Learning how to ride switch
Riding switch is so dope, at times i think i even ride better switch in some circumstances! My method of learning to ride switch was whenever there was a section of a run that i could ride easily without hardly noticing then i’d always ride it switch. This workes well as your always looking at whats ahead and asking yourself, can i ride that switch? I still play this game with myself, toe edge pow turns are my most recent nemisis 
. The other great advantage of riding switch is that it forces you to think about what your doing. In terms of where your weight is, how your initiating your turns, if when the going gets tougher you start to struggle or have to pull out of a line, you can ask yourself why, usually i find that when it gets a little hairy my weight goes slightly back making the turns harder and slower to initialise for example.
other great things about switch….you know that small bump you’ve ollied off a million times, yeah its kinda dull now….but stomp a switch ollie off it and you’ll feel like a king! i know that hot girl won’t know it was switch and thats a draw back but hey thats why the back one straight into switch back one line in the park exists right?
I used to hate switchbackside spins cos they felt so unnatural, and they still kinda do, but hey they wouldn’t feel amazing and leave you buzzing when you stomped one if they weren’t!!
Riding switch is so dope, at times i think i even ride better switch in some circumstances! My method of learning to ride switch was whenever there was a section of a run that i could ride easily without hardly noticing then i’d always ride it switch. This workes well as your always looking at whats ahead and asking yourself, can i ride that switch? I still play this game with myself, toe edge pow turns are my most recent nemisis
other great things about switch….you know that small bump you’ve ollied off a million times, yeah its kinda dull now….but stomp a switch ollie off it and you’ll feel like a king! i know that hot girl won’t know it was switch and thats a draw back but hey thats why the back one straight into switch back one line in the park exists right?
I used to hate switchbackside spins cos they felt so unnatural, and they still kinda do, but hey they wouldn’t feel amazing and leave you buzzing when you stomped one if they weren’t!!
Beautiful words, man.
Great explanation on why switch is so fun.
This explains it for me too.
Hitting that little bump or roller you’ve always hit over and over, but taking it switch is a much different game. so true! and yet so exciting when it comes together… and so scary all over again like you dont even know how.
when I was able to carve turns switch it was one of the most exciting feelings ever. I wanted to teach carved turns to everyone, becuase I felt like if I could do them normal stance and switch, I must really have grasped how it is done. That was one of the highest stoke seasons for me ever.
Talking of highes stokes snowslider, one of mine from last season also relates to switch riding. I was practising what i preach and pushing the lines i was prepared to ride switch. i was riding in trees and it was one of those lines that gradually gets tighter and tighter. i guess you know where this story is going but pretty soon it was a single track not wide enough to slowdown, let alone revert and fairly blind so you just had to react as more of the trail came into sight as you rounded a tree, that kinda thing. i think some of the funnest and knarlyiest snowbaording comes when you pass the point of no return and the only way out is to focus like crazy and give her. i’m not saying i choose these situations, more they choose you from time to time. man i was buzzing when i came out of that line!!!
Lots of great advice on this thread. One thing I would add is that when you are in the early stages of the season and just getting on the hill again, is actually the best time to practice switch. This can work even better if you’re a newer rider and have not progressed much yet. You can adapt easily to switch while you learn everything regular because you are so focused on the actual movements that you are doing one way and can easily apply them the other way.
I think most of you would agree that when you are learning, you are in that special state of mind to learn as quickly as possible, but the secret is to take your time and build your toolbox of skills from the basics (both ways) and up. Same for when you first get out on the mountain for the first freshies; best time to kill it switch.
Good thought Nev,
Once year I committed to have my first 3 runs be switch all the way.
It was nice, reassuring, and I rode a bit slower, (and probably safer) that I would have otherwise. a good warmup.
i love the switch warmup routine, i rocked that alot this last season. its got so many benifits, but the biggest for me was that it stopped me doing any jibbing that involved any type of rotation. that sounds dumb but one problem i have is i’m a bit shit first few runs (possibly cos i’m getting a bit old) so i can get a bit annoyed at doind tricks i know i can do and messing them up cos i’m not properly warmed up. with the switch, that is the trick, just picking harder lines and with higher and higher board control and performance standards, oh and switch straight airs are ok of course. its pretty hard to beat taking on a differcult line switch and throwing in some must make switch ollies along the way!