Jibbing

Author: Nev Lapwood - SnowboardAddiction.com

Whether you’ve been hitting rails for a while now or you are totally new to snowboarding, after reading and following these exercises you will develop the ability to learn a host jib trick with confidence. Let’s get started!

The key to all jibbing

Riding on metal, plastic or wood features, shares similar properties with riding in the air, the lack of friction makes deflecting your momentum difficult. If you get onto a jib feature out of balance, it’s difficult to regain that stability. The key to all jibbing is being in control of your body position relative to the feature your sliding across. Your body position and mass needs to always be projected at a 90 degree angle to the angle of the feature. If you’re on a flat box or rail, you can employ the basic freestyle body position (explained below). If the feature goes uphill, then you must rotate your own position to remain in balance. Most park features head down hill so most often you will have to be leaning downhill to keep you base dead flat against the feature and avoid slipping out.

Freestyle body position

Your basic body position is critical to maintain a flat base while jibbing. Master these fundamentals and every trick will branch out from here.

• Knees bent.


• Back straight.


• Head up and looking in the direction of travel.


• Weight of your body projected down into the board.


• Shoulders, hips, and knees are always aligned with the board.

Rider: Nev Lapwood | Photographer: Simon Portner

Try to keep your front hand over the nose of your board and your back hand over the tail for proper alignment.

Decrease the chance of injury

Wear safety equipment when pushing your limits! I have personally been through many injuries from broken ribs and wrists, to concussions and a separated shoulder. I still feel lucky compared to the many friends who I’ve seen get taken to the hospital with all sorts of horrible injuries. Snowboarding has progressed very rapidly over the past couple of years and the rails and jumps are always increasing in size. Consequently the falls are much harder. If you want to ride the whole season every season be smart and wear as much protection as you can. The trick is to be well protected without anyone knowing what you’re rocking. I always wear, impact shorts (butt pads), knee pads and shin pads. When I’m pushing my limits I also wear a helmet, back brace, and shoulder pads. This may surprise you because you’d never know that I have any of it on other than the helmet. In this photo below I am rocking all the protective gear listed. By wearing this equipment not only do you increase your confidence on rails you save yourself from sitting out a season.

Slowly progress your way into bigger features and better tricks. Get comfortable with the motions, practice a lot and you’re confidence will increase. You need to be comfortable with every rail you hit. If you’re not comfortable, back off until you are.

The third secret is the most important one. Take 10-30 seconds before you attempt any trick and visualize what you want to do. That’s it, when you do this your brain “sees” what your body is supposed to do and you are literally programming your body for success. Although this is a very simple tactic do not underestimate its effectiveness. Take the time to see yourself completing the trick with perfect balance and say to yourself in your head or out loud “I’m going to land this trick.” Attempt to re-create the exact trick you visualized in your mind. It is extremely important you believe you can do the trick even when you’re scared, it’s all about mindset! Hint: the more realistic you make your visualization the better. By visualizing the trick before you try it, you’re programming your body.

Rider: Nev Lapwood | Photographer: Greg Roebuck

50-50

A 50-50 is the easiest jib trick to learn. It is where you slide with your board in the same direction as the feature.

Rider: Paul Morgan | Photographer: Michelle Holmes

50-50s safely give you the feeling of how to keep your base flat on the box and how the box slides.

• If you have never hit a rail or box before, the first thing you should do is go on a green run and get the feeling of riding flat base using absolutely no edge. This will be a similar feeling to sliding your first box.


• Next we can do a bit of target practice. Draw yourself a box in the snow, find a good point where you can drop straight towards it, line it up and 50-50 across the whole imaginary box using no edge. Ensure you your freestyle body position is aligned and stable while practicing.


• Once this target practice is easy, it’s time to find your first box and 50-50 it. Make sure it’s small with low consequences and has a ride-on so it’s just like you’ve been practicing on the snow.


• Look towards the end (try not look down at your feet), remember to have your front hand over the tip and backhand over the tail to keep aligned.


• After the first few you’ll become accustomed to how the board slides. You can now attempt a larger box, perhaps one with a small gap (requires an Ollie) or a rail.

Frontside and backside 50-50s

As you start to hit bigger rails and boxes they may require an Ollie from the side. If the rail is in front of you as you approach it is a frontside 50-50. If your back is facing the rail it will be a backside 50-50.

• Approach the rail at a slight angle (approx 20-30 degrees, because you’re going to ollie on from the side).


• As you approach, look at the rail and where you want the board to land.


• Do a small controlled ollie, now straighten the board and land gently on the rail with equal weight on both feet.


• Once you’re locked onto the rail, look at the end or past the end of it.


• Ensure your body position is aligned with your hands over tip and tail for balance.


• If you feel the board starts to slide off, just roll with it, hike back up and try again. Don’t try to hang onto the 50-50 if it’s not locked.


• Make sure you get both frontside and backside 50-50’s because more advanced tricks will branch out from here.


• Start with small rails and master them, then get excited as you easily progress to the next level.

Frontside 50-50. Notice how the rail is in front of me as I ollie on.

Backside 50-50. Notice how the rail is behind me as I ollie on.

50-50 shuffle

The 50-50 shuffle technique is where you start off on the box in a 50-50 position then shuffle your body into a boardslide position using counter-rotation. This is the safest way to learn your first few boardslides because it automatically gives you the feeling of keeping a flat base on the feature from starting out in a 50-50. You can draw a box in the snow to practice counter-rotating into position. On your first attempt only slide the very end of the feature, then as you get a feel for how your board slides sideways, you can begin to shuffle into position earlier and earlier. Before you know it, you will be boardsliding the whole feature with ease.

If you have any questions, ask one of our qualified snowboard instructors on the Boardworld Forums.