Freestyle Park Etiquette – What you should know!

You might have seen our recent post on Half Pipe Etiquette aiming to give you the tools you need to stay safe in your first foray into the half pipe.  Guess what?!  It’s just the same in the park!  Whilst it seems like a super fun nice open area with lots of rollers and fun little jumps to ollie off next to the rails, there are definitely some rules you should learn to stay safe and happy and keep everyone else happy too!

Protect your Swede!

Whilst it is not compulsory world over to wear a helmet in the snow park, why would you not want to protect your lovely head!  You can get some great helmets nowadays that are comfy, fit well and even look pretty stylish!

Start Small and scope it out first

Make sure you check out the features before you hit them.  Have a look at the size of the jumps, the jumps on to the boxes or rails.  It’s totally fine to do a ride through and have a look before you jump but just make sure you stay out of the way of the landings and drop ins.

Be Aware

Look around you, just like in the half pipe, if you are queuing to ‘hit’ something then look around you, was someone there before you, are they going o go?  Do they have their hand up, are they waiting to go?  If it’s your turn, pop your hand in the air and then people are aware that you are planning to hit the feature.

Don’t stand on the landings

This is a biggy!  A lot of the time the person at the top of the jump at the ‘drop in’ can’t see you if you are on the landing.  If you are in the park exploring then be aware of where the landings are, even on the smaller jumps and rails.  The speed a rider picks up when hitting a rail is definitely enough that they can’t stop in time if you are in the landing or worse still they may land on top of you!  This is also the case with jumps, but obviously coming down from a dizzy height.  When in the air they will find it hard to avoid you if you are in their landing!

Get up and clear out

Everybody falls, it’s part of learning!  Make sure you watch people hit the feature before you go in for your hit and make sure they land it and have cleared out before you go!  You don’t want to land on someone.  Just like in the half pipe, if you have fallen and can move out the the way then do so as quickly as possible!  If you can’t move out of the way and if you can, just signal so people know you need help.

So to round up!

WEAR A HELMET

DO A RECCY

LOOK AROUND YOU

KEEP AWAY FROM THE LANDINGS

GET UP AND CLEAR OUT

 Just remember snowboarding is fun, so go out there, progress, learn and have lots and lots of fun, but stay safe!