Snowboarding is all about fun. It combines the sensation of surfing, the high-speed thrills of skiing, and the freestyle adaptability of skateboarding, all while building muscle tissue, burning calories and being in the outdoors. All that excitement comes from dedication, competence and skill, and learning to jump on your snowboard will open the doors and give you the keys to it all.
It's All About the Olly
Learning to jump on a snowboard is much easier than most people think. A snowboard is a rather flexible, and even a "stiffer" board has plenty of flex, so when force is used to bend the the board, the reaction is the board to snaps back into shape. This spring-like characteristic is the basis for what snowboarders call the Olly. An olly, a term borrowed from skateboarding, is using those snappy, springy qualities of a snowboard, to pop, or jump off the ground. Snowboarders shift their weight back, crouch and spring, much like someone crouching sideways in preparation to leap, lifting their front foot before the other to thrust off the ground. Snowboarders then develop lightening-fast abilities to jump and seemingly float over obstacles, or add snap when launching off ramp-like jumps and features.
Jumping on a Stiff Snowboard
Stiffer snowboards may take a little more elbow grease to pop off the tail, but here is where adversity turns to advantage. The force applied to bend the board at the tail and cause a snappy reaction is directly related to the rebound rate, or the rate at which it returns to its original shape. In other words, the stiffer the board, the snappier it will be. Stiffer snowboards have several other advantages. They cut through choppy, freezing snow and icy conditions, and are well known to be stable carvers, or boards that have a high threshold to loosing an edge in adverse conditions when turning. These same advantages apply to ollying or jumping a stiff board. In short, the harder it is to bend, the faster it reacts, and the faster it will rebound into its natural shape.
What is a Better Snowbaord, Stiff of Flexible?
There are clear advantages to stiffer snowboards, and according to some, jumping as well as landing on a stiff snowboard is steadfast when compared to a more flexible board with softer characteristics. In snowboarding nomenclature, soft boards are often referred to as "noodles." With this in mind, it helps to think of what sounds better to jump and land on; a stiff and stable board, or a soft noodle board. The softer boards have their advantages in other areas of the mountain, but when it comes time to jump and land with control, speed and stability, a stiffer board is the way to go.
Directional Twins
Many well-thought-out designs offer the best of both worlds, in the package of a directional twin snowboard. These boards adopt certain flex patterns of softer snowboards were it is advantageous, like at the nose of the board, and keep stiffness where it is most efficient, in between the feet and at the tail. This versatile board design can be used for just about every kind of snowboarding.
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