Don't Make These 5 Intermediate Snowboarder Mistakes!

The 5 biggest intermediate snowboard mistakes I see out on the mountain. Are you making any of these? What did i miss? Throw it in the comments.

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[flisms]

Riding switch is a must imo. I have just recently gotten to the point where switch feels almost regular and sometimes I even forget I am in switch. I do a lot of back and forth between switch and regular while heading down runs.. Took me 10 years of practice on snowboard and freebord to get this far but it's worth it. Its my first recommendation to anyone looking to improve. I plan on spending the next 10 years making more progress. Snowboarding is overflowing with potential for progress. Most rewarding sport! And always helps to have these videos to keep your mind in the game when you aren't on the mountain. 👍✌

[juIceGoD]

the number 1 mistake I see is people not wearing helmets.

[thk]

Awesome tips Ed. Here's my two cents:

1. Ride switch 50% of the time. Powder, too. No excuses. That means getting on and off the chairlift switch half the time and it also means both carving and counter rotation turns in switch. Hell, I've even started doing everything in normal life ambidextrously. Seriously--even using the phone and wearing a watch on the other wrist.
2. Ollie off of everything you can, regular and switch.
3. No skipping steps. Proper progression from skill to skill, doing things switch before moving on to the next step. That means, for example, total mastery of the mini jump line and 50-50s on the dance floor regular and switch before moving to 5-footers and normal boxes. You'll wreck less and prevent injuries, too.
4. Forget buying the fancy outfit if it means you ride less. Ride more.
5. Humility. To learn switch properly I went to the bunny hill and did everything switch from the ground up. Everything: skating, one-footing, everything. I sucked hard. But I sucked it up. Kinda fun to totally suck again, actually.

Honorable mention: ride entire runs one-footed. Start with the bunny hill if you have to. Then--you guessed it--do it switch.

[cvictori]

Regarding the topics of helmets : I agree 100%. Family physician here, began snowboarding late in life at 40, now for 6 years. At the end of my first season, had had a great day on the slopes, no issues, 20 meters from the end of the piste, hit an area of shade, snow was ice and caught an edge. Slammed backward and head hit the ice, and heard a gunshot next to my ear. Didn’t lose consciousness but was dazed. Helmet cracked. Walked to the urgent clinic in the village with a friend got evaluated and was ok and monitored for a few hours. I’m sure it saved my life. I tell everyone I can to please, wear a helmet. Awesome channel and awesome advice, thank you!

[doctorstabz]

I’m teaching my friends how to snowboard but I had a hard time explaining it to them so I took it as an opportunity to learn with them so I rode switch the whole night. My first toe side turn broke my helmet when it hit the back of my head but other than that it was really easy to learn when you already knew the fundamentals

[SP-ixdu]

I just recently started learning how to snowboard. Yesterday would be my 3rd day. I do have a slight skateboarding background however without your videos I do not think I would have excelled so fast. I want to thank you for the hard work putting these videos out. I plan on copying and pasting this message to all the YouTube videos that helped me so don't be alarmed if you see this on multiple of your videos.

[hulka]

Your videos helped me out a ton. Although i know the Basic turning technique i wasn't aware that i actually had fallen into counterrotating my turns. Keeping my hands in my hips made all the difference to get back on track. Being significantly overweight for snowboarding the rotating mistake drained all my power basically after one slope. Now i'm back to enjoying snowboarding. Your videos are the most useful ones i have encountered so far.
Thanks

[nathanmagnusen]

I am an instructor.... I Just spent the best part of 2 days getting an intermediate rider to stop counter steering/rotating .. towards the end of day one, I gave the guy a kid's ski pole to hold with both hands. It was the only way I could get him to stop.... half way through day 2, he finally broke the habit. It really is a hard habit to break!

[danjohnson]

I feel like I've built bad riding habits because of my local midwest hill. The whole thing is pretty small and steep so I've had to do mostly skidding and lots of counter rotation just to make it down the narrow big runs. Once it evens out and widens I'm good for regular carving tho.

[pierre-lucgervais]

Another really good tip I can give is to film yourself or better ask a friend to film you. You'll see what your flaws are in your stance or your riding in general. Then try to think of ways you can improve it. Maybe it's going to be to be more mobile on the board, open your knees more, initiate movement with your lower body, etc.
The more advanced you become the more you need to be able to isolate parts of your body in your riding.
Make small moves, for big results.

[SadButter]

"Not riding with people who are better than they are"

Bold of you to assume I have friends to begin with.

[alex-pope]

I was a little less comfortable with heelside turns so I started forcing myself to always come to a stop on my heel edge. I feel like my balance is so much better now and my carves are way more symmetrical.

[NAF]

Here's what I'm stuck on. I tend to brake too much on my heel side before turning back to my toe edge. This is especially true on steeper pitches - for me that's usually steeper sections of blues runs. This is even more true if the run is bumpy. After I turn from my toe to my heel side, I feel like I'm throwing on the brakes and sliding down the pitch before I feel comfortable making another turn. Even if it's not bumpy and I don't brake and skid quite so hard, I still tend to have my board almost perpendicular to the mountain on my heel side before turning back to my toe side. At least some if not most of it is related to a fear of picking up speed by having my board pointed downhill too much on steeper slopes. Would love to see a video on this if you have any suggestions.

[nanami_]

The last tip was very important. I didn't know about it until I watched your video!!!

[brettstock]

This is my second full season snowboarding and I only recently got comfortable with an olllie off a side hit. gonna start practicing 360s on flat ground and riding switch more.

[aigerimsam]

Not to brag, but I do wanna share that yesterday totalled my 4 days of snowboarding experience, and I didn't realize I was working on all the right things, I'm really proud! I learned snowboarding from a friend the first time, and then just watched a ton of videos each time on the lift, and reflected on my mistakes. Yesterday I learned to switch ride and finally went down the intermediate slope linking turns and switching. I did notice I was counterrotating on the steeper parts a lot and it frustrated me because I just couldn't help but do it, but I realized it's most likely a skill issue of not being able to do tighter turns, so I'm compensating to slow down. Next week going to practice short turns and hopefully counterturning will solve itself.

[michaelryan]

I'm a new snowboarder and I primarily board goofy, but I'm trying to learn switch as I progress. I want my switch stance to be confident from the start. It's paying off so far.

[ReaditLife_Chron_]

@ Zoen - You are making a point ONLY for yourself. What's true for you is only relevant to you. You are saying you make your choices & accept the consequences. OK, your choice, your life. You are trained in gymnastics, good, helps you in all sports. Having these techniques are good for you - your points have no bearing on whether it's a good or bad idea from a health risk/benefit ration point of view. "Idiots on both sides": true & true & again unrelated to the question of whether a person doing a dangerous sport can HELP protect themselves from Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) by using protective gear. Sports evolve, protective gear emerge & are found immensely protective. Initially professional football players did not wear sturdy head protection. Now they all do wear one (still is a dangerous thing to do with the only brain you're going to get in this life = CTE). Ones choice to not wear protective equipment doesn't change the facts & figures surrounding wearing a helmet for dangerous sports AND dangerous professions. Glad you take responsibility for your actions in your mind. However, if you are seriously injured and you DON'T die, many others will be affected by your decision. OK, I skied without a helmet for about 15 yrs. - no one wore them back them. Then I went into medicine, trained in the finest trauma center, became physician & surgeon. I took care of tons of brain injury patients, did studies & read scientific studies regarding helmets & other protective equipment. Was blessed with a family (influenced my later decisions). I wear a helmet. I have almost exclusively snowboarded for 22 yrs. on top of my expert skiing ability for 15+ yrs. I wear a helmet. Of course, it's everyone's choice. BUT if you don't wear a helmet snowboarding, riding a bike, motorbike, whatever, it's not a wise or smart choice GIVEN the OVERWHELMING evidence that wearing a helmet CAN save your brain & probably your life if you do have an accident doing dangerous sports & professions. Famous longtime skiers - 30+ years, etc. have done well...except several who have on occasion died by hitting their heads on an unexpected rock during a slow - moderate speed accident, (Slovenian Pro snowboarder Marko Grilc, 38, Tyrol Austria - not wearing a helmet). Most likely they wouldn't have died if they were wearing a helmet. Also, living with TBI is extremely difficult sometimes. Remorse & depressions often sets in at knowing one could have possibly avoided serious head injury by wearing a helmet . Pardon the pun, but, it's a NO BRAINER that wearing a helmet for dangerous activities is wise and good.

[TheDmantheman]

I can shred the shit out of any hill. But i still cannot ride switch. Im at the level of stepping my trick game up a bit. Now im trying 180s and its been rough not knowing how to ride switch. I can land em but i cant ride out of em. So now after like 10 years i pretty much have to learn how to ride all over going switch. Should have started when i was crashing to begin with.

[ViginVijayan]

Spot on! I used to make all of the above mistakes am trying to correct them this season. Great video.