How To Butter With Grabs

I can't believe it's not butter. Well... it is, just with some grabs added in.

In this tutorial we will teach you how to Butter With Grabs, to keep those flat spots on the mountain fun! Or, check out all our buttering series here:

(Narrating/Rider: Nev Lapwood. Film/Editing: Adison MacDonald. Filmed At: Whistler Blackcomb)

Adding grabs into your butters not only improves your body position for basic buttering, but also gives you the fundamental skills to move onto the harder, more stylish butters. Plus, when you start taking your skills to the air, grabs will come super easy to you as you already know where they are on your board #winning.

Step 1) Tail Grab

Doing a Tail Grab while buttering means grabbing the tail of your board with your back hand. This is a good drill to begin with as it forces you to move your hips outside of your back leg, which really enhance butters.

Step 2) Double Tail & Seatbelt

A Double Tail Grab means grabbing the tail of your board with both hands.

Nev locking in that Double Tail. Get it here, then try it on a jump.

A Seatbelt however, is grabbing the tail of your board with only your front hand. That's your left hand if you're Regular and your right hand if you're Goofy. These difficult grabs help stretch your body into different positions that you are not used to.

Hot Tip - Ben Dover. Remember to bend the knees, not the back.

Step 3) Nose Grab

A Nose Grab is grabbing the nose of your board with your front hand, the left hand if you are regular and right hand if you are a goof ball. Just remember, grabbing the nose is significantly harder than grabbing the tail, because you have to move your weight a lot further forward while riding downhill.

Just like small undies, it's an uncomfortable feeling.

Hot Tip - Speed kills man! Find a flat hill to practice these first and go slow. You might have to force yourself to do it, but don’t be afraid to fall.

Nosegrab Falling Over

Step 4) Get Creative

As you improve, get creative and add grabs to your butters. A good one to start with is grabbing your tail with your back hand and grab the toeside edge with your front hand. Let your imagination run wild, grabbing nose, tail, toeside, heelside or even the highback of your bindings. These exercises get you used to exaggerate your weight over the ends of your board.

Complex Grab Butter

Step 5) Practice

Don't let the death of 'Ol Man Winter' stop your training. Summer is the perfect time to do a bunch of off mountain training with the Balance Bar and the Jib Training Board to get those presses dialled.

Balance Bar Grab

Step 6) Rotations

Now that you've started adding in rotations to this concoction, take it to the snow. Start with a tail butter rotating Frontside while doing a tail grab. Sounds like a lot, but you got this!

Frontside Tailgrab Butter

Doing a Frontside spin using your heel edge is easier to start with, because you are able to see where you are going and lean into the spin. This means opening up your shoulders and putting pressure on your heel edge. Once this is on lock, remember to give your toeside some love and go blind by doing a Tail Butter rotating Backside.

Once you begin to master adding grabs into your butters, let your imagination run wild and start buttering on rollers, side hits or any other feature that tickles your fancy. So now that you've just started adding in grabs and rotations to your butters, take it a step further by learning How To Nose & Tail Spin.

Want Even More Training Tips?

Alex McCann
Snowboard Addiction
Our Goal Is To Improve Your Riding

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