The Experts' Corner: Take a tip from the Tahoe pros
Wendy Lautner, tahoe.com January 8, 2008
These days it almost seems like to “air” is to snowboard. Terrain parks chocked full of kickers, rails, boxes, rainbows and even log cabins are popping up at resorts everywhere. These features offer snowboarders – and skiers as well – the enjoyable opportunity to literally take their riding experience to brand new heights. But, as the old saying goes, “the higher you are, the farther you’ll fall,” so how do you teeter the line between pushing your limits and going too big?
This week, we found our expert at Northstar-at-Tahoe, home to some of the Tahoe area’s most innovative terrain parks and the host of the Vans Tahoe Cup. We went straight to the resort’s head snowboard trainer, Matt Majersky, who makes his polished freestyle techniques seem like a science. Check out what he had to say.
Safety Matt stresses safety as the No.1 component of freestyle riding. And in doing so, the concept of “Smart Style” is at the forefront of his lesson. “There’s three components to Smart Style,” he says. “One, easy style it – that means that you start small and work your way up. Two, look before you leap – know what you’re getting into. Know the shape of the jump or the feature, what the takeoff looks like and what the landing looks like and expect what’s going to happen to you. And three, respect gets respect – that means not cutting in front of someone else’s line, not snaking someone.”
Smart Style is a code of ethics for terrain parks and is in addition to the responsibility code that all mountain users need to follow – observe and obey all signs, ride in control and know how to use the chairlifts. Matt talks passionately about safety, because if riders are not safe they not only put themselves in danger, they also jeopardize the future of resort freestyle snowboarding.
Falling Most of us were not born with wings and our awareness in air is not as developed as the reality of gravity. Hence, be prepared to fall. But when you do, Matt offers some key pieces of advice that just might keep you out of the emergency room.
“Make a fist,” he says, referring to the all-too-common broken wrist injury. “It keeps you from bending your hand back to catch yourself when you fall.” Not so sure you can remember to make a fist midflight? Invest in a pair of wrist guards, which can help. In addition, practice falling in control.
“You should always understand what to expect during each phase of every maneuver,” Matt stresses. “For example, if I catch my edge on the lip of the jump as I take off…how will I keep myself safe? I’ll try to regain balance and land on my feet or I’ll fall on my forearms or elbows in order to keep my wrists intact.”
Always keeping Smart Style and the concepts of falling in control in mind, Matt took me through the basics of learning to complete an airborne 360. Review this progression to master in-flight rotation (with plenty of practice of course)!
• A 360
Flat ground exercises “Ease into the thing you’re about to do,” Matt says. “Start by practicing flat spins on the ground so that you’re familiar with the motion before going into the air.” In addition, you should also be familiar with catching and confidently landing “straight air” or a jump with no rotation.
Heel side or toe side? Whether you initiate a 360 from the heel or toe edge of the snowboard is a matter of personal preference. Taking off from the toe edge means you’ll spin the first 180 blind while being able to spot your landing sooner. Launching from the heel edge means you’ll see your direction of travel first and will have to spot your landing at the last minute. Matt recommends to try spinning both ways to see which is a better fit.
The moves Carve into the lip, pop off that edge while looking over your back shoulder, spot your landing and absorb with your legs. Sound easy? Not so fast. Each piece of the puzzle takes time to master separately, let alone put together in one motion. My advice? Take a lesson! Oh, and wear a helmet!
M/SUNNY 95°
