Snowboarding
She might look cute, but Queralt is badass. Here are her 10 tips for how to improve your riding.
Queralt comes from Spain; after spending six winters in the US to be closer to good halfpipes, she moved to Flims for the superpipe at Laax.
We caught up with Queralt at the Laax Ladies Session to find out how to not pee our pants before dropping in a superpipe.
1. Do a drop-in. A real one!
The drop-in is the most important part, because it guides your run. Don’t take a too perpendicular line into the pipe. You need to pretend that you’re coming from an air, not from outside of the pipe. So you have to copy the wall as much as possible. Ride parallel to the coping, make an ollie (because more height means more speed) and then use your whole board right from the top. If your edges touch the wall for the first time when you’re almost in the flat, you will lose speed.
2. Don’t lose your line when you get into the wall
A lot of people think they have to go straight up and take a steep line, but instead you have to continue the line you had in the flat. Even if it looks like you might not get out very high, when you track downhill with gravity, you will go bigger. So don’t try to go 90° up the wall!
3. Don’t look at the coping when going up the wall
When going up the wall, a lot of people look at the coping as if it was the point to get to. But you want to end up above the coping, right? So you should look up in the sky. If you look at the coping, you will change posture, turn your shoulders, open up, and that influences your trajectory. If you look at your actual goal, you will get out higher and you will be able to hang in the air longer. So: don’t look at the coping! Until you’re landing, of course.
4. Have patience and keep going
A lot of people slow down as soon as they see the coping. They think “I’m here now, I made it!”, but you actually want to get out of the pipe. So keep going!
5. Trust the pipe
Some people are scared to fall onto the coping, so they push themselves off the wall. But you should let the board take off naturally: the pipe will bring you back in the way you came out! Of course some pipes are more open and some pipes are more closed. So you need to be able to read them. But give it a try first and let the pipe carry you out instead of pushing yourself off the wall and landing in the flat. I’ve done it and it’s not fun!
6. The bigger the better
In a pipe like in Laax, you don’t need to be afraid of the size. If it is nicely shaped like here, the bigger the pipe, the safer. Because the transition is long enough to guide you till the end of the wall and back.
7. Press to impress
A lot of people struggle with compression. This could be a) because your line is too steep (see above) or b) because your body is not in the right position. You always have to feel pressure on your feet. You can’t let go a single moment. If your legs are straight and there’s a bump in the pipe, you will fall. So bend your knees, feel it in your legs, stay compact, and absorb the compression. If you don’t feel your thighs when riding pipe, you’re doing something wrong.
8. The base is your friend
Don’t use your edges too much. When you are on your base, you go fast, but when you are on your edges you lose speed. Of course it depends on the steepness of the pipe. The pipe in Laax is very steep, so you need a bit more edge. But in general: try to give your base some love and use it!
9. To learn new tricks, try them at the end of the pipe
If you want to learn something new, you are usually going a bit slower. So if you want to try a new trick, do it at the bottom of the pipe so you can still get more practice on all the hits before (and it’s also a bit less scary when the coping becomes lower).
10. Ride! As much as you can
The most important thing for pipe riding is practice. The more you ride it, the more you’ll love it. So don’t give up. It’ll be worth it!
