Progression riding questions
Heyo, first post on the forum, what’s up?
Working at perisher for the season so it will be the first time I’ve boarded more than 3 days a season in 6 years, stoked.
Wondering what to go about to get into the park more, Last year I was only at thredbo for 1 day (yes… 1 day) and was getting in some switch riding, front boards and back 1s off small side hits.
I’m wondering what I should train first to help me down the track a little, obviously switch riding and buttering to play around but what after that?
Also is riding along side someone (say 10m away) as they approach a jump a good way to get speed dialed?
If anyone is riding at perisher the season and wants to shred, hit me up
cheers
Welcome to the forums Nake.
Well you’ve come to the right place bud, cause I’ll be teaching down at Perisher this season.
If you are working for Perisher resort, staff get free lessons! I seriously suggest you use them too cause there is no better way to learn, and they’re free!
I’m based in Smiggins so if you want a park lesson (or many… i love doing them) come to smiggins snow sports and tell them you want a lesson with Andy. (We don’t have to stay in smigs obviously).
If you’re not perisher staff then just shoot me a message and we can just go for a park shred on one of my days off.
Until then my advice is: Flat Basing is key!
Nothing is more important than this when hitting the park for the first time. Practice and get super comfortable with having your board straight and flat (not on an edge). Practice bombing dead straight down gentle hills. Butters are good too like you said, and ollies too, cause they both done with a flat base (the basic ones at least).
-When you get to the park you will have to point straight at a jump and not turn or be on edge as you leave the lip, or you may get off balance when learning.
-When trying your first 50/50 on a box. You will literally be flat base up the ramp, definitely flat base on the box, and flat base down the down ramp.
So that’s the best thing you can practice to get you ready for some park action. 
Hey Nake92, Good to see you made it here 
Hope you can find what you’re looking for a bit better.
As Andy has said, keeping that flat base is key to starting in the park. Balance and stance are what you will need to focus on while learning. Remember your basic stance, bent knees, and shoulders above your feet.
You can always ask round in the park as well- especially instructors. Most riders are more than happy to give a few pointers.
Yeah andy I am working the lifts in front valley, 28th start date yeeeew!
I’m friends with a girl who is instructing and she absolutely rips, but I may grab a lesson off you if you don’t mind!
I’m thinking on every 2 day break I get I’ll get a normal lesson the first day and a park lesson the second.
I can straight air small jumps (very small) and 50-50 boxes & rails (small ones) just trying to board slide I seem to always slide out, I’m told this is because I’m used to leaning back when riding heel side to dig an edge in but I need to be flat on the rail.
Andy - How do I go about booking lessons with certain people at certain places do you know?
Welcome to Boardworld Nake! All our resident instructors here know their stuff, so feel free to keep asking questions and drain them for all they are worth
Make sure you invest in a helmet if you have not already got one. Thats my piece of advice 
Good luck with the park riding!
Yeah andy I am working the lifts in front valley, 28th start date yeeeew!
I’m friends with a girl who is instructing and she absolutely rips, but I may grab a lesson off you if you don’t mind!
I’m thinking on every 2 day break I get I’ll get a normal lesson the first day and a park lesson the second.
I can straight air small jumps (very small) and 50-50 boxes & rails (small ones) just trying to board slide I seem to always slide out, I’m told this is because I’m used to leaning back when riding heel side to dig an edge in but I need to be flat on the rail.Andy - How do I go about booking lessons with certain people at certain places do you know?
Sweet man, I used to be a lifty too. You’ll probably work with some of my friends.
The thing I see a lot of people do when trying to learn boardslides is jump, turn their board and their body 90 degrees and land on the rail. This isn’t wrong (if u want to ride out switch) but it’s not a good way to learn, and usually ends in people slipping out on their heel edge.
-Try riding onto the box 50/50 and then “tweaking” the board into the boardslide position. While keeping your shoulders aligned with the box. This way you can have your board flat and get your balance first, then boardslide a little.
Also only turn the board a little to start with, and then turn it more and more every time, until eventually your tweaking it all the way to 90 degrees.
If you get that down. Let me know and I’ll tell you the next step. Happy sliding!
Oh and if you want to book a lesson, you just have to tell your manager or supervisor and they will call Snow Sports and book it for you.
I’m guessing you can also ask your manager to request a certain location and instructor.
The advice about getting super happy with a flat base is gold, throw in as many ollies as you can while doing this. Think skateboard style weighting the tail and then springing up and landing squarly back on both feet still on a flat base. Make sure when you get low to load up for your ollie that you’re mostly bending with your legs and not bending over at the waist too much.
Keep us up to date with how you get on and as K2 says drain this forum for all it’s worth…..especially if you can post video, that’s always cool.
Hey Nake92, welcome to Boardworld. 
You must be so stoked to be spending the season at Perisher. I have a season pass and I hope to be down at Perisher at least a few times this season.
The more solid you become at the fundamental skills of snowboarding, the more efficiently you will progress.
As the others mentioned, become really comfortable riding flat based at speeds. Already super comfortable? Challenge yourself on bumpy terrain! Loosen your legs and absorb all the bumps while keeping the board flat.
You said you’ve worked on your switch riding a bit. Keep practising switch as much as possible. This is one of the keys to freestyle progression. Learn to flat base, carve, and even ride bumps switch.
I see snowboarding as having four riding edges: toeside, heelside, switch heelside, and switch toeside. Learn to take off and land on all four of these edges!
Learn all the four 180s: frontside, backside, cab, switch backside.
Then mix it up to challenge yourself. Try 180s the hard way. i.e. frontside 180s off your toes, backside 180s off your heels, and so on…
Play around with fore and aft pressure control (pressing on your nose and tail). Get confortable with nosepresses, tailpresses, then try both switch!
From there you have a lot of fundamental skills to play around with. Buttering is super fun and the next step after you learn nosepresses etc. Now it’s just a matter of putting all the skills together. Play around with it, get creative, and watch yourself progress!
Have fun dude!
backside spins off ya heels are f*n ridiculous!!
Get a hold of the snowboard addiction dvd’s is my tip.
So much gold on there that will add to the lessons you will be haing. Plus Boardworld members get 10% off
^^ I can’t believe I forgot to mention that. Their freestyle progression DVDs are the bomb. Well worth the investment.
http://www.snowboardaddiction.com - use the discount code boardworld for a 10% discount on all their products.
backside spins off ya heels are f*n ridiculous!!
I can only do backside 180s off my heels. They are pretty fun off rollers.
It all comes down to upper and lower body separation (an important skill when it comes to freestyle anyway). Your upper and lower body can and will rotate independently if you allow it to happen. Think about a frontside boardslide; the upper body counter-rotates and the upper and lower bodies are separated by as much as 180 degrees.
This is exactly what needs to happen for backside 180s off the heels. Set the edge, pop, then split your upper and lower body; your upper body pretty much stays in the same place, you separate at the waist and the board rotates 180 degrees. When you’re snowboarding next, give it a try on the flat. Even do it stationary. Practice 180s on the ground by separating your upper and lower body. As you get better, there’s probably smoother ways to do it (which I am yet to do haha), but this is the first step in the progression. I was taught this by one of the freestyle trainers at Whistler Blackcomb.
I know it sounds hard but it’s achievable if you work on it.
so trying that on the weekend
yeah damn I wish I could try it any time soon! arrggghhh!!!
backside spins off ya heels are f*n ridiculous!!
It all comes down to upper and lower body separation (an important skill when it comes to freestyle anyway). Your upper and lower body can and will rotate independently if you allow it to happen. Think about a frontside boardslide; the upper body counter-rotates and the upper and lower bodies are separated by as much as 180 degrees.
So basically you twist yourself up in the air and then untwist when your legs & board are anchored back on the snow?