How To Save a Beginner Snowboarder from Quitting

Yo what's up everyone, Kevin here. In this video I just want to share with you guys how you can save the day of a beginner snowboarder who's struggling and having a hard time. I was out snowboarding in Lake Louise in Banff, Alberta, Canada riding along and we saw a girl who was walking with her snowboard off. So we knew that either something was wrong or she was just struggling. So we pulled over, talked to her, she was completely fine but just having a hard time with those beginner stages. So we got her board back on her feet, strapped it up, made sure that her gear was working fine, and then started giving her a hand to get up and just get moving again. Get her back into those beginner stages and hopefully put a positive spin on the rest of her day. Most importantly though, just get her down the mountain safely and comfortably. As I get going here I'm talking to her, I'm asking her just you know how her legs are feeling. As she was saying that she was feeling good and offering my hand if she needed to turn around or do some toe sliding. And at this point she was sliding comfortably on her heels but I was worried that her heels would get tired, like her legs would get tired from doing too much heels. So she did grab my hand and then we turned around onto her toes and the way that I saw her turn, I could see that she was regular or left foot first. Once she got onto her toes again she was just sliding in control. I think the only advice I gave her here was to be careful of her heel edge, keep it up out of the snow by bending her knees forward and also to just look in the direction that she wanted to go. And she was doing this amazingly, just sliding on her toes in control looking back and forth in the direction that she wanted to go. But I wasn't trying to give her too much information or too many instructions, just trying to make her feel comfortable. At this point I was again worried that her legs were going to get too tired just doing toes the whole time. So I encouraged her just to hold my hand and to turn onto her heels once she was comfortable. And this time when she was back on her heels she was actually just cruising along on her own. So it was really encouraging to see that she still had lots of energy in her legs to keep going. She was really in control on the heels so I was really stoked for her. I was just kind of encouraging her to go back and forth, just learning to traverse a little bit back and forth on her heels. But her body position was amazing. At this point I was a little bit worried again that her legs would get tired on the heels. So I was just saying if you want to go back onto your toes you can grab my hand and I'll help you do that. Turn again onto her toes. I'm not trying to give her too much information, just making sure that she's having a good time. Here she told me that she wanted to go back onto her toes because her legs were getting tired. So I held her hand to make that turn as easy as possible and so that she wouldn't fall. This time on her toes she's definitely feeling a lot more comfortable. She's looking in the direction she wants to go. She's only holding one of my hands so that's a really good sign. One thing I like to do with beginners learning on their toes is to just alternate holding one hand and then holding a different hand to look in the other direction. So going back and forth on the toes. I told her though once your toes are too tired we can switch back around to your heels. So I helped her turn back onto the heels and she was again just like cruising down the mountain which was really good to see. This time it just seemed like she had even more confidence and I think a big thing with snowboarding is mileage and with this run, even though it's probably too big for her to do on her own, having somebody help her just gave her a ton of mileage as a beginner. So she was cruising on her heels. She said her legs were getting tired again so grabbed my hand went back onto the toes and I'm really just trying to help her avoid any falls at this point. I just want her to get down the hill having a good time enjoying it and not loading her up with too much information. She already has those foundations. It's just about being able to cruise comfortably and because in snowboarding you typically don't use these muscles your legs are going to get tired naturally. So I'm just watching her making sure she's doing okay. She's sliding super comfortably and in control on her heels. There's not too many people around which is nice and then at this point she's telling me that her legs are getting again tired so she grabs my hand and goes around onto the toes to give herself a break and then slide a bit on her toes and then this time she's actually sliding on her toes by herself which is incredible. Just sliding along feeling comfortable. I can see that she's not you know scared or she's not overly tired. She's comfortably cruising but just in case I offered my hand again so that she's not she doesn't have too much pressure to continue sliding on her toes. I help her turn onto her heels again and again once she gets under onto her heels she's just really comfortable cruising along. So I think all the mileage is really helping her to just get to that next step. At this point the run is getting a little bit flat so I'm worried that it's getting too flat and she might catch an edge so I just let her know like hey it's pretty flat here. Hold my hand as much as you need to and we'll just do some turns together and just to get her down the hill as comfortably and as safely as possible and then at this point she says like you know thank you so much I got it and we were pretty close to the bottom so I felt good like leaving her at this point and she's cruising on her heels. So stoked that we stopped and this girl did an amazing job riding out the rest of the run. If you guys have any questions about teaching beginners let me know down in the comments. I'll also put a link here to the beginner snowboard playlist where there are tons of videos to help you in those beginner stages. Thank you for watching, have fun with your snowboarding and I'll catch you in the next video.