Stir Up the Action on the Flat Lands

So your local mountain’s terrain park is nothing to write home about and you yen for something fresh. If you have been riding long enough to be at ease with your edges, the trails no longer rule you, and you crave to improve, then its time for you to challenge the mountain. The spice of flat land tricks will make east coast riding more palatable while putting a new edge on your skills and adding flash to your style.

Flat land tricks are when you maneuver your board without having to use jumps to do it. An example would be a manual, when you center your weight over your back leg (not over an edge) while pulling up with your front foot, and levitate your board nose (about 8 inches) in the air. It sounds simple, but the trick is to do this while riding. Initially try it at a stand still, and then add momentum. The first few tries will be choppy feeling and you will only be able to hold it for a few yards. Use your arms to steady yourself but do not flail them, as it will throw off your balance. When you gain comfort balancing over the tail of your board it will get easier and before long you will be able to hold a manual further than a lift line is long.

The manual is foundational to so many flat land tricks, like ollies. An olly is when you center your weight over the back of your board (like during a manual), but when your board’s nose is hovering your snap your back leg up and put the whole board into the air. Watching someone olly you can notice that when their board nose is in the air and tail is on the ground, the board is diagonal in respect to the ground. When they quickly pull their back leg up the tail reaches an equivalent height to the nose but the board will now be parallel to the ground. The air you catch will not be huge, but it will be enough to let you do things with it. Eventually your olly will gain more height as you learn to use the snappiness of your board tail.

Ollies open the door to bigger air off of jumps and it also helps you set your edge before jumping, thereby adding precision to your jump and confidence to your landing. You will now be able to elevate over obstacles in the middle of the trail, like downed bamboo poles and bare spots, but it makes you look cool doing it. If there are any gap-jumps set up in the terrain park (or if there is a small stream nearby) you can use your olly to clear the gap and not have your board tail smack against the landing side of the gap.

180° Slide is a simple trick that will help you set up to ride fakie (when you ride your board opposite of your natural stance without changing your board setup). When you bring your board to a stop you normally bend your knees, shift your weight uphill and dig in your uphill edge (heelside or toeside) and decrease your speed. Using a heelside slide as an example, shift your weight more toward your front foot, and pivot the board around like you were bringing it to the horizontal slide/stop (perpendicular to the slope), but do not dig in the edge. Your board tail will be free since you have less weight on your back foot enabling you to slide it all the way around past horizontal so that your tail now faces downhill. Since you had shifted your weight to your front foot, it is now your back foot and you are controlling your board as you had when you were riding regular, but now you are fakie.

Riding fakie is one of the single most effective things you can do to improve your riding balance and control; hence performance. It will loosen up your riding and add to your ability to carve because you will be more aware of your edges and your body position. The trails that were once too flat and simple will become challenging again as you try to ride it with the opposite stance. Luckily the learning curve is fast and you could be riding fakie almost as well as you ride regular in only one season. It is also a great thing to do if you are out with a friend who is learning to snowboard.

Once the 180° Slide is comfortable, mix and match your new skills. Olly 180° and then use the180° slide to come back around regular. Combine your slide 180° with a manual, keeping your tail elevated 6-8 inches off the ground during the rotation from regular to fakie. If you can hold that slide with your board still perpendicular to the hill it is called a nose manual. A couple flat land tricks like these and people will be asking you for tips, after they take your picture.

Your new arsenal of tricks will keep you busy while rediscovering the slopes you dismissed as beginners only. Getting comfortable with these new skills will not take long and will become your gateway to better overall riding. Now head back to your local hill and start practicing with your posse of riders and don’t forget to pray for snow.