About the Author
This article was written by June, an experienced snowboarder and AASI Level 1 certified instructor with years of riding and teaching experience across a wide range of terrain and conditions. She works with developing riders on fundamentals, edge control, turn shape and progression into more advanced riding, including carving. Her advice is based on first-hand teaching experience and years spent on snow.
I see the same mistakes over and over when I work with newer snowboarders.
Most of them are tiny things. You probably won’t even realise you’re doing them, and at first they don’t seem like a big deal. But repeat the same movement for a few weeks and suddenly it becomes a habit. Then you’re fighting that habit every time you try to ride faster, tackle steeper terrain or start carving.
These are six of the most common problems I see, why they happen, and the drills I use to help riders fix them.
1. Skipping the Warm-Up and Riding Cold
What you’re doing: strapping in straight off the chairlift and immediately riding as hard as you normally would.
Why it happens: pretty obvious really. Nobody gets off a chairlift desperate to spend ten minutes warming up. You want to ride.
Why it’s a problem: after sitting still in the cold, your legs and joints can feel stiff and your first few turns usually aren’t your best. Going straight from that into fast or aggressive riding isn’t ideal, especially if you’re already a bit tight.
How to fix it: give yourself a few minutes to wake everything up.
Move around. Flex your ankles and knees. Do a few easy turns. Mess around with a friend. Get your blood flowing and get a feel for the snow before you start pushing harder.
It doesn’t need to become some massive pre-snowboard workout. The point is simply not to go from frozen chairlift passenger to full send in about twelve seconds.
2. Gaining Speed but Losing Control of Your Board
What you’re doing: standing too upright, with your body vertical to the ground rather than moving with the slope and the board. Your weight often drifts away from the front foot as the speed picks up.
Why it happens: as soon as newer riders feel the board accelerate, the natural reaction is often to stand up and lean back away from whatever is happening in front of them.
Why it’s a problem: once your weight drifts back, the front of the board becomes much harder to control. The board starts to feel like it’s running away from you rather than you actually steering it.
How to fix it: practise one-footed straight runs.
Find a very gentle slope and strap only your front foot in. Use the heel edge of your back foot against the snow to hold yourself still while you get set up.
Then point the nose downhill, lift your back foot and place it on the board just in front of the rear binding.
Keep your front shoulder and front hip over your front foot as you glide. If it helps, rest your front hand lightly on your front knee.
Don’t twist the board around or try to force it to turn. Let it travel straight until it naturally slows down.
It’s a simple drill, but it teaches you what it feels like to stay centred and move with the board instead of hanging off the back and hoping everything sorts itself out.
3. Hunching Over at the Waist
What you’re doing: leaning forward with a rounded back and bending from the waist.
Why it happens: I normally see this for one of two reasons. Either the rider is nervous and subconsciously tries to get closer to the snow because that feels safer, or they’re trying far too hard to engage their toe edge.
Why it’s a problem: folding forward puts your body in a horrible position for balance. You end up dumping too much weight towards your toes and it becomes much harder to control pressure through the board properly. That’s when toe-side turns start feeling unstable and you keep washing out.
How to fix it: start with the position on flat ground.
Open your chest, squeeze your shoulder blades gently down your back and keep your chin slightly tucked rather than sticking your head forward.
Then take that position onto a gentle slope.
On your toe edge, don’t think about throwing your chest over the board. Think about bringing your knees towards the snow instead. You should feel the fronts of your shins pressing into the tongues of your boots.
That lets you engage the toe edge without folding yourself in half.
If the position feels completely alien at first, have a friend or instructor hold your hand while you practise it slowly. You’re not trying to become rigid – you’re just trying to stop collapsing at the waist every time you get nervous.
4. Twisting Your Waist and Swinging Your Rear Arm Through Turns
What you’re doing: twisting at the waist and flinging your rear arm out to the side to force the board through the turn.
Why it happens: beginners are often in a hurry to finish the turn. The board isn’t coming around as quickly as they want, so they throw the upper body into it.
And annoyingly, it sort of works. Twist hard enough and the board will come around.
Why it’s a problem: the turns become short, rushed and skidded rather than smooth and controlled. You’re using a big upper-body movement to drag the board around instead of learning to steer with the edge and pressure underneath your feet.
That becomes a problem when you start trying to make cleaner turns or progress towards carving. Rushing the edge change also makes catching the heel edge much more likely.
How to fix it: first, stop thinking about turning the board with your shoulders and waist. We instead want everything to be aligned with the snowboard edge.
A simple drill is to cross your arms over your chest for a few turns. That takes away the temptation to fling the rear arm around and forces you to rely much more on what’s happening underneath your feet.
Then make your turns bigger.
Picture a wider, rounder arc, slow everything down and give the board time to come around properly. Keep your chest open and gently squeeze your shoulder blades together so your upper body stays much quieter through the turn.
It will probably feel slower at first.
That’s fine. Slow and controlled is exactly what you want here.
5. Using Your Heel and Toe Edges Completely Differently
What you’re doing: tiny toe-side turns followed by huge heel-side turns.
You see this constantly with new riders.
Tiny toe-side turn…
Huge heel-side turn…
Tiny toe-side turn…
Huge heel-side turn…
Why it happens: heel edge normally feels safer. You can see further downhill, sitting back onto it feels more familiar, and it gives beginners the feeling that they can slam the brakes on whenever they need to.
Toe edge feels much less natural at first, so riders rush through it and get back onto their heels as quickly as possible.
Why it’s a problem: if you spend all your time controlling speed on one edge, the two sides of your riding never develop evenly. Your turn shapes become inconsistent and you never really build confidence on the weaker edge.
You also end up relying on the heel edge as an emergency brake whenever the speed creeps up.
How to fix it: count.
Seriously.
Hold your toe-side turn or traverse for roughly one-two-three.
Then do exactly the same on your heel side.
One-two-three.
You don’t need military precision. The point is simply to force yourself to give both edges roughly the same amount of time and space.
As you improve, the turns should start becoming much more symmetrical and your speed control will feel far more consistent from one edge to the other.
6. Riding With a Stiff, Locked-Out Stance
What you’re doing: standing almost completely straight with stiff legs, locked knees and very little movement through your hips or ankles.
Why it happens: your body tenses up when you’re learning something unfamiliar. That’s normal.
Your legs also aren’t used to snowboarding yet, and once they start getting tired, standing straight can feel like the easiest way to hold yourself up.
Why it’s a problem: snowboarding happens on moving, uneven terrain. Your board is constantly travelling over little bumps, changes in pitch and patches of different snow.
If your legs and joints are locked, you have nowhere to absorb any of that movement. The board gets knocked around underneath you and it becomes much easier to lose your balance or slip out.
How to fix it: start on an easy slope and deliberately relax.
Soften your knees. Unlock your hips. Let your ankles move.
You don’t need to squat ridiculously low. You just want to get out of that completely locked-out position and let your legs move underneath you.
Your ankles, knees and hips should all be able to flex and extend while your upper body stays relatively calm.
This only becomes more important as your riding improves. Faster turns, rougher snow and steeper terrain all demand more movement from your joints, not less.
A Final Thought
These are mistakes I see again and again when I teach newer riders.
And that’s the important bit… they’re normal.
The problem isn’t doing one of these things a few times while you’re learning. The problem is repeating it for an entire season until it becomes your default way of riding.
It’s surprisingly easy to spend months practising the same slightly dodgy movement and getting really, really good at doing it wrong.
So don’t rush the basics just because you can technically get yourself down the mountain.
Get comfortable on both edges. Learn to stay centred. Let your legs move. Give your turns time to develop.
Those fundamentals might not be the exciting part of snowboarding, but get them right now and pretty much everything you want to learn later becomes easier.
Hope that helps!
