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Alfonso Salinas

My progress Apr 27, 2025

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Josh Brower

CASI 3 & Aus Coach, Whistler Valley Snowboard Club Coach, WB Race League ...
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Lift Notes

⤷ means “has the effect of…”

🥅 Goal: faster, steeper, have real control in a turn

Keep the edges sharp!


Being able to pick more interesting lines comes from a internal confidence that you can adapt to and absorb whatever (unknowns) that line might bring. So let’s get your riding be able to better (quickly) adapt to the terrain.

In same vein, avoiding random falling comes from being able to react to snow changes mid-turn.

🕵️‍♂️ What's going on?


Currently, you’re keeping your centre of mass pretty far from the board, quite far over the edge.

⤷ This makes it a lot harder to react / adapt / absorb in time when hitting a bump mid turn

⤷ This is why sometimes you are randomly falling.

Keep the centre of mass of your body on top of the board, and as close to it as possible board.

📏 Hips closer to the board

On the heel side, try to think about vertically aligning the back pockets on your snow pants with your highbacks and sinking vertically down towards your board In particular, focus on the back hip. ⤷ this will also allow you to slightly open your chest towards your direction of travel and get a better field of view / situational awareness

On the toe side, try to avoid folding at the waist. Imagine pointing your spine directly into the middle of your board rather than having it point out behind your heel edge ⤷ Doing both of these will get your hips (your centre of mass) to be closer to the board while keeping it directly above it. ⤷ You'll find that you can adjust your balance way more easily, therefore being able to react much faster.

🦵 More bend in ankles (and knees)

A little more engagement in the ankles & lower leg is what's going allow you to get those hips even lower while keeping them vertically over the board. When riding, think about keeping your legs in a < shape and not an r shape! Really focus on keeping the shins at less than perpendicular from your board. ⤷ This is a trick that gets your hips to sink down just a little more.


⤷ This will also turn your legs into a much better suspension system. Much better for the knees. Much more effortless when riding, especially on imperfect snow. ⤷ This is how you can absorb shocks without having to move your centre of mass to compensate.

Over the off season, it's easy to get a feel for this additional range of motion. Before you ride, a warm up / stretch will also help open up your body’s movements.

↔️ Try using hips to turn

Actively using the hips is going to help a lot when turning. This is something a lot of people overlook.

Experiment with moving the hips laterally across the width of the board. Do this on a super mellow run and with a fully flat base while traversing across the hill (so you keep a constant speed). Toe side: hip thrust up the hill. Heel side: bum vertically down towards rear highback. ⤷ Will show you how this hip movement affects the edges of the board

⤷ Help you get familiar with being in a super stacked position when initiating a turn

⤷ When you initiate turns like this, you’ll be able to adapt to the terrain much better.

🤏 Prioritize shorter turns

When riding, try to prioritize shorter, quicker turns over the long carves.

⤷ Practice being super versatile.

⤷ When putting the above points into action, this will help you get familiar with having that instant control of the board, even backing out of a turn if you need to.

Try doing a lot of small adjustments when riding. ⤷ “Working harder” and bing more active is going to allow you to be more loose and adaptable, better able to absorb uneven snow. (Oxymoronically, this will make you look more effortless.)

⤷ Building the confidence that you are in full control no matter how the snow is going to turn out is the key to going fast and choosing fun lines.

🏡 Try at home

Wall sit with shoulders, hips, and heels all against the wall. Get as low as you can, a wider stance can help.

https://storage.tally.so/7dd603ce-99d7-47a3-a5e2-bed259f21a6d/shipAsset-1.webp
Do this to increase / get used to having more ankle range of motion (video here)
https://storage.tally.so/39baa19a-1a72-496e-94f4-ae36a90f8efa/shipAsset-2.webp

Try bending your boot with just the foot muscles! This is the feeling to focus on when riding

Experiment with boot tightness (shin part of the boot)

Toe & heel raises can help maintain & build ankle strength and improve your ability to affect your boot come winter

Continue the progress with your next session here.