This is a question that I get asked a lot.

How do you snowboard on a flat base?

From beginner to advanced, this is a vital technique and it's going to help you with everything.

From getting off a chairlift, to hitting jumps, riding powder, stick around to the end of the video to see how it's going to help you ride super fast, but first it's going to be the full line.

The full line is the path that gravity takes down the slope.

Generally the full line will follow the direction of the piece, but any undulations or slight slanted sections in the slope will affect the full line.

That, hold on, is something I can demonstrate by letting this ball roll down.

It will follow the path that gravity would take and it will follow the full line exactly down the slope.

Wait, you'll get it in a minute.

Wait.

Alright, go get it.

So as you can see, the ball didn't quite go in a perfectly straight line, it started off to the right and then it went a little bit off to the left as the slope was slanted like so.

Good boy.

Now a snowboard on a flat base will act exactly the same way as a basketball did.

It will find the full line and follow gravity down the slope.

So you need to realise that when you're riding a flat base, you're essentially a passenger on your board.

You are out of control.

But trust me, that is okay.

So the most common mistake that people make when they're riding in the flat base position is that when they start to pick up speed, they do the natural thing and begin to lean towards the back of the board.

But it's really important that we keep our upper body perpendicular to the angle of the slope.

This is the slope and this is me.

As the slope angles, you need to angle your upper body with it.

This is because when we want to come out of the flat base position, we're going to have to use our front knee, our front leg to pull the board either round this way onto its heel edge or round this way onto the toe edge.

And if you're leaning back slightly, it's difficult to use this front leg as a lever.

So the first exercise we will do is to start with just the front foot strapped in.

Point the board down the slope, then step your back foot on the board between the bindings.

Keep your feet flat, have a slight bend in the knees and keep your shoulders and hips stacked vertically over the centre of your board.

Keep your arms in line with the board and have only your head twisted looking where you're going.

Come to a stop by using your front knee to pull you round either onto your heel or your toe edge.

This movement can be started from your upper body and your leading shoulder.

But try not to rely too heavily on that because it's really important that you don't allow yourself to become too twisted.

But for more info on this movement specifically, you can check out this video up in the top corner.

I can't stress enough how important it is that you're able to do this exercise.

If you can't hold that position on a mellow green slope for about 5 seconds, you've got some bad habits that are forever going to give you problems and you're never going to be able to confidently ride on a flat base at high speeds.

So now we're going to repeat the exercise again, just this time with both feet strapped in.

And honestly, absolutely nothing changes.

Hold the same position you held before and just get used to building up that confidence, keeping the board on a flat base and letting the full line pull you down the slope.

Now it's time to get creative.

Whilst keeping the board flat, practice shifting your weight towards the nose and the tail of the board.

This will help improve your balance and overall ball control.

But it's practical too.

For instance, when you don't want to get stuck in powder, you'll need a flat base but with your weight towards the back end of the board.

And of course, this is how we would nose or tail press a box.

So the next obvious step is to practice some ollies.

When you begin hitting jumps, you would of course want to take off and land on a flat base.

And now for the fun part, how to snowboard really fast on a flat base, which is also going to be really useful when you're trying to get across those long flat pieces and you don't want to get stuck.

Now I'm sure you've seen the pros, hooning it in for the jumps and they're on a flat base, but they're not in this stacked upright position I talked about.

Instead, they're crouched down low in this aerodynamic tuck.

But the theory remains the same.

So long as you keep your weight balanced over the line that will run down the centre of your board, you'll be just fine.

Start by crouching down low.

And you see, you can only get so low whilst keeping your shoulders in line with the board.

To get down lower, I'm going to need to really twist like this.

This can be quite handy because what it lets me do is to put a little bit more weight to the left or a little bit more weight to the right to ensure that I stay balanced over the centre of my board.

And as we get down really low, you can see you can shift some more weight over that back foot.

And as long as your weight's centred, you will be fine.

But just remember, when you want to come out of this position, you're going to need to stand up and bring some weight over the front foot again to be able to pull the board round onto your edge.

Awesome.

So now it's just a case of putting this into practice, building it up slowly, and you're soon going to be far more confident riding on a flat base.

Thanks for watching.

I'll see you guys next time.

Bye!

Bye!