It would help if you took care of a few essentials before snowboarding. Snowboarding is an activity that requires sufficient gearing up. If you don’t ensure to pack yourself with the appropriate gear before stepping onto your snowboard, you might face some unpleasant consequences.
The more you follow the precautions, the safer you’ll be out on the snow. Also, if you want to enjoy your snowboarding trip, it’s better to take some preventive measures. This will help you prevent injuries, big or small. Before stepping on your snowboard, you must tightly pack your boots and bindings, then proceed snowboarding.
Allow us to take you through a pre-snowboarding ritual that you will have to follow.
Putting on Your Snow Boots
The first thing you’ll have to do before stepping in the snow is put on your boots as tightly as possible. Your snow boots protect your feet from the cold, allowing them to stay warm and dry. Please know that you can never snowboard if you don’t have an appropriate pair of boots. Your snow boots determine your safety in the snow, so please do not ignore their importance.
Types
Snow boots come in different types; the ones you choose are dependent on your style and comfort. You can choose from traditional, quick-pull, and boa snow boots. Traditional boots are your everyday boots with laces that go up. Quick-pull boots have a single handle that holds all the laces together, making them easier to tie. Lastly, boa snow boots have multiple dials that you’ll have to rotate to induce the lacing system.
Lacing Up
After you’ve chosen a specific style of boots, you need to ensure to tighten them up nicely. You’ll have to tie the laces, so they don’t come undone. However, you’ll also have to provide your feet aren’t going through too much pressure. Hence, please invest in a pair of boots that fit you perfectly so that your feet can stay relaxed inside the boot without sliding off.
Securing the Liner
When placing your foot inside the boot, tighten the internal liner first. After securing the liner, you need to tie your laces so that the boot doesn’t come off easily. It’s wise to tie a double-knot to ensure your foot stays as secure as possible. Ideally, your toes should barely touch the liner when you stand up. If you’re able to wiggle them, it’s a sign that your boot is loose and the laces need more tightening.
Strapping into Your Bindings
After successfully putting on your snow boots, it’s time to place them in your snowboard bindings. The bindings play an integral role in determining your safety as they ensure you don’t get wiped out. So, you will have to place your boots tightly into the bindings to enjoy your snowboarding experience fully. Failure to do so will probably result in you experiencing a terrible fall, which you wouldn’t want.
Types
Bindings come in two types: strap-in and speed entry. The former is the most common binding as most snowboarders prefer wearing them, while the latter is slowly growing an audience. Strap-in bindings have two straps; one to secure the ankle and another to secure the toes. When you place your boot inside the bindings, please see to it that the straps are shut tightly.
Sizing
You will have to be mindful of the size of the bindings against your boots and snowboard. If your bindings are too big for your boots and board, you will probably fall off before you can even start snowboarding. If they are too small, you won’t be able to apply the pressure required to make jumps and turns. So, the perfectly sized the bindings are, the better your snowboarding experience.
Snowboarding Stance
If you’re new to snowboarding, let us tell you that you need to form proper body language to begin snowboarding. It’s necessary to take your snowboarding stance before starting to snowboard. However, your stance depends on the kind of snowboarder you are. Firstly, understand if you’re a regular or a goofy snowboarder. These terminologies determine your skills as a snowboarder.
Since footwork is everything in snowboarding, you’ll have to know which foot you’re comfortable using while you snowboard. A regular snowboarder uses their left foot facing downhill, while a goofy snowboarder uses the right one. It’s highly recommended that you form your stance according to the foot you feel confident leading with.
When you know which foot you can lead with, you can form your snowboarding stance and begin to take off slowly. It also helps to know the type of slope you’re going to snowboard in. It will prepare you and make you comfortable knowing your terrain. Please do not snowboard on a mountain that’s too steep, especially if you don’t have the required skill set.
Stance Angles
This might sound too technical, but if you want to stay safe in the snow, you must do whatever it takes. It’s crucial to have the correct stance angle if you wish for comfort and fun in the snow. This requires you to angle your bindings as adequately as possible. If you don’t, you’ll experience plenty of discomfort on the mountain, not to mention the chances of having a fall.
The discomfort you might feel will negatively affect your feet and calves, causing severe pain. You might not feel it right away, but you’ll realize its extent after taking off your boots. So, the best way to avoid all that is to adjust the bindings’ angles to be more comfortable. You’ll find a mountain disc in the center of your bindings, where you’ll find different angles to change.
Our Final Thoughts
So, now that you know the few critical steps to follow before snowboarding, please ensure you go through them. These steps will only benefit you. The more carefully you follow the steps, the safer you’ll be in the snow. If you skip any of them, you might have to face some dire consequences, and trust us; you don’t want your snowboarding trip to become a nightmare.
