Snowboarding Course - Skating

yeah i prefer to put my free foot behind me, and kick with my toe. When you put your foot in front of you, the natural tendency is for your front foot to sweep away from your body. Putting your foot behind you and kicking from the other side keeps your weight more centered.

@ Fab. I ride down the mountain with my right foot forward (goofy) but I also skate and get off the lifts with my left foot strapped in. Whatever is comfortable is fine. Maybe with more practice I could learn to skate with my right foot strapped in but this doesn't bother me the least.

Rich- Riding on flat surfaces is always a hard thing to be able to do. Try to keep your speed up if you know the trail flattens out. If you have more speed, its easier to balance. Also just keep your weight centered on the board and let the base lay flat on the snow. If you start to feel off balanced, use the edge facing up the mountain instead of turning down toward the side of the catwalk that drops off. It will help you keep balance and speed.

Crooked Knee,
I would say ride with with your good knee back because when I go out and up and ride down my back knee is what tends to get strained. But then again you put pressure on your front leg to ride down push yourself up.

Some say that your front knee is what helps you steer, which I don''t disagree on but what it comes down to is preference. Your front knee is what gets the pressure but your back knee is what''s supposed to help you keep control and stop and thats alot of pressure too.

I hope that helps and gives you a little insight.
If your still not to sure when you go out into the slopes stay in the base area find a small hill and strap both feet and feel your way down, try both feet. Whichever feels more comfortable to you and whichever make you feel more in control is your stance.

skating is super easy once you get the hang of it.
it took me about 3 or 4 trips to get really used to it. once you learn how to carve skating becomes a whole lot easier. just what ever you do do not give up on snowboarding because no matter who it is every one can always get better.

@Cesar - Try sliding the foot that is not strapped in so that the heel is hanging off the board just slightly. Then you can break by pushing down on your heel. Just make sure that the outer side of this foot is wedged against your binding so that the board doesn''t start fishtailing on you.

Is it better to have the front foot strapped in an not the back one? can someone explain why so? >_<, I heard that 90% of the weight needs to be on the back when unloading is that so?

I also want to know if anyone leaves the back foot strapped in, when skating and push with the front? I ride my long board mongo style.. chair lifts give me trouble.. Never feel in control with the front foot strapped... any suggestions??

This is a great site and the animations are brilliant. I just had my first snowboard lesson and I''m finding skating tricky. I''m unstable with my back foot behind the board, so after watching this, I''ll try it with the back foot in front of the board. Thanks

Pat, well done buddy, respect. I am 54 and there are not oo many of us old guys prepared to take on boarding as a beginner. I have done it once and we are going again in February and cannot wait. I have not moved away from raw beginner yet but I am determined to improve further. I think I struggled with every discipline, skating, T bar, chair lift, heel edge to toe edge. I had a bad fall too with no helmet or crash pants etc. I have just bought a helmet yesterday and will buy crash pants before we go. Here''s to us old guys on boards. Good luck Pat

@Robby and @Pat, mad respect for getting in the game. I will be coming out of retirement myself tomorrow. I boarded from ''89 to ''01. I really pray it''s "like riding bike" again. I plan on easing into it though. Skating did take a while to get down I remember, as did getting off the lift. It didn''t help that my K2 Gyrator board weighed a ton. For skating, I tended to have my trailing foot in front of the board, but would switch it to behind my board, and then alternate as the day wore on and I got tired. Getting of the lift (hee-hee)? Getting the attention of the lift operator, even if it''s only visual was key. Bonus points, if the lift operator could slow the lift. Also, I made sure to be on the side of the chair the toes of my leading foot were pointing, especially if the folks sharing my chair weren''t boarders. Then I could get my trailing foot on the skidpad against the rear binding as I disembarked and glide away unobstructed with my trailing toes out over the board to control my exit turn and speed until I was free and clear.

@Snowboard Size, someone above mentioned it causes you to push your board away from you while moving my accident which I find usually true. I still skate left leg strapped in and right leg behind but I suffer a bit from the above issue sometimes.

silbz, youre very lucky being ambidextrous and feeling comfortable with either foot in front!
my suggestion would be to either
1. pick one and stick with it, that way you improve faster in one stance, or
2. keep riding both ways, you will take more time to improve to more difficult terrain, tricks, ability, etc, but everything you will be able to do regular AND fakie! most snowboarders dream of doing both ways as good as the other. imagine every chute you go down, every steep run groomed to perfection, every powder turn, every trick you do, every rail you slide down, you can say to your mates, ''hey, watch me do that again, but switch'' and stomp it!!! brag much? hell yeah!