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Tips and Tricks – Beginner Freestyle Skiers
09.03.2023

Easy tiger, Rome wasn't built in a day works either. To get really good in the Park, a good base of skills is needed. Once you nail the easy stuff, the hard stuff will come much easier. – Do your homework!

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1. POP

Pop - it's as simle as that. The first step is to learn how to jump. It's super important for your personal progression to learn how to pop off correctly. In ski and snowboard chargon we call it a POP. 

Practice on flat terrain. Find a safe stance and remind yourself of your normal skiposition. Joints bent and jump. Try that a couple of times before you head off to try it on some sidehits. If your jumps works correctly, you'll notice the tips of your skies staying lower or even on the ground. Learn how to jump off or pop perpendicular. The reason for that is, that kickers always go uphill into a downhill landing, you'll need to learn to adapt to that curve while enjoying some airtime. 

 

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  1. Straight Air

Next up, straight airs. With the ability of now knowing how to pop on sidehits and little features outside of the park it's time to advance to kickers.  As soon as your toes reach the take off of the kicker, pop and jump up rather than back or forward. Try to land in the right angle (downhill) before you head off to bigger jumps. The bigger the jump, the better and bigger the pop needs to be. 

Why pop? By popping you'll pull up your legs and automatically set yourself up for a better position in the air. The center of gravity will be in the correct position considering skis and landing - again adapting to the perpendicular landing. 

 

Tip: When you pop, try to strech your legs, by doing that you'll automatically pull them up in the air. Take your time, feel the jump and spot your landing. 

 

  1. Spread Eagle

An oldie but certainly a goldie. This trick is a classic and it's also a helpful trick to practice airtime and patience, while being in the air. The tricks very similar to a straight air. 

You set yourself up the same way as when you do a straight air. Once you've jumped/popped off the kicker, spread your legs to the sides on the highest point of the flying curve. Enjoy the moment, pull them back in and prepare for your landing. 

Tip: This tricks awesome to practice patience, but especially to learn the correct timing. It will be easier to learn new grabs and spins in the next steps - which are the natural way of progressing into bigger kickers and tricks.  

 

Whats next? Learn how to ride switch, 180ties and how do you do Nose butters?

 

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