Tue, 01/19/2010 - 1:20pmSnowboard Tricks: How to frontblunt to fakie

Front Blunts with Tom Guilmard

With who?

Name: Tom Guilmard
Age: 19
Sponsors: Burton, Anon, Volcom, Monster Energy and SNO!zone
Results: 1st at the British Snow Tour Youth 2008, 2nd at the Burton Scrap Metal 2008 and 5th at the Peanut Butter Rail Jam European final 2009
Favourite Resort: SNO!zone Milton Keynes
Highs: Newport skatepark
Lows: Rain
Something that makes you laugh: Cringe situations (Like when Jonny Russel drove down a street in Quebec the wrong way and we ended up getting stuck in a crossroads with everyone beeping at us. Jonny was close to tears! Haha)
Something that makes you cry: Pigeons, or any sort of bird
Never leave home without: A hat
What’s the movie you're most hyped to see this winter: These days: Jonas Michalot

HOW TO DO IT

1
Guage the speed for the rail by riding it a few times. Frontside 5050s will put you in good stead for learning the front blunt

2
Approach the rail on the frontside (toe edge to the rail, heel edge away from the rail) with the correct amount of speed. Keep your knees bent as you’re approaching the rail and stay slightly on your toe edge

3
As you reach the end of the lip you’ll want to keep your weight on your toe edge – this will help you leap over the rail and get into that front blunt position

4
When you leave the lip of the kicker push off your toe edge and lift your front foot over the rail – aiming to land with the rail under your back binding

5
When you land on the rail bend your back leg to lock in to the front blunt. Try to hold the rotation locked at 90 degrees otherwise you’ll keep spinning on the rail

6
When grinding the rail keep your knees flexed and keep your weight over that back foot so it stays locked all the way to the end of the rail

7
As you approach the end of the rail turn your head in the direction of your landing, this will prepare you to come out of the trick fakie (or backwards)

8
As you turn your head you will feel your board and body follow – once you feel this start to bend you knees to pop off the rail

9
Pop off the rail and spot your landing

10
Make sure you bend you knees when you land, and don’t rotate your arms, so that you can ride away switch

Photographer: James Bryant
Location: Laax, Switzerland

Afraid to ask?

SINGLE BAR HANDRAILS
Are a slightly more technical feature to ride than boxes. In order to get your trick you need to be much more exact with your weight, shapes and balance. Although they tend to be more durable than boxes you’ll be well advised to check them for any edge-catching spurs before jumping on. Avoid aluminum rails (the metal is too soft for sliding)

FRONT BLUNTS
Another trick taking it’s name from skateboarding, although without trucks the specifics of a front blunt become slightly more ambiguous. Essentially this trick involves approaching a rail on your frontside, jumping over the rail to land, and slide backwards, on your back foot.
While you’ll find the front blunt in any decent rail rider’s bag of tricks, expect big things this season as switch-up combinations are put down on bigger and burlier features.

FAKIE
Fakie is one of the many snowboarding terms coined from skateboarding slang. It means riding in the opposite direction to your natural stance, so: goofy if you’re regular and regular if you’re goofy. Some of the nuances of skateboarding language are lost in snowboarding where you are strapped to the board – fakie and switch become more or less the same whereas in skateboarding they are very different.

FRONTSIDE
With regard rail tricks, frontside refers to approaching the feature with your front facing it. So for a frontside 50-50 you face the rail as you jump on, making it a lot easier than a backside 50-50 where you are facing away from the rail as you jump on

DANISH
Just a quick way to describe a 270 off a rail or box where the rotation of the 270 is in the same direction as the rotation used to get on to the feature.
It’s couter-part, the Pretzel, refers to spinning off the feature in the opposite direction to how you got on.

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Snowboard Tricks: How to frontblunt to fakie

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Snowboard Tricks: How to frontblunt switch-up

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