Down rail difficulty.

I’ve recently learnt a few tricks on a round down pipe about 6 inches in diameter.  I love the way because of its size it’s easy to ‘grab’ and find your balance on.  Whereas there is a shotgun down rail that i don’t fancy too much.  Just wondering how people rate the difficulty level for pipes, single down rails (scaffolding) shotgun rails and down boxes.

I find front 50s on down boxes quite hard as you don’t tend to try and grab it instead just jumping on the top.  Just wondering if any of the shredders on this site had a view or any tips on how they approach these features differently.

Hey Aidy, been thinking about this one. I love the type of rail you’re talking about also. For me it was this mailbox in the park at Thredbo in 2006 - probably my favourite feature in the park that season. I would session that thing for hours. It was basically a big round metal rail on the top of the mailbox. Bigger and grippier than yours but I know what you’re getting at. Really fun to learn tricks on.

With the 50-50s on the downbox, I get that too. People jump onto them, rather than riding onto it. I think the key is to keep everything smooth and controlled from the time you drop in. You need to judge speed correctly, angle correctly, pop correctly. If you come in slow you jump to get on. Perhaps the problem comes from lack of commitment to riding fast into a rail. I’ve heard people say it before, just ride into it faster. Easier said than done…

Down rails are by far the hardest. Honestly I try to avoid them. For me the wider it is, the easier it is to stay balanced on. I’m interested to hear how others approach them..?

I think with downrails the big thing is a smooth transfer of weight. It’s like stepping out onto a boat, if you jump out onto it with stiff legs everything will move underneath you and you will lose your balance. If you can step gently onto it and relaxed transfer your weight onto the boat. I think the best trick for getting this feel on downrails are noseslides because you are basically stepping off your back foot and onto your front foot on the down rail and idealy coming onto that front foot smoothly and steadily. If you get a good position at the beginning then that is the most of the hard work of the trick done.

Also you say about the 50-50s being harder on down boxes because you can’t lock it in and I’d agree with you. I think once you are comfortable hopping on to down rails they become easier for 50s than boxes because you can push off to either side of snow at any time. A box you can be stuck in the middle with bad balance. Round down rails especially give you the most control because your board flexs around them and you can lock into them and load up lots to spin off.

hope that helps!

Cheers for the imput amigos,  I’ve been feeling super comfy on the pipe i mentioned in my post.  Been trying front 1 into 5-0 on it today, can’t wait to have a go on a single bar (scaffold style) feature and see how many of my tricks i transfer.  The idea of being able to spin off easier is appealing as i’ve been trying various switchups and bagels on the many boxes here at remarks.

Good to hear from you both, i haven’t given up on us all riding together one of these days.  I know, its my fault for not being in whis!

So one thing I will say for sure is to look to the final destination no matter which of these features your hitting. If you look where you want to go then your chances of success are much greater. The speed coming into the rail or box has everything to do with the angle of the railing and like “Will” said its like stepping into a boat, must be gentle. I find with higher speeds I can connect with these features a lot better with a very small ollie. Just enough to get you on the rail but not too much that you land half way down. Also when you have speed your balance will generally throw you off the railing either at the end or on the side in a motion which you can recover in and land on your feet.

If that made sense good:) Now something I will say in any rider progression matter is your physical condition has everything to do with your riding level!!! Do exercises designed to strengthen your core and legs… Like squats and sit ups , planks are very good as well, try to hold them as long as you can and also do side planks….

I find with higher speeds I can connect with these features a lot better with a very small ollie.

Shane is so correct. Even with smaller features, anything on a down angle, speed is your friend. A big problem I had was the aforementioned “travelling” across the downbar with 50-50s. I found approaching at a higher speed allowed me to lock on much easier, and allowed me to focus on looking to the end of the rail.

My caution comes for locking in boardslides etc, dont let this habit permeate into your frontboards, back boards etc. When I learned to backside boardslide a down, my back boards quickly turned into backside blunts (aka I would still ‘travel’ across the rail) , now in a boardslide position. Again, this had to do with where my eyes were looking when approaching the feature. My line of site was over to the other side of the rail, and down at the end. My eyes SHOULD have been just inside the backside of the rail, and down the line where I wanted to land on the rail, not at the very end of it.

I’ve since solved this problem, and look forward to taming front boards on downs this year (my white leopard trick… hrmmm), but now realise its alllll in the eyes (and speed, as shaner said).

The term that is coming to mind when everyone is talking about “down rails” is not simply a rail that is slanted down hill, rather than a “flat” rail… but a rail that is NOT a ride on… that you have to come at an angle toward and hop onto… correct?
I have called these “street style” since last season, and I think that is an appropriate name, because there are not many ride-on rails that you will find on the streets.

So, with these street style rails, they are much more challenging compared to ride-on.

which I have never hit a street style rail, so I can only speculate. but I need to step up to one that I have rode past many times (at snowflex)

Which is why I need a friend to ride with more often, to learn things together and discuss what works or what doesnt. and to feel that I need to keep up with them, and them with me.