How to Snowboard in Powder

Snowboarding in powder is what snowboarding is all about! It is also one of the more difficult skills to learn, if your used to snowboarding strictly on groomed runs and ice. Here are three tips to help you snowboard on powder.

1. Pressure your back foot. It is important to put more pressure on your back foot to keep the nose of your snowboard out of the snow. Try to bend you back knee more and move your hips back over the tail of your snowboard. Practising ollies and tail presses are a good way to practice for powder.  As you come around a turn in powder, push on your back foot to spray some snow out to the side. Spraying snow out to the side will slow you down, and set you up for that next turn. If we are spraying snow down hill, you will slow down too much, and get stuck in the powder. Its important to keep the nose of your snowboard up, and pointed somewhat downhill to keep your speed and momentum up.

2. Anticipate  turning  with your upper body. When your riding in powder, its a bid harder to turn your snowboard. If I'm on my heals, and want to make a toe turn, I begin to look where I want turn, and also point my front shoulder in that direction aswell. This isn't going to turn my board but it will antisipate the turn and help to make it easy for my knees and snowboard to follow. Anticipating the turn with your upper body will also help keep your body lined up. Having your shoulder, hips and ankles all squared up will keep you balanced through the powder.

3. Activate your knees. Your knees are key when riding in the powder. Keeping them bent will help you absorb any bumps through the powder. Extending your legs around a  turn will help spray snow to the side, and control your speed. Using your knees will help steer your snowboard through the powder and turn you where you want to go.

Hope these tips help!