snowboarders help meh

[StrangeRanger]

What do you mean 'riding an edge' ? Literally the edge of the board?

Yes. But it all depends on the width of your board and your stance. Your toes or ankles may hang over the board too much to actually carve on edge really hard.
j

 

[StrangeRanger]

Not to thread hijack but I have a snowboarding trip planned for Park City, UT in Jan... The coldest I've ever snowboarded was about 30F here in NY. Current forecasts place Jan around the single digits. I'm curious if anyone may provide some advice on the amount of layering I need to stay warm in this type of weather.

Here's what I had planned earlier for mid Teens-20's, think I need to add more layers?

Body:
Under Armour Coldgear compression(w/T-shirt over that)
Arc'teryx Griffon(Polartec Powershield O2) fleece
Arc'teryx Alpha SL(superlight = Goretex Paclite) Shell

Legs:
Either Under Armour Coldgear compression leggings or PJs whatever I feel comfortable in the day of.
Snowpants(eVent shell)

Face:
Under Armour Hood
Beanie as needed

I'm only actually worried about my body not getting enough layering. I suppose getting cold is a function of staying still for too long. I'm sure I'll be fairly warm while riding but on long lift rides, it might get a bit too chilly? Comments?

Didn't you say you're from NY? Ever ride White Face on a cold day? Shit, here in VT cold days are 0 and below. Any other day and I ride in maybe a t-shirt, sweat shirt and a windproof shell.
If you're riding/playing hard you'll be sweating in no time.
j

 

[ViviTheMage]

Yes. But it all depends on the width of your board and your stance. Your toes or ankles may hang over the board too much to actually carve on edge really hard.
j

Mine do..size 14 boot, normal sized board...wonder if I should get a WIDE board?

 

[cheezy321]

Mine do..size 14 boot, normal sized board...wonder if I should get a WIDE board?

I would definitely rent a wide board and see how it works out for you. My old GNU was a wide board and I only wore a size 12. They are a little harder to maneuver, but it will give you more confidence on your edges when you dont have your feet hanging over it!

 

[ViviTheMage]

I would definitely rent a wide board and see how it works out for you. My old GNU was a wide board and I only wore a size 12. They are a little harder to maneuver, but it will give you more confidence on your edges when you dont have your feet hanging over it!

It's not soo bad, the only hang 3 inches or so on the front, i've never had an issue yet. My board is about 10-15 years old, I got last year for 50 bucks and threw on some nicer bindings...burton bindings/boots/board, works pretty well..probably could use a wax. I'll get a newer board once I get better, and figure out what kind of board I like.

 

[cheezy321]

I know I keep on re-iterating this, but its worth saying again.

IMO, snowboarding is all about confidence. You have to be confident in what you are doing on the mountain or else you are going to crash and you are going to have problems. When you ride scared shitless, you are going to end up scared shitless of snowboarding. Become comfortable in your riding, then get your confidence up. Once you get your confidence up, move on to that next level. Once you reach that level and are confident in your abilities, move on to the next level. Just keep on riding and keep on upping your level of confidence in your abilities. I cannot say enough how much confidence effects your abilities on the mountain.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Pretty sure this will solve all my confidence problems :

http://www.abc-of-snowboarding.com/learn-snowboarding/

Once I figure out how to stop toeside, i'll be happy.

 

[darkxshade]

Didn't you say you're from NY? Ever ride White Face on a cold day? Shit, here in VT cold days are 0 and below. Any other day and I ride in maybe a t-shirt, sweat shirt and a windproof shell.
If you're riding/playing hard you'll be sweating in no time.
j

I'm just a novice who's only went snowboarding about a dozen times

 

[clamum]

Ugh, now I'm all excited like a schoolgirl to go snowboarding (hopefully soon).

 

[ViviTheMage]

Ugh, now I'm all excited like a schoolgirl to go snowboarding (hopefully soon).

I know!! haha

 

[Attrox]

good advice attrox, i'll also ahve to consider some of that.

I always thought you turned with your back foot? It makes sense why you would not though, maybe I need to change my stance around, and ride goofy.

Riding Goofy or normal is just whatever you are most comfortable with. In the end though you will progress to a point where you want to be able to ride with both stance. Especially when you want to ride park.

This is what I am doing right now I'm relearning to ride again with a normal stance since I am normally Goofy, so I'm using my own advice. It's hard because I don't have the rythm down yet when riding in normal stance so I wiped out when I'm riding too fast.

Pushing with your backfoot is normally done to speed check. Eg: You are approaching a jump and you are going too fast, you slide your back foot to control the speed. You don't want to do that when you are carving because you want to maintain your comfortable speed when you are zig zagging down the slope, not reducing it.

 

[lifeobry]

Only gone a few times, but standing straight and leaning forward were things I learned after trial and error (and lots of pain).

 

[Attrox]

I know I keep on re-iterating this, but its worth saying again.

IMO, snowboarding is all about confidence. You have to be confident in what you are doing on the mountain or else you are going to crash and you are going to have problems. When you ride scared shitless, you are going to end up scared shitless of snowboarding. Become comfortable in your riding, then get your confidence up. Once you get your confidence up, move on to that next level. Once you reach that level and are confident in your abilities, move on to the next level. Just keep on riding and keep on upping your level of confidence in your abilities. I cannot say enough how much confidence effects your abilities on the mountain.

This.

Just don't be overconfident though, the key is progress at a level you are comfortable with. I tried jumps on my first year of riding and landed on my back, shoulder. Hurt a lot and I stopped trying to push myself too much.

I decided to avoid park, learn to ride comfortably on a blue run and progress to black diamond. I just started learning parks on my 3rd year of snowboarding this year. I fall more on boxes now then going down black diamond and I'm much more nervous approaching a box rather than a steep slope. I'm staying away from rails from now once I'm good doing boxes and jump then will plan to eventually progress to rails and doing 180, 360 etc on jumps.

3 Years probably is a slow progressing time but I have a lot of fun learning and I don't hurt myself too bad by progressing slowly and gaining confidence at each step.

 

[Attrox]

Pretty sure this will solve all my confidence problems :

http://www.abc-of-snowboarding.com/learn-snowboarding/

Once I figure out how to stop toeside, i'll be happy.

I used this site when I was learning before.

And a bunch of youtube videos as well the night before I snowboard lol.

This one was particularly useful
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt7KDOzg05I

They used to have more videos of her (I think she used to be a female pro boarder or something) but I can't find them anymore.

 

[blackdogdeek]

OP where did you go? mountain creek?

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Clothes? Overdone. In typical 30s-40s in TAhoe, I wear A T-SHIRT with a 686 Jacket on top. IT's a 3-in-1 with a liner. Sometimes I try to throw in a baselayer and it just gets too hot. I learned my lesson.

I have a helmet with ear covers and remember 75-80% of the heat escapes through your head anyway. If I get hot I remove the ear covers. If it's uber cold I'll throw on my facemask.

Confidence is good. I don't know how you can have too much but those falls are the worst when you're overconfident. Like the ones you don't see coming. I was cruising down a blue catching up to my friend and I waved... 5 seconds later I found myself flipping and lying on my back. Even with a helmet I felt a tad dizzy. I shook it off and it took a good minute to get back up. I must've caught an edge and went crazy.

But I would rather have more confidence. I go into jumps a bit shaky sometimes and the landing is rough because i can always tell I'm bracing for a fall or something. I'd rather go through it in a smoother fashion like when I carve down the mountain.

As for stance, everyone is different. Some people use duck stance. My friend swears by it and tells everyone to start there. I don't understand I always thought 15/0 was the way to start. I started at 15/0. I'm an 18/3 now. More people start with 15/0 and that's just a recommended start point. Adjust that. If you got decent bindings, adjust the highbacks too. Lean is critical. I used to add lean onto my Burton Missions but now that I have Cartels which have pretty severe lean, I'm ok on the first setting.

 

[Mrvile]

good advice attrox, i'll also ahve to consider some of that.

I always thought you turned with your back foot? It makes sense why you would not though, maybe I need to change my stance around, and ride goofy.

Your dominant foot is your dominant foot, and there are ways to find out which one it is. I would advise against riding switch while learning, and as a beginner, either way is not going to feel too great. It really is all about riding more and developing the confidence which will make you comfortable with having your dominant foot forward.

 

[Attrox]

I used to add lean onto my Burton Missions but now that I have Cartels which have pretty severe lean, I'm ok on the first setting.

How do you like the change from Burton Missions to Cartels? I'm using Missions right now, my boots tend to slightly moved inside the binding when I do a lot of jumps and grabs, even though I had it on tight. Thinking of getting a different bindings, maybe Cartels but they are expensive.

 

[matas]

OP where did you go? mountain creek?

yeah I went to creek. But I also go to camelback.

A lot of good advice, definitely seems like it's gonna be better.

 

[Elganja]

I know I keep on re-iterating this, but its worth saying again.

IMO, snowboarding is all about confidence. You have to be confident in what you are doing on the mountain or else you are going to crash and you are going to have problems. When you ride scared shitless, you are going to end up scared shitless of snowboarding. Become comfortable in your riding, then get your confidence up. Once you get your confidence up, move on to that next level. Once you reach that level and are confident in your abilities, move on to the next level. Just keep on riding and keep on upping your level of confidence in your abilities. I cannot say enough how much confidence effects your abilities on the mountain.

agreed 100%... couldn't say it better myself

 

[blackdogdeek]

yeah I went to creek. But I also go to camelback.

A lot of good advice, definitely seems like it's gonna be better.

how were the conditions?

when riding do you find that you have to swing your arms in the opposite direction of the turn to generate the torque to pull the board around?

also, do you find that you usually skid/slide on the board's edge rather than carve?

 

[matas]

how were the conditions?

when riding do you find that you have to swing your arms in the opposite direction of the turn to generate the torque to pull the board around?

also, do you find that you usually skid/slide on the board's edge rather than carve?

Sorta

Well I don't know how to carve because I can't control the board well. So I usually slide on heelside to stop/maneuver

EDIT: my bindings are 2007 rome arsenal. http://snowboardbindingsreviews.com/rome-arsenal

 

[matas]

Yo,
just got back from mt creek and I was amazing. The weather was rainy and snow on trails was sorta slushy. The thing is it stayed really warm and it did not freeze. I was able to go really fast and hit some jumps with my newly adjusted board to 0/+15. I think it is way better than having it -15/+15. I was able to slide both ways heel and toe side. The wet snow actually made it feel like it was snow powder, because I was able to "dig in" with my snowboard into the snow. On the down side, I realized that my boots are a half size too big.

 

[roguerower]

I know I keep on re-iterating this, but its worth saying again.

IMO, snowboarding is all about confidence. You have to be confident in what you are doing on the mountain or else you are going to crash and you are going to have problems. When you ride scared shitless, you are going to end up scared shitless of snowboarding. Become comfortable in your riding, then get your confidence up. Once you get your confidence up, move on to that next level. Once you reach that level and are confident in your abilities, move on to the next level. Just keep on riding and keep on upping your level of confidence in your abilities. I cannot say enough how much confidence effects your abilities on the mountain.

I 100% agree. I was in your position, falling leaf, tentatively trying toe edge, etc., until one run where I caught my edge, and slammed my face on the ground and opened up my chin. Ended it for the day, but the next day went to a different place on the mountain where the bunny slopes were and spent about 4 hours teaching myself transitions and carving. Now I can do it no problem. I just needed the confidence to know that I could do it. It just took a lot of blood for me to get there.

I just got in my new whip, a 2010 Sierra Crew 158cm with Burton Triad bindings. Haven't been able to test it out yet, but my first run will be at Steamboat Springs in 7 days. Can't fucking wait.

Good luck to you man, it's a shit ton of fun once you can link your turns and just go non-stop down the mountain.

 

[Attrox]

I 100% agree. I was in your position, falling leaf, tentatively trying toe edge, etc., until one run where I caught my edge, and slammed my face on the ground and opened up my chin. Ended it for the day, but the next day went to a different place on the mountain where the bunny slopes were and spent about 4 hours teaching myself transitions and carving. Now I can do it no problem. I just needed the confidence to know that I could do it. It just took a lot of blood for me to get there.

I just got in my new whip, a 2010 Sierra Crew 158cm with Burton Triad bindings. Haven't been able to test it out yet, but my first run will be at Steamboat Springs in 7 days. Can't fucking wait.

Good luck to you man, it's a shit ton of fun once you can link your turns and just go non-stop down the mountain.

How do you like the 2010 Sierra Crew? Tell me in terms of board flex and how does it handle park and groomed run/jumps?