Traversing and Control

Traversing is your first real move on the snow: you ride diagonally across the slope and control your speed with the edges of the board. It sounds basic, but getting the traverse right means understanding how your edges work, and everything else in snowboarding depends on that.

How to Do It

1. Start on an easy, wide run. Set the board slightly across the slope, with the uphill edge (heel edge or toe edge) “biting” into the snow.
2. Heel edge (heelside): you’re standing with your back to the valley. Press your heels down to stay in control. Look where you want to go.
3. Toe edge (toeside): you’re crouched, facing up the slope. Press your toes down. This position is scary at first, and that’s normal, because you can’t see where you’re going.
4. To speed up, ease off the pressure on the edge a little. To slow down, add more pressure.
5. Alternate traverses on your heel edge and your toe edge, learning to switch from one to the other with smooth movements of your ankles and knees.

Common Mistakes

• Looking at your feet: always focus on a point ahead of you, not on the board. Your body follows your eyes.
• One arm forward, one arm back: you’ll tend to put your arms in odd positions for balance. Keep them relaxed by your sides or slightly out.
• Too much pressure: pressing the edge too hard makes you stop abruptly or fall. Build up the pressure gradually.

Progression

Once you can traverse confidently on both edges, learn Heelside Braking (Side Slip) so you can stop whenever you want, and then start linking your traverses into your first turns.