Yoga for Snowboarders

-- via Lululemon

According to a Park City patroller, we are officially halfway between the end of summer and the start of winter.  This is a really good thing, unless you have some long-standing pain from injuries in seasons past still plaguing you.

I warmed up to the idea of doing yoga after watching an episode of King of the Hill.  In the episode, Hank manages to tweak his back lifting propane tanks and his doctor is at a loss for ways to fix it.  Crippled and unable to do the work he loves so very much, Hank reluctantly joins a yoga class.

As snowboarders, our joints get abused--alot! For myself, my hips pop, my knees crack, my ankles lock up.  One particular flat landing in early 2009 really did a number on my right hip, causing me pain ever since. I figured there had to be some truth behind the episode where yoga healed Hank, so I gave it a try.

Lo and behold, a week of doing short 15 minute sessions in the morning when I woke up and at night before I went to bed have made a tremendous impact on my joint stiffness and pain of movement, as well as dramatically increasing the range of motion particularly for my hips.

Before trying yoga I couldn't lift my leg above my hips without jolting pain, and that was doing things slowly. Now I can lift it to my chest and give my knee a great big hug.

See, yoga is a lot more than just fancy stretching.  It engages and strengthens muscles you may not have been aware you had.  It let's your joints enjoy their full range of motion.  Certain poses will increase your ability to focus and balance...

All of these things are crucial to snowboarding.

So, while it may not be the most "manly" thing to do, and Hank Hill would agree with you on that, adding yoga to your off season is a relaxing, passive way to build yourself up for the first run of the season.  The added strength and range of motion you will gain may even save you from an injury plagued season.

The season is coming faster than you think.  Take steps to work out the kinks in your body by practicing a little yoga every now and then.  If you don't know where to start, YogaJournal.com is a great reference for pose diagrams and general tips. Namaste.

Snowboarders Don't Workout: Cartwheels

It's mid-July, and we are at the peak of summer heat and unpleasantness.  We are all dying for the cold crispness of winter and the chance to strap into our boards again.  Maybe you've even strapped in, stood in front your air conditioner at full blast, and pretended you were flying down your favorite slope.

Carpet boarding isn't uncommon at this point.  You accidentally look at your snowboard, and the next thing you know are trying to nose/tail press, ollie, and spin in your living room.  This is all good for cheap thrills, but who's up for taking carpet boarding to a whole new level?

Cartwheels on a snowboard are just plain fun.  They are that trick you know you can do, but always forget to try on hill because there are so many distractions (rails, bonks, kickers, halfpipes).  Well, there's no snow right now, and obviously you are bored, so maybe it's time to finally get around to trying a cartwheel.

First, practice just doing regular cartwheels.  For me, it had been a long time since my upper body had come into the equation, and the first few cartwheels I tried were awkward to say the least.

As you start to get your cartwheels back, think about what will be different when you strap in.  With the nose in front of you, you will have to sort of jump into the cartwheel to keep from hooking.  The nose will also flex, which is a good thing if you get your weight past it to where it will help pop you into the cartwheel, but it can also fight you.

In landing, you will have to deal with the tail of your board.  Where it is easy to roll onto your back foot in a normal cartwheel, the tail gives you an extra foot or so of material you'll need to clear and throw your body weight over in order to land.

With all of that in mind, strap in and give it a go...

Rock back and forth to get a feel for the flex and how much you'll have to throw your weight to get your arms past the nose.  Remember, the nose needs to leave the ground first to avoid hooking, so whenever you are ready, pop a nollie and explode over the nose, putting your front hand about where the tip of the nose was.

If all goes well, you will be cartwheeling whether you like it or not.  The next step is landing.  At the top of your cartwheel, where your board is over your head and both hands are on the ground, push off the ground to give yourself a little extra oomph to bring the tail back underneath you.  When the base of the tail hits the ground, throw your weight forward so you land centered over the board.

Bam! That's a snowboard cartwheel.  Here's what mine looked like; not that impressive but still fun:

These are way easier to do on small rollers thanks to added momentum uphill, and a little extra space to bring the tail around on the downhill.  Unfortunately, no rollers until we get some snow, but now you've got another fun trick to try on your living room carpet--actually, you should probably try these outside.

Swimming - The Kickboard

Regardless of the sport you do, swimming is arguably the best offseason activity you can do outside of the sport itself.  Swimming does wonders for strength, endurance, and can even promote healing of minor injuries.

Swimmers use the kickboard, a small foam board that floats, to take their arms out of the equation and concentrate on their kicking technique.  For us snowboarders, the kickboard let's us target the part of our body we use the most: our legs. Using the kickboard, you can give your legs an awesome workout emphasizing strength, endurance and explosiveness while putting virtually no pressure on your crucial joins (knees, ankles, hips).

Another bonus for broke snowboard bums, kickboards are super cheap, usually less than $10. You can probably even borrow one from your local public pool for the day free of charge.

There are three main kicks to practice, each with specific benefits to your riding...

The freestyle kick is straightforward.  If you know how to swim, you likely learned to do it using the freestyle stroke.  The kick is done by simply alternating your legs.  This exercise let's you work each leg individually, strengthening the quads and hamstrings (two vital muscles for absorbing terrain in snowboarding).  These small, quick kicks will also give your legs greater endurance on the slopes.

The breast stroke kick is the most complicated of all of the exercises.  I'll let the video above explain the finer points of doing this kick properly, but you should note that the motion is somewhat similar to jumping minus the impact and pressure put on your knees.  The breast stroke kick not only builds explosiveness with its snapping motion, but the general technique is also good for stretching and loosening areas that get beaten pretty good during the season.

The butterfly kick is a powerful kick that uses both legs to boost you forward in the water.  For this kick to be truly effective, you really need to explode from the quads, making it an awesome strengthening exercise.  Your core also comes into play in timing and initializing the snap, as well as stabilizing your body in the water.

It's a sweltering 110º+ daily where I live, and from what I understand those of us not in the southern hemisphere are all suffering from a miserably hot, hot, hot summer.  For just about all of us, swimming is the only exercise we are going to get until winter finally comes back. And who wants to spend the first few weeks of the season sore as fuck?

Don't forget your Speedo!

Video Games - Stoked Big Air Edition (Xbox 360)

Ok, it's 115ºF outside.  If you took a cold shower, completely dried off, and stepped outside you'd be drenched in sweat not thirty seconds later.  You are a snowboarder, and this whole "summer" thing just isn't for you; there's nothing wrong with cranking up the A/C and throwing on some video games...

And why not toss in a great snowboarding game to relive the winter right from your couch? I wrote a review on Stoked some time ago, and shortly after they made just about all of the changes I (and apparently everyone) had asked for.  So what's new in Stoked Big Air Edition?

First, they added park features! Big-air kickers, flat boxes, kink boxes and more are all at your disposal in this latest version.  The original Stoked was seriously lacking in variety; you had a choice of logs and...logs.  Needless to say being able to hit anything different at all is pretty exciting.

Stoked Big Air Edition also brings some new challenges with it.  From high speed races to slopestyle contests, it's nice to have a more dynamic gameplay experience.  They've also introduced marked trails aka groomers, so you can get some serious speed and with that some serious air time.

Of course, last but not least, they couldn't just release all this stuff without adding a few new mountains.  Now you have a choice of seven mountains to shred, each one rideable from top to bottom, 360º all-around.

Like I said in my review of the original, Stoked is the most accurate and immersive snowboard video game to date and Stoked Big Air Edition has taken that one step further with all of these great additions, refined physics and gameplay mechanics, and that same gracious $20 price tag.

That's right, Stoked Big Air Edition costs $20.  For many of us this might be the closest we get to snowboarding for the next four or five months, so if you are starting to fiend for the shred head out to Gamestop, Target, Walmart or what have you, pick up a copy, and see if you can ease some of the pain.

Balance Board Training - Part 2

A few months ago I did a post on using a homemade balance board to fiddle around with rail tricks or just master the finer points of balance.  With any homemade creation, and especially with training exercises, a visual demonstration is always much more valuable.

Braving the 110ºF heat, I managed to get a couple of minutes of footage showing both my homemade balance board setup and how I use it to practice tricks.  It isn't pretty, but training and learning new things rarely is:

So you can see what I mean when I said to try jumping right into tricks.  I also tried a variety of tricks, including 50-50s, boardslides, 270s, switch-ups, nollie on, and a few switch tricks.  My biggest focus with each one is keeping the board nice and flat.  Especially with boardslides, spins and switch-ups, I pay special attention to where I turn my head, and how I manipulate my arms, hips, and shoulders.

You can also see my homemade setup. The deck I have is old, beat up, and practically snapped; if you have friends that skate, or especially if you skate yourself, chances are you have one of these lying around.  The tube is just a 4' long, 4" diameter black PVC pipe I bought at Home Depot--I don't recall there being a choice, but make sure you buy thick so it doesn't buckle when you jump on it.

As mentioned in the first post, balancing these tricks is actually much easier at speed, and I can honestly say I owe a lot of my confidence and the successful outcome of many on-snow attempts this season to the time I put in with my balance board.

Hopefully having this visual example clears up any confusion about balance board training...at least my homemade version of it.  So go find $10 and give yourself something to do while you wait for next season.

Snowboarders Don't Workout: Ledge Hops

Snowboarding is highly physical, and often summer finds us shredheads buried indoors with the air condition cranked and the television remote handy; not a pretty picture when next season comes around. Riding out of shape means not only having to work extra hard to catch up to where you were, but can also leave you open for injury.

The Snowboarders Don't Workout is nothing more than a bunch of exercises meant to work the muscles we use when we ride without expensive equipment or fancy gym memberships.  Today's exercise, ledge hops, is a simple exercise meant to build strength and explosiveness in your legs as well as improve your timing and bodily awareness.

Your first task is to find a suitable ledge or similar object, the fallen tree behind my house works great.  Ideally, you want something high enough that it takes a bit of effort for you to jump onto it--something about knee height or maybe taller if you are in good shape.

Straight Jumps (50-50s)

Start with straight jumps.  These are pretty self explanatory; stand at the side of the ledge like you would to ollie into a 50-50.  Imagine you are approaching this feature on snow... you would load up the tail and pop up onto it, catching the rail lightly with your heel or toe (depending on your stance) to keep from sliding off the other side.

Try doing 5 repetitions of this--frontside and backside--for a total of 10; then do it switch.


Spin Jumps (180-on)

Spinning onto rails and boxes can be a challenge.  A lot of it has to do with being able to trust your body to complete the rotation on.  Practicing this stationary on a ledge is a low consequence way to dial in how you position your head, arms, and shoulders to lock in a proper 180-on.

Again, visualizing that you are riding up to a real feature on snow, do 5 rotations spinning frontside and backside (a total of 10) and then repeat switch.

As you get comfortable with this, start throwing in 180-pretzel-outs where you spin the opposite 180 of the feature that you did on to it (landing in your original stance).  You can even take it one step further to 360-pretzel-outs.

One-legs (boardslides)

While doing this exercise won't teach you how to lock in or balance a boardslide, it can help you become more confident approaching taller feature.  It will also build up the muscles in each leg individually.

From your imaginary stance, ollie onto the ledge and shift yourself so you land sideways on your lead leg.  You will have to play around with your arms and shoulders to get the balance just right.  Especially with frontside boardslides, play around with your upper body.

Watch some videos and try to emulate the body position of your favorite riders' boardslides; Lucas Magoon has a killer front board:

Do these one-legs 5 times both frontside and backside, then repeat switch.  Feeling saucy? Throw in some 270-outs to nail down your technique.

If you follow this workout to a T, you will have hopped onto your chosen ledge or feature 60 times. Feel free to add or subtract repetitions as you see fit.

Even if this exercise won't necessarily help you land these tricks, a day of shred equals jumping hundreds of times; doing ledge hops onto a feature much higher than what you generally hit will leave you far more prepared for your first run of 2011.

Skateboarding

One thing all snowboarders have to realize is that the sport as we know it would not exist if it weren't for skateboarding.  All of the tricks, all of the features, all of the style--it was all pioneered from skate influences; so, returning to our roots makes perfect sense once the snow melts.  Take a look at the most obvious off-season activity a snowboarder can partake in: skateboarding.
Skateboarding itself has many different variations depending on your skill level and what you are looking to get out of it going into the season.  You get to choose between shortboards, longboards, and a more recent snowboard-inspired alternative called the Freebord.

Shortboarding is by far the most accessible option for most.  Complete decks are relatively affordable, and with several options for deck width and wheel size you can customize your shortboard for just about any riding style be it cruising around town, ripping up transition, or technical rail and flatland tricks.

Shortboards serve as great off-season trainers due the technical movements required to land tricks.   Mastering even basic tricks with a shortboard will have a dramatic impact on your overall balance, timing, and help make control of your lower body (hips, knees and ankles) more precise.

If where you live summer temperatures average 115ºF--like say, the desert--grab your shortboard and look for an indoor skatepark nearby... just pray that their AC is working.

Remember that shortboards aren't very stable when you start going fast, and while some of the more talented skaters can take on the steepest hills of San Francisco at full speed, the rest of us will more then likely be paying a visit to the hospital or at the very least the local drugstore to buy up their stock of band-aids and Neosporin.

If you love to point it down double diamonds and high speed snowboarding is your thing, consider a longboard instead.

Longboards are much wider, much longer, and therefore much more stable than their shortboard counterparts.  Turn any local hill into a full speed snowboard run with a longboard so you can experience the wind in your hair and the thrill of carving with every turn.  They also work for cruising.

The downside to longboarding is usually the cost.  Most run at over $100.  Also keep in mind that since these boards let you get going pretty darn fast, which can turn into something really painful if you aren't experienced.

A few years ago some engineers got together and incorporated the lateral slide (sliding sideways) that makes snowboarding so unique into longboarding to create the Freebord.

The motions of Freebording are by far the closest you can get to snowboarding on pavement, which is why they have been slowly but surely catching on in the industry.

Freebord Team Highlight Reel from Freebord Mfg. on Vimeo.
  

Three things that are holding the invention back: first, the start up cost is close to and in many cases over $200; second, friction from sliding sideways wreaks havoc on urethane wheels and you will likely need to replace them often; third, controlling a Freebord is not anything like controlling a snowboard where you manipulate edge pressure to create turns and can teach some bad habits.

Even so, there is no denying that Freebording is a fun new alternative to ease that snowboard craving during the summer months.

Well, what are you waiting for?  We've still got a few months of summer ahead of us; head to your local skate shop and get at it!

Snowboarders Don't Workout: Standing Spins

Snowboarders do not workout.  What business do we have being couped up in a gym? Besides, it's about agility; being able to make quick, precise movements.  What good are 15 reps of heavy squats going to do you when you need to be able to squat hundreds of times per day?  Standing spins work on your endurance, explosiveness and train the muscles that help you spin.

First, go outside where there is a ton of room and nothing to destroy, and let's start this exercise with 180ºs.

In a strong athletic stance (knees bent, weight centered, and back straightened to engage the core) Jump up and rotate 180º frontside or backside, then again back to the starting position; do this 20 times--10 switch, 10 regular.  Now rotate to the opposite side and repeat.

Try to imagine things as though a board were attached to your feet; think about loading your ollie and what edge you would take-off or land on.  Lift your knees up as high as you can to your chest, and focus on making your rotations smooth and controlled.

Ready for 360ºs?

Once again, start in a good, strong stance.  Get ready to really explode; 360ºs require a little bit more airtime and a much faster spin.  It may help you to pre-wind slightly by countering your shoulders opposite the direction you want to spin, turning you body into a kind of loaded spring that will release as you jump and add momentum to your spin. 

Do 10 reps in all four directions: frontside, backside, switch frontside, and switch backside.

Again, think about your edgework; if you were on a snowboard, what edge are you taking off from? What edge should you land on?  Also, take notice of when you are able to spot the landing.  Seeing and knowing where you are going to land is crucial to keeping your spins steezy-stylish.

That's all for standing spins... a total of 80 reps, which can be a lot at first.  Feel free to fudge the numbers as you see fit, just make sure you do an even number of spins in every direction.

Doing this exercise at least a couple times a week will do more than you think.  Of course, spinning will come easier, but overall you'll be able to turn quicker, and absorb choppy terrain better.  With your legs and core all trained up, you won't get nearly as tired nearly as quickly, so no more excuses not to ride until last chair.

Balance Board Training

 

Pushing further into spring, we have ushered in the era of slush; with the size of jumps shrinking in proportion to the amount of speed you can't get to clear them, springtime works great for getting reacquainted with the various jibs our resorts offer... Take advantage of these sunny skies and all of that soft slush by using a balance board to really step up your rail game.

Balance boards provide a safe, controlled way to practice all of the precise movements needed for today's standard rail tricks.  Being able to try these tricks mere inches from the ground takes the pain out of getting things wrong; play with and perfect your body position and weight displacement with very little consequence when things go bad.

Now, owning a Vew-Do or an Indo balance board would be nice, but that's a lot of cash money for what is essentially a skateboard deck and pipe.  Speaking of, find yourself an old skateboard deck and buy a 4"+ diameter PVC pipe at your local hardware shop. Add straps to the deck for that snowboard type feel.

OK, it's trick learnin' time!

If this is your first time on a balance board, or you are not comfortable ollieing into boardslides on a box or rail, you may want to start by setting the board on the pipe and rocking into things; this is a mellow way to get familiar with how a balance board moves while improving your balance. From there you can even add an extra progression by hopping onto the board while it is placed in position.

For those riders comfortable with most spins and slides, try jumping right into tricks.  Visualize the PVC pipe as a rail and set your approach accordingly.  Build your confidence to try any number of tricks; boardslides, 50-50s, spins on, spins off, and don't forget nollies and switch.

Pay attention to your shoulders, where you turn your head, the placement of your arms, hips, and your overall weight distribution (more on your toes or heels, etc).  Most important play with these things to see how they help or hinder your tricks.

Finally, take it on the hill.

First things first, if you are new to sliding then you want to start with wide ride-on boxes.  Take the time to get used to the sensation of sliding so you will be able to adjust your balance accordingly when try more advanced tricks and features later on.

With that out of the way you can trust yourself to slide; all you need to focus on is manipulating your head, shoulders, hips, and arms the way you practiced on your balance board.

Any trick you land on a balance board can be done on the hill.  Just like a bicycle, it's easier to balance in motion than standing still, so if you can land 270s on a stationary balance board then you'll have the upper hand when you take it to a real feature.  That PVC is also round if you haven't noticed; flat boxes and rails are a way more stable sliding surface.

As always, make sure you pick the appropriate feature and trick to your ability. Balance boards are a tool to aid progression; they won't help you skip steps.

Otherwise, get creative! Really, anything you do on a balance board will translate into more control and stability the next time you strap in.