Learning the Basics Of Snowboarding

A snowboard is one of the coolest and hippest ways to let yourself go free and get yourself rejuvenated. Snowboarding is full of action and thrill that gives you a rocking time. But just getting a new snowboard, bindings and boots is not enough for your excitement quotient if you are a beginner. So here is everything you needed to know of how to maintain control on a snowboard.

Fundamentals of Riding a Snowboard

• Learning to snowboard becomes a lot easy if you are comfortable with skiing. So if you have skied before snowboarding, you will be a natural rider within minutes.
• Stay relaxed because unsteady nerves can make you stiff thereby limiting your movement. So in order to stay loose and focused, all you need to do is keep your knees bent slightly. This will work like a shock absorber as it will absorb the bumps while in action.
• Once you are at ease, you are ready to move. One needs to start it off by playing around with the snowboard with just a foot, that is, the front foot.
• Before you start skating down the hill, you need to give it a try in skating across the hill.
• Once you are comfortable, you strap in the other foot and just head down the hill.
• The front foot should be used to steer the board.

How to control the speed

Snowboarding is definitely one of the most popular outdoor recreation activities. But whether beginners or veterans alike, they should be aware of certain basic facts while maintaining and controlling the speed on the snowboard. And even for beginners, after they learn how to ride a snowboard, the next immediate step is to learn speed control. It is an interesting fact that there are different techniques to maintain the momentum across different levels and types of slope terrain.

The following pointers will be enough to maintain speed on a snowboard.

Figure out your dominant foot:

Learning to figure out your dominant foot can be done in two ways:

1. Sit down, then get up and take three strides. (This is done best when you are alone).
2. Option two- Stand up and get someone to give you a light push. (This can be done when you have others around to help you).

What is a dominant foot?

The dominant foot is that foot which you place out first.

An upright posture is a must:

It is an often repeated mistake that when people start to lose control, they lean towards the ground to stop. But more control can be gained if you stand upright and pushing down in order to create a 90 degree angle in the slope.

*Weight should be distributed evenly

Most often than not people tend to place most of their weight on the back of the snowboard and this at times makes them lose control of the snowboard. You should ensure that only 70% of the weight is placed on the front foot. Thereby the pressure on your dominant foot gets lessened and you can easily swing the board better and control where you are going.