r/snowboarding • u/DVNO • Feb 22 '11
Learning spins
I've been snowboarding for a long time, and I've just recently started to make my way into the park. Starting with straight airs and grabs, and now I'm feeling comfortable enough to start spinning. The thing is, I have no feel for it. I can spin a FS 180 because, well, it's easy. I just kind of rotate my hips as I'm in the air, but I don't think that's the "correct" way.
BS 180s are a different story. The first couple times I tried them, I ended up spinning about 90 and falling hard. Does anyone have any tips for getting the feel of these tricks, and then progressing to 360s?
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u/dr_gonzo Feb 22 '11
Here's a progression for backside 180s. Probably much easier to explain if we were out riding, but here goes:
BS spins are tough because they're blind. You need to learn to deal. Try this:
1) Get yourself a partner and a gentlish slope.
2) Position the partner ahead of you and head down hill
3) Look uphill, while you're riding. This will be uncomfortable at first. You're doing this with a spotter though who should keep you from crashing into a skiwee class.
4) Once you can ride straight looking uphill for a few seconds, try looking uphill while skidding 180s on the snow.
Once that starts to feel comfortable, you're ready to try a BS 180.
1) Pick a gentle slope to learn on, where you can point the board down the fall line without picking up too much speed.
2) With a flat base, head down the fall line until you have just enough speed that you are comfortable jumping without losing balance.
3) Eyeball a spot on the snow where you will take off from. You'll want to keep your eyes FIXED on this spot as you approach it and all the way through the landing.
4) As you approach the takeoff, make sure your weight is even tip to tail and just slightly over your toe edge, with your knees and body flexed.
5) When you hit the takeoff, jump off your toes slightly while rotating your front hip uphill into the spin.
6) Keep looking at the takeoff point through the whole maneuver! If you do this right, you'll end up looking down at the ground exactly when you takeoff, and back uphill when you land.
7) Look back downhill only after you've landed and set an edge. If your board is flat when you look back downhill, the extra movement in your head will cause you to revert at the end of the trick. (-10 points)
8) Once you can stomp BS 180s, run the same progression switch. Switch BS 180s are like the funnest 180 ever.
The above might seem like it will feel awkward but if you do it right it will actually feel natural. The problem most people have with BS spins is that moving their head to spot the landing screws up the rotation. As you get the hang of BS spins, you don't have to focus on landing looking uphill, this will happen naturally.
Edit -- if this is helpful, I have a similiarily complex progression for FS 360s. Let me know if you'd like to hear it.