Always put on safety equipment; mountain boarding can be a dangerous sport. You should at least wear a helmet and wrist guards, but is highly recommended that you also wear knee pads, elbow pads, and gloves. Don’t try mountain boarding in flip flops or sandals, it will hurt. And always wear shades to keep up appearances..
When you are fully decked out and ready to start you have to determine your stance. Stand on your stationary board on a flat surface with your feet flat and perpendicular to the edges of the board. Keep your weight evenly distributed and your knees slightly bent.
Push off with your back foot. At first you won’t know which is your back foot and which is your front so try this first with your right foot then with your left foot.
Figure out which is more comfortable. If you think you feel better with your right foot forward, you’re goofy stance. If you feel better with your left foot forward, you regular stance.
If you are able to you should learn to ride both stances, this will really help you landing moves, and make you a much better boarder.
Begin with your board on a flat spot with your feet flat on the board. Push off with your back foot and keep your hands roughly waist high and out from your body to keep your balance. Dont’ worry about turning yet, just keep pushing in a straight line and get used to the sensation of moving. You have to be able to keep your balance while pushing before you can start turning or doing tricks.
Learning how to turn. If you are natural footed, and you want to turn to your right, shift your weight by moving your weight onto your toes slightly while keeping your knees bent. Then lean more and more onto your toe edge of the board until you have completed the turn. If you want to turn to your left shift your weight onto your heels instead.
Keep your movements subtle and smooth, if you try to turn too tight you will fall off!
Linking your turns. As soon as you are able to turn in both directions, you can begin linking your turns. This will allow you to move down a mountain side without bombing in a straight line and killing your self. Basically start off turning in one direction then turn back, and then back again – slalom style.
When you have developed these skills on a flat surface like a car park you are ready to move onto grassy hills and eventually huge mountains.
Good luck and go hard.
