Q&A for How to Snowboard

Lower your center of gravity (i.e. bend your knees) and lean forward. Standing up straight and leaning back will make you lose your balance. Bending forward and placing pressure on your leading foot will make you go faster.

You'll know to stop when your legs start to hurt or you start messing up a bit (it means you're not concentrating).

You do this so that you won't slide around when you are trying to attach your non-leading foot to the board.

You have to move quickly. If you're facing the mountain and want to turn, you have to make sure to learn on your back foot and, while you're doing that, quickly move it so your heels are facing the mountain. Be sure to keep your weight on your uphill edge - that will help make sure you don't slide out of control.

Snow is very slippery and the board may slide around and fall because you are not stable bending down. If you are skilled enough, you may be able to do it but it is much easier to sit down.

Some snowboard/ski resorts have man-made snow.

First of all, make sure your board is in line with your movement direction (turn it while still sitting). As soon as it touches the snow, push yourself off the chairlift and make sure to move at least 50% of your body weight onto front foot - that will allow you to press your back foot against the back binding and have a balanced and upright position. If your back foot slips out, it means the majority of your body weight is on a back foot. If you can move your body weight forward and press your back foot against back binding, it will feel similar to riding with both feet strapped in and you will probably not fall.

In a nutshell, when your board is 90 degrees to your movement direction, all you need to do is lean. There are multiple ways to do it. However, for now, it's best to concentrate on controlling your speed with skidded turns. After some time you might want to learn to carve (when the movement direction equals direction of your board and you are "cutting" snow with the edge). When carving, speed is controlled by closing the turns or going uphill.

The key to learning to snowboard is speed control. You wouldn't want to jam gas pedal to the metal without knowing where the brakes are when learning to drive a car, right? Same here - you have to be able to do turns correctly, with time you will learn how to stop quickly, then you can increase your speed.

Snowboarders strap in off the lift so they have the backs to guide them off the lift. if you have both bindings on while on the lift and you get off, you will fall.

The best way is to have 1-on-1 lesson with an experienced instructor. Alternatively, you could try completing exercises described in an instructional video. However, you will still have to get feedback to really improve. Make sure you stay in control of whatever is happening 100% of the time.

It would be helpful for you to get an instructor so that you do not injure yourself.

Keep your balance. Stay in your comfort zone and do not go too fast, otherwise you will wobble and fall. Take longer and longer time between stops to learn how to keep your balance while riding. Try to go faster and faster each time, as you will become more experienced with balancing each time.

You want to lean some of your weight on the front edge to slow down and use most of your weight for a full stop.

It is harder than most people would imagine since it is quite counter-intuitive compared to whatever our body instinctively tells us to do. Still, it is possible to learn the basics that would allow you to safely enjoy the sport and progress just in a few days.

Don't extend your knees when braking, but keep your back relatively straight and your weight over the edge. Imagine skidding sideways with your bike - the physics are very similar, but it is way easier on a snowboard. If your knees are bent, absorbing all the small bumps will be much easier.

The easiest way to stand up is to roll over and do it from your front edge. However if you don't know how to turn and change the edge properly yet - you might have to do it off back edge. If your board is slipping away when you are trying to get up off back edge, you are probably leaving your shoulders behind and lifting your belly. Try getting your chest as close to one of your knees as possible, then use your fist to "walk" toward nose or tail of your board. As soon as your weight is over your board, getting up will be much easier.

Yes. Our knees work a lot like the suspension of a car when going over bumps. You have to absorb the impact.

You would put almost all you weight onto your heel or your toe side, which makes you slow down.

No, snowboarding is a lot harder and is not at all like a ripstik. Ripstiking is easy once you get the balance right.

For a beginner, yes! Most new snowboarders have trouble turning. Don't worry, with more practice you'll nail it!