General Safety

This is probably the most important article because if followed consciously it will protect you from acquiring injuries. Although snowboarding is for the most part, a fairly safe activity, if done recklessly or carelessly, you can easily get yourself into a lot of trouble. Now then, for beginners, the most common way of acquiring an injury is by putting yourself into harm's way. That is to say, beginner's don't usually get hurt because they were attempting a back flip off of a giant jump. Although you can definitely get hurt by biting off more than you can chew, you are more likely to get hurt by getting in the way of another snowboarder and colliding with them. Now, depending on the speed at which each of you is going, the physical damage can range anywhere from a minor bump, cut or bruise, to a serious gash, concussion, or even death (although very rare).

So how do we avoid such collisions, well the most important thing to do is be alert and conscious of your surroundings. Although the responsibility of looking out for other boarders tends to fall primarily on the more advanced or faster-moving snowboarder, as a beginner it is your job to stay out of the way of “blind-spots” & “speed-friendly” areas. A speed-friendly area is any area that does not have a sign warning boarders and skiers to slow due to its high amount of traffic. It's usually just a big orange sign with black letters S-L-O-W held up with two thin poles. Now, a blind-spot is any area that prevents sufficient view of upcoming terrain until it is too late due to the angle of the mountain, a sharp turn, or some form of obstacle such as a tree or large rock.

I can't tell you how many times I've encountered a beginner move slowly over a jump just to get a feel of what it is like. This act in and of itself is not wrong. In fact it's a smart tactic that allows a snowboarder to become comfortable with every relevant aspect of the jump such as the lip , the plateau, and the landing. It's when the beginner lounges around or moves lazily around a jumping area and prevents others from enjoying the jump that it becomes a problem. Now some will argue that the other snowboarders should simply wait for the beginner to clear the area before attempting the jump. However, this is not always convenient or even possible. For example, there are many occasions where one is forced to simply avoid a jump altogether because stopping or slowing down would ruin the velocity required for the given jump. The most dangerous blind-spot is right after a large jump because there is absolutely no view of what's to come for the next boarder that wants to take the jump. So if you do happen to fall after a jump, be sure to give a friendly heads-up to people coming down. A simple yell such as “hold on!” following by “OK, clear!” should suffice. It's a matter of consideration. There'd be a whole lot less injuries if people were a bit more mindful of one another.