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Snowboarding for Geeks

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201–210 of 219 posts

Re: Snowboarding for Geeks

#201

TL;DR As a former instructor and full-time programmer: 1 Get a lesson. Keep your knees bent, lead your turns with your arm and front knee. 2 Blues are easier to learn on then greens because the pitch helps you stay up. I have gotten overweight / out of shape older guys from LA, that have never even seen snow, to be confident riders in a day using this trick and the 'falling leaf' method. 3 The first two days will be…

I'm not a certified instructor but have taken out many a novice the past 20 years. I'm not fond of the 'lead with your arm' point as I've seen way too many beginners with arms flopping all over the place and instead prefer arms and hands kept quietly at the sides. If they get into high speed or euro-style carving, then yes arm positioning is more in play.

Re: Snowboarding for Geeks

#202
post #184
post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plus snow tires/chains, a roof rack to carry the gear, and gas and maintenance to drive 1-2 hours (each way) to the pass. Plus non-bulk-homecooked food/snacks to eat while you're out. Plus losing a huge chunk of hours every week, which matters when you're an hourly employee. I bet a good number of people on HN are software engineers who have never had a job where they made less than $100K with "unlimited" vacation. F…

You only need snows when driving on day of storm. Unless you are doing a destination trip. that is avoidable. Any SUV or reasonable sized car does not require a roof rack to fit a couple of boards plus boots and bindings. Pick smaller mountains for day trips or buy your pass when first on sale to a mountain that does not make snow. As just one example, an early pass to Homewood was $509. I have sold equipment still i…

...or you just go skate, play soccer, throw a frisbee in a nearby park.

Unless one happens to live in a skitown, snow sports are already more expensive than alternatives that don't require a roadtrip, let alone season passes.

If someone has an extra $250 a month to to spare for a hobby, they're already doing fairly well.

Re: Snowboarding for Geeks

#203
post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or get some Azzpadz https://azzpadz.com/ They're pretty comfortable. Used them for the first two years. Also the wrist guards - save yourself an visit to the emergency.

Or learn instead how to fall down properly. Pain is also a great motivator to not fall down.

There's place and time for falling down properly. Then there are situations when you're learning and suddenly you're down. If it saves you a broken coxis or wrist, why wouldn't you do this? I guarantee it still hurts when you fall down.

Re: Snowboarding for Geeks

#204

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…

there is an easy way to stand up heel-side.

the trick is to first, roll in the "opposite" direction.

When you are sitting down, roll backwards so the back of your neck is touching the snow, and the bottom of your board is pointing towards the sky

At this point, gravity is trying to pull you back down. Now, along with gravity, kick your legs to roll forward quickly. Gravity and momentum should effortlessly roll your upper body to be above the board.

this allows you to avoid having to use your arms to "push" your upper body above the board.

it's also much quicker, so you don't waste effort standing up, and can save your energy for actually snowboarding down hill

Re: Snowboarding for Geeks

#205
post #128
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been snowboarding for 12 years, done many 120+ day seasons, and I'm a certified Level 2 instructor in Canada, have done the course for Level 3, need to take the exam. (There are only 4 levels). I don't love all your advice. 1. Sure, marketing gimmicks are great, and you're right, it will help a little. Learning good technique will help a lot more. Learn how to control the edge and how to turn the board when you…

> 2. 30 front and 15 rear is too much of a difference, which means you'll never learn switch, and things will feel wrong when the board accidentally goes the wrong way (beginners get this all the time). Not true. Mentally you'll be riding reverse even with full duck stance. People do it on skis and alpine boards. But people put on a very awkward stance for regular riding because they feel they can't ride switch other…

> Not true. Mentally you'll be riding reverse even with full duck stance

But the difference is with duck when you ride switch everything feels the same stance-wise because your two feet are still at the same angle they always where.

If you ride with 30 on the front and 15 on the back, when you ride switch you will feel like your front foot doesn't have enough angle (because it only has 15 when you are used to 30) and your back foot has stupidly too much angle (because it's 30.... which is plain stupid for your back foot).

You never, ever want to ride with 30 on your back foot, which means if you have that 30/15 stance, you're locking yourself out of switch riding.

And you might say "who cares, I hate switch anyway", which is a perfectly valid thing to say, but riding switch even for just one or two runs a day is an excellent, excellent way to improve your all around riding. So if you don't do it, you're severely limiting your potential.

Re: Snowboarding for Geeks

#206
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been snowboarding for 12 years, done many 120+ day seasons, and I'm a certified Level 2 instructor in Canada, have done the course for Level 3, need to take the exam. (There are only 4 levels). I don't love all your advice. 1. Sure, marketing gimmicks are great, and you're right, it will help a little. Learning good technique will help a lot more. Learn how to control the edge and how to turn the board when you…

Thanks for this detailed post. I'm stuck at advanced beginner/intermediate forever, and find it frustrating to be able to get down groomed runs just fine, but as soon as the terrain gets a little bumpy it all goes to pieces. Been looking into snowboard camps or private coaching, but love the idea of an instructor course so thanks a million for that!

You're welcome. I hope you see this.

I see a lot of students get to the point you describe then Plataea. Without seeing you ride, I'm guessing you are not always going where the nose of the board is pointing, but often sliding down the fall line - either a lot or a bit. So after you make a turn (swap edges), you might be going across a little, but you're also going down. This will be evident by the line you're leaving in the snow. If it's a thin line going across the slope, I'm wrong. Chances are it's a big washy scrape that goes down as much (or more) than it goes across.

When you're not going where the board is pointing, you don't have a good stable base and balance, so when something like a bump or tricky snow comes along, you fall.

To improve this, do some edging exercises, and really concentrate on making a turn, then absolutely go across the run on a diagonal, really going where the nose of the board is pointing. Point with your front hand and arm where you want to go (across the fall line) and look there with your whole head. Practice in both directions so you are doing it on both edges.

You can even traverse so hard you actually go back up hill a little. It's good edging practice.

You will use your knees & the muscles in your legs and ankles to change how your edge is biting into the snow so you can actively control how much you're traversing across, vs how much you're sliding down the fall line.

Once you get the feeling of going where the snowboard is actually pointing you will feel what I mean and it becomes addictive!

Good luck & Have fun!

Re: Snowboarding for Geeks

#207

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…

R you a girl ? never had a problem standing up. you just jump from sitting and land on your feets

Re: Snowboarding for Geeks

#209
post #195
post #186

Lots of great comments here about snowboarding so I figured I'd provide my two cents. I tried skiing a couple of times and ended up just not having much fun. Eventually decided to try out snowboarding. It felt like I had gotten hit by a car the next day. But there was something about it that seemed promising, so I stuck with it. The initial learning curve is really steep. I was a far better skier after far less effor…

I mean no offence, but I think a few of these opinions are probably because of your skill level on both a snowboard and skis. > It works far more of your core muscles and your quads and hamstrings that skiing does, so it takes some time to figure out how to control all that with the precision. If you're skiing hard, the core and quads are fully engaged. Especially in deep snow. In fact, I suspect that you need more e…

Your comments are totally fair and I do not take any offense at all. Appreciate the other points of view!

Re: Snowboarding for Geeks

#210
post #205
post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 2. 30 front and 15 rear is too much of a difference, which means you'll never learn switch, and things will feel wrong when the board accidentally goes the wrong way (beginners get this all the time). Not true. Mentally you'll be riding reverse even with full duck stance. People do it on skis and alpine boards. But people put on a very awkward stance for regular riding because they feel they can't ride switch other…

> Not true. Mentally you'll be riding reverse even with full duck stance But the difference is with duck when you ride switch everything feels the same stance-wise because your two feet are still at the same angle they always where. If you ride with 30 on the front and 15 on the back, when you ride switch you will feel like your front foot doesn't have enough angle (because it only has 15 when you are used to 30) and…

The truth is that while people are exposed to a lot of snowboarding that shows a lot of park and jumps the majority of snowboarders simply enjoys going down groomers at moderate to fast speed.

If you set up your binding angles for stuff they don't do at all or not very often you're taking out the fun of what they're actually doing in favor of something they might feel they should be to fulfill the image of what a snowboarder does.

And all I'm saying is that riding reverse / fakie is more of a mental thing than something that you should reflect in your bindings. I regularly saw people and alpine bindings carving down steep slopes on race boards that have no rear tip at all. I can ride reverse on a simple blue slope, not carving yet but I really didn't try that hard yet.

One of the prime reasons skiing took off again is that you'll rent a pair of hard boots with carve ski's for going down groomers and they're way easier because they're optimized for what people actually do all day on the mountain: going down groomers at moderate to fast speed.

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