During our quarantine series we have decided to create a stop motion snowboarding edit. If you haven’t seen the stop motion edit already please find it below. If you are a YouTube user subscribe to our channel here.
Stop motion is a great way to add a twist to snowboard videos and the creativity that surrounds this great sport. Our snowboard video is easier than you think however it is important to plan ahead! For this edit we created a story board of the scene we wanted to create. After deciding and visualising the movements we then searched for our props. A white sheet from the washing basket was user to portray snow, an old blue tarp from the garden was our water. Adding in these props to highlight snow, water or even sky really brings the soul of a video out.
Once we introduced the blue tarp we wanted to put surfing into our video as its a natural sport alongside snowboarding. We absolutely love surfing at REAL Snowboarding and therefore it was natural for us to incorporate this into the stop motion snowboard video.
How to shoot our stop motion
We took a photo, moved a little and then took another photo. The movement is almost like acting out a scene of walking in slow motion. This is the basics of a stop motion. You then piece the images together in a timeline on a program like Adobe Premier Pro which will then create your video.
Everything was planned and the camera was set up in a birds eye view position. This meant that it was above us on the balcony. If you make a mistake in stop motion you then have to find it within hundreds or even thousands of images. We didn’t want this hassle so we knew it was one sequence of shooting, start to finish. The reason for doing this is once you have finished you can drag and drop your images into premier and they are already in order.
Once all of your photos are in the timeline you select them all, right click and set the duration to .200 of a second. We found that this was the best speed to make the animation fun to watch without being to slow and lagged.
There you have it, a snowboarding and surfing stop motion animation. Check it out below and please share it if you love it and like it if you appreciate it!
Don’t forget to check out more of our quarantine series, you can find episode one here
A frontside board slide and a frontside nose slide are two different tricks because they use different parts of the snowboard. More than often they will find themselves under the front foot while doing so.
Why go under the front foot?
The front foot offers you more balance and stability it is that simple. Many people consider a true frontside boardslide to be between the bindings meaning it is exactly between your bindings. At REAL Snowboarding we love all snowboard tricks, some more than others but we are avid fans of having a frontside boardslide both under your front foot and between your bindings. This is simply because they are two different tricks therefore we can appreciate both of them separately.
What is counter rotation on a snowboard?
As our tutorial explains you must create counter rotation in order to be aligned and ‘stacked’ over your snowboard. To be stacked means to be balance over your snowboard in its optimum position with good posture. Many people when doing a frontside boardslide for the first time will twist their shoulders in the direction of there board meaning they will keep rotation while on the feature. In order to stop the board and body from over rotating and essentially going into another trick you must stop this continuous rotation. This is where counter rotation comes into your toolbox.
Practice your snowboarding
Practice with or without your snowboard on in a flat area. If you jump in the air and turn your board one way try to go the opposite with your upper body. By doing this you are essentially creating a shift but landing still in that shifty position. The torsion and wind-up you creating in your torso will allow you to become balance and potentially able to spin our of this frontside boardslide in the future.
Off snow snowboard training
One of the first tricks that you can learn on a snowboard is a backside boardslide. You must first be comfortable snowboarding around the mountain and turn with confidence. After becoming intermediate or above at turning a snowboard you may then ask yourself the question; how to boardslide on a snowboard.
Freestyle snowboarding isn’t for everyone but the natural stages of snowboarding will always go towards some sort of basic freestyle snowboarding. It is our recommendation that you practice basic freestyle snowboarding therefore you can understand more movements on a snowboard.
Many winters of teaching snowboarding has lead us to understand what a learner needs to progress in. For us there are two categories that stand out within a persons ability. People who have never done freestyle snowboarding and people who can snowboard but don’t want to learn the freestyle element. We are not saying everyone needs to learn freestyle snowboarding but what we are saying is that everyone needs to be aware of what the body is doing above their snowboard.
To achieve the desired results of knowing what the body is doing in a multiple of scenarios with a snowboard we urge you to predict and practice. This simply means that where possible you predict and practice a movement by learning in a safe environment. Knowing the fundamentals will in achieve better performance and a reactive snowboarder.
For us, a safe environment for kicker training is on a trampoline with or without a trampoline specific snowboard. To learn rail and box tricks we use our ‘at home, how to snowboard’. This brings us to our quarantine series of using the snowboard addiction or a homemade version. If you are not sure how to setup this at home see our pilot episode to get ideas.
Without further chat let us present to you a tutorial we made during our coronavirus isolation lockdown
