There’s no right answer when it comes to asking the question: “what tricks should I start with”? That said, there are some basic pointers to bear in mind:

Learn to ollie. Knowing how to ollie, to pop off the tail or nose of your snowboard, forms the foundation of almost all snowboard tricks. It’s basic, you can learn it on the flat, learn it on the piste, and once you’ve got it down it will add no end of fun to your riding around the mountain. You can start to take air off all manner of features. Read this article on A Practical Guide To Learning How To Ollie.

Learn to butter. Pressing on the piste is fun, it looks cool, and to do it properly you need to understand how to flex the board from a balanced position. You’ll need that foundation for rail and box tricks, as well as more complex jibs and butters. Buttering is a fun place to start, it’s safe, and will help your other tricks, including ollies and nollies. Read this article on Learning How to Butter on a Snowboard.

Learn all of your 180s. Got ollies down? Progress to 180s. Start on the flat, then use bumps, hits at the side of the piste, and then small kickers. Frontside 180, backside 180, switch frontside 180 (half cab or cab 1) and switch backside 180. Just working through these tricks is fun and rewarding, but you’ll need them all for bigger spins. For example, the second half of a frontside 360 is a switch backside 180. If you want to know how to do them all, check out Snowboard Addiction – for all of the 180s to learn.

For rails and boxes, start with 50-50s and boardslides. When it comes to rails and boxes, the 50-50 is the simplest tricks. Get the right body position and just ride over it. The boardslide is probably next. Most importantly, get comfortable. Boxes and rails feel different to snow. Your base has to be flat. Get comfortable and then progress from there.

If you’ve got 50-50s and boardslides down, you might want to take a look at 3 Snowboard Tricks to Try on a Box.

Snowboard Tricks Guide

This article is part of the afterbang Guide to Snowboard Tricks.