How Do You Fall Safely on a Snowboard? Tuck Your Chin When You Fall Backwards

Learning to snowboard means falling. What you practise is not how to avoid falls; it is where your head goes when you fall.

This post is for you if:

• you have never been on snow, and getting hurt in a fall is your biggest worry for day one
• you often end up sitting down backwards while practising on your heel edge
• you want to practise one movement at home before your trip

Why backward falls need extra care

When SnowWind’s instructors teach beginner snowboarders, there is one detail that matters a great deal and rarely gets mentioned: the neck.

When many people fall backwards, the head tips back too, and the back of the head is liable to hit the snow. On a snowboard the heel edge is the edge under your heels, so sitting down backwards while you practise on that edge is a backward fall.

This post covers one thing only: what to do with your head in the instant you fall backwards.

Three moves and a 30-second self-check

The SnowWind instructors’ cue is three moves, done at the same time:

1. Tuck your chin.
2. Imagine looking at your navel.
3. Round your back, so your body has a slight curve, rather than letting your whole back slap flat onto the snow.

“Look at your navel” is there to help you remember the chin tuck. With your eyes on your navel, your chin comes in on its own.

Keep two situations apart. In everyday posture practice, when you stretch back and open your chest, do not let your head tip back with you: imagine the back of your head extending upwards, keep your head perpendicular to the ground, draw it gently back, and keep the back of your neck long. When you actually fall backwards, you do not move your head back; you tuck your chin and look at your navel.

This stationary drill was put together by our editors; it is not an instructor’s own words. The self-check looks at two things only: can your eyes see your navel, and is your back round? When both are true, relax and start again. The drill does not require falling backwards, and you should not practise real falls at home.

On the snow, falling and feeling scared are normal. When 西西, SnowWind’s vice principal, compiled the teaching methods from the school’s instructor meetings, 西西 wrote down this principle for that moment: safety moves must always be explained clearly, but no one judges your fear or pain, and whether you try again is your decision.

Helmets

The courses page requires a helmet throughout only for the Snowboard Tree & Powder Lesson. For other lessons, ask the school before booking whether to wear one.

For choosing a helmet, SnowWind has summarised the snow sport helmet ratings from the Virginia Tech Helmet Lab in the United States. The lab is a unit of a US public research university, and it states that its ratings are not influenced by helmet manufacturers’ funding or input. Each helmet goes through 12 laboratory impacts, covering three locations (front, side and rear) at two angles (high and low), with both the linear acceleration and the rotational velocity of the head measured.

Know where its limits are: this is not a government safety certification, and it cannot guarantee you will not get a concussion. A helmet and a tucked chin are two separate things; neither replaces the other.

As for where snowboarders commonly get hurt, KAKU’s teaching experience points to the wrists, ankles and backside. KAKU’s advice: wear your protective gear properly, learn the safety basics first, and get an instructor. For what to do with your hands when you fall forwards, ask your instructor to demonstrate on the spot in your first lesson. KAKU’s full account of how snowboard and ski injuries differ is in Snowboard or ski?.

Once you can fall without worrying, see the previous post in this series for what to practise next: How long does it take to learn to snowboard? For anything else, see the FAQ.