Mastering the Basics: Snowboarding Tricks for Beginners
Snowboarding is an exhilarating sport, offering a unique blend of speed, grace, and adrenaline. While carving down a pristine slope is a joy in itself, the true magic often begins when you start to incorporate tricks. For many beginners, the idea of landing a trick can seem daunting, a realm reserved for seasoned pros and park rats. But the truth is, the world of snowboarding tricks is accessible to everyone, starting with a solid foundation and a willingness to experiment.
This article is your beginner’s guide to unlocking the thrill of basic snowboarding tricks. We’ll break down fundamental maneuvers that will not only add flair to your riding but also build essential board control, balance, and confidence. Remember, patience, practice, and a focus on safety are your best friends on this exciting journey.
Before You Start: Essential Foundations
Before you even think about popping an ollie or pressing your board, ensure you’re comfortable with the absolute basics of snowboarding. This means:
- Confident Riding: You should be able to link turns smoothly, control your speed, and stop effectively on both your heel edge and toe edge.
- Stance and Balance: Understand your natural stance (goofy or regular) and feel balanced and centered on your board.
- Gear Check: Ensure your boots fit snugly, bindings are properly adjusted, and your board is waxed and tuned. A well-maintained setup makes a huge difference.
- Warm-up: Always start with a few runs to warm up your muscles and get a feel for the snow conditions.
Safety First: Your Golden Rules
Learning tricks involves a higher risk of falling, so prioritizing safety is paramount.
- Wear a Helmet: Non-negotiable. Protect your head.
- Consider Impact Shorts and Knee Pads: Especially when learning flat-ground tricks or small jumps, these can save you from painful bruises.
- Know Your Limits: Don’t attempt tricks beyond your current skill level. Start small and progress gradually.
- Look Around: Be aware of other riders, especially when trying something new. Give yourself plenty of space.
- Start on Soft Snow: Fresh powder or slushy spring snow provides a much softer landing than hardpack or ice.
- Stay Hydrated and Take Breaks: Learning is physically demanding.
The Tricks: Your Beginner’s Playbook
We’ll categorize tricks into "Flat Ground" (performed without speed or on very gentle slopes) and "On-Snow" (requiring some momentum or small features).
A. Flat Ground Tricks: Building Board Control and Feel
Flat ground tricks are fantastic for developing board awareness, balance, and the muscle memory needed for more advanced maneuvers. You can practice these almost anywhere with your board strapped on.
1. The Butter (Nose Press & Tail Press)
- What it is: A butter involves pressing one end of your board into the snow while lifting the other end, allowing you to pivot or "butter" around on the pressed edge. It looks stylish and teaches crucial weight distribution.
- Why it’s good for beginners: Low risk, high reward in terms of board feel and balance. It’s the foundation for many other tricks.
- How to do it:
- Find Flat Ground: Strap in on a completely flat or very gently sloped area.
- Nose Press: Shift your weight predominantly over your front foot, almost as if you’re trying to push the nose of your board into the snow. Keep your back leg relatively straight, allowing the tail to lift slightly off the snow. You should be able to pivot your board around on its nose.
- Tail Press: Shift your weight predominantly over your back foot, pushing your tail into the snow. Keep your front leg relatively straight, allowing the nose to lift. Pivot around on your tail.
- Practice Both: Alternate between nose and tail presses, getting comfortable with the feeling of weighting and unweighting different parts of your board.
- Tips for Success:
- Keep your knees bent and core engaged for balance.
- Look where you want to go.
- Start by just holding the press, then try to pivot slowly.
- Exaggerate the movement initially.
- Progression: Once comfortable on flat ground, try buttering while slowly traversing across a gentle slope.
2. The Flat Ground Ollie
- What it is: An ollie is a fundamental jump performed by first popping off the tail of your board, then lifting your knees to bring the board up with you. It’s the building block for all aerial maneuvers.
- Why it’s good for beginners: Teaches timing, pop, and how to get your board off the ground. Mastering this on flat ground makes jumping off features much easier.
- How to do it:
- Start Flat and Stable: Stand still or move very slowly on flat ground.
- Crouch: Bend your knees, lowering your center of gravity. Your arms should be slightly bent and ready to swing.
- Wind Up (Unweight): Quickly extend your front leg, almost pushing the nose of your board down. This unweights your back foot.
- Pop the Tail: As your weight shifts to your back foot, powerfully snap or "pop" the tail off the snow.
- Lift Your Knees: Immediately after the tail pops, lift both knees towards your chest. This brings the board up with you.
- Extend to Land: As you descend, extend your legs slightly, absorbing the impact by bending your knees again upon landing. Land flat on both feet, centered over your board.
- Tips for Success:
- It’s a two-part motion: front foot extends, then back foot pops, then both knees lift.
- Think of it like jumping off a skateboard.
- Start with very small pops. Focus on timing.
- Don’t just jump; pop the tail.
- Progression: Once you can consistently ollie a few inches off the ground, try ollieing over a small stick or a line drawn in the snow.
3. The Flat Ground Nollie
- What it is: The reverse of an ollie. You pop off the nose of your board.
- Why it’s good for beginners: Further refines board control, teaches you to use both ends of your board for pop, and is a prerequisite for many spin variations.
- How to do it:
- Crouch: Bend your knees.
- Wind Up (Unweight): Shift your weight predominantly to your front foot.
- Pop the Nose: Powerfully snap or "pop" the nose off the snow.
- Lift Your Knees: Bring both knees towards your chest.
- Land: Absorb the impact.
- Tips for Success:
- Often feels less natural than an ollie initially. Keep practicing.
- The timing is key – shift weight forward, then pop.
4. Flat Ground 180 Spin (Frontside & Backside)
- What it is: A 180-degree rotation of your body and board on flat ground. You land facing the opposite direction (switch stance).
- Why it’s good for beginners: Teaches rotational control, head and shoulder initiation, and introduces riding switch, which is crucial for overall progression.
- How to do it (Frontside 180 – rotating towards your toes):
- Start Moving Slowly: A tiny bit of momentum helps.
- Look and Initiate: Turn your head and shoulders in the direction you want to spin (over your front shoulder for frontside).
- Wind Up: Twist your upper body slightly in the opposite direction, then quickly unwind, leading with your head and shoulders.
- Pop and Pivot: As you unwind, do a small ollie (or just unweight your board) and pivot your feet and board 180 degrees. The rotation comes primarily from your upper body and hips.
- Land Switch: Land centered, absorb the impact, and continue riding switch.
- How to do it (Backside 180 – rotating towards your heels):
- Similar setup, but turn your head and shoulders over your back shoulder.
- The rotation feels a bit more "blind" initially. Keep your eyes peeled for your landing.
- Tips for Success:
- The spin starts with your head and shoulders, not your feet.
- Keep your eyes on your landing spot throughout the spin.
- Start with very small, controlled rotations.
- Practice riding switch once you land the 180.
- Progression: Combine with a small ollie for a bigger, more controlled spin.
B. On-Snow Tricks: Taking it to the Slopes
Once you’re comfortable with flat-ground maneuvers, you can start integrating them into your riding on gentle slopes.
1. Small Jumps (Off Rollers or Side Hits)
- What it is: Taking a small amount of air off natural terrain features like small bumps, rollers, or side hits (little snow mounds on the side of the trail).
- Why it’s good for beginners: Applies your flat-ground ollie skills to real-world scenarios, teaches air awareness, and prepares you for bigger jumps.
- How to do it:
- Spot Your Feature: Find a small, mellow roller or side hit. Make sure the landing zone is clear and safe.
- Approach Straight: Ride straight towards the feature with a comfortable, controlled speed.
- Compress: As you approach the lip of the jump, bend your knees and compress your body downwards.
- Pop Off the Lip: As your tail leaves the lip, perform an ollie, extending your legs upwards. This is where your flat-ground ollie practice pays off.
- Stay Centered in the Air: Keep your body over your board, looking where you want to land.
- Absorb the Landing: As you come down, bend your knees and absorb the impact, landing flat on both feet, centered over your board.
- Tips for Success:
- Start extremely small. Even a few inches of air counts.
- The faster you go, the more air you’ll get, so control your speed.
- Don’t lean back on the jump; stay centered.
- Look for a smooth, downward-sloping landing zone.
- Progression: Gradually increase speed and find slightly larger features.
2. Basic Grabs (e.g., Indy Grab, Mute Grab)
- What it is: While in the air, you reach down and grab a specific part of your board. Grabs add style, stability, and help you learn to control your board in the air.
- Why it’s good for beginners: Enhances air awareness, teaches you to bring your knees up, and looks cool!
- How to do it (Indy Grab – back hand, toe edge between bindings):
- Practice on Flat Ground: Do a flat-ground ollie and try to reach down and grab your board. See how high you need to bring your knees.
- Small Jump Approach: Find a very small jump (like those mentioned above).
- Ollie and Lift: Perform an ollie, bringing your knees up high towards your chest.
- Reach and Grab: With your back hand, reach across your body and grab the toe edge of your board between your bindings. Hold it for a moment.
- Release and Land: Release the grab before landing, extend your legs, and absorb the impact.
- Tips for Success:
- Bring the board to you by lifting your knees, rather than just bending over.
- Keep your eyes up and focused on your landing.
- Don’t grab your bindings; grab the actual edge of the board.
- Start with a very quick grab and release.
- Progression: Hold the grab longer, try different grab variations (Mute: front hand, toe edge between bindings).
3. Basic 50-50 on a Box (With Extreme Caution!)
- What it is: Sliding straight along a flat box or rail on the base of your board. This is your introduction to jibbing (riding on features).
- Why it’s good for beginners: Teaches balance and control on a non-snow surface.
- How to do it:
- Start VERY Small: Find a very low, very wide, short box in the beginner terrain park or a dedicated learning area. NEVER attempt rails or high boxes until you have professional instruction and significant experience.
- Approach Straight and Slow: Ride straight towards the box with just enough speed to get across it. Look at the entry point of the box.
- Ollie Onto the Box: As you reach the box, perform a small ollie to lift your board onto the feature. Aim to land flat on your board, centered over the box.
- Balance: Keep your knees bent, arms out for balance, and look straight ahead to the end of the box. Stay perfectly flat on your base.
- Ride Off: As you reach the end, ride straight off, absorbing the landing.
- Tips for Success:
- GET A LESSON: This is highly recommended for park features. A qualified instructor will guide you safely.
- COMMIT: Hesitation is often what causes falls.
- Stay Flat: Don’t lean on an edge; you’ll catch an edge and fall hard.
- Look to the End: Your body tends to follow your gaze.
- Progression: Only after countless successful 50-50s on very easy boxes, under instruction, consider slightly longer boxes or simple boardslides.
The Journey of Progression
Learning snowboarding tricks is a journey, not a destination.
- Practice Consistently: Repetition builds muscle memory.
- Film Yourself: Watching yourself ride is incredibly insightful. You’ll spot mistakes and see your progress.
- Ride with Others: Learn from friends, get tips, and share the stoke.
- Consider Professional Coaching: A few hours with an instructor can accelerate your learning exponentially and teach you proper technique safely.
- Embrace the Falls: Falling is an unavoidable part of learning. Learn from each fall, get back up, and try again.
- Have Fun! The most important rule of all. Snowboarding is about enjoying the mountain and the freedom it offers.
By starting with these fundamental tricks, you’ll not only enhance your control and confidence on the mountain but also open the door to a whole new dimension of snowboarding. So, strap in, stay safe, and get ready to add some serious style to your shredding!
