OK, so I ended up getting SnowboardAddiction’s Freestyle Download. The download covers the same five modules I’ve tried previously: Jumping Vol 1, Jibbing Vol 1, Jumping Vol 2, Jibbing Vol 2 and a Data Disc.

There’s a lot of stuff! Between the jumping and jibbing volumes, you get the following lessons and features:

  • Intro to Jumping
  • Intermediate Jumping
  • Advanced Spinning
  • Jumping – 180s
  • Jumping – Backside 360s
  • Jumping – Frontside 360s
  • Intro to Jibbing
  • Advanced Jibbing
  • Jibbing – 5050
  • Jibbing – Backboard
  • Jibbing – Frontboard
  • Jibbing – Handplants
  • Bonus – Balance Bar
  • Bonus – Tuning
  • Bonus – Burton Snowboard Academy
  • Bonus – The Stash

I wanted to kick of the review of this instructional material with this initial update and my first impressions. Part 2 of the review will likely include my favourite lessons, the tips that I think are most useful and my overall conclusion…

So, first things first, I imported all of the above, just shy of 2GB, into iTunes and then sync’d up my iPhone. Tight.

They work really well on the phone. I can actually see this being of real use on the hill: take a run through the park, get on the chair lift, reflect on what went right and wrong, and if needed, pull out one of the lessons. Seriously, I can see myself doing this.

So what about the content? Well I have mentioned these lessons before, when I first checked a couple of them out on YouTube. I was impressed then and I’m impressed now.

Each aspect of jumping is broken down: setup speed, your setup turn and direction of the kicker; your platform for take-off – weight distribution, compression and correct edge use; the release – timing and the amount of wind-up, popping and keeping the rotation level; landing – spotting your landing, blind landings and preventing the revert.

And the presentation is so good, so clear. The video is littered with diagrams, split screens, annotations, paused-motion and the rider practising the motions without his board on. Consideration is given to different size jumps and there are plenty of basic, practical steps for progressing toward spinning off kickers.

And the jibbing is equally good. The intro to jibbing covers 50-50, boardslides, front-boards, tail and nose slides, and presses. All the time, reinforcing the fundamentals of body position, keeping the base flat, rotation and counter-rotation.

The tips for practicing are very good: go through the motions without your board, try it on the flat, on a static rail… All of the combinations of frontside/backside, lipslide, tail/nose slide are covered with the corresponding terminology. It’s effective, clearly presented and thourough.

The more advanced jibbing moves on to things like 180s out, switch-ups and pretzels. Again, it builds on the fundamentals of rotation and counter-rotation. For example, when 180’ing out of a box you need to use counter-rotation because you can’t use your edges to spin with normal rotation; the counter-rotation gives your body resistance to spin against.

The same freestyle fundamentals are repeated throughout all of the lessons. The trick coverage is comprehensive. The detail is excellent. But best of all, for me, it just makes me want to go shred. It gives me the feeling I can learn all of these tricks. I’m so impressed.

I haven’t watched it all yet and I haven’t had a chance to practice. As mentioned above I’m gonna provide a second part to the review pointing out my favourite bits, what I consider to be the best tips and my overall impression. So far so good…

Note: if you visit the Snowboard Addiction site, be sure to use the code “snowboardingdays” for a 10% discount on any of their products!

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