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If so, how fast did you notice yourself progressing? I injured myself pretty good last year just hucking stuff off large jumps without a care in the world about my body and it led to a painful season of little progression (was my 1st season riding park).
This year I am trying to do it right with a helmet, crash pads and learning tricks on an Air Bag before moving them to a jump.
Blue Mountain is the closest mountain to me with an Air Bag and my first day on the slopes I plan on just hitting that all day. Ideally if I spend a good 6+ hours on the bag I think by the end of Day 1 I should be able to stomp 3's, backflips and hopefully switch 3's (maybe more, I don't know, I don't know if I'll have enough time).
i hit one a few times last season and it's awesome. i didn't actually learn anything on it but it was the first time i really tried flipping on skis so like a week or 2 later i landed my first backflip.
yea it can certainly help but from the sounds of it you could improve your skiing a lot without the airbag. learn 3s, switch 180s if you can ski switch, then switch 3s, and get more comfortable on bigger jumps. getting those down pat will do more for your ability to takeoff and land properly than any airbag ever would. if you have those down, go for the backflip, and there i think the airbag would help you learn safely and with some confidence.
No, I probably should. Maybe i wouldn't break myself so much.
I wouldn't drive way out of my way to hit an airbag to learn 3s and backies though. Especially the 3's. Just try it on a small jump. You can probably 270 just on the ground. Just hit a small roll in the trail and throw as hard as you can, should be able to start poppin 3 off nothing. You have those 2 edges to grip, set up like you would spin on a trampoline, just grip and rip that shit. Switch 3s will take a little more time but start small and work up. Even if your park doesn't build small jumps(which most do) start on cut ups, rollers, build a jump in your yard or local sledding hill etc.
Most peoples biggest problem with 3's is the jump. They try and jump the 360. You want to bend your knees and really just throw the spin. If you jump upward and bring your arms up in that motion you just won't be able to get the spin. And even if you somehow manage to get a 3 around like that, 5's 7's etc are out of the question. You can almost bend your knees in a little bit like you're going to wedge. Wind that shit up and just fucking whip them. Go straight side to side though. Don't throw your arms up in the air at all, stay even height in the pre wind and the follow through.
As your arms get to the front let them almost pull your head with them. Just like the arms keep your head level. Once your arms and head are turned all the way, hold them there. Keep your head level and looking for the landing.
From there to progress to 5's just keep your head turned. The hardest thing about going from 3's to 5s is keeping your head turned, don't peel it off to look at the landing from 270, if you're eyes focus on that you'll stop your spin. Once you get 5s, everythig after that is pretty much just going bigger.
As far as backies, learn them on a pow day. If you can do it on a tramp/into a pool, you can do it on snow. Even if you lean backward on a 3 foot handmade booter, you'll generally be able to get have a flip. Commitment is the biggest thing. As long as you go for it, you have a real good shot of it working. Worst thing you might run into on a small jump is catching your tips, dub eajecting to a face full of powder, then just go a little bigger, or huck a little harder next time.
Oh yeah, and make sure you get enough height off the takeoff that you won't hit your head off it.
I can take off and land large jumps just fine. It's incorporating tricks where I start to hurt myself. I think learning how to take off switch into an airbag would be more prudent than just hucking it off a jump and hoping for the best.
Abortion, I'm on east coast. We don't get pow. All we get is ice and man made. Air bag is only 90 minutes away so it's not out of the way. I'm on mobile right now so ill address the rest of your post later.
I'll let you guys know what I stomp once I get my first day on the slopes after Christmas.
You don't need a big jump to do a 3. Seriously. Most people learned them on cut ups, rollers, back yard booter etc.
Get regular 3's down solid. Then get your switch 1s, then huck a switch 3. You don't need to hit a 100 footer to pull it off.
Start small. As you get comfortable with the trick work your way up.
How good of a switch skiier do you need to be able to comfortable take off and land switch? I can ski non-black diamonds switch with a decent amount of carving, but the idea of taking off a jump switch is still a little scary mainly cuz there aren't really any kickers or small jumps at the mountains I go to.
I'm on the east coast too. Never ridden anything else. You don't need blankets of chest deep powder. Just some soft snow helps.
I learned them on some sketchy 1/4 pipe I build out of a rock. Might have to see if I can find video evidence that isn't on vhs tape. I think the first non 1/4 pipe one I did was in the glades at a mountain I worked at because I was scared I was gonna get fired if somebody saw me. It was over a sketchy rock/stump thing, between 2 trees, over a jagged rock and landing into a kind of decent area if you stopped without hitting the trees.
^ Don't do that, but seriously they aren't that bad. If you understand the rotation of the flip you got it. Backflips are the easiest trick there is. Easier than 360s even. You just pop back, hang your legs, spot the ground, hang your tongue out, stall that shit, then bring your legs under and stomp that shit.
Then you can tell your friends that they're pussies, and go backflip every jump in the park. I'd say that's lame and repetitive, but they really are so much fucking fun.
Blue bird day in feb. When it's still cold enough the ground is solid, but not dumb cold, around 10 when the sun starts to bake that top layer, just that top layer. Park laps, and just floating those big stalled out bluebird day backies, aint nothin better. Drink a be..soda on the lift maybe have a sm.. candy bar and just enjoy the day with your friends.
Got backies locked on the bag and threw some to snow, worked on rodeos on the bag, as well as cork 7's. I'm sure if I had had more time I would've thrown rodeos and corks to snow. But definitely some solid progression on Air Bags, but make sure you bring your friends!
Do you think it's worth hitting up a gymnastics gymnasium to get some practice on a trampoline working on corks and rodeos? I haven't jumped on a trampoline in like 10 years but I used to be able to do fronts, backs, side flips and front/back misties pretty well.
Gymnasiums have come a long way I think I'm gonna check one out next week.
For sure man. Most tricks transfer right over. If you can do a trick on a tramp then you will probably put your first try to your feet. It sucks learning a new axis on snow, I usually land on my head or nowhere near my skis the first couple tries. But if I learn it on tramp first it's way easier and gives you a way better sense of where you are in your flip
Yes. If you understand the rotation and you understand how to ski, it's not that hard to put them together. I haven't jumped on a tramp in a few years myself and not a lot for like 5 years. Didn't even set mine up the last 2.
If you want to learn a trick safely, and get the idea for a spin, not a bad route to go. Also can't hurt to touch up on the flips before you take them to snow. That confidence is helpful, especially with backflips. People that don't think it's gonna work and get scared, don't commit and get raped. People that throw it believing it'll work stomp that shit.
thats what i'm saying though, is that if you can't 3 or take off switch on small jumps then there is no point trying it on the airbag which will probably be built to resemble at least a 25 foot jump. start small, work your way up. if you learn to huck and hope into a consequent-less airbag your not going to actually develop the skills to take tricks to bigger jumps. you can learn every one of those tricks on a 3 foot tall side booter if its built right. and learning how to pop, set spin and land will be a lot better than learning to huck into an airbag.
Yah I guess I was coming from a repetitions standpoint. I venture I can hike the air bag 10x in an hour. If I just do that all day that should give me 40-60 reps trying tricks. I would hope by that point I would figure it out on my own/with some advice from the park guys running the bag.
not worth it. those are all tricks that only need commitment, there is no finding a rotation that's more difficult and high consequence, which is where i would want an airbag. for a three, just carve in and spin, and at 270 start to spot your landing. for a backflip, just go for it and dont pussy out in mid air (biggest problem that leads to injury). worst case with those is you deck or hit hard and are sore for a few days, because you dont necessarly need to learn on high consequence features. if you are really worried, just wait until a pow day, and build a bc jump where the landings will be softer
It's pretty fast but at least at my mountain they dont let you do backies onto the bag. But yeah before I hit the airbag all I could do was 7 and afterwards I got dub flats, rodeo 5 and 7
hiking the bag is tiring as fuck but you should definately be doing something more than 3's. try hucking like a rodeo 9 with a grab or something...trust me, youll be impressed with yourself
I'd higly recommend airbags for for transitioning to off axis/inverted jumps as you can dial in your air awareness and confidence. Definitely not worth it for regular spins better off saving travel time and $$ and going for repetition on your local hill. Start with small jumps and work up. Same with switch spins unless going off axis. The kickers on airbags are usually more vertical than regular jumps. If you're not comfortable with regular spins on regular jumps you won't want to go switch off a vertical airbag kicker. My advice is once you're stomping regular spins watch a ton of videos and go off axis/inverted on the airbag. Most of all have fun getting there...enjoy the progression.
Thanks for the replies y'all. I didn't mean I was just going to do 360s all day on the bag, I'm going to try anything that I can do on a trampoline. The reason I brought up the air bag, crash pads, etc. is because I want to avoid this from happening again which basically ended my season last year.
This pic was only 1 or 2 days after the accident. The whole thing ended up turning black, including the spots where it was currently skin colored. It looked like I had gangrene all over my back it was disgusting.
It can be a really good way to learn some tricks and just hugely improve on your awareness in the air but it depends a lot on the setup.
Airbags tend to be massive gaper-bait so often the kicker isn't very big and is set right next to the bag so you can't really huck anything huge off it. Conversely if the kicker is set back from the airbag and a decent size (roughly the size of a 35-40ft park jump) then it'll have a pretty big run-in and you'll get tired fast hiking it. Ideal setup is like they have in Hanazono where you can feasibly lap the bag off a short chairlift.
Got rodeos on the bag last weekend. Probably the quickest way to learn how to get some balls, huck new tricks and not give any fucks about getting hurt. Overall, best way to progress on jumps
Good to hear man. I gotta wait a little longer till there is enough snow for a large jump at my mountain so I'm just gonna practice on rails for the time being.
solid two years to the day bump here but i finally got around to hitting an air bag yesterday. i spent probably 3 hours hiking the thing and i threw a shitload of tricks i have never even tried before and wouldn't have had the confidence to try on snow, and the best part - i landed most of them!
took a switch back, switch front, switch misty 5, superman front, cork 5, cork 7, underflip, and flatspin all to my feet on the bag. i kinda surprised myself how well i landed some of these things - i just charged hard at the jump and fully committed since i wasn't worried about getting hurt and it paid off by coming around to my feet.
this was at big boulder yesterday. they had a pretty legit setup. i can't take anything to snow since i am still recovering from ankle surgery so i'll probably just spend the season hitting air bags and dialing in tricks for next year or maybe spring time skiing.
johnnyBuzsolid two years to the day bump here but i finally got around to hitting an air bag yesterday. i spent probably 3 hours hiking the thing and i threw a shitload of tricks i have never even tried before and wouldn't have had the confidence to try on snow, and the best part - i landed most of them!
took a switch back, switch front, switch misty 5, superman front, cork 5, cork 7, underflip, and flatspin all to my feet on the bag. i kinda surprised myself how well i landed some of these things - i just charged hard at the jump and fully committed since i wasn't worried about getting hurt and it paid off by coming around to my feet.
this was at big boulder yesterday. they had a pretty legit setup. i can't take anything to snow since i am still recovering from ankle surgery so i'll probably just spend the season hitting air bags and dialing in tricks for next year or maybe spring time skiing.
Thats dope man, how long do they have the airbag? I'm thinking about making the 3 hour trip before I head back to Colorado on the 3rd.
kung_powpowThats dope man, how long do they have the airbag? I'm thinking about making the 3 hour trip before I head back to Colorado on the 3rd.
They only had it Friday thru Sunday but it was sick on Saturday, no line at all. I just kept hiking and hucking.
I've never hit Blue's before but I would imagine it is lower quality than what BB just put on, though probably still worth checking out. Theirs is supposed to be open every Fri-Sun but I don't think they even have the jump/bag set up for the season yet since their snow coverage sucks. BB is right on the lake and gets better snowfall and they always make the sickest jumps there.
