Snowboarding is the 'Art of Stopping'

Snowboarding is a sport of 'sliding'.
However,
the technique of 'stopping' becomes more important in snowboarding.
It might sound a bit strange.
But as we look at the basics of snowboarding, I feel that this way of thinking explains things more naturally.

What do beginners practice first?
It is not turning.
It is not carving either.
First, it is side-slipping.

What you do during side-slipping is very simple.
It is using the edge to create resistance against the gravitational force pulling you down the slope.

In other words,
it is the technique of stopping a fall.
Snowboards move due to the force of falling.
Therefore, what you learn first is not how to move, but how to stop.

So, what is 'sliding'?
This can be organized as
weakening the resistance created to stop.
.

In side-slipping, you use the edge to create resistance.
From there, you loosen the edge a little.
You weaken the angle of the board.
Then the resistance decreases, and the fall naturally begins again.

In other words,
sliding and stopping are not completely separate techniques.
You are simply controlling the strength of the stopping technique.

Therefore, I believe that a snowboard turn is made of
falling and resistance
.

Falling.
Creating resistance.
Falling again.
Creating resistance again.

This repetition becomes a turn.

When we say 'turn',
there is an image of a 'technique for curving'.
Of course, that is also correct.
But if you look closer,

during a turn, you tilt the edge,
creating resistance against the snow surface.
Because of that resistance,
the sidecut does its job,
and the board begins to draw a curve.

In other words,
a turn can also be said to be
a state of creating a 'stop' through side-slipping
.

Conversely,
between turns.
This is the transition.

During the transition,
you release the edge angle.
You loosen the edge.
You reduce the resistance.
Then the board switches along with the fall.

In other words,
the transition is the time when you are utilizing
the 'sliding' state of side-slipping
.

Therefore,
side-slipping is not just a practice for beginners.
Side-slipping contains
the beginning of a turn,
the end of a turn,
everything is included.

The feeling of stopping.
The feeling of sliding.
The transition between them.

Actually, the basics of snowboarding might have been learned almost entirely during that first side-slipping.

This time,
I started looking at riding from the perspective of 'how to use side-slipping'.
When I do that,

turns, carving,
and transitions,
all start to look connected by a single line.

You can slide because you stop.
The speed feels good because there is resistance.
A turn is born because there is a fall.

At first glance, it seems contradictory,
but the fact that these opposing elements coexist
is where the fun of snowboarding lies.

Today,
rather than 'how to slide',
I thought about
'how to stop'.

This was Rei Aoki, the demon of verbalization.