Snowboarding flatland tricks are great fun to do on flat boring slopes, cat tracks, and whilst waiting for the chair lifts. Here are some step-by-step tips to get you throwing down some new tricks.
Ollie
- Choose a gentle slope. Set up by travelling straight and be on a flat board (using the whole base, don’t be on an edge).
- Transfer your weight to the back foot and lift the nose off your snowboard and use the tail as a spring to push/pop off. Now suck both feet up evenly under you.
- Land with even weight on both feet, bend your knees to absorb the landing and ride away.
Nollie
- Exactly the same as the ollie above except you pop off the nose and not the tail. Hence the name Nollie = “Nose-Ollie.”
Ollie Frontside 180
- Setup to perform and ollie as above.
- As you pop off the tail, throw you arms and hips in the direction of the spin.
- Your board will follow you around, orientate in down the hill beneath you.
- Land on the tail to make it easier to butter the last bit if the board hasn’t come all the way around. This will also reduce the chance of you catching an edge.
- Stomp the landing and ride away.
- You can do a ollie snowboard 360 as above except you will need to pre-wind your shoulders and arms to throw the rotation harder.
Ollie Backside 180
- Set up similar to the frontside 180, and pop off the tail.
- Turn your head, shoulders and hips back up the slope and let the board come around for the 180.
- You will need to be looking back up the hill as you land. Landing blind like this stops the rotation and sets you up to land correctly.
- Again, by landing on the tail it is more forgiving if you having got the spin exactly right and reduces the chance of catching an edge. You can butter the last few degrees if need be.
Tailpress
- The most stylish way to get into the tailpress is to nollie into it.
- Setup as for the nollie and pop off the nose, now transfer all your weight to the back foot.
- Continue to pressure all your weight on the tail of the board by having your hips over the tail of your board and your back knee bent more than your front knee. Your head will be behind the tail of your board and back arm trailing behind to get the balance.
- Hold it for as long as possible for more style. Come out of it by moving your weight forward. For more style ollie out of the tail press.
Nosepress
The nosepress appears harder than the tail press, but a lot of people actually find it easy once they overcome the fear of catching the nose of the board which is very unlikely.
- Setup as per the tail press.
- Ollie into the nose press, weighting the front of the board. Aim to have your centre of gravity in between your front binding and the very front of the board.
- Nollie out of it for extra style, or even try a nose roll 180 (explained below).
Noselide (frontside)
- Set up as for an ollie.
- Ollie into the air and rotate the board frontside 90 degrees.
- Transfer all you weight to your front foot by shifting your hips over your front foot (or try thinking of moving the board underneath your hips).
- Land on the nose of the board, with some pressure on your heel edge so you don’t catch the toe edge of your board.
- Hold it for as long as possible for style points and extra steeze.
- To come out of it, nollie to pop off the nose and then rotate the board down the hill.
Nose Roll 180
The nose roll 180 is a great stylish way to change to switch stance and revert back.
- Start a heelside turn, and pre-wind your shoulders slightly.
- As soon as you start the heel-side turn throw all your weight over your front foot and reduce the pressure on your heel edge so the nose of the board is almost flat on the snow.
- Release you shoulders into the spin, once the board is flat on the snow, the momentum from you heelside turn will help rotate the board around on the nose of the board.
- After the board comes around, even your weight up and ride away on your toe edge.
These snowboarding tricks are a great way for when you are learning to snowboard to get more accustomed with your board and what it can do. Even beginners can have a try at these, for more help get some snowboarding lessons on your local ski hill.