How do your park days look like? Are you more of a slow starter and exhilarate towards the end kind of shredder or the opposite?

With these 5 tips you’ll have a better idea of how to make the most of your park days, how to progress and maybe even impress.

Snowboarding (as well as skiing) is learnt on the hill and not at home playing couch potato. Trick tips are awesome and super helpful but only if you actually get to ride and practice what you’ve learnt.

1. Make the most of your day

Get up at the right time and think about snow conditions while you so. Is it going to get slushy quickly or has it frozen over night? Which would mean the park is pure ice, no fun (too much consequence to learn new tricks).

If conditions allow it, the early bird does catch the worm... why? Think of speed and clean take offs, the earlier you get up the hill, the more likely you’ll find freshly shaped features. The later the day, the more rugate take offs and landings become, which makes learning new tricks quite a bit harder and more intimidating.

Speed is key, early mornings are usually faster as it’s still colder. This will ultimately help learning new tricks or finetuning tricks you’ve already mastered.

If you go riding in springtime much, be aware that early mornings can still be super icy. Then it’s more pleasant to head out late morning – it can be a short window, just soft enough to enjoy but not too slushy just yet.

2. Think about park rules and other peeps

Snowparks are awesome. It’s that simple – they’re fun, really exciting, feed our adrenalin rush, provide good times, … but when you’re not aware of the rules, it can lead to unnecessary injuries everybody wants to avoid.

Here’s a couple of rules to remember:

1. Sitting on landings, knuckles or jumps (absolute no go) – stay clear from features if you’re not actually hitting them.
2. Do a scoping run first thing in the morning. Before you hit any features, ride through the park and check out what you want to hit. Even if you’ve been there the day before, the shapers might have changed features etc.
3. Before you drop in, make sure you’re all good to go (Features are clear) and lift your hand saying “drop” or “drop in”
4. If someone near a feature is crossing their arms (usually above their heads) there’s been an incident and the kicker or rail is NOT clear – don’t drop.
5. Hiking features is fun and can lead to huge progressions, make sure when you hike back up to do so safely – not in the run out, directly next to the feature.
6. Don’t be a d...k, we´re all here to have a good time.
7. It’s okay to fall, we all do. Make sure you get out of the way asap if you’re not hurt.
8. Build up in your own speed. Progression takes time and hitting features that are too gnarly for your ability is not smart. Simply put, hit new features when you feel you’re ready for them and know you’re capable of riding them – it might not work out first try but knowing you’ll be able to pull it off will help with confidence and the likelihood of nailing it is way higher + less likely to get injured.
9. Don’t jump the take offs that are built for rails to the side – these jumps are made to hit the rail or tube, not to jump of sideways.

3. Gear & Dresscode

The park is known to alert attention when it comes to style. Let’s not be judgmental here and let everybody express their inner fashionista. A couple of things are mandatory though, even if some people think it’s not cool. Wearing your helmet (properly) is cool! You only have one brain, so look after it. A helmet can decrease the risk of head injuries up to 88% and seriously, concussions, brain bleeds, … are not fun and can lead to lifelong damage.

Appropriate equipment is key to progression. Pick the right length of board and make sure it’s a park or all mountain board – you can ride the park with whatever you want, but if you want to learn new tricks and are only just getting into riding park, the gear you’re riding can make or break your day.

Dresscode, as mentioned before, wear whatever you like – we recommend layers and waterproof/breathable outerwear. If it really comes down to it, wear what you feel comfortable in.

Tunes. Tunes are underrated, leave your headphones on transparent mode so you can hear what’s going on around you and pick your fav. Playlist. The right song can really get you into the flow and will keep you going for longer.

4. Warm up and setting the right learning environment

No matter how good you are in the park. We all want to learn new stuff and feel the sense of achievement by the end of the day. Progression is a very individual process – setting a good environment and doing a proper warm up will help throughout the day.

Warm up before you hit the park, do some core exercises, a couple of planks and something to get your heartrate up. A warm body is way more reactive and will more likely do what you want it to do. Do a couple of laps outside of the park to see how you’re feeling and how the board feels on the particular day. Once in the park, hit the features you already know and do some exercises to feel comfortable on those before you hit new stuff or try new tricks.

5. Stay coachable 

Staying coachable/teachable will help with every part of life.

Especially though if you’re trying to up your game in the park. Watch others, listen to what they have to say and don’t take tips for granted (I’m sure the pals giving you tips have better things to do than helping you out).

Make yourself try one new thing every time you go riding, fancy a new grab? Do it! Want to learn how to spin a FS360? Do it! Doing the same tricks over and over again can be frustrating, step out of your comfort zone (in your own speed) and try new stuff, it might look dorky but what would a good park day be without making yourself (or someone else) laugh.