Teaching First-Time Snowboarding

Hi, my name is Donny Truong. What’s your name? Have you snowboard before? Are you ready to snowboard?

Before we get started, let’s talk about safety first. You have your helmet on, good. Make sure it is buckled up. Make sure you have your gloves so that you won’t cut your fingers on ice or the edge of your board. Check your bindings to make sure they are not loose.

Do you know how to strap in bindings? Let me run through the mechanics quickly. This is the high back. This is the heel strap. This is the toe strap. Put your foot inside your binding, make sure your heel goes all the way back to the high back. Tighten up your heel strap first then your toe strap. Make sure the toe strap wraps around the toe box tightly. This is how you release your toe strap and this is how you release your heel strap.

Let’s put your board down. Make sure you place your board upside down so it doesn’t run away from you.

Falling is part of learning. Let’s make sure that when you fall, fall safely. If you fall forward, get on your knees. If you fall hard, put your arms in front of your chest to protect your body and face. If you fall backward, sit down.

To prevent falling, you need to have a strong, athletic stance. Bend your knees, keep your upper body straight, and look at the direction that you want to go.

Bend your knees forward and press your shins against your boots to put you on your toe edge. Push the back of your leg behind your high back to put you on your heel edge. If you want to go to the right, put pressure on your right foot. If you want to go to the left, put pressure on your left foot. Let’s strap both feet in and practice your stance and edges.

Catching the edge is when the edge of your snowboard digs into the snow and sends face planted or on your back. To prevent catching an edge, you need to create a torsional twist. Use your feet to bend your board. Press down your front foot, then the back foot on your toe turns. Pull up your front foot and back foot on your heel turns. Getting into the rhythm of 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4.

Let’s unstrap one of your feet. Leave in the one that you feel more comfortable. Skating is a way to get around. It is crucial to getting on and off the lift safely. To skate, you must lead with your front foot in the direction that you want to go. Put your back foot behind your board and make small glides. Make sure to keep your back foot close to your front foot. If you spread your legs too far apart, the board will slide away and you’ll do an uncomfortable split. You don’t want to do that. Let’s take some small steps slowly around the circle. Remember, lead with your front foot and look in the direction you want to go.

Now let’s learn how to skate forward so we can get on the magic carpet. To skate straight, lead with your front foot, push gently with your back foot to give yourself some speed, place your back foot next to your back bind, keep your knees bent, and look in the direction you want to travel. If you need to slow down, drag half of your back foot in the snow. If you want to stop, press your heel further into the snow, but do not take your back foot off your board until you come to a complete stop. Let’s practice skating and stopping until you can get on the board with confidence.

Now that you are ready, let’s skate to the magic carpet. Just like what we just did, skate slowly up to the magic carpet. Before you get on the belt, lift up your front foot to point the nose of your board to the center of the belt. Let the belt take your board then hop your back foot and place it next to your back binding. Do not hold on to the railings.

At the top of the carpet, keep your back foot on your board until you come to a complete stop. Once you come to a stop, skate out of the carpet area. Wait for me at the top around the snow gun, but not too close to it. Give some space for others to get off the belt.

Let’s all sit down. Now that we are on the hill, we need to learn how to stop. On your toe edge, dig your edge into the snow and look up the mountain. Releasing the edge will slide you down. Digging in your toe edge again to stop. Keep your knees bent in the athletic stand. Let’s give that a try.

To stand up on your toe edge, flip your board over, close your fingers into a fist, and push your arms to stand up. Keep your toe edge, dig into the snow, and release it slowly. Take your time. If your legs feel tired, get down on your knees.

Now that you can stop on your toe edge, let’s work on your heel edge. This time, dig your heel into the snow like you are sitting on the chair, look toward the direction you are going, release your heel edge to let the board glide down. Dig your heel edge again if you want to stop. Let’s give that a try.

To get up from your heel edge, close your fingers into a fist, place your arms behind your board, and push yourself up. Let’s try this and meet me at the front of the magic carpet. We’ll go back up one more time.

Now that you can stop on your toe and heel edge, let’s go from side to side. Remember when we did our home-base stand, bend your knees, put a bit of pressure on the knee in the direction you want to go, point your arm, and look in that direction. If you need to slow down, dig in your edge.

If you want to go in the other direction, shift your weight, point your arm, and look to the traveling direction. Try to stay in the center to avoid going off the trail. Let’s take our time going side to side and meet me at the bottom, behind the lift.

Let’s go over the steps to get on and off the lift safely. Skate carefully up to the lift. Wait in line for your turn. Keep your front foot up with the board pointing forward, not sideways.

After you are safely loaded onto the lift, pull down the safety bar. Once you get to the top, make sure your board is pointing straight with your strap-in foot leading, place your arm on the chair, stand up, and let the lift push you out. Place your back foot next to your back binding and skate straight down the lift. Don’t try to turn. You can slow down by dragging half of your back foot in the snow. Once you get off the lift safely, let’s meet up at the back where you can find a flat area.

Now that you have successfully ridden the lift, let’s work on your turns. Snowboarding is all about turning. We will begin with the J turns [drawing the J shape on the snow]. First, let your board go straight down for a few seconds, put pressure on your front foot in the direction you want to travel. Get into your heel or toe position depending on where you want to turn. Again, keep your knees bent and look up. Let’s do the J turns and regroup at the bottom near the lift.

Let’s take the lift up. This time, we will connect the turns together into an S shape [draw the S shape into the snow]. Instead of letting your board go straight down to a J shape, let’s start turning early into a curve. At the end of the curve,, turn the opposite direction into an S shape. Let me give you a demo. Again, keep your knees bent, look into the direction you are traveling, put pressure on your front foot to initiate your turn.

Our time is up. Thank you for riding with us. If you are sticking around, keep practicing your stops, J turns, and S turns on these green terrains. Do you have any questions? Again, my name is Donny Truong. I will be here all day. Feel free to stop me if you have any questions. If you would like to take your snowboarding to the next level, come back for another lesson. Thanks once again and enjoy the rest of your day.