Go Big and Sketchy or Go Smaller With Style?

by Fraser
Updated:

Ok – so it’s not so black and white as the question in the title suggests. Some people go big with style. These things aren’t mutually exclusive…

…But what if they were – what do you prefer? Do you like to see riders going huge, with a compromise to style? Or are you more in favour of smaller scale tricks that are done to perfection? Silky. Flawless.

Your own riding?

Perhaps the question is more relevant if we consider our own snowboarding. For the average rider the time available to invest in honing technique and learning new tricks is limited. Do you look to constantly expand your repertoire, or polish what you’ve got?

Add more tricks that are sketchy or have less tricks with good style?

For example, let’s say you’ve just learned 360s. Do you keep working on the 3: maybe add a grab, go bigger with it, get it more floaty? Or do you look straight away towards the 540? “I can spin a 3 now so the next logical step is a 5”?

Spin to win or style it out?

When we consider the pro snowboarders out there, that do go big and have great style, the “spin to win” approach asks a similar question. What’s your favourite – a massive 1260 or a supper slow backside 180. How about a boned-out 5?

What’s your view?

I’m definitely biased towards the smooth operators. Styled, effortless runs. I still appreciate the big, technical spins or the difficult combinations on rails. But my preference would be a top to bottom run with good flow and packed style – with the odd technical/big trick thrown in.

For my own riding, I want to take what I know and get it on lock. Yeah, I want to add to the repertoire, but I’ll add new tricks at a slower rate so that I can spend time smoothing out the kinks.

I’ve also found that testing my skills out on a wakeboard vs a snowboard can help them progress in a lower risk atmosphere.

Over to you…

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