How To Ride Bumpy Terrain & Moguls On A Snowboard.

This is Nev Lackwood from Snowboard Addiction. This tutorial focuses on how to ride bumpy terrain in moguls. Most snowboarders don't look for or enjoy riding bumpy terrain, however often when you're trying to get somewhere you come across some pretty variable stuff or a mogul field that you may be forced to ride through. There's no point in sideslipping through it. Learn the tactics from this video as being able to ride bumps will make huge improvements to your freeriding so that when you hit a bump you weren't expecting you'll be able to absorb it and shred on like nothing happened. Dynamic riding. Groomed runs are generally pretty smooth. Although not recommended you can ride entire runs without having to bend your legs very much and you'll still be able to make it to the bottom. This is not the case on bumpy runs. If you ride with stiff legs you're going to lose control quickly and crash. To ride smoothly through bumpy terrain you need to be very dynamic with your riding, flexing with your ankles, knees and hips and constantly adjusting to the terrain as you ride through it. If you look at my head you'll see it's almost remaining at the same height as I ride through bumps but every other part of my body is in constant motion. First bumpy terrain. Before trying to ride bumpy terrain you should be comfortable doing very quick turns in both directions. On a groomed run see how quick you can make your turns come around. They should look something like this. Notice how my upper and lower body make each turn together remaining in alignment. Look for a slightly bumpy run close to a main trail so you have an escape path back to safety. Don't put yourself into a full-on icy mogul field. It's not fun. One of the most important aspects is to control your speed. The easiest way to do this is to completely finish off each turn sinking low to apply a lot of pressure at the end of the turn coming almost to a stop. If you slow yourself down after each turn while learning it'll be easier to prepare for the next turn. Pick where you're going to turn, unweight your board by rising up a little, make a quick turn, keep your upper and lower body in alignment for balance and get low to apply a lot of pressure after turning to slow back down. Traversing bumps. A really good way to develop your ability to absorb bumps is by traversing through moguls. It's also a safe way to navigate through moguls without having to turn. Start on your toe edge, get to a speed where you're challenged but you don't consciously have to slow yourself down. See how smoothly you can absorb the moguls while traversing. If you're picking up too much speed then aim your traverse further across the slope with less angle which will help to slow you down. Try to be soft and loose through your ankles, knees and hips with no stiff movements. Your legs need to move independently of each other. When you ride over a mogul your front leg absorbs it first followed by your back leg a fraction of a second later. If you think of driving a car over a speed bump the front suspension absorbs the bump first followed by the back suspension. To ride smoothly through moguls your legs also need to work independently like a car does. On your heel edge traverse the moguls at a comfortable speed to see how well you can absorb the bumps. If you're getting thrown off balance then you aren't absorbing very well. As this gets easy challenge yourself to see how much speed you can pick up while remaining in control. When you can comfortably traverse moguls on both your heel and toe edge with a moderate speed and remaining control then you'll be able to ride them better. Picking your line. As you start to ride through bigger bumps and moguls the shape and size of your turns will come down to how you pick your line. Generally most mogul fields are pretty consistent. I like to think of it as doing a slalom course through the moguls and I choose to ride mostly around them using the upper side of the next bump to help finish my turn and wash off some speed. I'm constantly looking a couple of turns ahead of where I am to see where my next turn will be. Aggressive bump riding. After riding a considerable amount of bumpy terrain you'll start to ride it more aggressively. If you watch my riding very closely you may notice the independent movement happening in my legs. Front foot to back foot. Initiating a turn with more weight over my front foot then pushing through each turn and finishing with more weight on my back foot. You'll even see the nose of my board come off the ground slightly on some turns. This motion helps me to control speed and wash off a little at the end of each turn. To learn the feeling of this go to a groomed run and try to finish each turn by applying a little pressure into your tail. Your board will flex bringing the nose off the ground and may spray a little snow. This will help you develop independent leg movements moving from your front foot to your back foot during turns. This is not how you should generally ride on groomers. It's just an exercise to help develop front to back movement in your turns which will help you to aggressively ride through bumpy terrain. The board's flex should feel like it pops you out of each turn and into the next. I tend to ride around the bumps using the tops of the next one to push into and slow down. Try popping over the odd mogul using it like a jump. Riding like this uses a lot of energy and will make you hot. Body position. One of the most important aspects of being able to ride bumpy terrain well comes right back to the basics of your body position and how you stand and balance over your board. If any aspect of your body position is out then it'll be multiplied when riding varied terrain. Every bump you hit will throw you off balance and could make you crash. The major things are to keep your ankles knees and hips flexed and your back up straight which will help you to absorb bumps and remain balanced. Keep your upper body and lower body in alignment and try to keep the majority of your weight over top of your board through each turn. The most common body position issue I see with snowboarders and bumps is they force their toeside turns around using counter rotation ending in an unaligned and unbalanced position at the end of each toeside turn. If you look closely at my riding you'll see I use my whole body in harmony through each turn. By finishing each turn with the pressure on my back foot it helps to pop me into the next turn. Having your body position dialed from the start on groomed runs is going to be the biggest help when riding varied terrain so check out our intermediate riding videos for a more detailed breakdown of common mistakes. Summary. Riding bumpy terrain is definitely not what snowboarders seek out but we often come across it especially on powder days where the non-groomed runs usually end up being pretty bumpy by the end of the day. You can sidestep through bumps which is not fun and looks horrible or you can learn to charge them which will end up making you stronger in all areas of your shredding. This is Nev Lapwood from Snowboard Addiction. Our goal is to improve your riding.