How to Carry Your Snowboard

Carrying your snowboard might seem like a simple thing, but in reality, transportation around the slopes is not as simple as just picking it up and carrying it! You need to watch out for other people or objects as you walk, and you need to be careful to not drop your snowboard! If you do, you may end up chasing your own board down the slope, which is not much fun at all.

Side story: Mo and I were snowboarding at Banff last season and we decided to spend a day doing a back country run called Delirium Dive which requires a beacon and a shovel. We get to the top and instead of going around the tip of the mountain, we take a narrow path that leads to what is essentially a platform overlooking the entire mountain. The platform is barely big enough to fit 2 people, let alone 2 guys in gear and snowboards. Long story short, I make my way down on the platform and Mo hands me my board. I jab into the side of the mountain as firm as I can. I grab Mo’s board to do the same thing but the damn thing slips from my hands. His brand new Burton Vapor goes flying down the mountain, goes off a ramp-like cliff, gets something like 3-4 meters of air and disappears in fluffy powder. Guess who spends the next 2.5 hours looking for it? I must have burnt an easy 1500 calories and I was sweating like a pig doing suicide runs in the Sahara Desert! Moral of the story: make sure you know how to carry a snowboard!

Here are some different ways in which you can safely carry your snowboard around the slopes.

One of the most popular ways to carry your snowboard is to simply carry it like you would carry a book. Put it under your arm, and hold it up with your hand by placing it in the middle of the board. This will balance the board, and will also cause it to face the same direction you are facing.

Another popular method for carrying your snowboard is to put it behind your back horizontally, and then tuck it under both arms and hold it from the bottom. This is less tiring because you are using two arms, but you may not want to walk uphill like this, as the weight can pull you backwards!

Some people simply use their safety leash to drag their board around. This is very easy and convenient when traveling longer distances, though it is not such a good idea in more crowded places. People can trip over your snowboard if you drag it like this on a crowded part of the slope, so be courteous and wait to drag it until you are away from the crowd!

You can also leave your board if you just need to travel a short distance and then return quickly, but you might want to use a snowboard lock for this. A lot of snowboarding resorts will provide locks for you to use, or you can bring your own. This will keep it from getting stolen while you are gone.

How you carry your snowboard is really a matter of preference… just make sure that you don’t hit anybody, and make sure that it doesn’t slide away, and you should be good to go!

Related posts:

1. How to Snowboard 101: Moving Up a Slope
2. How to Snowboard 101: Switching Edges
3. How to Snowboard 101: Toeside Traversing
4. How to Snowboard 101: Heelside Sideslipping
5. How to Snowboard 101: Toeside Sideslipping