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, Snake Course, Snowboard Dynamic Flex & Extend, Advance Snowboard Lesson: Dropping Cliffs, Snowboarding Off Piste, Snowboarding Chutes, Active Passive Absorption, Funnel Turns For Navigating Obstacles & Snowboarding Moguls.

The season started on October 10, 2018. Some resorts like Brighton opened up in October. I hiked almost everyday until my resort Park City opened around ThanksGiving and I had over 30 days of snowboarding by then. With the snow conditions this good the whole mountain was able to open early. This gave a lot of terrain to spread out. I didn’t have to worry as much about rogue skiers and boarders. I love the trees because they don’t move. Some of them have been in the same spot for hundreds of years. Floridians don’t and tourists have been known to crash into others. Glades are a safer choice for me because I know how to ride them. If you don’t you should watch Snowboard Lesson Navigating Trees & Obstacles.

Park City Resort closed early April but the Epic Pass allows you to snowboard other resorts and Vail stayed open for 3 more weeks and Abasin was open till July. I had some mates invite me out there and I rode Beaver Creek, Vail, Abasin and Breckenridge with my pass. I left a board out there and that gave me an excuse to go back out there. I stayed out there until the end of May and then made another trip out there in June. I made some good connections out there in Colorado and would love to move out there. Colorado has the better bigger mountains but Utah has better snow and more of it. When the resort’s base elevation is higher the snow doesn’t melt as fast.

When I was in Utah I would hike Alta. Alta has good steep terrain that is great for snowboarders. Alta is a skier only mountain watch Free Alta to learn more about why that is. My mate Johnstone would always comment on my social media #FreeAlta and we had planned on snowboarding Alta together. We lost a couple of Snowboard Legends Mike Johnstone and George Medina last year. They were on the front lines to Free Taos to allow snowboarding. They were successful in 2009 they were able to buy a ticket and snowboard Taos. It’s too bad that Alta has to keep the attitude that skiers are better than snowboarders. The resort wouldn’t allow children or women on the slopes when they first opened and they like discriminating. 

Snowboarding in the summer is brilliant. The days are much longer and sometimes I would snowboard late in the evening. I drove up to Alta after work to get my snowboard fix. When I realized I could get over 200 days on snow I made it a goal to snowboard everyday. Hiking is great exercise and I would get to snowboard down. The conditions weren’t the greatest but being able to snowboard Alta in July was a nice treat.

On day 200 I decided to hike all the way up Baldy. It took over 3 hours to hike up. I would usually hike to the top of Collins lift or Wildcat because a lot of the time I had other things I needed to do. I met some other hikers along the way and that made the hike more enjoyable. We all got to the top of Baldy and we could see the tram at Snowbird running. It stayed open until July 4th that season. We took a few minutes to rest and to enjoy the views. Main Chute was still filled in with decent conditions. I took video and you can see how beautiful the scenery was. The ride down Main Chute was amazing! After exiting the chute I had another ten minutes of snowboarding to get to the base.

If you go out hiking in your area try to find slopes that have good vertical. I can park my car at Alta, walk 30 meters and be on snow. Alta makes snow and that gives a deeper base making the snow last longer. You cannot hike on private property. Alta is forest service land and when they close anyone can use the land to recreate. 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.