The Ultimate How-To Guide on Rail Tricks

This is a compilation of tricks written up by maddecent and tiptap. They constitute the majority of questions on rails laid down in this forum, so hopefully not too many people will keep on asking the same damn questions, with the same damn answers. If any problems arise over the readability of this guide, please PM either MADDECENT or Tiptap.

PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS THREAD
Give Karma where it's due, this was a lot of work.

MADDECENT: https://newschoolers.com/ns/members/profile/member_id/125529/

Tiptap: https://newschoolers.com/ns/members/profile/member_id/113858/


Alright, so on to the tricks



Rail Slide

Trick tip: MADDECENT

1. Approach the rail with your feet wide

2. POP before you begin to turn sideways, don't rush it.

3. As your tails leave the ground, turn sideways. Be looking at the end of the rail throughout the entire rail. When you are first learning, focus on keeping your shoulders facing downhill and having your lower body turned perpendicular to the rail. This will help drastically with keeping you on the rail the entire way.

4. Land on the rail with your feet wide and your knees bent. The vast majority of people will be used to hockey stopping on snow, so when they try to grind, they will lean back on their uphill edges and slip back. Some people teach 60% of your weight on your back foot, 40% on your front, but I say 50/50.

5. Keep wide feet, low stance, looking at the end of the rail, and with a few tries you'll have it down


Urban Rails

Trick Tip: MADDECENT

Prerequisite: Know how to do a basic rail slide. Urban rails are scary to learn, but are very very similar to just grinding regular rails.

1. Come up to the rail, with your inside ski about a foot to the side of the rail

2. When you are coming to the lip, bend your knees and prepare to pop

3. Again, POP before you start to turn. The worst thing about urban rails is turning too soon and hitting your tips on the siding of the rail. Terrifying.

4. When you are in the air, bend your knees and bring your skis up to the level of the rail. Don't pop so huge that you fly in the air with straight legs and come slamming down on the rail, it makes everything much harder. You should be able to bend your knees and then just drop your skis a couple inches onto the rail, and you'll already have your knees bent to help you be centered on the rail

5. Urban rails are a little faster than ride on boxes/rails, because they’re hit less often, so be prepared to go a little faster once you hit the rail

6. Look at the end of the rail the whole time, stay calm, and you're good


Front 270 off

Trick Tip: tiptap

Prerequisite: one of the things I found helped me out the most was practicing the motion off of snow (this is good for almost any rail trick). this is meant in the very simplest fashion: curbs. for this practice method of mine, you need a curb (not one that slopes, it has to have a hard edge. that’s it. jump from the street on to curb with whichever foot forward you wish. now, bring your heel of the front foot off the street side of the curb, so that your front foot rests on the corner of the curb and is at a 35(approx) degree angle. exaggerate it as necessary. (at this point, your weight should be evenly spread between your feet. I had a problem when I started fs 270s where I would weight my rear foot completely and wouldn’t go anywhere, no matter how hard I scissored.) now push, using mostly front foot, and spin 270 degrees off, landing both feet at the same time in a centered position.
Use that practice method for every trick you can. I sure do (and get funny looks at school because of it). it's fun (or should be) and generally if you can spin a 630 off of a curb, you sure as fuck can do it on snow!

Technique

1. Be prepared. as soon as you get on the rail (or box), you want to start your scissor. depending on the length of the rail, you may even want to consider landing in your scissor position. this will allow for greater combos on the rail down the road.

Edit by MADDECENT: Don't take the word scissor too literally. I call it digging, because scissoring, at least for me, buts the wrong picture in your head. Try to keep you back ski flat on the rail, and only dig with your front edge. This will prevent catching a back edge, wishboning, and ruining your nuts or tearing your groin.

2. Positioning. the scissor motion itself is much like this: (with minor variations allowable) knees bent, arms pointing ahead of the boots (not straight down at the feet) and slightly bent, one heel lower than the other (this may involve straightening completely the front leg), and keep your eyes on the end of the rail. until you get there. then spot the landing, stupid.

3. Rail it. with your scissor position is about staying forward. while you are doing the 'scissor' motion for real on a rail, you must remain forward-centered! I cannot stress this enough. you will either fall on your butt, or not spin at all if you are not mildly forward. the trick getting rotation is to push on your heel hard enough off the side of the rail that you start spinning because of it.

Edit by MADDECENT: Pushing your front ski against the side of the rail with your heel works, and a lot of people do it, but for me personally i feel it lacks control. I much prefer to dig my edge into the rail and let that intitiate the spin. It's all preference though.

4. Air out. as MADDECENT said, this part consists mostly of hips and shoulders. while your chief mode of spin must come out of your scissor (or you'll never make it around) you can adjust your rotation in the air. once you get the amount of scissor to spin off the rail, you will likely still have problems landing perfectly. adjusting spin in the air is a rather tricky technique to teach, and is widely debated among skiers (this section will likely be criticized) I’ll do my best. for me, much of the increase/decrease in spin comes from the head. if you keep your head locked in place, with your eyes straight on the landing, you will slow down some, and spreading your arms (think spread eagle) also helps. to accelerate, tuck in as tightly as you can so: hands to hips, feet touching, knees and elbows locked. you can also look around as far as you can in the direction of whatever spin you are attempting and you will speed up marginally.
that was tough. if you got through those giant walls of text in one go please go and watch your favorite JOSS edit/porn, then resume.


Back 270 off

Trick Tip: tiptap

Technique
1. Be prepared. From the moment you jump on the box (especially for beginners) you will either have it easy or hard to make it cleanly. what I highly recommend, is the tactic of going overcrooked (jumping on at more than 90 degrees; try 100-110). some people may call me a loser over this advice, but I really suggest it. not only does it make it easier to get into position, it means you have to spin that much less when doing your bs 270.
2. Positioning. Your standard position for BS270 is much the same as for FS; the difference here being that instead of dropping the heel, your leading foot now drops the toe. I sure agonized over this advice when I heard it: "I'm in a fucking ski boot! how am I supposed to drop my stupid toe?" So here's the secret, folks. it’s not dropping the toe, so much as bending the knee. That’s right. So essentially, you don’t even need a foot for this one. If you scissor hard enough, the rail isn’t even under your foot: more like on the front third of the ski.
3. Rail it. The same deal from the FS stuff applies here: weight forward, dammit!
4. Air out. Once again, this part is much the same as the FS section, but for backside spins, the spin comes from the hips/shoulders that much more!
Note: for your first frontside 270s, it is not completely necessary to get on the rail perfectly. For me, getting to drop my heel and dig my edge in was vastly facilitated by not getting on the rail with my skis perpendicular; instead, I would go at maybe 45degrees. Just be sure that if you are doing this, you do not avoid proper use of the scissor by going at a shallow enough angle that you can just hop the 270 around.


Frontside Switch Up

Trick Tip: MADDECENT

1. As you are coming at the rail, come at it slightly from the side. This will make gripping much easier

2. Pop off the lip and immediately be in the position to dig your edge. Have your back foot flat on the rail/box, and have your front foot out in front of you a little, with your tip up.

3. When you hit the rail, with your front ski’s edge digging with your tip up, load a little extra weight onto your front ski. This will initiate the spin.

4. With practice, you will get much better at digging harder, and getting your spin going faster. Dig as hard as you can

5. Turn your hips downhill. Up to this point, as usual, you should have been looking at the end of the rail.

6. As you start to spin the other way, pop off the rail a little, you don’t need much, and swing your body around the 180

7. Land back on the rail with your knees bent, in a strong position, as you will now be grinding unnatural. Look at the end of the rail until you get there. You will most likely come off switch, and won’t be able to come off forward until you are very comfortable with switch ups and are able to pretzel after the swap.

Nollie off

Trick Tip: tiptap

1. Approach and jump on rail as you normally would. Some people prefer nose pressing the rail slightly

2. Remain slightly crouched on the rail: this trick is impossible standing straight up.

3. As you near the end of the rail lean back slightly; slide the rail under your toepiece (front part of the binding).

4. Lean way forward!

5. Pop! (Almost at the same time as step 4)

6. As you pop, bring your heels to your bum. Your skis should go from flat on the rail to pointing downwards. Ideally, the skis never lose contact with the rail. By the end of this step, only the very front of your skis should be touching the rail.

7. Remain in nollie position as long as possible. Be steezy. Maybe even try a shifty. You crazy dog, you.

8. Land switch. In my experience, nollies to switch are much less scary and easier to land. Landing forward can be mastered at a later date. If you’ve ever over-nollied on snow, this is the same phenomenon (tip catch, plant face)

Urban 270 On

Trick Tip: tiptap

1. Approach is very important for a 270 on. Coming up to the rail, be in the same position as you would for a 360. *note*: this may just be me, but for the longest time , I would ski up to the box, make the 270 perfectly, and fall of the rail same thing happened for about 60 tries, then I got a concussion, but that’s another story. What my mistake was on the 270 was that I would approach the rail, and the motion of my spin would push me in that direction (ie. I spin left, and I would keep falling off to the left). The solution to this problem is to either a) approach the rail farther to the side you are spinning away from (right side, for me) or b) exaggerate number 2 insanely.

2. Pop 270! For this pop, more than any other (“What about 450 on?”… “SHUT UP!”) you MUST differentiate between the pop and the spin. It goes like this: pop, spin. Pop THEN spin. POP THEN SPIN!

3. The spin. For the rotation, a special trick is available, which becomes very useful when you are going on to a long rail. Instead of aiming to spin 270, try to spin 180, and then push the last 90 around. You should be facing just slightly off of straight back, with your feet in ‘grind’ position. While this may not look like much (or may be confusing) this helps immensely, as it slows down your rotation speed. Which means you spin less on the rail.

Edit by MADDECENT: When you are in the air, bend your knees. That way you won't catch any tips.

4. You did it. Congrats. Don’t eat shit riding out.

5. Advice: practicing 270 on’s onto curbs is something that I highly recommend. For the 270-on-specific exercise, concentrate on landing your 270 with your weight on your front foot. It helps. Fo realz.

K-Fed (FS switch up to BS 270 out)

Trick Tip: tiptap

1. Approach the rail as is usual for you.

2. Jump on. There are two different ways of doing k-feds, choose your style. The first way is to do the switch up as soon as you get on the rail, while the second way consists of waiting till the last possible second to do your swap. Of course, on any moderately short rail, these become the same thing, as there is no time to do anything else.

3. Edge significantly harder for this switch up then you would for a normal one. Start earlier for a k-fed than you would for a normal front swap. The “theme” of this trick is to carry the rotation from the switch up to the 270 out.

4. *Keep turning your head and your shoulders around after your switch up*, looking around for the 270 out. This is possibly the hardest thing to beat into your head. After you land your swap, I recommend (especially for first timers) to get low on the rail. If you pop off, your blind 270 will be tons easier!

5. Even if you don’t think you will make the 270 out, go for it: you can make it with surprisingly little spin, as long as you have a reasonable pop off the rail.

6. $PROFIT_$$


Britney (Blind Switch Up Front 270 Out)

Trick Tip: MADDECENT

1. Approach the rail as you normally would

2. When you get on the rail, immediately start to dig for the blind swap

3. Throw the switch up a little harder than you normally would. Because you'll be spinning faster than normal, you don't have to pop as hard for the switch up.

4. When you land on the rail, immediately turn your attention and shoulders toward the end of the rails. your upper body will be slightly ahead of your skis at this point

5. If you have landed back comfortably back on the rail and have enough time left on the rail, the 270 should be fairly natural. If you're good enough at grinding unnatural, you can dig your front edge for the front spin out. This is a good thing to learn so that you can get into bigger spins off after the swap

6. If you don't feel like you have enough spin off, go for it anyway. Front spins are really easy just to shifty around, don't worry.


Front 450 Out

Trick Tip: MADDECENT

1. Know how to front 2 out, approach the rail as you normally would

2. When you get on the rail, put a little extra weight on your front ski, face the end of the rail, and be prepared to dig really hard. Don't start digging right off the bat if the rail is long, because then you wont be able to collect enough momentum for the spin at the end.

3. When you're approaching the end of the rail, dig hard.

4. The hardest part of learning front 4's off is actually committing to it, because, surprisingly, they're not that hard to get around, so when people are first learning them, the will get enough dig, and then pussy out to a 2 because they dont think they have it. It's all in your head. What messes most people up is they will throw for the 4 while spotting where they plan on landing. Forget spotting, throw the spin and look uphill.

5. When you have a good dig going, pop off the rail and bring your knees up a couple inches. This will prevent you from hitting your tips on the rail when you're coming around, and it will give you extra time to get the spin around

6. This trick is very blind, don't freak out. I'm not lying when I say they are my favorite trick on skis by far. When you're at about 360, extend your legs back down. The 4 will come, and it will feel so amazing.

Blind 450 Out

Trick Tip: MADDECENT

This is very similar to the front 4 as far as a trick tip goes, so read above for most of the trick. There are a couple differences though

You will be able to spot your landing after the 270, but dont spot and then open up. A lot of people do this. Stay in your closed position, spot the landing below you at 270 briefly, and then move your vision to the snow, but uphill. This will get you the rest of the way around.

Front 360 Switch Up

Trick Tip: MADDECENT

This is pretty much exactly like front 4's as far as learning goes. I had front 3 swaps before i had front 4's, so trust me, they're not that hard.

As soon as you get on the rail, dig as hard as you can. Throw it basically how you would throw a 4, but pop harder off the rail and bring your legs up. This is fairly difficult to commit to, but eventually you'll get the hang of it

Blind 360 Switch Up

Trick Tip: MADDECENT

Wow, this is getting repetitive. Front 3 swap applies, so I'll copy and paste.

As soon as you get on the rail, dig as hard as you can. Throw it basically how you would throw a 4, but pop harder off the rail and bring your legs up. This is fairly difficult to commit to, but eventually you'll get the hang of it


Front Switch Up Front 270 Out

Trick Tip: MADDECENT

1. Approach the rail normally

2. Throw the switch up very quickly after you get on the rail, but not quite as hard. You don't want to land perpendicular to the rail, but rather with your tips facing slightly downhill.

3. When you are in the air during your switch up, immediately get in the position to dig with your ski that will be downhill. You should land in the digging position. This will hopefully stop your spin immediately, and leave you to dig for the front 270 out. After landing the swap, put a lot of weight on your front ski. This will help you with your pretzel.



When learning this, digging with your weaker ski after the swap will be very difficult. You can supplement this during the learning process with your back ski. After landing the switch up, point your uphill toe downwards, like you would do for a blind swap. This will get you spinning front side. I don't recommend doing this for long, because it leaves you prone to catch edges, but it definitely helps to learn.

Blind Switch Up Blind 270 Out

Trick Tip: MADDECENT

Another copy and paste.

1. Approach the rail normally

2. Throw the switch up very quickly after you get on the rail, but not quite as hard. You don't want to land perpendicular to the rail, but rather with your tips facing slightly downhill.

3. When you are in the air during your switch up, immediately get in the position to dig with your ski that will be downhill. You should land in the digging position. This will hopefully stop your spin immediately, and leave you to dig for the front 270 out. After landing the swap, put a lot of weight on your downhill ski. This will help you with your pretzel.









GOOD LUCK!