First time snowboarding!!! Need some tips!

[XYR03]

Man I am getting pretty excited about this trip....thanks alot for the advice. I might have to add knee and butt pads to my list but it seems like everyone is saying pretty similar things. I'll keep you guys updated on how big of a shitty time I had.

[import36]

wassup Rich....you should have a blast man! i taught myself to snowboard without lessons...and here are a few things i learned the hard way:

1) Get a tailbone protector. I cannot stress enough how much time you are going to spend on your ass. My first time out was spent falling on my backside on frozen snow...ass hurt soo bad that night and the next day that i couldn't even enjoy the rest of the trip. Here's a link for the one that I actually used: http://www.xsportsprotective.com/azz...protector.html
While it looks like it may be big and cumbersome...you wouldn't even know I was wearing it underneath the snowboarding pants and jacket.
2) It's actually easier to maintain your balance and maneuver when your moving with a decent amount of speed. For an analogy, think of riding a bike at an extremely slow rate of speed, you have to keep moving the handlebars to stay in balance. When riding faster, you can pretty much keep the handlebars straight, making only small adjustments to stay balanced.<if that makes sense...lol>
3) I grew up skateboarding...and snowboarding felt completely different to me. Having both feet strapped down to the board may have something to do with this!
4) Be very careful when using your hands to brace yourself for falls. Its very easy to tweak your wrists when throwing your hands out front to brace a fall. Some recommended wrist guards...like the roller bladers use...not a bad idea at all.
5) Keep your knees bent...you can't ride stiff as a board. Someone mentioned doing squats or something to prepare your legs for the abuse....I thought I was the only one who did that!
6) Most importantly, aside from having fun, is to be aware of your surrounding at all times. You may have other snowboarders and skiers zooming by you at a high rate of speed...and a collision on the slopes could result in some serious injuries. If you fall...get tired...decide you need to take a minute to gather yourself...move off to the side so as not to become an obstacle for someone else.

Let me know how it goes bro!

[iBoost]

Cant wait to start taking lessons in january myself! Park City wasnt too fun las year since i wasnt able to snowboard. skii'd the shit out of myself that weekend though!

[XYR03]

Originally Posted by import36

wassup Rich....you should have a blast man! i taught myself to snowboard without lessons...and here are a few things i learned the hard way:

1) Get a tailbone protector. I cannot stress enough how much time you are going to spend on your ass. My first time out was spent falling on my backside on frozen snow...ass hurt soo bad that night and the next day that i couldn't even enjoy the rest of the trip. Here's a link for the one that I actually used: http://www.xsportsprotective.com/azz...protector.html
While it looks like it may be big and cumbersome...you wouldn't even know I was wearing it underneath the snowboarding pants and jacket.
2) It's actually easier to maintain your balance and maneuver when your moving with a decent amount of speed. For an analogy, think of riding a bike at an extremely slow rate of speed, you have to keep moving the handlebars to stay in balance. When riding faster, you can pretty much keep the handlebars straight, making only small adjustments to stay balanced.<if that makes sense...lol>
3) I grew up skateboarding...and snowboarding felt completely different to me. Having both feet strapped down to the board may have something to do with this!
4) Be very careful when using your hands to brace yourself for falls. Its very easy to tweak your wrists when throwing your hands out front to brace a fall. Some recommended wrist guards...like the roller bladers use...not a bad idea at all.
5) Keep your knees bent...you can't ride stiff as a board. Someone mentioned doing squats or something to prepare your legs for the abuse....I thought I was the only one who did that!
6) Most importantly, aside from having fun, is to be aware of your surrounding at all times. You may have other snowboarders and skiers zooming by you at a high rate of speed...and a collision on the slopes could result in some serious injuries. If you fall...get tired...decide you need to take a minute to gather yourself...move off to the side so as not to become an obstacle for someone else.

Let me know how it goes bro!

How do u know my name? Lol jp bro I'm def getting the tailbone pad...and memorizing all the tips from u and the menses so I
Should be good.

[XYR03]

Alright! I am back from snowboarding and still alive, well, and in one piece. I had a freaking blast!!! I went to Sugar Mountain NC on Xmas day, which was pretty awesome since it was snowing. The fresh snow made it really nice to fall on. As import36 have suggested, I bought an AZZpad before I went. All i could say was wow! if i didn't have that AZZpad i probably would have broken my tail bone.

I started the way at the bunny slopes learning the basics like how to put on the board and how to stand up. Standing up took me about 10mins to balance my self on the board. Due to the bunny slopes being over crowded I was sacred of running into little kids. So I decided to take the lift and head up the Easy Street which was the easiest and had my first getting of the lift crash course.

I have to say from my first experience that getting off the lift is hard as balls. They keep telling me to put my right foot on the little rubber piece and ride off the lift. My technique: try to balance, if fails...dive right into the snow and crawl yourself outta the way to put your board on. After getting up on the board and I found it really easy to stay balanced since the area is bigger and the snow is a little more loose to I had more control. I made it down the easiest slope falling every 6sec on my feet. After two runs down I decided to take on the next big slope, which was a bad idea.

I thought I could handle the next big slope but instead $****** in my pants looking at how deep the slope is as I was going up the lift. As I started going down the slope, I realized it was much faster and I havn't really mastered the skills to stop. So instead of going straight down, I boarded by way down sideways with one edge in the snow. I took awhile to get down but that was the only way I could think of. After that incident I went up again and gave it another shot. (haha I never learn ) This time I was boarding down at a pretty fast rate. I said rate since I was falling down every few feet that I traveled. My balance was great this time and picked up a ton of speed, then tried to stop...failed...knocked the Jesus outta me and pretty much tossed my self a few feet eating snow. After my infamous fall I was pretty hurt and scared so I took a break and went up easiest street for the rest of the day. lol but I would def go again. Thanks to everyone that gave me all the great advices.