Snowboarding for Starters

Tiffany Hines-Scott
January 26, 2009
English 150-004
Process Analysis

Snowboarding for Starters
The three basic snowboarding skills are stance, body movements, and learning how to traverse from your “heel-side” or “toe-side”. These three basic skills are very important for beginners learning how to snowboard. Having a good stance means having a good balance. Your body movements determine your control of the board as well as your direction. Traversing will help you learn how to snowboarding either on your “heel-side” or “toe-side”.
Your stance determines whether you are a “goofy rider” or a “regular rider”. When you first begin snowboarding, you need to find which foot is in front. To find out which foot is in front of the other, you must figure out which way is more comfortable. Another way of finding out what kind of stance you might have would be the first step forward walking up the stairs. There are more ways to find out what type of rider you might be. A “regular” stance simply means that your left foot is at front of the snowboard while riding down the mountain. A “goofy” stance is when the right foot is at the front of the snowboard. Although a snowboarder is called a “regular rider”, it does not imply that it is more common than a “goofy rider”. The bindings of a snowboard are to hold the rider’s boots tightly is place. If you can move your boot in the bindings, the bindings are too loose. If you can move your heel from the sole of the boot, then the boot is too loose. Either one of these could cause you trouble with toe-side turns. Toe-side is also known as carving, which means that the rider will balance on either the heel-side or toe-side of the board and switching up side every so often. The bindings are important because it transfers the rider’s energy to the board with the rider’s body movement.
Snowboarding is accomplished in three developmental phases: extending your body, maximum extension, and redistributing...