Videos to help you learn snowboarding Not everyone has the same style of learning. Some learn best from reading. Others use trial and error. If you learn from watching other people, some of the videos below might help you. They won't substitute for a lessons from a competent instructor, but they will give you an edge when you go to the mountain. Commercial Videos There are plenty of videos out there to help you jib or huck your carcass off of money booters and (one hopes) not end up with hospital air. Come again? Just as we thought. Straight-forward, non-nonsense videos on the basics of riding are few and far between. Nearly everything is oriented towards freestyle tricks. But what about the adult who wants to get started with snowboarding? So far, the only item we can recommend is this: Fresh Start Snowboarding is a video put together by Kurt Kilinna, a certified snowboard instructor. Kurt thoroughly explains and demonstrates the basics of snowboarding, such as one-footed skating, straight glides, j-turns, and then linked turns. If you're an engineer, you'll especially enjoy his use of graph paper and a protractor to explain some concepts. But don't worry; if you didn't do well in math, you can still benefit from this 80-minute presentation. Purchase either the DVD (click above) or if you want to save a few bucks, download the video from Amazon.com. Purchase through the links here, and Amazon will throw a few pennies our way. YouTube Videos How about YouTube? There are plenty of snowboarding-related videos on YouTube, though they're of varied quality, to say the least. Though you don't have to be certified by the American Association of Snowboard Instructors (AASI) to be a great instructor, it does help. So we looked for some helpful videos, especially those identified as coming from AASI-certified instructors. It's slim pickings, but we've put some of them below. To be truthful, none are for the novice. Also, the image quality of these clips is usually poor and they're too short to be of much use. Perhaps in time we'll see more and better offerings. "Crossover turns" "Riding with trees" "Nose press" "Dropping in the halfpipe" "Smartstyle" -- safety in the terrain park. DISCUSSION Stop by the Grays on Trays discussion board to add your comments or questions relating to snowboarding lessons. Return to the home page.