Make a Trampoline Snowboard

Summertime is when I start preaching trampolines as a means to keep physically fit and use visualization to "practice" some of the more daunting jumps and spins in snowboarding. Most of the time simply emulating riding by maintaining your stance on the trampoline works pretty well, but often times this makes harder tricks seem much easier since you are able to widen or narrow how far apart your feet are during the maneuver to bring it completely around. When there is a snowboard attached to your body you will not be offered this luxury, and being able to create spin with your feet in a fixed position will translate a lot quicker into your riding.

But you aren't going to be able to just strap in to your snowboard and start bouncing around on your trampoline--the board has far to much surface area and makes balancing in any manner difficult, let alone being able to jump and practice spins/flips (and did I mention your snowboard's edges will slice right through your tramp-mat). There are some inventions made specifically trampoline-safe that simulate a board and bindings, but they are always fairly overpriced and even worse, they break after not too long. Sooner or later everyone figures out that a skateboard deck (sans trucks) is the perfect complement to a trampoline session... so how to put "bindings" on a skateboard deck?

Over the years I've been through countless methods trying to get a skateboard to work as a trampoline snowboard. I've tried shoelaces, zip-ties, duct tape and eventually they would all snap, leaving 15 to 20 minutes of fiddling before the fun could resume. One day--and on YouTube of all places--I finally found the perfect method. It's all thanks to TurtleTramp:

Ingredients:

1 x Skateboard Deck (Old or New)
1 x Belt
4 x Short, Self-tapping Wood Screws
4 x Appropriate Washers
1 Screwdriver

Instructions:

1. Put your foot on the skateboard deck approximately where you would like it positioned.
2. First fold the belt, doubling the thickness (and strength).
3. Now shape the doubled belt over your foot, adjusting the gap for whether you will use shoes, bare feet, etc. Mark off the belts position as best as possible.
4. With a screwdriver, start screwing everything in *with the washers on top of the belt*.
   
5. Test your new trampoline snowboard out! If this is your first time making one, don't be discouraged if you have to repeat steps 3 and 4 several times until you get the strap to your liking.
6. Start play-err-Practicing!

I wanted to add that you don't necessarily need a Karate belt; any thicker belt--especially a leather belt--is likely to do as a good a job, or better. Now in the video, TurtleTramp ends by wrapping tape around the straps to get them to "pop up". If you check out his YouTube channel, TurtleTramp does a lot of one-footed tricks, pulling feet out and putting them back in the straps. Even if you aspire to one-footed tricks, in snowboarding you won't be concerning yourself with getting that foot back in the binding so much as back on the board; by all means feel free to skip the tape step.

One last thing to touch on, if you buy a set of screws long enough to go through the washer and two belt layers and into the skateboard deck but not penetrate the bottom, you can eliminate the need to grind off the exposed screw points shown in the video. Save yourself the money and the effort and just get screws that fit.

If you are curious what to do with your new trampoline snowboard, TurtleTramp is also here to demonstrate how to use as well: