Understanding Snow Reports

You might feel like you opted for the wrong major in college when trying to read your local snow report. It’s the only thing standing between us and the lifts and we’re always waiting for that “new snowfall”. It’s important to keep in mind that there’s a language to this and that it’s important to understand exactly what fell. Resorts aim solely to sell more tickets and have invented terms like “packed powder” to get you on the slopes. Below is a summary of the basic terms and conditions to help you get through the BS when looking at your local snow report.

Type: Powder
AKA: Pow, blower, chowder, balls deep, piddly pow pow
Official Line: Cold, new, loose, fluffy snow that hasn’t compacted
True Meaning: The reason most of us get out of bed in the morning or find living in a van for a whole winter to be perfectly acceptable.

Type: Packed Powder
AKA: Tracked out, schralped, previously pow
Official Line: New snow that’s been packed down
True Meaning: Seems like an oxymoron, no? Usually means it hasn’t snowed in a while.

Type: Hard Packed
AKA: Gnar, groomers
Official Line: When natural or machine-made snow becomes firmly packed.
True Meaning: Hard and fast but can still edge into it.

Type: Frozen Granular
AKA: Golf balls, death cookies
Official Line: Hard surface of old snow formed by granules freezing together after rain or warm temperatures.
True Meaning: Snowboarding on ball bearings sometimes accompanied by shin whacks.

Type: Corn
AKA: Slush, mash potatoes, peanut butter
Official Line: Large semi-loose granules, which freeze during the night then loosen during the day.
True Meaning: Slushy and possibly choppy. Classic spring ripping.

Type: Variable Conditions
AKA: Anything and everything
Official Line: No primary surface condition can be determined. A wide range of various surfaces can be encountered.
True Meaning: A blanket term for resorts to cover their ass. Could mean lots of rocks, bare patches, and/or sheer ice.

Type: Icy
AKA: Boiler plate, cement
Official Line: Hard-glazed surface, ice spots
True Meaning: Consider staying home unless you grew up riding the ice coast or enjoy donning a spandex one-piece.

Don’t fall for it folks!

Snowboarding Stance 101

You might find yourself “asking what makes them better riders than me?” A lot of factors affect your snowboarding abilities and skill level. One that is commonly overlooked is your stance. Stance can make a world of a difference to your riding, and making sure that you’re properly setup for YOUR style of riding will make your life much easier. For those wondering, stance is the angle at which your bindings are set to.

What To Do
1. Figure out whether you are a regular (left foot forward) or goofy (right foot forward) rider. My favorite method (also the funnest one) is to run across a smooth floor with socks on and try stopping yourself. The foot that creeps its way in front of the other will be the foot you place at the tip of your board.

2. Angle the front binding outwards a bit and set the back one at zero.

3. After you’re no longer falling on your ass every few meters, start testing out different stances. Two things to focus on are stance width and angle.

Stance Width
Stance width affects your ease of turning and board control as you go down a hill. Riding too narrow or to wide will just make you uncomfortable and you’ll feel the pain in the side of your legs (one too many friends have complained about it, so I feel I must point this out). A good starting point is roughly an inch wider than your shoulder width and then feel free to adjust if you need. Theoretically, go wider for more stability.

Stance Angle
There are two main variances in stance direction that are used:

• Forward stance – this is where the front food is angled forward and the back is just slightly angled forward or not at all (this is most popular with free riding where the board is primarily facing one direction).
• Duck-footed – this is where your front food points outwards towards your tip (similar to forward stance) AND your back foot points out towards the tail of the board, thus forming a crude V (this is most popular with freestyle riders).

Tip – Center yourself on the board, put your feet where they feel the most comfortable and squat and stand up like you would if you were turning down the mountain (at this point your bindings should not be mounted on your board). This will give you a good idea of what is a good width and angle for you, but feel free to change it up as your riding gets better.

5 Great Reasons to Take Snowboard Lessons

A guest post by Dave, a rider, snowboarding instructor, and author of SnowboredInstructors.com all the way from Australia.

I know you’re probably thinking “Why do I need to take lessons, I can teach myself how to snowboard”. Most people know a guy who taught himself, hell, most people teach themselves.

I teach people how to snowboard, and I see how much you can improve in a short space of time when you take lessons. I can think of a lot of reasons why you should take lessons, here are 5 great ones:

1. Build a solid foundation

Imagine your snowboarding skill like a building. At the moment your still doing the groundwork and figuring out how to install the cement foundations. You want to build a 90 floor skyscraper – why wouldn’t you – the skill for spinning 900’s lives on the 90th floor. Teaching yourself is like using the wrong mixture of cement. It looks ok, but if you put any weight on it, it’s gonna collapse. Sure, some people are naturally talented at mixing cement, they get the right mixture and they get a great foundation quicker than most. But only about 5% or less of people that learn to ride are like that, believe me. Think of taking snowboard lessons as giving yourself the tools, skills and knowledge to create a foundation worthy of the Willis Tower. You don’t want to demolish a 20 story building due to sloppy foundations, building a new one takes a lot longer.

2. Learn quicker

Having a solid foundation makes it 10 times easier to build things on top. You can add a new movement, new trick or just build some confidence. These will help you reach your potential faster.

3. Have more fun

The saying “the better you get, the better it gets” is massively true when it comes to snowboarding. Have you seen “IsenSeven – Lets Go Get Lost” yet? Well, if you haven’t, go and buy it and watch it right now, see how much fun they have whilst snowboarding.

4. Impress your friends

Whilst your friends are crawling around, trying to build foundations out of sand, you go away, learn how to make concrete and come back with a 10 storey palace, complete with swimming pool and hot girls (or guys) lounging next to it. If your friends aren’t impressed, go and find some new ones.

5. Look cool

It goes without saying that the most important reason to ride a snowboard is to look cool. Otherwise, what’s the point, right? Taking lessons will help you look a lot cooler than if you don’t.

“Shred the Knar”

So “get your knarly boots on”, get some lessons and start paving your way to becoming the next Shaun White, or Jenny Jones.

Toe and Heel Drag 101

Chanel Snowboard

The Culprit

A major issue many riders will face when hitting the slopes is toe or heel drag. The problem arises when the size of your boot from toe to heel is larger than the width of your board at the waist. What ends up happening here is you have the front part of your boot hanging over the toe edge of the board and/or the back of the boot hanging over the heel edge of your board.

This is a snowboarder’s nightmare since you experience a sort of “draginess” feeling when you use either edge of your board to carve or stop. Instead of pulling nice and tight S-shaped turns down the slope, it takes a little more effort to put your board through the turn since the overhang from your toes or heel is preventing the board’s edges from making proper contact with the snow or ice. Stopping also becomes more difficult since you need to press harder with your toes or heel to make the most of the decreased board edge-snow contact.

One of my first boards was an ’05 Burton Raven 152. A short, stiff board with deep sidecuts that gave it a very narrow waist. I wear a size 9.5 boot, so right off the bat there was some serious toe AND heel overhang. I would never really come to know how much toe and heel drag limited by snowboarding experience until I purchased my first proper board that was a 156 and had a much wider waist. I did my research, seated the bindings properly onto the board, and strapped in with my booths, there was zero overhang. It makes such a huge difference on the snow. Turning became much smoother and seemingly effortless. Stopping on either edge was a breeze. For the first time, I was letting the board do most of the work than having to dig the edge into the snow with every muscle fiber in my body. The best part about having no drag was that I wiped out much less. With my old board, sometimes either edge wouldn’t catch the snow properly at higher speeds and I would end up having to bail or being tossed across the slope like a rag doll.

The Solution

Make a purchase decision on a new board while taking the size of your feet into consideration. A lot of companies are now offering their same boards in a “wide” version for people with larger feet. If you’re a first time buyer, make sure the person helping you out is aware of all these issues, so they can fit you with the best boots/bindings/board setup.

My recommendation would be to choose a board then pick your boots/bindings combination. Strap the boots into the bindings and place them on top of the board where they would sit if they were mounted. A lot of bindings will have a few options that lets you move them around a bit when mounting. Play with this a little and see if there is any way to mount the bindings without having the toes or heel from the boot hanging over the edges of the board. Now it’s important to keep in mind that it’s normal for the front part of your boots to hang slightly over the edge but no more than 0.5 to 1 inches. What you really want to avoid is having any exposed grip from your boot hanging over the edge. This all applies to your heel edge as well. If the overhang is just too much no matter how you position the bindings, then it might be time to consider a wider board or a wide version of that same one.

Unless the sizing of your board with respect to your boots/bindings is all wrong, then you really shouldn’t have any drag. Most people experience drag from not positioning their bindings properly. The most common thing you see is people pushing their bindings all the way forward and creating a lot of toe overhang. Educate yourself on your equipment and see what options you have when it comes to mounting. Seat the bindings properly on the board with the boots strapped in to visualize how to minimize or completely eliminate overhang.

Surf’s up bizatches!

Common Snowboarding Mistakes Video

I thought this was a good video to share with the readers about some common snowboarding mistakes. I’ll quickly summarize them here, but watch the video for a better feel of what these mistakes are:

• Leaning backwards off the front of your board when trying to make turns, when instead you should be leaning forward.
• Looking downwards at the board, which throws your balance off by having to hunch your back in the process.