- Hi, I'm Amy Gan, from AASI.
We're here with REI Co-Op,
and we're gonna be talking about Intro to Freestyle.
These are the five basic tricks
to get you started riding freestyle.
The tricks we're covering are gonna be
the most basic freestyle tricks.
They're tricks within themselves,
but they're also the building blocks
for almost every other freestyle trick.
We're gonna be covering ollies,
nose presses, tail presses, 50/50s,
and straight airs off of a jump.
Ollies are the most basic freestyle trick.
It's basically generating pop from your board
and getting air off of flat ground.
To do this trick, scoot the board forward,
towards your nose, shifting the weight over your back foot,
then jump off the back foot, and when in the air,
match your feet evenly so that you can come down
and land with both feet at the same time.
Tail presses are great beginner tricks
because we start shifting our weight
over different parts of our board, specifically our tail.
To do a tail press, we wanna focus on keeping alignment
with our shoulders and hips with the board.
We wanna shift our weight to the tail of the board,
making sure our center of mass, our core,
moves over the back foot.
This should start to bring the nose of the board
off the ground a little bit, but if it's not,
you may need to pick up that front foot just a tiny bit.
You're gonna use this trick on flat ground terrain,
and mix it in with other tricks,
as well as taking it into the park,
using it on boxes, rails, and other features.
Nose press is very similar to the tail press,
but this time we're gonna be shifting our weight
over the nose of the board and picking up the tail.
We use this on flat ground terrain and in the park.
To do this trick, shift your weight
over the nose of the board.
Make sure that you flex your front leg a lot.
This is gonna keep you in balance.
You may need to pull up your back leg just a little bit
to get that board off the ground.
You wanna make sure that your shoulders and hips
stay in line with the board.
If we start to open up, we may start to spin on accident.
You can do this standing still and stationary
before you try it on the hill.
This is the most fundamental trick on a box or a rail,
and it's riding straight across the box.
The most important thing is that we keep our board flat.
Your first time doing a 50/50,
you're gonna wanna practice this skill on flat ground
before you move it onto a box.
What we wanna really focus on
is being able to ride a perfectly flat board
for a certain distance.
To do this, we need to make sure that our
ankles, knees, and hips are in line with the board
and really flexed and relaxed.
The goal is to not get on edge, which is kinda weird,
because we're normally on edge when we snowboard.
Practice this until you're really comfortable
keeping that board completely flat for that entire distance.
When looking for a good box
to try this on for the first time,
you wanna find a box that's low to the ground and short.
You wanna make sure that the box doesn't have a gap
from the takeoff to the box,
and that you can just ride on without having to jump.
It's a good idea to watch other people doing this,
so you know how much speed to take into it.
As we drop in for the box for the first time,
we're gonna be making all our adjustments
in the zone before the takeoff.
This is when we can change our speed
and get lined up for the box.
As we head up the takeoff,
this is when we wanna flatten our board
and make sure that we're totally aligned
with our board and the box,
so that we can make it across smoothly.
As we get onto the box, this is when we wanna
relax our ankles and knees,
make sure that that board is completely flat.
Look to the landing, and as you come off the end of the box,
you just wanna relax and absorb the landing,
ideally landing with both feet at the same time.
A straight air is just using a jump properly in a park.
So we're gonna be taking off the takeoff,
and landing in the landing zone.
This is the foundation for all jumps in the park.
These are the same skills we're gonna be using
when we add on tricks later, like grabs or spins.
When looking for your first jump,
you wanna find something that's pretty small.
Hopefully only five or 10 feet.
You also wanna find a jump that if you don't quite
make it to the landing zone, it's not gonna be a big deal.
As I approach the jump, I focus on the takeoff.
And as I get in the air, I look to the landing,
and focus on that until I'm all the way down on the ground,
and riding away.
As we head into the jump, we may be making small adjustments
to get our speed right.
As we roll up the takeoff,
we wanna be flattening our board,
and maybe with a little bit of pressure on the toe edge.
While you're in the air,
you really want your body to be in line with the trajectory,
so as you go off the takeoff,
your shoulder's gonna be at the same angle,
and throughout the maneuver in the air,
you're gonna be floating so that
when you get to the landing, everything's in line
and matched with the angle of the landing.
Stay relaxed and in a comfortable athletic stance,
so that when you land, you can absorb comfortably.
Give yourself a lotta time to practice these tricks,
get a lotta mileage under your belt,
that'll just make you more comfortable and more versatile.
Use these tricks all over the mountain,
and we hope you enjoy them.
We hope you learned something from this video.
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