We bet you want to learn how to stand up on your snowboard. Been trying for a while but can’t seem to make it happen? Yeah, that happens. You can spend years focusing on how to get better at snowboarding in general without making any strides with your standing.
Snowboarding isn’t as easy as it appears, especially when learning how to “stand up” on a snowboard. This is an incredibly common problem. The best way to tackle this is to understand there isn’t just one single trick or skill you need to learn.
It’s really a collection of things that take time and practice to develop the right muscle memory and awareness of what you need to do to stand without thinking about it. It gets a lot easier and more natural after you have all the necessary steps in place.
Following are the steps to guide you on how to stand up on a snowboard.
Step 1 – Bend your knees and lean forward.
- First, get into the proper position for standing up. Bend your knees until they are over your toes, and then lean forward, so your weight is over the middle of the board instead of in the back where it was when seated in the snow. If this feels uncomfortable at first, don’t worry—it will feel more natural as soon as you get used to it.
- Next, you will use the snowboard to stand up. This is an important step, and it’s different from what you may be doing when getting up from a chair or anything else. Some seats are stable, but a snowboard is not until you can balance on it with both feet. So instead of pushing against the ground with your hand as you would when getting up from a chair, you will use the board itself to help you get up.
Step 2 – Move your back foot toward the rear binding.
- Bend your knees and shift your back foot toward the rear binding. (The binding is the plastic piece that holds your boot to the board.) This will help you keep an athletic stance.
- Position both feet parallel to each other, with your front foot slightly ahead of your back foot and angled outwards at around 12 o’clock and 2 o’clock, respectively.
- Keep your hips centered over your feet while maintaining an athletic stance with your knees bent, feet shoulder-width apart, arms out in front of you at 90 degrees, hands near each other but not touching.
- Rotate your chest downward toward the mountain so that it’s facing down the slope as you go down it in a controlled way.
Step 3 – Bring your knees directly under your hips.
Your knees should be directly under your hips. You should be bending them slightly, with your back straight and shoulders square. Don’t lean back; you’ll fall on your butt. Don’t lean too far forward, either! You’ll fall on your face.
Now that you’re feeling comfortable in the snowboarding position, it’s time to play with the width of your stance and the angle of your feet. If you’re having a hard time feeling centered while standing on your board, try shifting each foot slightly around until it feels right to you. You can then do the same thing in the other direction until you find an even better spot! (This might seem like overkill if you’re new to snowboarding, but trust me, getting familiar with the effects of being off-center can help you learn how to balance) This is important: every rider is different, so what feels comfortable for one person won’t necessarily feel comfortable for you.
Finally: don’t put weight on your arms. They’ll get tired fast if they’re doing all the work!
Step 4 – Shift your weight to the heels of both feet.
To stand up on a snowboard, shift your weight to the heels of both feet. Bend your knees and lower into a squat position so that your legs are slightly bent as though you’re about to sit down in a chair. Keep your hips forward, knees over toes, and shoulders over your knees as you do this. Don’t lean too far forward or backward. Keep an upright posture and don’t tuck in your head or bend down to the ground. Instead, hold it tall with eyes looking ahead.
Step 5 – Brace your core to take the weight off your arms.
When you’re trying to stand up, one of the hardest parts is lifting your torso high enough to get your feet strapped into your bindings. Bracing your core takes a lot of pressure off your arms, so it’s easier to straighten them out and lean forward.
To brace, bring the muscles in your stomach back towards each other. This will help stabilize you instead of letting you flail around while you’re trying to stand up.
At first, when we say “straighten out your arms”, what we really mean is “push down so hard on the snow that you can’t bend them anymore.” You don’t have to hold this position for very long—only long enough for gravity to take over, which should be about 2-3 seconds after standing up! If you have any flexibility in your arms, keep pushing harder until they are stiff and locked out.
Our Final Thoughts
You can stand up on a snowboard by leaning forward, shifting your weight, and bracing yourself with your arms and legs.
It’s normal to feel awkward standing up on a snowboard, but you’ll get used to it with practice. The main thing is keeping your body in alignment. You want to make sure that your weight is distributed evenly as much as possible and properly braced. You also want to be attentive to how you’re moving; make sure you aren’t leaning too far forward or backward.
Now that you’ve learned how to stand up on a snowboard, you should know it’ll take some work, but if you practice enough, it will become second nature!
