Andy Aitken - 29 November 2011 09:16 PM

Oh, thanks man but what you said was said was spot on too. Actually it's what I tell kids learning to ride the park cause they often get too excited at the idea of jumping and go a bit overboard.

They've probably seen your avatar?????

rider26 - 29 November 2011 12:51 PM

If you ride the transition balanced and strong, you should stay smooth and balanced in the air. From there, all you need to do is suck up your legs and spot your landing.

This is key. Start by aiming to keep balanced and centred through the transition and off the lip. Take a little bit more speed and really suck your knees up when you're in the air. The more compact you are in the air, the easier it is to stay in control and focus on where your board needs to be for the landing.

When I'm thinking of trying to be compact in the air, I always try to envision Nico Muller. Check out how sucked up he is in this little clip. I say to myself "gorilla arms!"


Once you're more stable you can try pumping the transitions for sidehits. This is key for me to make the most out of those fun little ruts on the side of groomers etc. As snowboarders we get a bit lazy because we're connected to the board, but if you watch a skateboarder riding a bowl, they have to stay centred or end up with gravel rash. When you get used to pumping the transitions, you don't really need to ollie on smaller sidehits. Speed and pump will get you plenty of pop.

Edit - Another perfect example. I think it's because he's a taller dude it's easier to see how compressed he is. Straight airs help, too:

@andy: I was actually talking about small jumps that usually connects 2 cattracks or 2 runs together. But that's a good idea to practice popping both on toes and heel edge. Will definitely do that. I think my problem is I'm way more comfortable doing an ollie rather than popping with both feet. Can that also be the problem? Because I'm trying to ollie I put a lil too much weight on the back foot and get off balance?

I think that could be the main problem, Skip. Keep the weight even on both feet. Start by just riding off solid, then try pushing back a little (even with both feet). Once you're really confortable with the transitions, you can try to ollie off them. Take it slow, get the feeling, build up your skills, try it with more speed, and you'll be (to quote Andy) 'sending it' in no time.

Yeah, what he said
I would definitely say that it's not a problem to only ollie. You can ollie everything. Park jumps, side hits, spins, drops even ollie between turns in the powder (reeeeaaalllly fun btw)
But like Rider said "Build up your skills". Generally when we teach the basics of freestyle we teach people how to 'pop' and then 'ollie'.
If you learn how to pop first, you will learn how to stay centered and balanced when getting air. THEN try the same jump (once your really comfortable) and ollie it.
Ollies = more air and more distance but a little less balanced. So u have to know that you can pop that jump really easily, before trying to ollie it.

I have friends who 'only ollie' and they are great riders and look very aggressive hitting jumps. But they have grown up in Canada and I'm sure they mastered popping as kids.

Nev Lapwood from Snowboard Addiction put this article together for us when we launched the website. Pay particular attention to the 'Straight Airs' section; it covers in detail the difference between coasting, popping, and ollies.

http://www.boardworld.com.au/snowboarding/content/category/jumps/

Will do practice more popping instead of ollieing