Snow Skills

Just because they are snowboard boots doesn’t mean you need four arms and a winch to tie the laces. Sure, they should be snug, tight enough that the knot stays tied. And they should also be tight enough that you take up all of the slack between the blatter and your lower leg.

But you shouldn’t need to tighten them so much that you frequently break the laces on your snowboard boots, you need a tool to help tighten them, or someone else to get a better angle and tighten them for you.
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Learning how to skate on a snowboard, or even just walk around, is difficult. Walking with one shoe that is five feet long and turned sideways isn’t exactly intuitive. And there isn’t much in live where you can apply previous knowledge or skill to the task.

Getting over the clumsiness can be as simple as tricking your brain. Your legs and arms are linked to each other through your brain in ways I don’t really understand, but it amounts to this. People who have difficulty skating are almost always hanging their forward arm at a 90° angle and muscles tense. Observe someone having difficulty with skating, and watch their front arm.
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Tony knows snowboarding too. (Previously we discussed that Tony knows cross country skiing.) And what is it that Tony knows? He knows that his toe, knee, and nose should always be in a straight line. (If you still don’t get the riddle, say “toe knee nose” a few times fast.

In snowboarding, this best applies while skating across flats from one lift to another, or while getting on and off lifts on a snowboard. Your nose, and then your knee and toes of your front foot should follow in a straight line. When you look from your nose to your knee your toes should be directly behind the view of your knee if you are in a balanced posture.
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