By Nick Collyer in 2023
When watching someone freeride down challenging, variable, off trail terrain, what is it that makes them stand out to you? When you are freeriding yourself, do you get more satisfaction ripping a run to bits completely, using everything you’ve got? Or do you prefer the feeling of cruising down staying in control and making movements as efficiently as possible to conserve energy? How about a specific turn type that you prefer? Or do you tend to have a combination of different movement patterns that you use in different situations?
I compare the way that a freerider deals with challenges that present themselves on a black run, to the way that a martial artist would deal with the attacks from an opponent. A kung fu master doesn’t use one type of punch or kick that they would use repeatedly, instead they have a great number of moves that they use to counter what is thrown by the opponent. Sometimes they can predict what the opponent does next, and can intuitively plan what they will do next, and other times they need to have the experience with different movements so that they can autonomously use them on the fly and can connect one move that they execute straight into the next one so that it all blends together fluidly.
A similar concept can be applied when having experience with all the different turn types, and will allow you to be more dynamic with how you flow with different situations when freeriding. Now let’s think about some different turn types we can use… Extended edge change, flexed edge change, terrain unweighting, retraction turns, dolphin turns. Acquiring these skills so that you can perform them autonomously will allow you to flow from one type to another if desired. An example of this could be an extended edge change turn where you might feel comfortable being a bit taller at the edge change, but then as you are flexing towards the completion of the turn you notice an icy patch that makes you want to continue to flex through your range for a more stable flexed edge change. Steering through the next turn you might decide in the moment to powerfully extend uphill and then retract your board to get around a rock that is in your path. This is one example of many possibilities.
WIth experience also comes the ability to make adjustments to the way you apply your movements to a turn. Think about a flexed edge change. You could gently move down and across the board to handle a patch of crud, or you could extend a bit more powerfully at the end of the last turn for a quick rebound snap onto the new edge as you aggressively rip into the next turn. It’s the same turn type applied in a different way for a different outcome.
How do you decide what you will do in a given situation? This would usually come intuitively based on a number of factors that could include… the conditions, how close you are to your peak for the day, your energy levels, whether you are familiar with the terrain, or purely what you feel like expressing in that moment. This will change day to day the same way a fighter may be focusing more on their attacks one day, or fighting more defensively another day.
I Hope this gives you some insight and a way of looking at how you can train towards using different turn types together to become a more dynamic freerider.