Alrighty, it’s time to share my deepest, darkest secret. I’m a closet scaredy cat. I don’t like to change lanes while driving, let alone even consider doing any of the stunts that your legit snowskater does multiple times daily. But, I’ve decided, for snowskating’s sake, I need to establish a little arsenal of tricks. Ideally, tricks that illustrate that I’m not strapped in.
I can do little ollies. I have the body varial pretty much down (although, I always feel like a dweeb when I do it). This weekend, my goal was to land a legit shove it. John Zapata agreed to be my shove it coach and gave me tons of helpful hints. It was really cool because at Heavenly, all the ski patrol guys and gals are super supportive of snowskating. Several times, patrol came by to watch me eat it repeatedly and tell John that they were impressed with his shove it skills. Eventually, I landed a couple.
The other reason why Heavenly is so cool is that they often have free cookies and mini hot chocolates for you at the end of the day. To celebrate my shove it success, John and I each had one free cookie which we were entitled to, then we split another cookie that a child accidentally dropped and then ran away from crying. Ten second rule.
How to shove it: Get a little bit of speed. Pretend like you are going to Ollie. When you are at about a manual, scoop the tail of your skate behind you with your toes while simultaneously pushing the front of your skate in front of you with your front foot. Jump off the board while it spins. When it hits 180 degrees…stomp the landing. It helps me to think of a ballerina when I do it. I’m not sure if this is universally helpful, though. The toughest part is making sure you put enough pressure on the tail. If you don’t, the skate won’t spin all the way around. Motivate yourself by promising yourself a cookie and a mini hot chocolate if you land one. Tried and true! Trick and Treat.
Hilarious Picture
I’ll say this about shuv-its on a snowskate. They’re pretty hard compared to skateboarding, in fact any skateboard trick on a snowskate besides simply cruising is pretty difficult.
So good for you Kendra for riding away!
Shuv-its off of boxes are bit easier than on snow, you just have to deal with the sketch factor of riding the box. On snow, I find the tail of the ski will often bite into the snow and the board will flip upside down. One thing I’ve found that helps is actually carving a bit into the shuv-it, toe side for backside shuvs and heel side for frontside. Also really popping it helps it hop out of the snow so it doesn’t catch. Carving into frontside shuvs feels so cool, way different than on a skateboard.
I think what’s so cool about snowskating is totally new trick are possible like Alan’s backside boardslide to frontside disaster. i don’t think anybody’s ever done that on a skateboard.
Coffins on a snowskate are an instant classic too!