Despite its massive size and incredible snow Mammoth Mountainis known around the world for its terrain parks, and if you ride Mammoth it will be easy to see why.
Even though Mammoth has plenty of terrain parks with smaller features, it’s still a daunting task to get your first few tricks under your belt and feel confident in your park skills. At ASO Mammothwe want everyone’s Mammoth Mountain experience to be so good that they come back for more, so to help you enjoy the terrain park we’ve put together a quick guide on how to hit simple rails and boxes. Check it out below!
Ask Yourself if You’re Ready
Before you try to hit a box or rail, you must ask yourself if you’re ready. If your balance isn’t good enough to ride uninterrupted by leaning or correcting yourself, then you need to work on your riding or skiing before your start hitting boxes and rails. You’ll need to quickly correct your balance, speed, or direction when you get off a box or rail, so if you can’t do that then work on your skills outside of the park before entering.
Start With a Box
At a place that values progression as much as Mammoth, you’ll see a ton of different features on your ride through the park. However, you can always rely on a simple box in terrain parks where beginners are welcome. A box is a wide, flat rectangular feature that is perfect for a beginner to hit.
You’ll want to start with a straight box to feel how slick they are. The most important thing to keep in mind when you hit a box for the first time is to keep your weight centered, stay off your edges, and keep your speed up.
The flatter your board or skis are when you’re on top of a box, the easier you will slide and the less likely you are to fall off the side or have your legs slide out from under you. We also recommend keeping you speed up because the slower you slide on top of the box the more likely you are to lose your balance if you stall out.
Once you’ve hit the box straight on a few times, A.K.A. a 50/50, you can push yourself from there. Whether that means just practicing ollieing onto and off a box or rotating your board or skis and doing a board or box slide, push yourself forward as you get more comfortable with riding the surface or a box.
Then Move Onto Rails
You should be comfortable with ollieing onto boxes and have a few box tricks underneath your belt before you move onto hitting a rail as for most rails you’ll need to get some height to actually get on top.
When you’re ready, you’ll want to approach a rail with speed just like you did for a box so you don’t stall out or come off the side of the rail. You will hit the jump in front of the rail, or if there is no jump simply ollie, with the rail parallel to you. Once you land on top of the rail, you’ll want to keep your knees bent and back straight if snowboarding. On skis, you’ll need to turn your skis 90 degrees after you ollie and land on the rail, but once you’re sliding you’ll want to keep your knees slightly bent and you back foot completely flat while your front foot controls your slide.For more Mammoth Mountain information call your stop by ASO Mammoth!