5 Ways To Tell You're An Advanced Snowboarder

Yo what's up everyone Kevin here. Today I'm out snowboarding in Snow Basin in Utah and in this video I've got five ways to tell if you're an advanced level snowboarder. I'll show you the five different ways but I'll also give you some tips so that if you're close on some of these you'll have some advice to take your riding to that next level and become an advanced rider. So one way to tell if you're an advanced snowboarder is whether or not you can do a heel traverse. Heel traverses are probably the most difficult thing for snowboarders and the key to getting a good heel traverse is holding your heel edge. So as I'm riding across on my heels I got my ankles flexed so my toes are lifting up. I think the most important thing on the heel traverse is sitting a little bit into a chair so that your weight is on that edge and allowing you to hold it all the way across. On long heel traverses your legs are going to start to burn. So traversing on your toes is definitely easier than traversing on your heels but it's still pretty difficult and it's a great skill to have because it gets you all around the mountain. A tip to help you traverse is to keep your knees towards the snow and that will help to keep your edge in and get you across. The next way to tell if you're an advanced snowboarder is whether or not you're able to do some steep terrain. So right here this is like black diamond ish terrain with some bumps and also a few trees and if you can comfortably turn from your heels to your toes and be consistent with it so really riding in a rhythm where you're equally as comfortable on your heels as you are on your toes then that's a good indicator that you're advanced. One thing that always helps me is really committing to the toe turn by pulling my back hand over top of my tail. If you ever struggle with that toe turn think back hand over tail is one key that really helps. If it gets really steep you may have to do just small hops in between your turns too. So I'm just doing a small hop kind of like gets me off one edge and lets me commit to the next edge. Every time I get on that new edge though I'm thinking about slowing myself down and getting back in control. So the next way to tell that you're an advanced snowboarder is that you're able to do some tight and quick turns through some variable terrain. So if you've got you know some tight trees you're able to just make some tight turns get in through those trees and control yourself. I find that the best way to make these type of tight turns is to have your knees bent but also keep the lower part of your body pretty agile and loose so that both knees are helping you to steer and you're also taking some of the weight off your tail so your tail can easily slide around through the turns. So being able to do these quick and just nimble turns is a sign that you're an advanced snowboarder. Oh mogul fest! Right here we have a mogul field and ideally as a snowboarder it's nice to avoid the moguls but if you do happen to run into some if you're an advanced snowboarder you're going to be able to handle you know the moguls that the mountain throws at you. I find the easiest way to get around the moguls is to find the best place to cut your speed which is down the face of the mogul. So every time I make a turn I'm trying to make a turn so that I'm cutting my speed down the face. Skiers like to go in between the moguls but I find that on a snowboard that's pretty difficult so by rolling over top of a mogul and sliding down the other side that's the best way to ride through and stay in control. If you need to you can always ride across a few moguls to give yourself some space but I think if you can ride through this mogul-y terrain with confidence and in control then you're definitely an advanced snowboarder. So carving is another skill that you should have as an advanced snowboarder. So reading the terrain, getting your board on edge, flexing your ankles, adapting to the pressure that gets put onto your snowboard and drawing that line in the snow. So when you're first working on your carves it's a good idea to just focus on one carve at a time. So doing one carve and then rocketing it into the next and carving on really mellow terrain to start will help you give that boost to get into carving. Another way to tell if you're advanced rider is if you can keep a good flow through your turns. So here we got a nice like natural gully and if you can keep your momentum and flow going up and over bumps and around turns that's a good way to know that you're an advanced rider especially through narrow stuff like this. When you're riding through like gully terrain like this one of the secrets that I find that helps you ride it better is for your toe turn drop your shoulder it helps to bring you back into the gully and complete the turn. So another skill you want to have as an advanced snowboarder is just feeling confident riding with some speed. So what makes you really comfortable riding with speed is reading the terrain ahead so knowing what's coming up so you can adapt your turns and your riding style but also being comfortable slowing yourself down because when you're riding with speed and feel out of control that's when you can get into trouble but if you have the confidence that you know that you can quickly twist your board and scrub some speed that gives you the confidence to ride with more speed. I hope this video will give you an idea of whether or not you're an advanced snowboarder and if you're close to advanced I hope some of these tips will help too. If you have any questions hit me up down below in the comments. Have fun with your snowboarding and I'll catch you in the next video.