Rails

H

hawk22

New member
can some offer some pointers for hitting rails? I know its prob the basic of the basic, but I'm from the old school of spread eagles and daffies. I've been telling my wife I want to evolve with this sport...I'm late I know, but I fgure its never too late. So my first time up this year the mountain sucked so I ventured to the terrain park. A small rail was the first obstacle, I watched a few people hit it. It looked simple enough so I approched and turned 90 degrees onto the rail.....I've never fallen so fast in my life. My left thigh and left side of my stomach were bruised pretty good.

Sidenote: I'm really comfortable on skis, theres no terrain that I can't ski (except apparently a terrain park). any tips for railslides would be greatly appreciated.
 
So it sounds like you slid out, believe me that happens to EVERYONE no matter how good you are. What you should do is approch the rail from whatevr side you want and almost step-hop onto the rail. Like left your inside foot up a bit before hopping off your outside foot and then turn 90. This is all done really quickly though so dont overexaggerate it. It may sound funny but practicing on a stair or something can help you get the feeling of popping onto the rail.

As you land on the rail keep your legs shoulder width apart and slightly bend your knees with your weight centered and watch the end of the rail and get prepared to get off.

It is actually easier than it sounds so just practice and you will get it soon! Good Luck!
 
hey, seems that your new to NS.

theres a ton of info everywhere on the site. use the searchbar on the topright to look through old forums and whatnot that have a ton of info.

there is a serious load of stuff of rails, jumps, and other stuff for beginners thanks to others who have posted.

also, there is a trick tip cult which you can join by going to My NS and then going to cults and looking for it.

gratz on joining
 
approach it and be ready to pop onto an an go 90, make sure your stance is wide on the rail an that you are not leaning back (b/c you slid out on your first try), keep your head looking towards the end of the rail, and commit.
 
That is solid information right there. The main part is commiting because if you pussy out, you will fall, fail and flail in pain because you hurt your self.
 
spot the end of the rail.

keep your eyes on the end.

this will help keep you centered on the rail, as well as centering your weight slightly forward.

you fell because you leaned back too much and your back ski tilted onto the edge, instead of the base, of your skis.

as soon as you are sliding on the edges of your skis, you are DOWN.

so spot the end of the rail and make sure you anchor that back ski and DON'T LEAN BACK.

also, youtube "4bi9" if you haven't already. study those guys.

that should be sufficient inspiration to get you kicking those rails like a pro.
 
Looking at the end of the rail instead of your feet was the most important piece of advice for me.

Also start out on boxes because you can hit them super slow as you don't really have to balance.
 
That's awesome, much respect man. The two most important things to remember are to keep pressure on your forward foot (otherwise you'll slide out like you did) and to look at the end of the rail and not your feet. The biggest obstacle to first learning rails is realizing that there is little to no resistance, most people expect there to be so they lean back and ruin their hip/ass. Learn that and you'll be slaying innocent teen rails in no time.
 
Here's how I thought about my weight when I started doing rails..

You have two main pivot points - your back foot and your front foot. If your center of gravity gets behind your back foot you will slip out and die; if your center of gravity gets in front of your front foot you will catch an edge and die.

This means that you need to keep your weight between your feet to avoid death. If you have your feet together it's really hard to keep your weight between them. The wider you spread your legs the more freedom you have to move your upper body without getting outside your pivot points.
 
the thing that held me back on rails forever is that I always tried to "slide them". I wouldn't have enough speed get half way across, then push my feet to continue. That always made me fall.

Basically just think of it as standing on the rail. Get enough speed and stand on it.

It might help if you tried boxes first aswell to get used to jibbing,.
 
thanks for the input. I know for certain my weight was on my back leg almost like I was doing a power stop (where you dig edges and spray lots of snow). I fell really hard. My leg is still visibly bruised and its been nearly 2 weeks. So it sounds like I need to keep my skis flat and legs further apart. I'll hit'em again for sure. I welcome any more advice, I need it.

Assuming I get the slide down, how do you exit the rail? obviously one ski will come off before the other, so when the first ski is near the edge do you just jump off and complete the rotation to switch. do you jump with the back leg or both?
 
if you're coming off the rail with any amount of speed, both skis will come off at roughly the same time because of forward momentum. When learning, if you're momentum carries you through the slide, you're probably going to want to keep going that way and merely let your rotation send you off switch. If the opposite is true, and you appear to be coming closer to straddling the rail before your dismount, open up your shoulders, and once again, momentum will carry you off straight.
 
if you are going really slow though, push off your leading foot, pull up your back foot, and wait till your back foot is clear of the rail, then extend to either switch or regular.
 
I find it hard to keep both my skis flat on the rail..so i always tilt my leading foot up on its edge. And what that other guy said..study 4bi9 vids. I found that they really helped me.

Good luck
 
Since you're learning this is probably what will happen... you'll get to the end of the rail and your "rotation momentum" will exit the rail for you. Basically, you'll fall off switch without even thinking about it. As soon as you can make it to the end of the rail with any kind of regularity though, you should stop letting this happen.

Two things you should get comfortable doing because they will help you progress so much - I've spent entire days just practicing these two things because they're so fundamental.

1. Coming off the rail forward. The first few times you pull it off it will probably feel really weird because you'll be forcing a change in momentum last second instead of setting up for it by gripping the rail with your edges. That's the real key. Tilt your front foot a little so that your inside edge is pressed into the rail a little and you're no longer flat on your bases. This should make coming off the rail forward feel really comfortable and natural if you do it right. Watch videos of Tom Wallish, Will Wesson, or Ahmet Dadali, all of them show this very clearly. You don't need to do it that hard (they're generally setting up for a much more advanced rotation change, pretzels) but it will give you an idea.

2. Popping off the end of the rail. Instead of just falling off in one direction or the other try to launch off. You will need to be decent at gripping the rail first because you're essentially popping off of that edge, so practice the first step until you can do it consistently and then do this.

Way too long a post...
 
the most important thing is the weight. center your shoulders over you knees and you should be ok.

if you have a skateboard or have ridden a skateboard, it is really similar to running and jumping on a skateboard while its on the ground and rolling it out.
 
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