Almost Turning

 Not quite carving up the slopes yet? Snowboarding can be a challenging sport to learn but we all start somewhere and if your only at almost turning, this is the tutorial to help you out!

Still dialling in your traverse technique? Check out our: How To Traverse tutorial

(Narrating/riding: Mike Barton & Duncan Mainland, Filming/Editing: Vince Emond.)

Your prerequisite for this tutorial is the traverse, because essentially we are justing adding some extra movements to the traverse on your journey to carving. 

Start with your board off, standing perpendicular to the slope, then rotate your upper body frontside, 90 degrees to the direction of your board. Repeat this motion backside. Getting your upper body rotation smooth is going to help make your first turns smooth too. 

 Smoothing out that rotation

Strap back into your board and start a heel-side sideslip down a gentle slope, pressing slightly harder on your left toes to start a traverse in your left direction. Alongside this pressure rotate your upper-body so that your left side is pointing down hill. You board  is going to want to follow and point downhill so be ready for some speed. Keep your pressure on your heel edge the whole time so you don't have to worry about changing edges. 

 
Keeping that heel edge pressure

When you're ready to start slowing down, rotate your upper body back 90 degrees to the fall line and even out the pressure on your toe edge, to bring you back into a controlled sideslip. 

Now let's try the opposite direction, reverse the steps you just preformed and get comfortable with rotating on your right side. Once you are comfortable in both directions, it's time to start linking right and left rotations. 

  
Linking it up!

Now that you're linking up this movement and leafing down the slopes, you've past the almost turning stage and are fully ready for your First Turns!

Ready To Start Carving Up The Slopes? 

Hannah Paquette
Snowboard Addiction
Our Goal Is To Improve Your Riding