We are riding at Whistler Blackcomb and this tutorial is on how to improve your riding.

We cover a few issues that happen to intermediate riders, how to spot them and what you can

do to fix it. This tutorial is mostly related to body position. If you can get your body

position correct, you'll snowboard a hell of a lot better and you're gonna feel more

comfortable jumping, riding the park and hitting all types of features.

Film Your RidingNearly all riders encounter the same problems with snowboard technique.

The problem is that most people do not know that they have any of these issues going on

until you've seen it on video.I'd highly recommend for you to get out there and film your riding.

Everyone has access to a video camera these days whether it's a Gopro or just the camera

on your smart phone. Go up with a buddy, take a lap out of each day, and film each other

so you can go home and see what you look like. This is going to do wonders for your riding.

You will pick up so much stuff that you did not realize was happening and you can compare

your riding to mine or other pros that you want to ride like.

Ideal TurnsIdeal intermediate turns on a snowboard should look like this. Each turn has a smooth

consistent radius with your speed being controlled throughout the turn. You're knees should be

bent with your hips pushed forward and a straight upright back.You're whole body should be making

each turn together in unison with your upper body and lower body aligned through your turns

and your hips located central between your feet. It should look and feel effortless.

Straight LegsThe first problem that many people have, is riding with their legs too straight.

With snowboarding you need to bend your knees so you can ride smoothly through all the little

bumps and inconsistencies in the snow. Riding with straight legs creates a bunch of other

problems. When you try to make a heel edge turn with straight legs this is what happens...You

get this really awkward position where your bums sticks out and your upper body bends

over. I often see people riding in this bent over position. It's not stable and it's not

going to help your riding. In a straight legged turn you often have a lot of weight out towards

your heel edge, you may find yourself chattering through your turns. Its like cha cha cha cha

cha cha as your making that turn and you're probably going to fall over like this. What

you want to do is be in this position, pushing your shins into the front of your boots, while

bending your knees and pushing your hips forward which allows you to keep your back up straight.

Riding in this position is going to give you a lot of advantages, it puts the weight of

your body over top of your board increasing your stability and control. The flexed position

will help to absorb bumbs, you'll be able to pop better from jumps and absorb your landings.

This posture keeps you upright and it'll help your riding a lot. One of the strategies you

can do to improve this is get strapped into your board and feel this position of pushing

your shins into the front of your boots and your hips forward.Hold onto something for

balance and feel what it's like use the toe and heel edge. To pressure your toe edge push

your shins into the front of your boots then push your hips forward like. For your heel

edge, try to keep your shins pushed into the front of your boots then sink your hips down

towards you high back and lift your toes to create edge.While riding, traverse across

a quite run on your toe edge. Push your shins into your boots and push your hips forward.

It's much easier to feel this on the toe edge.On your heel edge, see if you can still push

your shins forward into the front of your boots, then sink your hips down slightly lifting

your toes to create edge.Adding forward lean to your bindings is a simple way to help achieve

this body position.The high-backs of all good snowboard bindings can be set into a more

forward position like this. I personally ride with a lot of forward lean as I like the extra

response it gives your riding and I recommend it to most riders.If you ever see a gap between

the back of your boot and your high-back while riding on the toe edge then I'd recommend

adjusting your bindings so they have more forward lean.

To avoid your turns chattering you need improve your ability to apply pressure to your edges.

Ride straight downhill gaining a little speed then come to a stop on your heel edge as quickly

as you can. Once stopped take three hops uphill on your heel edge. This is tricky but will

help to develop your skills. If your legs are too straight then you'll probably fall.

This exercise helps you to build and release pressure quickly over the edge of your board.

Ride downhill again, this time come to a stop as quickly as you can on your toe edge. Jump

3 small hops downhill on your toe edge. This exercise forces you into flexing with your

knees and ankles which will translate into your riding improving your ability to control

pressure through turns. Counter Rotation

For smooth controlled riding, you want your upper body and your lower body to be inline

with each other because it gives you better balance and stability in your riding. One

of the most common problems for intermediate riders is riding with a body position that

is not aligned. You'll see riders cruising with their upper body turned this way facing

forwards. It's not very stable, if you hit a bump it's likely you'll get thrown off balance

and may crash. Instead you want to be like this with your upper body and lower body inline

with your board.You'll see a lot of people going down the mountain doing something like

this, with awkward turns constantly out of alignment. It's called counter-rotation where

your upper and lower body become disjointed, not working in harmony and twisting against

each other to make a turn happen. This especially happens when doing turns onto your toe edge.

On this freeze frame you can see how this guys upper body is completely out of alignment

with his lower body. If you compare this with my riding, you'll see that every time I make

a turn, my upper body and my lower body are almost always heading in the same direction.

It looks smooth, balanced and effortless as I flow through each turn. If you can get your

riding like this, you'll be more comfortable with everything else you learn on a board.On

flat ground this what good alignment looks like. When I do a toe edge turn you'll see

my upper body helps to initiate the turn, my shoulders, my hip, my knee and everything

goes in the same direction. On a heel edge turn my upper body turns, my hip turns and

my knees turns all in the same direction. You probably won't know whether you counter

rotate your turns or not until you get to see your riding on video. If you do, you're

going to want to try and break this habit to increase the stability in your riding.

One tactic you can try is to grab your pants while riding. This will aid as a subtle reminder

to keep your upper body and lower body moving together in the same direction through each

turn.Imagine you have a poll that goes through your body and you're holding onto each end

of the poll. To turn your snowboard, you turn the pole through your hips. Turn the pole

this way and you'll initiate a toe edge turn. Turn this way for a heelside turn. After you've

got the idea relax and try to make it look natural again riding with your upper and lower

body in alignment. Un-centered HipsMany riders get into the habit

of sliding their back foot around on each turn going from side slip to side slip rather

than having nice round turns. This is usually the result of having your

hips slightly too far forward and a little too much weight over your front foot.

If your direction of snowboarding is more downhill rather than nice round turns, your

not using a lot of space on a run and you see a lot of snow being washed downhill after

each turn then you are probably sliding your back foot out.

If you look closely at my riding, you'll see that my hips are in the center of my board

as I go through each turn. If your hips aren't in the center than your body position is not

as stable as it could be. On a mellow slope try hopping while you traverse on your toes.

The point is to get a flexing motion going especially with your back knee. Now during

a turn, see if you can do 4 hops through your turn. This tactic brings your weight back

to be more central over both feet. It also makes your turns a lot wider and rounder so

you'll take up more terrain through each turn, which helps to fix this issue. After several

turns with hops, continue to ride the slope doing big wide turns taking up lots of terrain.Another

tactic to get the weight off your front foot is to try to do turns up the slope.To ride

uphill you need to transfer some of your weight slightly more to your back foot. If you stay

over your front foot you'll feel that it's much more difficult getting your board to

ride up hill at the end of your turns. SummaryThis tutorial outlined a few of the

common problems that occur with intermediate riders as they are progressing. You want to

make sure you remove any of these issues that may be in your riding and try to copy the

technique and body position of experts. Make sure you get out there and film a few laps

with your buddies. Analyze your own riding from the video and compare it with mine to

see where you can improve. This is Nev Lapwood, SnowboardAddiction.com Our goal is to you

improve your riding!