Having new things to learn keeps a sport fresh, so I start every season thinking about what I'd like to accomplish. Here are some thoughts, not in order of importance:
- Riding switch (goofy). I already ride fakie, which for me is riding regular but backwards. Riding switch for me will involve changing to a goofy stance. I tried riding switch on a skateboard and it was very scary... Reason for this is that I'm becoming concerned about an asymetrical development of my body -- always doing board sports to the left... This rang very true when I tried kiteboarding to the right -- my right leg felt very week!
- Doing backside transitions. Right now I feel comfortable doing frontside nose and tail rolls. I need to work on doing them through my back (i.e. blind-side) to (again) even things out.
- Rockin' the asym. I bought a vintage Pogo Hardcore slalom board, 155cm regular asymetric. I have never had a chance to ride asym, and though some people think they're obsolete and evil, I riding lower angles and am looking forward to having a different-feeling board on our small local resort.
- Doing real butters. A butter is a smooth 360 spin on a tip or a tail of the snowboard. Last year a few soft riders were working on this and gave me some tips -- it's a very smooth move which requires great balance to unweight most of the board but without digging in the board tip.
- Improving toe- or heel-only carving. Last season I worked on doing a series of { regular toe-side carve, nose roll, fakie toe-side, tail roll } sequences, in effect carving only on one board edge all the way down the hill. I want to practice this more... so far I haven't been able to do more than 8 turns before wiping out.
- Including more combination turns in every-day riding. Moves such as doing full butters on every carve transition, adding some airborne transitions, etc.
Keychain from the tail of my new Pogo Hardcore asym
More on my progress with these goals as the season unfolds...