Hey all you snowboarders out there. I'm thinking this might be an obvious question here BUT is it worthwhile for me to take my limited snowboarding skills to a local hill to get some riding time in? Or should I just keep the learning kite-oriented?

I'm pretty locked in riding goofy (my regular stance) but switch is still a struggle. Would time practicing on the hills help under the kite too or is it too different in your opinion?

I'm curious to hear about this as well... just did my first bit of snowboarding, wouldn't say I'm locked in but I'm makin it down goofy.... switch well never mind. Love it though it does seem to me impossible to have a go snowkiting without previous skills!

So here's my question (If I may hijack -- hope you don't mind macboy) How much skill do you snowkiters think is needed on snowboard before having reasonable success mixing it up with a kite?

Hi,
my experience is that they both help to improve each other.
So it is worth to buy the lift ticket on those windless days. Of course only if the ticket is reasenable priced.
I ride regular stance on the hill on my own, and practice goofy stance when I am with my son. That helps to improve for not only snowkiting but kiteboarding as well.
good luck, and do not forget the helmet when you practice the other stance!
Gabe

Any time spent riding 'switch' will give you board-skills and experience that will serve you in any other board-sport. A lift ticket and time on the bunny hill riding switch for a day is enough to get the basics in(it's really effective if you go switch 100% for the day. unbuckle the opposite foot at lift lines, try to spend the entire time switch, etc..). I would say you must have experience riding switch to have upwind-success in both directions on any kiteboarding-sport, otherwise you develop it fast. It's something I work on every time I go out.

So yes, a good idea. Will build confidence. Have a fun day on a cheap hill working on it and it pays off in upwind spades.

get out there and snow kite!!! be careful though!

With kite skills I don't see why one couldn't just strap into the board and give it a go. There's a lot of people who don't have any wakeboard experience before trying kiteboarding. Just like anything I'd just start in the lower winds till I had and good understanding of how to use the board. I have found that because of kiting in general, I'm a more confident downhill rider. I still am leery of jumps and rails though. The downhill riding will offer another way to hone your board skills, making snowkiting more enjoyable, and snowkiting making your downhill riding more enjoyable. I really like the idea of going and spending an entire day riding switch. I haven't gone to an actual skii hill this year, but when I do I'm gonna try that. After a few hours its gotta start flowing naturally.....right????? I'd go give it a try one windless day on the weekend. Just like skiing its a ton of fun.

I knew how to snowboard before taking up kiting, but I didn't ride switch on the hill.

In general, I find that edging with the kite and riding on the hill require different weight distributions. In my particular case, I found riding switch easier while on the kite. That is with my old board though (old mountain freeride board with a relatively large setback). I gave riding switch a chance on the hill, but never got far with it. Switch on the hill felt *terrible* with the setback that was on the board. But, like I said, I was riding switch with the kite with this same board. It wasn't 100% natural, but I was surprised at how comfortable I did feel in comparison to the hill. My new board is much better on the hill for switch, and just feels that much more natural with switch on the kite.

Either way, I would go for it. It is probably still worth it to spend a day at the hill 'going the wrong way'.

The one thing I was able to notice (and start to correct as I struggled my way back home switch) was that I had my weight WAY OVER my left foot (back foot). I noticed it because it looked so........wrong. Then I noticed my front foot was pointing backwards (Pivot System) and thought "Hmm....let's try turning it forward" and sure enough it got a bit better. But I was still way back on the back leg.

Seem to recall a similar stance when I was playing around downhilling with the ATB. Goofy was as normal as can be but I always put way too much weight on my back foot switch.

I'm gonna hit the hill (with kneepads and hillbilly shorts). A local river valley hill has $7 lift tix if you bring a donation for the food bank. Not as big as Olympic Park but enough to learn what I gotta learn. Hell, I could learn on the toboggan hill across the street form me but there's no tow rope there

sounds familiar, when I was first learning switch, I had to make mental notes of what my body did when riding normal, and then fine tune my switch riding to mimick it as much as possible.

Set your stance to duckfooted (-15, 15) and give it a shot. I'm a very experienced and confident snowboarder, this allowed me to just pick up a 12m kite and strap a snowboard on and go. I wouldn't recommend it, I'm a very fast learner and even I got my butt kicked a few times.

Riding switch will definitely help you learn, however on a kite it is way easier/different because you're always on your heel edge. The hard part about riding switch when going downhill is doing turns on your toe side, and transitioning between your toe and heel edges.

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Originally posted by furbowski I'm curious to hear about this as well... just did my first bit of snowboarding, wouldn't say I'm locked in but I'm makin it down goofy.... switch well never mind. Love it though it does seem to me impossible to have a go snowkiting without previous skills! So here's my question (If I may hijack -- hope you don't mind macboy) How much skill do you snowkiters think is needed on snowboard before having reasonable success mixing it up with a kite?

I never really did more than minimal board riding on anything until I got my MBS board. From the very begining I forced myself to ride both directions. This did not really translate well for me to snowboarding. My first snowkiting experience did not work well on my snowboard. I spent a day riding down the gentle side of the local sledding hill trying to carve and slide as much as possible. The next time I tried snow kiting I rode for a mile each direction and it was amazing, until the wind died.

Furbs, my personal experience is that kiting experience wasn't enough to just jump on a board but once I had a little skill with the board they went very well together. I think, with good board skill, a little kite skill would be sufficient. Also, I think that kiteboarding translates well to snowkiting.

I personally had a lot of downhill snowboarding experience (6yrs) before I learned how to fly a power kite. I downhill ride double forward (15/30, right foot lead). Learning how to snowkite was easy right foot lead, but left foot took me some practice to get down. Not long however.

Kitesurfing translates very well to snowkiting in deep powder. Hardpack is a different story.

Having said that, I do think that downhill riding will greatly assist in getting your feet and legs figured out for snowkiting. I know quite a few people who have improved in both because of the other (buddy was a mediocre snowkiter, mediocre downhill rider but after time under the kite was a much better downhill rider, and after doing two downhill sessions his snowkiting stepped up a notch too...)

ANY balancing board sport is gonna help!. ALL DAY! anyway! just keep doing it til you find your balance.

now i can't tell anymore which is which esp. landing jumps you want even think about.

when i started on ATB I was a complete zero , definitely NO downhill.

you'll be poppin'180s by the end of the day, good head and body control .

practice well controlled static switches, and a little bump in the ride is perfect to pop to switched.

strong side forward was the hardest to switch back for me, YOU always can carve it out.

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Originally posted by PHREERIDER practice well controlled static switches, and a little bump in the ride is perfect to pop to switched.

Great tip! Woulda never thought of that.

Went to the hill myself today actually. Your comment kinda reminded me that I haven't been in a while. I was expecting great powder out there but....well..that is another story. It was nice to get out I guess to work on some technique.

The first few times down reminded me at how different snowkiting and hill riding are. Each *can* help each other but they are different animals. Turns out I had gotten quite rusty at the whole carving thing. I realized in short order that my weight transitions to initiate carves were non-existant the first few runs! Snowkiting too much is bad for the hill technique! lol

I'll live with that though. Snowboarding on decent but not great conditions on the hill reminds me at how much I like kiting.

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Originally posted by kitedelight ... Snowboarding on decent but not great conditions on the hill reminds me at how much I like kiting.

I have to agree with ya there... Every time I'm at the mountain, I'm thinking how much I would rather be under a kite... Not enough snow in the DC area to make day trips a reality for kiting though.. Gotta make do with what you can down here...

I came to snowkiting (with a snowboard) from a kiteboarding background and found it really easy to pick up. I've posted a few snowkiting videos recently 'from Nova Scotia, Canada'. The 'compilation' video was my 3rd session, and the other video was my 6th session ever. I find it's similiar but still quite different from riding on water. Love the extra hangtime on a hill.

Snowboarding stance is with your weight slightly forward or neutral. For me, the main difference with snowkiting with a snowboard is keeping your weight more over the backfoot as you would on the water for edging and, of course, having the kite to lean back agianst.

I can see an agruement to be made for snowkiting creating bad habits for snowboarding and vise versa. Then again, more time on a board can't be a bad thing. Lucky for me the snowkiting spot is on the way to the ski hill so there's always a back up plan for no wind days!