Some Snowboarding Trick Fundamentals

By: John Huesing

I like the floating feeling you get on quarterpipes, it feels like youre hanging in the air and you can with no trouble grab anywhere on the board. One of the most fun tricks on a QP is the air to fakie.

Airs to fakies are also one of the easiest tricks. All you have to do is ride straight at the QP on your shred stick. I like this trick because of its simplicity. An air to fakie is basically the same thing as straight airing a jump, except the QP shoots you straight up in the air so you land in the same spot you took off. All you have to do is ride straight at the QP.

When approaching a QP, pick a straight line up the wall and stay totally flat-based while riding up the transition. If you get on edge, you may go flinging left or rightyou wont go as big. Always keep your knees bent.

When you reach the top of the lip, you dont need to pop much, keep your body solid and let the QP do all the work for you. Remember: Like hips and wallrides, start out small to feel out the transition, then you can send it. So, now youve left the lip, try to stay composed. Fly up in the air and grab the board. I like to grab frontside.

Youre floating and tweaked-out frontside now, look down at the coping to make sure youll land back in the transition. As long as the QP has vert on it, you should be fine. If so, then youre good to goif not, well, good luck, cause landing on the deck of a QP is sketchy. Anyway, as you come back down to land, you should land in about the same place you left the lipnice and high on the transition.

Ride back down the tranny switch and pump back up the hill as far as possible. Youll have less of a hike to hit the quarterpipe next time. Once you learn this trick, then you can move on to frontside and backside airs.

Boxes are a great feature to learn boardslides, front boards, and 270-outs on because they're super easy to shred. Boxes are nice and wide compared to a handrail, so you don't need to worry if you're not perfectly centered on the box. For a boardslide, hop on the box at a 90-degree angle and stay centered over the board, flat-based, until you reach the end of the boxit's too easy. So instead, I'm going to walk you through the boardslide to 270 out.

Approaching a box is pretty mellow; you don't need to hit it from a crazy angle or anything. Just stay calm and loose, and roll up on it. It is good to pop off your toes on the takeoff and land in more of a tailslide, instead of landing totally square in the middle of the boxit makes snapping the 270 out easier. Now that you're sliding, stay over the board so it doesn't spit out in front of you. Hold the position with your knees bent.

As you near the end of the box, begin to rotate your head and shoulders in the frontside direction. Spring an ollie off your back foot and initiate the frontside spinuse your shoulders to direct the rotation. The front 270 feels just like a frontside three, but it's easier to land. If you keep your eyes on the ground and bend your knees with the board pointed straight down the hill, you shouldn't have a problem with the landing.

Now that you have learned several common tricks, feel free to go out and try them. If you fail, remember, practice makes perfect and even more practise makes you even more perfect, or at least that is what I have been told. Go out their and try your best, and you are sure to get the results that you are after. Good Luck!


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