Trick tip: How to jump on a snowboard
In this instalment of the tech tips series, we are talking about the adrenaline-filled part of snowboarding- Jumping. How to jump but being stylish, safe and cool as all heck while doing it.
We want you to be able to jump anything: A side hit on the slope, a park jump, or the roof of a little hut in the backcountry. While it sounds pretty easy to just jump on a snowboard, there are different techniques with different outcomes when jumping on a snowboard. The basics of jumping are essential for developing your future shred skills on the slopes or when taking it to the next level in the park.
Once you mastered the basics of jumping on a snowboard and geared yourself up with a super stylish snowboard jackets and your favourite snowboard pants, you will feel like the queen or king of the slopes.
To get you hyped for our new trick tip, we want to show you yet another video of one of the best to ever do it: Markus Kleveland. Markus Kleveland at the tender age of 20 is the king of spinning and jumping on a snowboard. And he is doing it like no other. Watch this short season edit of our favorite human superball and we promise you that you will dream about doing all the things he does on a snowboard.
Jumping explained step-by-step
Now that we hopefully have your full attention on this whole jumping on a snowboard thing, we want to dive deeper into the technical aspects of jumping on a snowboard. If you paid close attention to Markus’ jumps, you might have been able to spot a few different approaches when hitting his jumps (if you haven’t – go back to the video after reading the whole thing). And today we will have a closer look at exactly those different approaches. Depending on which obstacle you want to jump of, there will be different ways to approach the obstacle with different outcomes in height and distance of the jump. Same as last week, we put this trick tip together with the help of our friends over at snowboard-addiction.com and tried to break down the basics of jumping on a snowboard for you in a step by step guide.
Step 1: Your first jump on a snowboard
Let’s start off with the first steps of jumping on a snowboard. First of all: It is never too late to start hitting jumps. If you are confident and committed to the jumps, you will see that it will all come naturally to you. The easiest way to kickstart your jumping career is to take it straight to the small park jumps. The beginner park jumps are perfect for your first jumps. They have a long and straight inrun and landing which will make it easier for you to be in full control during the whole time. The long in-, and outruns give you time to set up before the jump and to regain control when landing the jump. The easiest and safest way to execute your first jump is to find a spot from where you think you will have enough speed to clear the jump. Straight line from there to be in full control of your board and the jump. Speed checks during the jump will make you feel unstable before hitting the jump – therefore try to avoid speed checking if possible. When hitting the jump your board should be flat on the snow, hands pointing over the nose and the tail of your board, with your knees slightly bent – the jump will do the rest. As you land, bend your knees with the landing to absorb any impact and guarantee yourself a smooth landing. Try to not go sideways when being in the air. Just pretend like you keep riding forwards on the slopes. If you feel like you did not have enough air time when hitting the jump, try lengthening the inrun by a couple of meters and go again.
Step 2: Pop off jumps on a snowboard
The next step is trying to pop off jumps on your snowboard. This will help you to gain more airtime and is also the first step to take your jumps to the next level. Popping off jumps is a widely used technique when hitting park jumps and spinning tricks. For popping off a jump, approach the jump with your legs bent and the base flat on the ground. When riding up the ramp, push your legs against the ramp to create an upward movement until your legs are almost straight. Once you are in the air, pull your legs back to your body to maximize your time in the air. By adding pop to your jumps, you will have a higher arch when traveling through the air. Therefore, you will have more time in the air to work on grabs or spins.
Step 3: Ollie on a snowboard
The last part of our trick tip is all about one of the most important tricks on a snowboard: The Ollie. But why is the ollie so important for snowboarding? Well, a good ollie will help you to improve your riding in all kinds of terrains. You will need an ollie for jumping on and off rails or boxes. The ollie will give you extra pop when spinning off-park jumps, and most importantly, ollies will add that extra bit of steeze to your overall riding. Ollies (and nollies) are one of the most stylish and useful tricks to learn on a snowboard. Once you are an ollie pro you will be able to push your snowboarding to a whole new level. And now: let’s dig deeper into the art of ollieing:
Ollie basics:
To do an ollie, you put the weight of your hips over the tail of your snowboard until your nose lifts up from the ground and you find yourself in a tailpress position. Now pop up off your tail and bring both of your knees back under your body. When landing, try to land evenly on both feet and slightly bend your knees to absorb the landing. To ollie higher, try starting off your ollie by putting a bit of pressure on your front foot to get even more pop out of your board. With ollies: Timing is life. Try timing your ollies by finding objects to jump over like snowballs, slope edges or knuckles. With ollies, you will be able to push your jumps even higher than with popping off jumps.
All of the best things to ever do on a snowboard are built around ollies. To give you an idea about what you can actually do with just ollies and how stylish they can look when riding the slopes, check out the web series SHE (Side Hits Euphoria) by style master Arthur Longo. If this doesn’t get you psyched on learning how to ollie – nothing will.
Wrapping up
If you liked this week’s trick tip, make sure also to check out last week’s trick tip on how to carve on a snowboard. With these two trick tips, we can guarantee extra fun when riding your local or favorite slope.