The Art of the Board Hold
Obviously, the best way to transport your snowboard is on your feet, riding through bottomless pow. Unfortunately, you must figure out a way to get your board from the car to the lift in order to do so. The art of the board hold is one that is often under appreciated, as there are multiple techniques that can help you use less energy, carry more comfortably, or most importantly, give off the right vibe. Here’s a quick run down.
The Old StandBy
The most basic and straight forward of all board carrying techniques. This is a logical way to transport your board since your front binding will handily rest on your arm, everyone will be able to see your awesome nose-sticker job, and you can sort of pretend it’s a skateboard. You don’t even have to worry about grip tape burn, although if you tune regularly, your edges may hurt an un-gloved hand.
The Cool-Guy Drag
By simply grabbing on to your heelcup and schlepping your board in this lazy manner, you are sending several messages. If you are in the parking lot it says, “I am so cool I don’t even care about my board. Yeah I probably even got it for free.” But even on soft snow it screams, “I am way too cool and lazy to be bothered with exerting the energy required to bring my board up to my waist.” It also makes it clear you are riding conventional bindings, as many of the new-fangled ones lack regular heel cups.
The Texas Helicopter
Favored by douche bags and ex-skiers alike, this hold really makes no sense. Not only is it awkward to do, but there is a very good chance you are going to take off someone’s head if you make any sudden turns or stops. But hey, it’s how you carried your skis, so why change now?
The Pipe Hold
You’ll most likely see this hold in use while hiking the pipe or a jump. The board’s weight evenly distributed, so theoretically, you are using the least amount of energy transporting it. You can save that energy to propel you that extra foot out of the pipe. No wonder the pipe jocks favor it.
The Jesus Hold
If you say, were a small child who’s neck could not yet support the weight of its head, or if you just really like to put effort into carrying your board, then this is the hold for you. It sort of looks like you are being crucified, so that’s cool too, I guess.
The Board Hug
This is less of a transport method, than a statement. It says either: a) I love snowboarding SO much or B) Snowboard theft has gotten out of hand I am not letting this baby out of my sight! Either way, it’s a pretty retarded way to carry your board, good thing we’ve never actually seen anyone do it.
Late Addition: The Strap-on
This one almost didn’t make the list, because well, who has a leash anymore? But we dug back to ’06 and found someone who did. This hold is super convenient for its hands-free nature, and general awesomeness. Really, the only issue with it is that most resorts stopped requiring leashes years ago. But if safety and efficiency are your main concerns, this is the hold for you.
No matter how you get your board to the lift, strap in, and shred on the way down. None of these techniques should be used to get your board down from the top of the lift.Special thanks to Steve McDonald for his modeling skills in illustrating this article.
crucifiction is kewl.
haha love it. I was watching how people hold their boards at A-basin on Saturday…says a lot about the person. I’m a mix between the standby, cool drag and pipe jock. I also make sure to do the occasionally butt tap when walking by people with my snowboard, yeah that’s the new pickup line.
Drag that shit and detune it.
The shoulder strap should be adopted by all those gangster kids who need their hands free to hold up their snow pants. Finally, a sensible use for a leash!
that dude should work on his beanie before anything. straight peter line in Pulse.
Oh, snap: I spy Ludakrisby! Also: You forgot The Briefcase, a nice Strap-On/Cool Guy Drag combo where you hook your leash from binding to binding and business-man it.
i always go with the stand by.. anything else looks like your trying to hard to be cool.
plus its easy
forgot to mention the pipe jock hold opens up lungs for better breathing and less out of breath hike
this is boring. does yobeat only post boring articles because yobeat is boring? or is it because nobody at yobeat either snowboards or actually gives a shit about snowboarding?
brilliant post.
i like seeing the reverse pipe, when someon tries to do the pipe hold but screws up and the bindings dig into their back… grin and bear it kids.
You forgot the “Nose Down”. Similar customer to the strap-on.
Haha…I recognize the HRM Parking Lot!