to the fall line. The fall line is the path a rolling ball would naturally follow down the hill—the steepest course. Now side-step up the hill. The easiest way is to move your free foot up first, then bring the board up (limp up sideways). This will give you a feel for digging in the toe edge, which is an important skill to develop.
Rider: Kathy Allman Photos: Gregg Ledge
Skating
Side-stepping
Option 2. If you don’t want to side-step, you can take the board off and hike up the hill.
Option 3. After practicing a bit, you can go to the top of a bunny slope using a poma lift or rope tow, if you are familiar with them. Ride these lifts with your rear foot between the bindings, as when you were skating. (Read the section on lifts, page 28.) If you half-heartedly let the toes of your free foot hang out, or if you put your foot out reflexively to catch your balance, your foot will instantly grab and you will spin out. This mistake is a major cause of falls. Rule: Keep both feet on the board while moving. Do not take a chair lift at this stage.
Skate to a flat spot next to a sloping area. The trick is to find a place where you will not slide while fastening your rear binding but where you can start sliding easily by swiveling your hips or jumping once you are fastened in. The slope should be only a few feet away at the most. One way to have an ideal setup is to dig or stomp a flat area with the board right on the slope. With practice, this takes only a few moments. Once you have discovered or built this platform, fasten your rear binding. If you attach the rear binding while sitting down you do not necessarily have to have a flat spot, but then you must be prepared to go as soon as you stand up.
If you are not set up near a slope, you will have to hop, roll, or be towed to a point where gravity can take over. You can also sometimes move short distances by bending over and pushing or pulling with your hands. All of these methods are useful at times, even a lot of fun, but planning ahead is best. Now—stretch, take a deep breath, and get psyched. Big smile. You’re ready to launch.
Launching
If you are positioned near where the slope breaks, or if you have dug a little platform on the slope, all you have to do is center your weight, bend your knees, hold your arms out, and throw your weight forward. Use your hips—not your back! This motion will break the board free from the level snow on which you were standing and will put your weight over your front foot. Keep 70 to 85 percent of your weight on that front foot and simply try to go straight. If your board is sideways to the hill, keeping your weight forward will pull it into a straight course down the hill. You may prefer to launch with a little jump that points you in the right direction immediately. Unless it is extremely gentle, this run should only be a few dozen yards before it levels off. Repeat this procedure. But at this point do not work your way up the hill so far that you will have to edge or turn to control speed.
Figure 1. Slope terminology
After a few small straight runs, again practice swiveling the board while standing on the flats. This will give you a preview of the feelings involved in turning. You can then try a slightly longer run where you do some swivels on the way down. The slope should be so gentle that the swivels don’t involve any conscious edging and falling down isn’t a problem. If you are spending all your time getting up from falls, you are probably on a slope that is too steep or you are not keeping your weight forward—or both. These problems go together. You will learn faster on an easier slope.
Instructors vary in the amount of time spent on this stage. Some private instructors will simply gradually increase all of the variables so that the students are concentrating on turning immediately. Other instructors believe in teaching rudimentary skills so that the students know all of the basics. Edging and traversing are two of these basic skills. They have to be learned—either sooner or later.
Edging (Sideslipping)
The single most important thing to master in snowboarding is edge control. By controlling your edges, you control your speed and your direction. This is what snowboarding is all about. Fortunately, learning this control is straightforward, which is one reason why snowboarding is so much fun.
You have already started to learn the correct posture and to get a feel for balancing on a moving board. Now you must move higher up the slope, or to a steeper section of the hill, to learn edge control.
Not all edges are created equal. The preferred edge for your initial experiments is the toe edge. This is because balancing on the balls of your feet is naturally easier than balancing on your heels. The toes have far greater sensitivity than the heels. While the range of motion for both edges is equal, the calf muscles used for the toe-side edge are easier to control and stabilize than are the shin muscles, which are used for the heel-side edge. The toe side is also a little less tiring. Another consideration is that if you should overbalance into the hill, it is easier to get up and regain your balance from your hands and knees (a toe-side fall) than it is from a sitting position (a heel-side fall), especially on a shallow slope.
Forcing the toes down digs the edge into the snow and slows movement. Begin by standing with the toe edge set (dug in) and with the board across the fall line. Keeping low with your knees bent, release the edge to start sliding. After gaining some speed, gradually reset the edge. An abrupt edge set will throw you off balance. You want to continue facing straight uphill with the board remaining perpendicular to the fall line. Slide straight down the hill on your toe edge by keeping even pressure on both legs. Try to continue this pattern of setting and releasing the edge while sliding straight down the slope. If the board doesn’t stay perpendicular to the fall line, it will shoot off on a traverse (sideways). You must prevent this by shifting more weight to the side that is lagging uphill. Although this skill practice may not look so great, be patient. This same sideslipping and edging technique can take you down steep, advanced slopes if you find yourself in the wrong place.
Rider: John McGinnis Photo: Andy Geiger
Side-slipping on the heel edge
Rider: Kathy Allman Photo: Gregg Ledge
Sideslipping on the toe edge
For your next descent, switch to the heel edge. It is important to learn both ways and not to get into the habit of favoring one edge over the other. The principles are identical. The most conspicuous difference—besides being able to see where you are going more easily—is that you can use your thigh muscles to sink the heel edge in with a vengeance. Resist doing this or edging and stopping so suddenly that your weight pitches forward. If you do, you may be forced to put your toe edge down. And if you do that, you will discover the Golden Rule of Snowboarding.
Also avoid the temptation to go stiff-legged on the heel-side edge. Always keep your knees bent. “Keep low” is one of the very best pieces of advice for snowboarders.
Continue alternating edges until you have a good feel for both. This edging action is the same as that required for stopping, so you must master this technique before attacking steeper slopes.
