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 ride most of the time with my body in alignment. I can absorb better and prevent myself from tweaking my legs or back. When I hit bumps my natural body movement is to absorb in alignment. If I’m riding with my upper and lower body separated all the time I’m going to wear my body out. After a long day of riding your muscles and joints get tired. If you’re riding out of alignment and using a lot of strong movements instead of finesse you’ll feel it the next day. There are techniques and movement patterns that will keep you snowboard fit. There are many times that I need to separate my upper/lower body when snowboarding. I have a set stance that I go back to or refer to. It’s my natural body stance except I angle my feet out. I keep my ankles, knees, hips and spine slightly flexed so I’m able to move smoothly and I my upper body is naturally aligned with my lower. We’re going to move in and out of alignment so we’re ready to handle whatever is thrown at us on the mountain.
Gravity pulls us down the mountain and the most direct path gravity takes is called the fall line. In steep terrain we follow that line much more. When we point our front hand down the slope we are setting ourselves up to be aligned with the fall line. This will make it easier to start your turn but it’s more difficult at the end of the turn. In tight situations you need to turn immediately to avoid trees, rocks or other obstacles. We want to be able to slow down and stay in control especially in steeps and trees. The upper/lower body separation drill will help you be able to ride through advance level terrain better.
Start on mellow terrain that has some slope like a Blue or intermediate (in Europe Red). If it’s a Green or Easy (in Europe Blue) slope that is too flat this drill won’t work well. Point your front hand and upper body down the slope. Your lower body will be very dynamic rotating your snowboard around from toeside to heelside. Think about focusing more energy into your hips to help pivot. Bend your hips, knees and ankles to make the board flow around easily. Be sure to keep the front hand pointed down the slope. It is easier to achieve on the heelside. Really focus on the toeside to keep you arm pointed down the mountain. Your turn shape should be small and done quickly. If you’re still having trouble getting this movement review Snowboard Dynamic Flex & Extend to give you another example.
After you’ve got the drill on Blue terrain move into steeper Black Advance trails. As you get better flow down tree runs and steep chutes using this technique to Rip the whole mountain. 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 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.
When you start carving find mellow terrain. You don’t want it to be too steep because it’s hard to hold your edge on steeper terrain and it should be very wide to make big turns. It should have no obstacles on it and very low traffic because carving takes a lot of space and you turn back up the mountain. The snowboard terrain should be groomed and flat without bumps so that you’re able to keep your balance better. Fresh groomed snow creates a firm top layer that allows you to really hold an edge and conditions are usually best for carving in the morning. The terrain choice is huge groomed, mellow slope, very wide, no obstacles and low traffic. Go out and scout your carving terrain to find these kind of conditions. Once you find this type of terrain we can start trying to practice Circle Turns.
You need to have enough speed to balance on your edge. I have my students point their boards parallel to the fall line to gain speed. Keep your snowboard flat to increase momentum. I have them start lifting their edge up bending their ankles and knees, focusing energy to these joints and balancing on their edge. Start to turn up the mountain and see how far up the mountain you can get. Your turn shape will start as a J-Turn and progress into a full Circle Turn. Try to drive your pressure directly down on your edge. That’s what you want to do. Don’t try to complicate it with extra movements. Focus in your feet and Steering From The Bottom Up and once you’re getting that you can get Dynamic Flex & Extend. Get enough speed to be able to turn up the mountain and lift your edge up keeping your ankles nice and soft. S-turns are two half circles and when you just keep turning you make Circle Turns.
It’s very important to find the correct carving terrain. I love finding fresh groomed corduroy in the morning getting the best conditions. Carving eliminates the pivot movement and the board doesn’t rotate to eliminate skidding. Balance on the edge of your snowboard using minimal movements to use your sidecut to make arching turns. 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 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.
I love what snowboarding has brought to our winter mountains. One technology is the shape of your snowboard. Snowboarders shaped the board like a bow. When you pull back the bow it flexes and then when you release it creates a pop generating a lot of energy that is forced shooting the arrow out. What is so cool about snowboarding is that we can move fore and aft on the board and create pop. Skiers can’t do that. They are fixed on one ski with one foot. We can move fore and aft along our board to create the magic of pop. Camber technology is really intensified in our sport. Skiers can’t butter and spin like us because we can change our pivot points much easier than skiers. They have to spin from the center of their skis and god bless them, but they can’t do what snowboarders do because they don’t have two feet on one board. Camber is a fun technology that makes snowboarding skiing tons of fun and if you know how to use it if can be like unlocking a cheat code to a video game.
There are different types of camber shapes that if used correctly the snowboard snaps and reacts to providing maximum energy. Regular camber or traditional camber has a convex rise in the center. Reverse camber, banana or rocker camber is just the opposite of the that. Flat camber is just that flat and no shape. Then there are different kinds of hybrid cambers usually having regular camber under your feet and reverse between and tip/tail to foot. That’s great to know so how will that help you? If you like to ride park or a beginner then a flat or reverse camber snowboard will help you out because they’re more forgiving. The shape makes them harder to catch edges but out on the steep mountain it’s hard to hold the edge and they spin out more often. Riding the pipe and steep runs you’ll want to have a regular camber or hybrid camber shaped board. The reverse combo helps you float on the snow but I really love riding regular camber boards to rip through my turns keeping my speed.
I suggest you go out and demo boards to give you different options. While you ride other boards with different camber shape really push your riding skills to the limits. That’s how you’ll know what is different about the boards. While at the Rider Rally 2018 at Abasin we had Never Summer and Burton come out and did demos. I tired the new step on system. I got stuck to it and we had to pull out the screw driver to get be out. The boards were great and it was supper stoke to ride so many different boards. Find what shape of camber you like and start ripping! 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 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.
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.
People started coming to my snowboard lessons years ago saying they learned how to snowboard watching YouTube videos. I couldn’t believe some of the info that they were coming to class with. A lot the advice and techniques were totally the opposite of correct techniques. That’s what prompted me to create Flowing Freeride Pro Snowboard Lessons an online snowboard school. I wanted to teach proper techniques through snowboard video tutorials that would be a perfect companion to real snowboard lessons. My techniques are going to be similar to the lessons at resorts. I want my students to come to my snowboard lessons having the right knowledge. I also want everyone to have some basic knowledge of safety on the mountain to prevent injuries. I love snowboarding and don’t want some gaper to hurt me or others because they’re out of control and can’t stop. A lot of my videos teach you how to steer and stop, load the lift and to be safe. This will increase your skill levels, mastery time and keep you safe.
If you’re unable to stay in control you’re “over terraining” yourself or your going on terrain that is out of skill level. You need to be on a run with less slope. If you can’t steer or stop in the learning area then don’t go up the lift and expect you’ll be able to stop there. I’m on the mountain almost everyday during the season and I usually get hit a few times every year. It sucks but there are idiots out on the mountain. I use all my senses especially hearing when I can’t see. If I hear the sound of someone near me I put me head on a swivel and brace for impact. I look uphill a lot for my protection. Looking Uphill Is #4 of the Code and is something you should do to keep safe. I will stop people that are out of control and will take their pass when I’m in uniform. If I see they are just struggling because of their skill level I will recommend they take a lesson, give them my info to FFR Pro Snowboard Lessons Online and then help them down the run safely. Most people don’t work on the mountain so if you do see erratic behavior call ski patrol, talk to mountain safety or a lift operator.
I know where traffic is going to be when I’m out on the mountain. Near the bottom where the lift line starts is always heavy traffic. It’s where trails funnel together and merge. Be extra careful in these areas. Most trail maps do having warnings on the map where there’s high traffic or slow areas. Look if you’re going out of control Review Lessons On Steering and private lessons helps a ton. Take your time when making turns and don’t force it, let it flow naturally. You’ll be Flowing Freeride soon just follow the instructions. 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.
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.
