How to hit a PVC rail

evanball

evanball

Member
it seems like everyone with 2 legs can learn all 8 on a backyard setup, but its just not working that way for me. Even though I have spent around 100-200 hours on my rail in the past year, I've only learned 3-4 new tricks and had a minor boost in confidence, plus I simply feel slower to progress on PVC than on snow. I think the biggest thing holding me back is that i straight up cannot even finish the rail 3 out of 4 times. I just lose that perfect balance and slide off to the left or right, at random, meaning there's an opportunity to try a trick only once in a while. Is there some sort of edge control techniques/scissoring to use on the rail to just lock in and slide right to the end? It could also be that I'm skiing on my old 155cm beaters which are mounted at recommended instead of center, totally messing up the center and overall balance of the skis. tell my why I suck/ pick apart my rail skiing. (ill add videos from my phone of my setup for context)

**This thread was edited on Apr 19th 2020 at 12:45:05am
 
(This first one is my brother but I included it because you can see the lip pretty well)[video]https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/962351/trim-67AEF32A-1A80-4C9C-B2B5-1954CEF116D7-MOV[/video]

[video]https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/962352/trim-965DE715-BC39-4C1E-9589-4A32D64696BE-MOV[/video]

[video]https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/962353/trim-BA29C0A1-3EDC-4887-9ABF-B02C46139581-MOV[/video]
 
I feel this way pretty regularly about my golf swing. If you aren’t good by the time you have hit that rail 10,000 times then give up. Otherwise you haven’t put in the work yet.
 
It might make it easier to balance on the rail and while spinning if the skis were centre mounted. If your only using those skis for rails there no real downside to it.
 
14132072:Adtmartens said:
It might make it easier to balance on the rail and while spinning if the skis were centre mounted. If your only using those skis for rails there no real downside to it.
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I’ll look around on Craigslist for cheap centre mounted skis because the only centered pair I have are my skis for the hill. Either that or I learn how to remount bindings myself during quarantine ?
 
14132091:Akselsson said:
My opinion is that you need more speed.

Thats all Ihave to say
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by now I’m pretty damn good at dialing at whatever speed I want on my ramp. If I wanted more I could get it super clean and wet and pump the transition hard. With speed like that I clear the rail every single time but the trade off is that tricks get 10x scarier when you’re going that fast. I guess my struggle is that in order to get the balls to set a new trick, I need to go slow, which also means it’ll be tough to balance.
 
Probably need a little more speed. Falling off the rail early happens way more than you think tho, I think it just feels like it doesn't because when you watch edits they cut out all the failed attempts
 
14132093:evanball said:
by now I’m pretty damn good at dialing at whatever speed I want on my ramp. If I wanted more I could get it super clean and wet and pump the transition hard. With speed like that I clear the rail every single time but the trade off is that tricks get 10x scarier when you’re going that fast. I guess my struggle is that in order to get the balls to set a new trick, I need to go slow, which also means it’ll be tough to balance.
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You will get used to the speed and then its only easier. Just keep training and you will progress with your rails.
 
The biggest problem that I can see that nobody mentioned yet is that your shoulders are open when hitting the rail. One thing that changed my rail skiing forever is focusing on keeping those shoulders perpendicular to the rail. I personally like to pretend there arent skis on my feet and im hoping on a skateboard. KEEP THOSE SHOULDERS 90 DEGREES TO THE RAIL. You will balance 10000 times better and it is essential to greasing rails. Really focus on it every time or ur gonna have bad habits like I did. I still have trouble sometimes because I kept on hitting rails like you are. Fix that and you will be better trust me. Another thjng that helps that is turning your head completely sideways and look at the end of the rail. Heres a pic of what not to do

962376.png

Square up those shoulders and you got it
 
14132092:evanball said:
I’ll look around on Craigslist for cheap centre mounted skis because the only centered pair I have are my skis for the hill. Either that or I learn how to remount bindings myself during quarantine ?
Click to expand...

You definitely could remount that wouldn’t be too hard. As long as you have a drill and maybe some epoxy or wood glue to fill the holes. It looks like those skis are just your beaters at this point so it wouldn’t hurt to do it. Also if your using it only on a dry slope its not like there any water to get into the holes and rot the core. I would say do it, watch some YouTube tutorials on how and then go for it.
 
14132092:evanball said:
I’ll look around on Craigslist for cheap centre mounted skis because the only centered pair I have are my skis for the hill. Either that or I learn how to remount bindings myself during quarantine ?
Click to expand...

Just use your “hill skis”. That setup won’t really mess them up and you can just wax them before you go back to snow and they’ll be fine
 
14132182:OCoffey said:
Just use your “hill skis”. That setup won’t really mess them up and you can just wax them before you go back to snow and they’ll be fine
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U make a good point... even my beater skis haven’t been beat that badly on my setup over a year
 
14132150:BLandz said:
The biggest problem that I can see that nobody mentioned yet is that your shoulders are open when hitting the rail. One thing that changed my rail skiing forever is focusing on keeping those shoulders perpendicular to the rail. I personally like to pretend there arent skis on my feet and im hoping on a skateboard. KEEP THOSE SHOULDERS 90 DEGREES TO THE RAIL. You will balance 10000 times better and it is essential to greasing rails. Really focus on it every time or ur gonna have bad habits like I did. I still have trouble sometimes because I kept on hitting rails like you are. Fix that and you will be better trust me. Another thjng that helps that is turning your head completely sideways and look at the end of the rail. Heres a pic of what not to do

View attachment 962376

Square up those shoulders and you got it
Click to expand...

Thanks for pointing that out I never even realized how practically all rail skiers do that
 
Based on the videos it looks like it's going pretty well. It can take a really long time to learn tricks. Keep in mind the main goal is having fun. It's ok to take a relaxed approach. If the thing you're trying isn't working just try something else for a while and come back to it.

As far as progression goes, once you get a trick it's a good idea to repeat it as many times as you can too to make it feel really natural, getting past the acquisition stage to consolidate the trick. This will help your progression because for example if you have blind 2s really solid as opposed to just being able to land it, then it will be time to do a blind swap and blind blind 4.
 
14132150:BLandz said:
View attachment 962376

Square up those shoulders and you got it
Click to expand...

Another thing nobody mentioned is where you're looking. In this picture, your eyes are looking down, when you want to be looking further ahead. I would either look at the end of the rail, or even a point a bit past that. Eyes up will improve your balance for sure.

Also, keep in mind that it's easier to do a switchup if you're sliding fully perpendicular on the rail. If you let yourself start spinning a bit before you try the swaps, it's much tougher to grip the rail.
 
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