Snowboard Flex

Series Summary

Snowboarding is an extreme sport with similarities to both surfing and skateboarding, though generally snowboarding is much faster. Snowboarding requires snowboard lessons, practice, and thick skin - falling is inevitable. Learning how to snowboard can be difficult, but it is much easier to learn with lessons from an expert.

Jesse Sutton is not only an expert snowboarder but she is also an expert snowboard teacher for beginners. In this free video series Jesse will teach you about the parts of a snowboard and basic snowboarding techniques that are essential for beginners. She will demonstrate how to put on snowboarding boots, how to strap into the snowboard bindings, and how stand up on a snowboard on the heelside and the toeside. Additionally, Jesse will demonstrate how to carve toeside and heelside on a snowboard and how to fall without injuring yourself.

Video Transcript

"In this section we're going to talk about your snowboard. Basically the first thing we'll talk about is flex. Flex is pretty important when you're choosing a snowboard. It just depends on what type of snowboarding you want to do. There's no such thing as a beginner board or an expert board, it's just pretty much your preference. Some people like really soft boards, like I like soft boards. They're good for hand rails and boxes and butters, they're really fun. They way you find out whether or not your board is soft or not, you just take your snowboard like this, apply pressure to the middle and hold onto the nose, and you'll feel the flex. As you can see, my board will respond really strongly from the areas in here. These areas, the nose and the tail, are a little bit stiffer. That's good for pressing. You want this middle cut to be nice and flexible for rails, so you can press it out and butter it up. That's how you can tell if your board is soft or not. A stiff board is better for jumps and half-pipe. A stiff board gives you stronger pop, less press. You figure out if it's stiff or not the same way, by putting pressure in the middle of your board and stepping down. It won't bend as much as you saw this one bend. That's how you know it's stiff."