Day 1 advice needed

[mahatma]

Hey All,

Boy am I glad this forum exists. I have never skied before in my life and my skiboard experience is about 30 minutes. I think my equipment is good - Spruce 120 boards with spruce Pro bindings. Yesterday, after snowboarding most of the day I talked a skier friend of mine into teaching me how to skiboard and things just didn't go well. My friend was very well intentioned and probably correct on all counts but again things just did not go well for me. First, he tried to teach me to not stand up straight rather to lean into the front of the ski boot. This felt odd. Then he was teaching me to stop wedge style by essentially crossing the front of the skiboards. Well, as I said the leaning forward thing felt uncomfortable on a few different levels and the wedge stopping just didn't seem to go well unless I was going .5 mph or less. So, I spent my 30 minutes either on my backside or hiking back up to our little start point. That is my sad story. My question is this - can anyone bottle some core techniques for me? I'm truly wanting to learn to skiboard and of course get down to having fun. So, knowing how to stop and turn would go a long way. Thanks guys.

[Faceplant]

for skiboards, definitely do not try to lean over your tips like you would for long skis. skiboards are ridden most effectively with a centered and a more upright stance. you can even pressure your heels to work the tails of the boards.

to stop, if you've seen or done the hockey stop on ice skates, then that's the most effective way to stop, otherwise, just turn up the hill. to start getting a feel for the hockey stop, you can side slip the boards much like a snowboard, then gradually start to do the side slip after you've gotten speed until you're able to do a full-on hockey stop. this shouldn't take you long.

good riding!

[taimos]

I know how you feel, So i'll post my own experiance:

Firstly, Skiboarding the way you ski is just way more effort. What my dad did when he taught me was take me to a green run, not steep (but not flat), and then told me how to turn. Basically by putting your weight on the opposite leg of your turn direction. Imagine squashing a tomato under your foot.

If you go along a slope, and try chaging your weight distribution form side to side you will see yourself turning. To turn properly you need to aggresivley push your weigt over the appropriate skiboard. Doing this should result in you turning. To stop simply do a turn and face up the hill. As gravity says you cant go up, you wont, but you also won't go down, if you get me.

Don't tyr and snow plow, it doesn't slow you at all (or at least it never did for me). Learn how to distribute your weight and how to turn and thats it. Once you can turn all its about is confidence, because you can get down any slope simply by traversing from side to side.

If you are worried about a steep slope and going out of control simply travese across going slightly downhill and at the side turn back the way you came, stopping if you wish, and then just repeat this.

IT's well ahrd to explain on the net. I would suggest watching some ski lessons next time you go to the mountain (like ones where they are starting to do parralell turns) to get a good explantions.

Don't try and snowplow turn either, keep your skiboards paralell.

[airdonut41]

I agree. The only ways to really stop yourself on skiboards are to A) ice skate stop B) turn into the hill or C) run into an immovable object such as a lift or tree. I would suggest one of the first two, but that's just me. The only time I ever try to snowplow on skiboards is when I'm approaching a rail or box with too much speed and still want to stay straight. I think the easiest way to learn to stop is to turn into the hill though. Good luck!

Dan

[taimos]

man love it, stopping by crashing! It's actually something people always say...if you think you're out of control, just fall over.

I once took out a barrier at the end of a run because i didn't bother to stop, was rather embarassing.

[CrazyBoy-1]

This probably won't apply much to you with the 120's but I've found that on steeper slopes I need to concentrate on leaning down into the slope, especially while turning. If I tried to carve while leaning too far back my outside board would come right around and I'd end up spinning out. I was on 90's at the time though.

As for stopping, the v-plow doesn't work at all in my experience. I stop by carving really hard and digging in to a stop. As long as your legs can hold up against the inertia of your weight, you'll be able to stop very effectively this way.

As for crashing to stop; I've done that myself several times. It's better to put yourself down in the snow under your own control than to slam into something or someone out of control.

[MIborder]

Something else to add to the ice skate style stop is that you want to lean uphill a little bit, and dig the edges into the snow as you stop, and you generally use your lower board (the one on the downhill side) to do more of the stopping. It is hard to explain online, but thats how I usually stop.

On a side note yesterday I saw an out of contol skier nail a group of boarders sitting on the hill at full speed, and someone was badly injured so the moral of the story is falling is much better than hitting something or someone.

[CrazyBoy-1]

Yeah, you definitely want to lean into the slope when stopping otherwise you could potentially go overcenter and end up on your head. I also agree that most of the stopping is done by the lower leg, with the upper leg mainly used for balance.

Yeah, I've seen people get run over on the slopes before and it's never pretty. The thing is, sometimes those situations could be easily avoided if people wouldn't sit/stand in the middle of the slope. No offense to snowboarders, but they are the main culprits that I see doing it. I'll be coming down the hil and all of a sudden there is a line of four or so snowboarders either laying down facing up the hil or sitting looking down. Personally, if I feel that I need to stop on the slope, I'll get all the way over to one side out of the way.

[airdonut41]

Originally posted by CrazyBoy-1
This probably won't apply much to you with the 120's but I've found that on steeper slopes I need to concentrate on leaning down into the slope, especially while turning. If I tried to carve while leaning too far back my outside board would come right around and I'd end up spinning out. I was on 90's at the time though.

As for stopping, the v-plow doesn't work at all in my experience. I stop by carving really hard and digging in to a stop. As long as your legs can hold up against the inertia of your weight, you'll be able to stop very effectively this way.

As for crashing to stop; I've done that myself several times. It's better to put yourself down in the snow under your own control than to slam into something or someone out of control.

That's weird that you turned backwards when your weight was backwards. Even when I was riding the heads (renting) last year, I never actually spun out. The only thing that would happen to me while accidentally leaning back would be that I'd hit a nasty bump or ice spot and fall backwards. I find that the cause of leaning back is usually fear though, so you should work on trying to get out of that habbit. I hope we can ride together sometime; I'm bummed that I didn't see you on the mountains in VT.

Dan

[CrazyBoy-1]

I think part of it could be my height. In the instances where I leaned back, there just wasn't enough board at the rear to leverage my higher center of gravity. And you're right, it has to do with fear completely. Fortunately I've pretty much licked that. By Saturday afternoon at Stowe I was charging down just about everything with no problem.

I'm possibly going to be at Blue Mountain on Thursday (3/8) if you'd like to meet up and ride. I'm kinda waiting to see if a friend of mine can go since I don't like to ride alone for safety reasons. If I could me up with you though, I'd definitely plan on it. Let me know either way.

[JCX]

I ride the Spruces and love them! They are my "got to" board for any and all terrain....powder, packed, groomers, trees, etc.

They are a great board. I have been skiing for a long time and skiboarding for a short time. All my skiing skills translated right over to skiboarding. BUT....I did not start out on the Spruce! You have great equipment no doubt about that. Skiboarding is about having fun and freedom. Based on your posts it seems you are not having any fun.

I would suggest putting up the Spruces for a week or two and find some cheap snowblades or something similar. They are not the best boards in the world from an experienced rider's point of view but that is not you.....you just want to learn to get down the hill and have fun while you are doing it.

The Spruce is a serious go anwhere board and right now as a pure newbie just may be a bit much. Sure you can master the Spruce by why work so hard. Most if not all of the riders here started on something similar to the snowblades and the learning curve is fast. You are not trying to push the limits of a real board, you are just trying to get down the hill with parallel turns and have a good time at it.

Jeff Singer of Spruce mentions on his site that on Whiteface Mountain they put their newbies on 90cm's and by 3PM on the first day are making parallel turns down blue runs and having a great time.

I think if you shorten things up for a week or so on some "beaters" and get the movement patterns down on the shorter boards the Spruces will be so much easier to ride. ( and you will appreciate them a lot more)

Skiboarding is all about fun and if you are not having any fun, there's no sense in doing it.

Just my opinion.

[airdonut41]

Originally posted by CrazyBoy-1
I think part of it could be my height. In the instances where I leaned back, there just wasn't enough board at the rear to leverage my higher center of gravity. And you're right, it has to do with fear completely. Fortunately I've pretty much licked that. By Saturday afternoon at Stowe I was charging down just about everything with no problem.

I'm possibly going to be at Blue Mountain on Thursday (3/8) if you'd like to meet up and ride. I'm kinda waiting to see if a friend of mine can go since I don't like to ride alone for safety reasons. If I could me up with you though, I'd definitely plan on it. Let me know either way.

Sorry about the late response, but I didn't check this thread. I can't make it on Thursday because I have a half day of school and then baseball. My life is going to be consumed by baseball from now until the end of spring. Pretty much sucks because that basically means the end of my skiboarding season. I'll be at JFBB on Sunday though if you can make it.

Dan

[CrazyBoy-1]

Well I'll have to just try to catch up with you next season then. I'll be away Friday to Sunday at a retreat, so I can't make it to JFBB. The way the weather's looking, my skiboarding season will be ending here soon also.

[tyberesk]

JFBB sunday, my home mountain...pm me

[mahatma]

My thanks to all. I actually posted a thanks in this forum under a new thread. I couldn't help but notice all the replies from Pa. I grew up in Pa. Born and raised in Harrisburg. I've lived in Tokyo for the last 12 years or so and am married with 3 kids. We all ski/snowboard. My son and I are the snowboards while my wife and girls ski. My son and I are the "chronics" while the Mrs's and girls come out once a month or so. Tarou and I ride from mid-December until early May getting out 30+ days. I would love to get out more but real life get in the way. Anyway, if you have plans to be in Japan please post up. I'll meet up anywhere as Tarou (my son) and I blow with the wind. Resorts in Nagano, Niigata and Gunma are all regular haunts. Naeba/Kagura, Happo One and Myoko Suginohara are faves.