Snowboarding for Geeks • Hacker News Board

Re: Snowboarding for Geeks

#101

Post by celticninja » Fri, Dec 14, 2018, 6:40 PM UTC

tribeofone wrote: post #23

My 2 cents for beginners, most of these are covered in the article: 1. Get a flying-v or CamRock - makes turning easier and will hold an edge better until you figure out how to carve. 2. Don't put your feet perpendicular to the board, you want some angle, 30° Front, 15° Back. It will make it easier to square your shoulders down the hill and get your weight on the front of your edge. 3. Start on a Blue slope. Seriousl…

Do you mean -15 on the back foot, your angles have both feet pointing downhill don't they?

Maybe its just me but I ride duck stance, so front foot point towards the front of the board and back foot points slightly towards the back. Makes riding switch a lot easier.

Re: Snowboarding for Geeks

#102

Post by celticninja » Fri, Dec 14, 2018, 6:42 PM UTC

Yizahi wrote: post #51

As a skier who only took a beginning level instructor and then learned by myself for multiple seasons - take as many instructor hours as you can, even if can already ride down black slopes. Seriously, last year I took an advanced instructor and it was a revelation. Take instructor even when you think you don't need him and don't listen to your friends joking about it.

Thats great if you have money. I taught myself to snowboard at 21, having been able to do some skiing before that. Only reason I could was because I worked on the mountain, so it was easy to spend a day falling over on the nursery slope or a week falling on the green slopes because I had so much time. Didn't cost me anything to learn. Once I was fairly proficient I had an actual instructor/guided run to refine my technique.

Re: Snowboarding for Geeks

#103

Post by acconrad » Fri, Dec 14, 2018, 6:46 PM UTC

woolvalley wrote: post #95

I've found snowboarding sucks compared to skiing if your skiing in somewhat consistently icey conditions like we have here at Tahoe. Getting kneepads definitely made it less painful, since it's easy to trip over your toe edge onto your knees when you turn into a groove on ice.

> I've found snowboarding sucks compared to skiing if your skiing in somewhat consistently icey conditions

You should try New England :) I'd add that skiing is superior if you're doing a lot of backcountry traversing as well. The only remedy is to either learn to ski or get a split board (which will set you back $800+).

Re: Snowboarding for Geeks

#104

Post by tim333 » Fri, Dec 14, 2018, 6:46 PM UTC

mixmastamyk wrote: post #66

Snowboarding is an ass-buster. Someone needs to invent an air bag for the rear.

It is for beginners - you get over that. Learning how to fall by kind of sitting helps.

When I lived in Chamonix a lot of the enthusiast boarders had fractured spines - now there's one to avoid. Mostly from going over cliff like drops by error, off piste.

Re: Snowboarding for Geeks

#105

Post by ken » Fri, Dec 14, 2018, 6:55 PM UTC

I like seeing guides like this for newcomers. It's pretty funny, though, to see Architecture Astronauts try to find similarities between any two activities, no matter how different:

"__ can resonate with the geek inside us because it has gadgets, it requires systematic approach to our own progress and it provides a lot of satisfaction and fun we typically find in the creative process."

Is there any human endeavor which could not fill the blank here?

Re: Snowboarding for Geeks

#106

Post by schwap » Fri, Dec 14, 2018, 6:59 PM UTC

paulcole wrote: post #88

chrisfinne wrote: post #44

I grew up waterskiing, so when I moved to the mountains, I thought I'd pick up snow skiing easily. I did o.k., but after a few years I still hadn't gotten that "flow". After a few years of skiing, I tried boarding and got "flow" the second day when there was 12 inches of fresh pow, even though I still sucked at it. Immediately switched and haven't looked back. Several years later, it dawned on me that waterskiing is…

> it dawned on me that waterskiing is done on a single ski Isn't waterskiing on a single ski called wakeboarding? Where I grew up in Florida plenty of people waterskiied on 2 skis.

There are single (slalom) water skis, they are different from wakeboards.

Re: Snowboarding for Geeks

#107

Post by nullecksor » Fri, Dec 14, 2018, 7:00 PM UTC

sudosteph wrote: post #47

Snowboarding absolutely is as fun as it looks, but don't underestimate how much it's going to hurt the day after. I've gone nearly a dozen times and I still end up bruised by the end of the day. Admittedly, I'm a bit clumsier than most, but I've never collided with another human being at least. Also, I was surprised that the article didn't mention the one aspect that I actually found way harder than anything else to…

It hurts. True! The day one of snowboarding is knowing exactly how much it hurts to fall. The next day is all about learning how to not fall. As you learn how to not fall, the day 3 begins with how to move your weight and balance your center of gravity and so forth. The trick to learning snowboarding is knowing how to avoid the hurt;)

Re: Snowboarding for Geeks

#108

Post by parthdesai » Fri, Dec 14, 2018, 7:20 PM UTC

bendixso wrote: post #26

Some of the geekiest people I know have become the best skiers/snowboarders on the mountain. I know a guy who used to regularly show up to the terrain park and do double frontflips over 60 foot jumps. He's got a PHD in physics now. I know another guy who used to compete in big air competitions. Senior iOS developer. My friend Brian does double cork 10s. Medical doctor. This sport is for nerds. If you're nerdy, you ha…

Is that the case or is it because winter sport is so expensive and we are well paid compared to people in other fields?

I recently went to Berlin and Prague, and met a lot of people who worked in tech that had quit their job to travel for 6 months.

Re: Snowboarding for Geeks

#109

Post by altec3 » Fri, Dec 14, 2018, 7:22 PM UTC

celticninja wrote: post #101

tribeofone wrote: post #23

My 2 cents for beginners, most of these are covered in the article: 1. Get a flying-v or CamRock - makes turning easier and will hold an edge better until you figure out how to carve. 2. Don't put your feet perpendicular to the board, you want some angle, 30° Front, 15° Back. It will make it easier to square your shoulders down the hill and get your weight on the front of your edge. 3. Start on a Blue slope. Seriousl…

Do you mean -15 on the back foot, your angles have both feet pointing downhill don't they? Maybe its just me but I ride duck stance, so front foot point towards the front of the board and back foot points slightly towards the back. Makes riding switch a lot easier.

I think they did mean -15. Either way, 30 up front is SUPER aggressive.

Re: Snowboarding for Geeks

#110

Post by GuB-42 » Fri, Dec 14, 2018, 7:27 PM UTC

bendixso wrote: post #26

Some of the geekiest people I know have become the best skiers/snowboarders on the mountain. I know a guy who used to regularly show up to the terrain park and do double frontflips over 60 foot jumps. He's got a PHD in physics now. I know another guy who used to compete in big air competitions. Senior iOS developer. My friend Brian does double cork 10s. Medical doctor. This sport is for nerds. If you're nerdy, you ha…

Senior iOS developer, medical doctor,...

The common ground is not just geekiness, it is money. Skiing is expensive, and in order to get good, you need to practice a lot.

I am curious to know how nerdy skateboarders are. Skateboarding and snowboarding share some similarities, but the former is much more affordable.