This article is one of a series of articles meant to engorge your bag of tricks with stuff I have learned working at the Mount Hood Snowboard Camp. The articles are listed as Day 1, Day 2 etc… as a joke, this stuff is really difficult to learn and scary to teach because the risk of injury starts to go up fast when you are riding freestyle.
Pipe School Day 1
by Steve Frink
Spring 2003
Rider Can:
A rider can make it down the pipe before mastering these skills, but a solid foundation will ease the learning and the impacts. It may be difficult to convince someone that they can learn to ride pipe without actually dropping in but without some preparation a rider will not only fail to ride well but may damage the pipe and create a hazard for others. Show people how poor riding can wreck a pipe for everyone first, and that gives them a reachable first goal, don’t be the guy shaving off the tranny.
Start at the bottom of the pipe. Show how people are spacing themselves and discuss the etiquette you see. Point out the body position of good riders and observe the edge change. Emphasize staying perpendicular to the wall and changing your edge at the high point. When a poor rider comes down. Discuss your observations as the rider leans into the wall, is unable to turn, and side slips down taking the tranny with him. Often sections of the pipe will show wear from this kind of riding. Point out how destructive this behavior is and make a pact never to do it. OK, the goal is set and we have some skills to master.
Skills:
1. Stay perpendicular to the snow
2. Switch your edge at the high point (timing)
We can get these skills doing slasher turns on banked walls. Start out slashing everything on the hill, and don’t forget your backside. Get snow to fly down the hill (bracing = easy), then across (more dynamic=tough), then up the hill (dynamic=hardest). To spray snow uphill find a bank to slash, and then find a steeper bank until the snow is flying over the lip surfer style. Now you are ready for the pipe
Terrain: The sides of tabletops in the park are good banks to use though safety becomes a concern when you are taking strange lines through a park. Be sure to get practice frontside and backside on progressively steeper walls.
Movement Analysis: Riders unable to change edges are on a bank that is to steep. Is their body perpendicular to the snow? Have them gain further experience on the flats or mild banks; have them pivot around their front foot and then their center. Is their timing off? Ride up and down the bank fakie style, then with an edge change, feel the weightlessness at the highpoint. Have your better riders practice posing at the highpoint while the rest of the class catches up. Next stop is the pipe.
2. Etiquette
Before you roll up to the park adjust your sag, get out your gold chain and fix your do-rag. Have a plan and make sure everyone knows it. If there is a crowd, mind your group so as not to obstruct. Everyone around you is listening so say something that makes sense. Reemphasize what you discussed about etiquette, spacing, and especially how not to wreck the pipe “we’re going to do it just like we practiced on the banks”. Now you look like a real instructor and have command of the situation. Tell your group to watch each other and think about how everyone rides. Don’t drop in until your buddy is at the bottom, give the rider ahead of you 2 hits and go for it.
Have something positive to say to everyone at the bottom and your riding with a pack of pipe rats. These skills will get you up to the lip, then without actually leaving the pipe keep trying to get more and more hits each run while you develop your tranny pumping skills for the next step on day 2
Yo!
Steve Frink is on the NW Divisional Staff and is helping develop the NW
Freestyle Accreditation Program. Steve can be reached at
steve@sno-sk8.com for copies of other articles in the series or anything
else including clinics at your resort.