Live Coaching: Beginner Snowboard Lesson Pt. 2

So we started doing a little bit of side-slipping there, mostly on our heel edge. Yeah. And we found that that terrain was super flat. So it was hard to get it even any speed up. Yeah. Right? So we're actually going to make our way around to the chairlift right now and just get you snowboarding. Ready for it. Okay. And for the first time, we get to actually use our pushing around in the snow here because we're going to push ourselves all the way over there to the lift. Cool. You ready to push? Yeah, I think so. Follow me. With that, I felt quite confident on my heel edge. But certainly on the toe edge, I felt like I couldn't control it. Don't worry. I'm going to get you rocking on the toe edge. Cool. You're pushing around really well. Feels so unnatural. It's your first day, buddy. It's your first day. I think it's because I'm angling my foot kind of backwards, whereas on a skateboard, you push on the front and your foot's angled forwards. Hey, we've got a hill here to the lift. What are you going to do to slow down? I'm going to drag my toe. I could go on the side and side-slip down. I would drag your toe. It's like this. Wait. Woohoo! All kinds of craziness. You can ride all the way to the lift now. Nice snow-covered board. Yep, you're good. First time on a chairlift? Yep, first time ever. All right. I've heard the rumors. Get the chair behind us. Ahead. Now, after this chair goes past, we're going to push our way forward. And then we'll stop at the green line here. Now, take your back foot over the front. Look back. Here we go. You're good. Safety bar. That wasn't too bad. It was good. Yeah. First time on a chairlift. Yeah. Yeah, you know, the more you get into actually just riding and getting on some terrain that gets your board moving, you're going to learn faster and faster and faster. That's cool. Yeah, I feel almost more comfortable being strapped in and stopping on the heel edge and stuff than I do being one foot and, like, using my toe and my heel and stuff. I find my foot slips a lot on the top deck. Yep. Yeah, a bit tricky. What a lot of people do for that is they put a little what they call a stomp pad. Okay. Which is like a foam pad on the back of the board. So, like, a bit like a tail pad on a surfboard. And it gives you a little bit of grip for getting to and off chairlifts. Yeah. But, again, it's something you only really need when you're first learning to snowboard because once you get up and you get into the rhythm of it, you're going to be strapped in with both feet all the time. Sounds good. Yeah, I feel pretty happy with how I'm picking it up. Oh, yeah. As I said, on my toe edge, I felt a bit definitely out of control just going that fast and being blind as to where I'm going. I was a bit like, whoa, this is weird. So, we're getting to the top of the chairlift here. Yep. And it's very similar to how you get on the chair. Okay. You're going to put your board straight. So, you're going to twist your body a little bit. We're going to lift up the safety bar. You're going to put your back foot on the board. On the board. And then we're going to glide. Do you lift your board up slightly? What's that, sorry? Do you lift your board up to bring your foot to it? You can a little bit. No, just as long as your board is straight. Yeah. That's a key thing. And then we're going to stand up and we're going to push away from the chair gently once we get to the snow. Yeah. So, to give you an example, put the board straight. The board's going to touch the snow. We're going to stand up. Oh, so touch the snow. Okay, got it. Push ourselves up and then push away from the chair. Okay. Cool. Foot's on the board and we're just gliding straight. Gliding straight. Yeah. Fingers crossed. It'll be a little bit downhill, but you won't need a break. It should just naturally bring us to a stop. Or turn uphill, I guess. Yeah. Cool. All right, so you can lift the bar up. Turn the board straight. Once the board's on the snow, you can stand yourself up on the board. And then you can push away from the chair. There we go. Good. How's that? A bit rocky. The chair stayed behind me a bit longer than I thought it would. Yeah. Naturally bring us to a stop. So I was like, oh yeah. But yeah. Yeah, so for the next run, once you stand up, actively push yourself away from the chair to get it away. Got you. But that was great. Cool. First time. Survived. Stomped. Okay, we're going to strap in both our feet. Yeah. We're going to just heel edge a little bit down here to the sun. Yeah. Then I'm going to teach you how to ride on the toe edge and how to turn. Sounds good. So, dig the board in a little bit. You see how your board is not quite flat? It might run towards me. Yeah, that's better. There we go. When it feels digged in, then you can get your heel edge. Get your back foot in. Cool. Feeling good? Yeah, a bit tired on the legs, but good. Don't worry. I'm going to get you to the sunny section. I'm going to teach you how to ride both edges. Then your legs will feel less tired as soon as we start doing that. Cool. Okay, you ready? Yeah. Okay, a little jump towards me. Riding straight. Shuffling the board to get moving. Once it gets a bit of speed up, you can bring it to the heel edge. Good. Now, point towards me. All right. Bring yourself to a stop. Okay. So, put your knees down in the snow. It's always nicer just to hang out in the sun. Yeah. Feels good. Definitely warmer. That was some excellent falling leaf. Falling leaf is basically, you know how side slipping is just sliding straight? Adding a little bit of edge can be called traversing. Yeah. If you start kind of swinging your way down the mountain like that, they call that falling leaf. Cool. Now, this is a very express lesson in the fact that Tim has done surfing, done skateboarding. He's quick to learn this stuff. If any of you guys are watching this and it's your... Hi. Thank you. If any of you guys are watching this video and you're snowboarding yourself for the first time, we have a series that will take you through all the individual steps and some people will learn quicker than others. So, don't be turned off or afraid if it takes you longer to get this stuff. Now, from this spot here, we're on the toe edge. We are going to ride from this side of the run all the way to the other side of the run on the toe edge. Instead of just side slipping straight down, we're going to angle it because it's going to give you a little bit more speed. So, from here, you can do exactly what I do. Push yourself up. Ride that direction. A little bit of pressure on that foot and pointing towards those trees. Cool. Okay? Hopefully, you won't end up in the trees. No, you won't. You won't. Okay, you ready? Yeah. Pointing this way. We're going to go switch on our toe edge. Yep. That's it. Oh, my foot doesn't want to... If you ever want to pick up more speed, point it towards me. The board. There we go. Would you put more weight on your front foot or... So, if you put more weight onto your downhill foot and it will start to pick up more speed, you're probably wondering why your board is slower than mine. Yeah, because yours is camber. I waxed my board last night. So, I actually tuned up my board last night because I knew we were going to be filming. This is a brand new board. It probably needs a wax cut. Cool. I didn't know if it had factory wax or something. Good question. Boards do come with a factory wax on, but the factory wax usually isn't that good. So, it's better to get it proper hot waxed. Proper tune up, yeah. Why you want to have wax on your board is not necessarily to go fast. It's just to reduce the amount of friction between your board and the snow. It just helps you get moving better. Because that was the little trouble you're having there is just getting moving, right? That's interesting that it helps reduce friction, whereas on a surfboard, you wax your board up to create friction. Correct. Surfboards get it for grip. Yeah. So, just jump over here a little bit. Right now, you're on your knees like this. If you ever need to get back onto your bum to be on your heel edge, this is the easiest way to do it. Point one of your feet down the hill. So, see how one of my board now is facing down the hill? And then from that, you can put a shoulder down and roll over. There you go. Now, pointing the board down the hill just makes it that much easier to roll over. Yeah. Okay? Now, we're in a position where you can stand up. Yeah. The reason I wanted you to do that is I wanted just to check that your boots are still tight. This is the first day you've rode those boots. Yeah. You said you were feeling like you weren't getting as much pressure on the toe edge. Yeah. So, just see if you can get under your boot there. You may have to undo the heel strap. I can probably get into it. And see if you can dial up that bowler. You might even be able to do it right through the... There we go. Is there any movement to tighten it? Yeah. Okay, yeah. So, crank that up until... You don't want to be uncomfortably tight, but you want to be nice and snug. I'd say that's probably... There you go. That's better. Good. This is really going to help. Yeah, I felt like I was having to really just get the board to move. And then the other thing that also can help with that is what's called the forward lean. You have an adjustment called forward lean. And forward lean is going to angle your high backs. So, if you have no forward lean, your binding is going to be very straight up and down. If you have a lot, your forward lean is going to angle into the back of your boot more. Now, I've talked about this in several other videos because forward lean is actually quite uncomfortable. But it's really good for your riding. So, if you are not aware of forward lean, check out our improve your riding video. It's got some different tips as to how forward lean helps you. How you adjust it on these bindings is you have a little plus and a minus. If you wind it towards the minus, you're slowly going to get less and less forward lean. If you run it towards the plus, you're going to get more and more forward lean. It's going to angle that binding more. Do you remember how that's done? Yeah, the little adjustment on the back of the high back, you turn it two fold half times and that's one number up. And how many, do you know what the forward lean is on these bindings? I put it on to two, so two full rotations up from what it came as neutral, I guess. Okay. So, as you're learning, and on all your snowboarding, I think forward lean is a really big factor that helps people's body position. You could probably put that up to a three and see how that feels. And see if it changes comfort-wise. I mean, it is your first day snowboarding, so you might not even notice the difference. So, tightening up the boots, getting a more direct feel here between the body movements you make right into your board. Cool. Okay, I'm throwing you in the deep end. We're going straight into turning. Okay. There's no point in holding you back. Okay, you're good at your forward lean from the heel edge. You've done a little bit of riding on the toe edge. This is what we're going to do. We're standing up on a heel edge. We're riding in that direction. Yeah. Picking up a little bit of speed. And as you feel comfortable, you're going to get the board until it's facing downhill. And once it's facing downhill, then you're going to bring it around onto the toe edge. Okay. Okay? So, you're going across on the heel edge, getting the board to where it's facing downhill, and then transitioning onto the toe edge. So, up, we're going to ride, open my body that way. Yep. And then how quick is the arc back around that way to get onto your toe edge? As quick as you want to make it. Yeah. Um, right now, just... Mellow. See how it feels. Yeah. I'm going to do one. Watch me, and then try to copy what I did. Okay. Does that make sense? Yeah. Okay. Um, I'll do one, and then Vince will film you one. Cool. Sounds good. So, you can wait until after I've done this one. So, pushing up, getting a bit of speed up, moving this direction. Yeah. Once I'm feeling good, I'm going to get the board to where it's downhill. And then I'm going to go onto the toe edge, across the side of the run. Nicely done. Okay. Stop here. Knees down. We're going to roll over. Yeah. This time, we're going to do the exact same thing, a toe edge turn. Yeah. But then we're going to do a heel edge turn straight afterwards. Okay. Okay? Point the board downhill. Shoulder down, roll over. Little trick of pointing the... I've watched, like, my buddy Rich today. He learned that movement. Yeah. And that little point about pointing the board he doesn't do. And I can see, just my motion of doing it, it's way easier. It's so much easier. Than having it... I was watching it like this. Yeah. That. Yeah. It just makes a massive difference. Yeah, it does. Strap in on your heel edge, and extend one knee and bend the other. Put your hand underneath your bent knee, and pull yourself over onto your toe edge. It's a lot easier to keep your edges high from the toe side, and it's a lot easier to stand up. But make sure to practice both sides, because you don't want to be rolling around in the snow all day. Here we go. We're going up on the heel edge. We're traversing a little bit to get speed, to get comfy. Yeah. When you're feeling good, bring the board straight downhill into the toe edge. Yeah. Then you'll be riding across on the toe, and when you feel good, into the next heel edge. Cool. Okay, you ready? Yeah. I'll go first. Watch me. Yeah. I am you. You are me. All right. Got this. Rip it up. Okay, pushing up. Heel edge, getting a little bit of speed up. When I'm feeling good, I'm going to bring the board downhill, transition onto my toe edge. And now I'm riding across on the toe edge. When I feel good, I'm going to bring the board downhill, transition onto my heel edge. Makes it look so easy. Downwind. That's okay. Too sharp. Okay, slide down to me. Okay, sit down. So the reason your edge caught you on those two turns was just the timing of when to get the edge engaged. I'm going to ride with you this time, and I'll tell you when to engage that edge. Okay. So it doesn't happen again. Yeah. You feeling good? Yeah. A little just shaky on the toe edge, definitely, compared to my heel edge, but... We're going to get you ripping. Yeah. Okay, you ready to roll? Yeah. Okay, stand on up. Start a little bit in the heel edge direction. When you're feeling good, try to bring the board all the way to straight. Straight downhill. And now... That toe edge was just a little bit early. Just had to be one second later on it. But now that you're on the toe edge, push up from there. Ride across the run on the toe edge. Push your hips and knees forward. There we go. Okay, and now when you're ready, we're going to transition. Nicely done. That was a good heel edge turn. Now towards me. And when you're ready, we're going to transition to flat and then into the toe edge. Nicely done. There we go. You're snowboarding, buddy, across the run a little bit. That toe edge turn? Yeah. Toe edge was a little bit early there. That's why it dug in. Yeah. Got you. You okay? Yeah, I felt good. It's just getting used to... Not used to having speed in the sports that I do like this. So it's kind of getting used to it. You are going to be ripping so quick here. All right. You can stand up from where you are and do the first turn. Towards me. Slow down. I'll point the board downhill. There we go. Now toe edge turn. There we go. Good. Slow yourself down. What? Too much. So if you watch me right here. Yeah. If I start to get on the toe edge before the board is facing downhill. Yeah. It's going to grip in. See that? Yeah, and that's what I'm doing. That's what's happening when you catch that toe edge. So you've got to get that board to downhill and then turn onto the toe edge. Okay, so kind of shuffle towards me. Okay, a little bit of speed up. Heel edge. Slow yourself down. Turn the board to straight. Toe edge. Same again. I can feel it. I was like, yeah, I'm going straight turn, and then I didn't do it. Just wasn't quite straight, but it was so close. You're nearly there. It's because I'm a skateboard. You just kind of lean your whole weight, so. Yep. Okay, you're ready for a heel edge turn. There we go. Slow yourself down. Okay, bring the board downhill. Now toe edge turn. Nicely done. Good timing. Now heel edge turn. Now keep the board straight and keep the speed over this flat section. That's it. Nicely done. Good. Thanks, man. That was excellent. Did some turns. First day. Yeah, I'm going to take the back foot out. Yeah, I could feel with the whole, with my toe edge. Yep. Definitely, like, just get that straight. It's just, it was kind of a mental thing of not wanting to go too fast. Let me, let me show you something. Take both feet up. Board upside down so it doesn't run away. And I'm going to draw you a little diagram in the snow right here. Well, I think I might have over tightened this boot. My foot's a little numb. So, let's just imagine this is the slope that you're snowboarding, right? Yep. And actually, come and stand on the slope with me. So here we are, making our first beginner turns. I'm regular, so I'm going to stand regular. You can stand with me like we're on the heel edge, facing downhill, right? You start off, you're riding in this direction. Yeah. The board starts to get straight. And after it's straight, that's when you can transition onto the toe edge. If you try to get on the toe edge too quickly when you're going slow, it digs in. Yeah. Does that make sense? Yeah, that's exactly what I was doing. That's what was happening. Yeah. Now, same thing on the heel edge. So, do this with me. Okay, go this way a little bit, kind of shuffle. Now, get the board straight. And now, create that toe edge and go around on that toe edge. Okay? Now, we're riding on the toe edge. Get the board straight, downhill. And now, create that heel edge turn. So, it's kind of, you bend into it. Yep. And you're riding across. Correct. You straighten out, and then you bend. Correct. It's kind of similar to, well, like pumping on a wave, the way you put it down and then kind of look up. Now, that's for your first beginner turns. It changes as you get more advanced. It changes drastically. As you get more advanced, you get on the edge earlier and earlier and earlier. And you can really edge quicker, but you're riding with a lot more speed and momentum. Got you. So, right now, when you're first doing these turns, you don't want to edge too early. Okay. But as you get better, you will edge earlier, earlier, earlier. Yeah. But not yet. Cool? Yeah, perfect. Cool. Thanks, man. Now, I don't want to wear you out too much. I know it's your first day. Yeah. You want to squeeze another lap in? Yeah, I reckon we could. Yeah. Why not? Let's squeeze another. Your leg's good? Yeah, it's just my one foot's a bit sore from the boot, and it's a bit tight. You want to loosen up a bit? No, I think it's just more the muscles of the ankle getting used to it. Okay. Take your boot off. Like, take your boot gaiter thing off. Undo both of the bows. Pull the tongue. Yep. Pull the tongue. Take your boot out. And honestly, let's shake your ankle around for, like, a couple of minutes. This is the first day you've snowboarded in these boots. It's going to be a weird feeling. Just the... Take your whole boot off. Yep. I mean, don't put your sock in the snow. Yeah. But... Let's hope I can balance. You can grab me if you need to. Whoa. Hold on to me and just, you know, shake your foot around. Just feel it. It's the muscle in here. Yep. In the arc. It's just, whew. It's your first day snowboarding. A bit of a cramped day in the boots. That's what it is. This is... There's going to be new muscles using here, new sensations, new muscles firing. Oh, freedom. This feels good. Yeah, you need to sometimes do what feels normal. Let your feet breathe, people. Absolutely. Like, sometimes if you're going for lunch, you know, loosen up your boots and take your feet out if you need to. Yeah. Do what needs to be done. Don't just hang on to pain. Yeah. Yeah, it's just coming down and putting more pressure on them and having tightened them and it just got a little bit more snug. Slip your foot in. Don't do it up yet. Just slip it in. And now just walk around a little bit with it open like that. Just to, just to free it up. Yeah, it's that muscle in the arc. Just new muscles. Yep. You're snowboarding. I'm doing it, kids. You're snowboarding. Heel edge turns, toe edge turns. You're going to be twice as good on this next run. Yeah. Hopefully. This next run will take us half the time that run took. Sweet. I can see how people get down from the top of the mountain to the bottom very quickly. We've run out of time because the mountain lifts are going to be closing here. But that was excellent. You are crushing it. Couldn't have done it without you. You would have done it without me. Probably a lot slower. Yeah, you know, I'm just, I'm just getting at your level and moving on. Yeah. And that's what you do with different people. I'm happy to be up here and I'm glad that you could be part of our lessons. Yeah. And you're not going to break your wrist if you can fall like that. Nicely done. Nice recovery. I want you to push your shins into the front of your boots. That's how you're creating edge. Okay. That's it. That's a quick turn. Look how quick your board comes around. Yeah, I felt too aggressive. You can relax that turn.