OK....so im new to this forum and here to learn how to navigate through the park. Came in here looking for hints and tips to get better in the park and voila, i stumble onto this gold mine. It is literally a gold mine for uniniciated spelt correctly?) park goers like myself.

Reading through I have some things that I would like to clarify.

Ive tried front and back presses. Pretty decent at it. But when it comes to ollies, I always thought whenever i got off the ground it basically was an ollie, and now i read that you have to backpress and then use the board as a kind on a trampoline to send yourself up. Is that what it is really supposed to be? Is it the same for nollies?

So basically once i have the ollie/nollie nailed down, and i get a hang of front and back presses.... what is next? What should your next goals be?

Regardless of what you're going to do next it's worth learning nose and tail turns. This way you'll be learning rotation and blocking, which will be your best friend when you get on to 180's and 360's. Your aim with these should be to keep the nose, or tail (obviously) and rotate through 180 degrees while riding across the slope. Gives you a lot of control and style before moving on with either slopestyle or jumps. It also means you can start to string things together with butters.

i usually stay away from the park but today i was having crazy fun jibbin off of tree stumps and rocks. maybe ill get into that some more

ok....so im trying to do backpresses...but I CANT!!!

I lean back, get the front up, and then as soon as it gets a little of the ground, BAM, it flexs back down to the ground. I tried putting as much weight on the back foot as I can.

My problem is that im not able to hold it but for a a second or 2.

Any tricks that you people know of that can help me conquer the back press?


[Edited by snowme on 12/23/2006 at 12:24 AM]

hey guys,
OK, so i've been reading a lot of the posts on this topic (BTW great topic and posts much info has been learned off this appreciate it) and it occured to me exactly HOW do you apply these basic fundamental skills you've all been explaining about.  I understand this is just a starter trick topic, but i'd also like to think this is a basic question as well.  Assuming you've learned ollies, nollies, nose/tail presses, butters etc... and you've start to hit the jumps.. assuming small ones.. don't really matter I guess, do you ALWAYS ollie before you hit the jump? ie the lip? no matter how big?  or do u just sort of soar off it?  Would that be any different if by nollie(ing?) off a jump as well?  I'm trying to picture it but I don't think nollieing off a jump would make much sense.  Continuing on that.. and I don't want to get too ahead of myself but if you DON'T olly of a jump,  some jumps, I guess bigger jumps/ramps are quite steep (by observation), so without ollying off that jump, wouldn't you sorta soar off it vertically and land on ur ass rather than soaring horizontally and landing on it?  or is that just a matter of shifting your body weight and leaning forward or pulling ur tail up so your board is level with the landing ramp?  Haha, I hope I haven't confused anyone here, but any help is appreciated, I hope this post isnt too long filled with too many questions.  Thanks a lot guys.

Cheers n Merry Christmas


[Edited by loveit_liveit on 12/26/2006 at 8:37 PM]

Posted by loveit_liveit
hey guys,
OK, so i've been reading a lot of the posts on this topic (BTW great topic and posts much info has been learned off this appreciate it) and it occured to me exactly HOW do you apply these basic fundamental skills you've all been explaining about.  I understand this is just a starter trick topic, but i'd also like to think this is a basic question as well.  Assuming you've learned ollies, nollies, nose/tail presses, butters etc... and you've start to hit the jumps.. assuming small ones.. don't really matter I guess, do you ALWAYS ollie before you hit the jump? ie the lip? no matter how big?  or do u just sort of soar off it?  Would that be any different if by nollie(ing?) off a jump as well?  I'm trying to picture it but I don't think nollieing off a jump would make much sense.  Continuing on that.. and I don't want to get too ahead of myself but if you DON'T olly of a jump,  some jumps, I guess bigger jumps/ramps are quite steep (by observation), so without ollying off that jump, wouldn't you sorta soar off it vertically and land on ur ass rather than soaring horizontally and landing on it?  or is that just a matter of shifting your body weight and leaning forward or pulling ur tail up so your board is level with the landing ramp?  Haha, I hope I haven't confused anyone here, but any help is appreciated, I hope this post isnt too long filled with too many questions.  Thanks a lot guys.

Cheers n Merry Christmas


[Edited by loveit_liveit on 12/26/2006 at 8:37 PM]

DO NOT ollie off anything larger than a small jump. It'll throw your weight back to the tail of the board and make you EXTREMELY unstable in the air. On these jumps you want to push off with both feet, as though you were jumping on the flat, both feet together. The idea on larger jumps is to find the balance between speed and 'pop' to get the perfect launch. You want to always be aiming to land both feet equally on the down ramp. Even on the very steep ramps, if it's been built well, the ramp will have been constructed to naturally bring you onto the landing square on. Don't try and rush your thoughts to think of the landing. Break it down into 3 parts: launch, trick/air, landing. This way you don't end up off balance as easily.

The basics that have been listed here are best used for slopestyle on piste. The ollies and nollies are often used to adjust tricks for rails. It's also a lot of balance control, and extra control over your board.

Hope that helps, if there's anything else you need to know, just ask mate.

Ben

ive continued to try to get some backpresses down, but I am still having problems keeping it up for more than a couple of seconds. I realized today while going down that its not only putting your weight on your back foot but also using your back foot to push the board forward from under you. Is that correct?

And once that is done, is the rest just to keep your balance and the backpress will be done?

Posted by snowme
ive continued to try to get some backpresses down, but I am still having problems keeping it up for more than a couple of seconds. I realized today while going down that its not only putting your weight on your back foot but also using your back foot to push the board forward from under you. Is that correct?

And once that is done, is the rest just to keep your balance and the backpress will be done?

You shouldn't really need to bring it under you. If you're doing it right it's not a forced move. Instead of moving the weight back just by leaning, make sure you're bending the leg. It should happen naturally. The movement itself not only moves your weight back, but also means that you naturally lift the nose with your front leg. Even the very stiffest board should allow you to lift it slightly (1-2 Inches). Put up some specs dude: what you're riding, what you weigh, how big you are... That'll allow us to get an idea about how easy it should be for you.

im 6'1, and my board is 155cm, and im about 165lbs. I get the nose up that 1-2 inches, sometimes more...its the keeping it up part that im having a hell of a problem with. Im just wondering if a manual can be held for more than a couple of seconds

do the same principles apply to nosepresses? Would it be harder/easier to frontpress compared to backpress due to the fact that the frontof the board is longer than the back?

Posted by NewCarver

I have a question about nose presses.

I can do a fairly decent tail press. Get some good height and maintain it for about 20 feet down the hill.

I have a hard time imagining a nose press. Because you're going down hill, and you want to lift the tail off the hill so you would have to raise the tail a lot higher doing a nose then if you were doing a tail.....right?

Seems hard to do.

Also.....now that I can tail, should I be able to ollie out of that position?

 

The problems with the nose press are completely psychological. I prefer them, personally, as it gives you more control, as you're already in the controlling position of the board. If the nose is longer than the tail then you don't need to get it higher, but you do need to put more effort in. As for ollie-out... that should be a fairly natural thing to do from the tail press.

We've done entire runs nose pressing just controlling speed and direction using counter rotation.

could the fact that my bindings might be too narrow make it harder for me to tail/nose press?

http://www.transworldsnowboarding.com/snow/videos/video/0,26810,1563889,00.html

its a little more than halfway through the video. I have that same board, and it isnt the most flexible thing in the world lol. im pretty sure my legs arent as strong as that guy's.

kay i hav a butter question.  ive got tail presses down ok.  still working on nose presses as they r a bit dodgy right now.  but i can press on my tail and hold it for a fair while and im totally stable when i do it. 

now iv been trying to get 180 butters happening.  but my problem is with the actual rotation.  i can seem to get a fast smooth rotation.  i just seem to lowly drift around on my tail.  like really slow.  wats the trick here?  with the actual rotation?  ive watched a few vids and it doesnt seem like sumthing u really need to huck so im figuring theres a trick to it that im missing.  i luv butters they look sick so i really wanna learn em.

btw i can do flat 3's fine.  more one way then the other but good enough.  i can be cruising down the hill and spin a quik 3 on the ground.  but i cant really see how its gonna help as flat 3's r all about edge control and i cant see how im gonna use my edges in a butter.

thanks

YES! i got that butter to the max thing lol. i hop up and land on the tail of the board, lean back, but keep some of your body forward to grab the board. FRIKKIN SWEET! lol