What is it that makes people want to ride rails???

So I’ve been pondering the attraction some people have to rails, and I don’t quite understand it myself.

No doubt it requires a high degree of skill.

If you ride rails what is it that you like about it?

I used to be a park rat, and love rails. Not so much anymore. Prefer to shred the whole hill and find natrual features, slide fallen trees and branches, or just charge down hill full pelt!

I still enjoy it though. Think it is just a progression of doing tricks. A challenge and the feeling of sucess when you pull a new move

Just ask yourself the same question in regards to whatever it is you like to do.

Motivations can come from anywhere, regardless of if it’s freeriding, rails, kickers, or any other aspect of any sport - wanting to do something you saw someone else do, wanting to be better than someone else, or wanting to be better than you already are.

For me it’s about competing with friends and just improving personally. I don’t get a specific buzz out of rails, I think it’s just easier to gauge progression in the park than it is in big mountain freeride.

I have just started doing rails and for me it just seems to be the next thing to do to progress.

i mean the park is really just a simulation of things that you may find when you are snowboarding. sometimes in the quest to get from A to B you need to jump over something or slide across something. having park skills certainly does improve your natural mountain riding.

And vice versa!

I don’t really do rails, but I do boxes. I think I have the skills to do a few rails, but not the skills to do those rails with 100% success rate, so I mostly opt out.

The consequences of screwing up can be so gnarly and I feel like I’m too old (at 30) to get able to easily get up from stacks and keep riding. I’d prefer to just progress in tiny increments and keep myself as safe as possible, and not miss any days on the hill because of injury.

Boxes are really fun though, and I get enjoyment from them because there are so many different tricks and variations of tricks that you can try to master, let alone mastering them with style! It gives lots of opportunity for progression. The feeling of stoke when you learn something new on a snowboard is pretty much the most fun that there is to be had.

I think Crackers should post his “Why I don’t ride rails anymore” vid, here!...its crazy & not for the faint-hearted!

i havent tried rails yet but they are interesting me more and more…..im pretty confident and fine on boxes, just getting that confidence up for the rails is the problem at the moment…i keep thinking about all the potential of caning myself lol mind you at the same time, i don’t spend much time in the park either, i prefer cruising around the whole mountain

EDIT: sorry double post

Why ride rails?  Hmmm, i don’t really see it as any different to hitting jumps.  why ride jumps or rails?  Cos it’s fun to scare yourself a little bit and the feeling of locking in to a trick and stomping it or sailing through the air knowing you’re in great shape is a feeling to be cherished and pursued.

Also you can’t do frontside or backside tricks on most boxes (not that there aren’t a shedload of cool tricks that you can do on them!)

What are rails?  Seriously though I don’t even really look at them to be honest, I have enough fun and challenges on the jump line to keep me more than amused.  The feeling of floating through the air seems way more fun than sliding on a rail to me.

I have tons of respect for people who ride rails, but for myself I don’t see why I wanna ride rails. It hurts when you bail and it’s not really SNOWboarding (in my opinion), and to be honest it’s just not interesting for me. To me snowboarding is riding down a mountain, making turns be it on fresh pow or not, doing side hits, jumps or whatever is on the way down. That’s why I don’t really like watching clips/video parts with just rails (especially street rails) or just big jumps in the park or backcountry. I prefer watching people actually snowboard down the mountain.

Agree with skip!!!

Rails equals ouchy in my opinion!!

I HATE watching street rails like Skip. The last Oi mate was painful to watch!!

Crazy Kids!

I see your point, skip. Of all my riding days though, I can’t have had more than 10 powder days at the most?

I love riding the mountain, but once the corduroy is gone and everything is chopped up, I don’t see any fun in just riding down moguled slopes and dodging punters. Maybe cos I’m just not good enough but if there isn’t powdery tree runs to be had or something, after the two hours of riding, I’m not sure how people can enjoy being anywhere except the park?

skip11 - 10 September 2012 06:05 AM

I have tons of respect for people who ride rails, but for myself I don’t see why I wanna ride rails. It hurts when you bail and it’s not really SNOWboarding (in my opinion), and to be honest it’s just not interesting for me. To me snowboarding is riding down a mountain, making turns be it on fresh pow or not, doing side hits, jumps or whatever is on the way down. That’s why I don’t really like watching clips/video parts with just rails (especially street rails) or just big jumps in the park or backcountry. I prefer watching people actually snowboard down the mountain.

+1

Love watching people with impeccable carving and making the most of the natural terrain. It has to be a really well edited park video to peak my interest.

cords - 10 September 2012 06:31 AM

I see your point, skip. Of all my riding days though, I can’t have had more than 10 powder days at the most?

I love riding the mountain, but once the corduroy is gone and everything is chopped up, I don’t see any fun in just riding down moguled slopes and dodging punters. Maybe cos I’m just not good enough but if there isn’t powdery tree runs to be had or something, after the two hours of riding, I’m not sure how people can enjoy being anywhere except the park?

Oh yes, this so much. I don’t get it - After the pow has been turned to chop and becomes a battle to ride, I don’t understand why people go there. In fact, what happens to the snow after powder annoys me to the point where I really hate powder in bounds. In the Saddle at TC, gets chopped to shit after about 3 hours, and after that it crusts over and becomes a mission to ride - The Chutes are sweet ‘cause everyone just takes the easy routes in there so if you’re willing to push yourself you can find fresh lines all day. But this is why a park is always needed - when the snow is crap, then instead of just enjoying the ride, you can enjoy challenging yourself in a different riding style.

Yeah, I’m more saying that 95% of the time, you’re just riding slopes and not powder, and riding slopes gets boring to me as soon as everything is chopped and moguled up and it takes all the fun out of it.
To be honest, I didn’t really like TC for that reason. I went there one day, realised it would be great on a powder day and then didn’t go back. I know they normally get some kind of park going but not sure what its like and it sure ain’t better than snow park! Plus, only having 2 lifts means lines get crazy pretty easily. When we were there, saddle was closed for more than half the day, it was a 45min wait to ride some crappy chopped up slopes and I wished I’d never agreed to go there.