Fall Fest Silent Auction

Another function that we hold every year at Fall Festival is the NRM Education Foundation Silent Auction. Every year, the division awards scholarships to individuals and snowsports schools to help cover some of the expenses to attend clinics and exams. The silent auction is used to help raise some of the funds used in the scholarships. Everything that we raise from the auction will be put back into the fund so that we can send more of you to events. For the auction to be a success, we need a couple of things: donated items and lots of bids.

So how can you help? Do you have something that you could donate for the auction? It could be as meaningful as a nicely knitted scarf and matching beret, some amazing guaranteed-to-catch-fish-on-every-cast dry flies, a jar of some of your homemade special family secret chocolate sauce, or other examples of some of your talents off-snow.

Any donation is greatly appreciated. If you can help and are coming to Fall Fest, you can bring your items with you. If you won't be attending but can donate items, you can send them to the PSIA-AASI NRM office in Big Sky. If you have any questions, feel free to contact NRM President Stu Hoyt at stuhoyt@yahoo.com.

Anecdotal TWIST on Snowboarding

by Trevor Hildebrand, NRM Adaptive Team Member

I always look for the best way to teach to an individual, and in group lessons sometimes we don’t get that opportunity to make everything personalized for each individual. I remember sitting in a clinic thinking about different ways to get someone to make directional changes and turns on a board with the LEAST amount of effort - efficiency, my favorite. There are different schools of thought on teaching directional changes and turns using the different board performance concepts as primary foci, but I tend to resort to twist as much as I can… so let’s put an anecdotal twist on this!

I’ve heard different analogies throughout my career as an instructor, and I’ve found that people [generally] remember stories better than they remember sequences, much to my dismay because I love sequential lists! So that day when sitting around in that clinic, I wanted to come up with a story that would help people understand the rather simple mechanics of making a turn by twisting the board. This is a little story about Frank and Bob…

Frank has an airplane and he and his best friend, Bob, took off one day from Ft. Lauderdale, FL to go tour the Bahemian islands. They flew a circuit and were on their way back, bouncing from Eleuthera to Abacao to Grand Bahama and on their final leg back to the US mainland. As the mainland came into view, Bob took off his seatbelt and turned around to grab some snacks from behind his seat. The single engine Cessna 172 plane had been performing great, but now that they were 12 miles away from the coast, the engine lost power. Bob had been struggling to get a snack, and was all twisted up between the pilot seat, the ceiling and his seat. Frank told Bob to get back in the front and put on his seat belt as he then proceeded to call “Mayday” over the radio to notify that they were going down and weren’t going to have enough glide to make it to the airport. Bob, still struggled to get turned back around.

The plane neared the level of the ocean and Bob was frantic, which made his situation worse and he was unable to turn around. The plane grazed over a large ship, then struck the ocean a couple hundred yards from it. Frank, having his seatbelt on, was in good condition. Bob unfortunately injured both of his legs and could not move them with purpose. Frank was luckily able to grab two life vests, and put a vest on both himself and his best friend. Once he was able to push Bob out of the plane, he grabbed some rope then climbed out himself just before the plane disappeared into the abyss below. The large ship wasn’t going to be able to turn around to get them, but it was standing idle waiting for them to swim over.

The waves were large and gentle that day, one coming every 10 seconds. Frank could swim, but Bob couldn’t, and Frank knew just what to do. He tied one end of the long rope around his waist, the other around Bob’s, then began to swim towards the ship. As a wave would come along, Frank would go up the wave, then Bob would go up the wave, then Frank would go down the back side of the wave followed by Bob. Every time a wave came along, this would occur, and always in this order. Frank was always in front, so he always went up first, and down first - and Bob would always follow right behind. Frank goes up, Bob goes up, Frank goes down, Bob goes down. Frank goes up, Bob goes up, Frank goes down, Bob goes down. They finally got to the ship, were rescued, and Bob healed up in the coming weeks just fine.

Now, what do “Frank” and “Bob” represent in terms of snowboarding? Frank is your Front leg (toes and knee moves in tandem), and Bob is your Back leg (toes and knee moves in tandem). It is important at this point to understand that we are not just pushing down on the gas pedal with the toes, but rather that our knee moves with the same intensity and in the same direction as the toes on that leg. When we push our left toes down, our left knee drives down and forward too.

In the beginning stages of snowboarding, every time as it relates to twisting, your Frank moves first then your Bob moves second, always in that order. If you are standing still with your board across the hill and both Frank and Bob are pointed up, you aren’t moving. If Frank pushes down (toes and knee both), you will begin to move in that direction, so much so that you can get your board to point straight down the fall line, but never further - at least until Bob joins in. Once your board is pointed straight down the hill, if Bob pushes down too (because he was still up to this point), you finish the turn. If Bob pushes down before your board is pointed straight down the fall line, the whole ship falls over for a spectacular crash and burn.

So, regardless if you are regular or goofy, Frank (front) and Bob (back) work all the same. Bob can’t do anything before Frank. Because the rope is so long and the waves are long, Bob must wait for Frank to get to the top of the wave (fall line on heelside turn) or the bottom of the wave (fall line on the toeside turn) before he can follow suit, as he can’t swim! Whatever intensity Frank used to perform the movement, Bob must follow or they will slide down the backside of the wave (you get a reverse twist and in the instance of floating leaves, you go in the reverse direction).

Just a quick anecdote that takes less than 5 minutes to explain, but easy to use and yell towards your students as reminders when they are working on turns during practice. Yes there are pressure changes that are occuring, but the students tend to perform these pretty well on their own intuitively as to not fall. Not right, not wrong, just something different - give it a try!

Trevor