Optical Illusions When Snowboarding
By Jakob Jelling, Thu Dec 8th

While Shifties are a trick they are also an opticalillusion. When doing a Shifty you are creating the illusion ofdoing a 180-degree turn in the air and reversing it before youland. Of course since it is an optical illusion you do notreally turn 180-degrees.

Twisting your body in opposite directions once you are in theair creates this optical illusion. While this can take a littlebit to get used to it isn't as hard as it sounds. As with allaerial tricks the key to this is timing.

The first step is to become airborne. This can be done by via anOllie, a ramp or whatever else you happen across that will getyou off the ground. Ideally you should launch up in to the airmore than you want to move forward. Going up more than forwardwill improve the look of your trick and provide you with moretime to set it up and recover from it.

Once you have left the ground you can begin to twist the upperand lower portions of your body in opposite directions. Thetechnique for twisting your lower body is much the same as doinga 180. Push your forward foot to the side that you wish it tospin while keeping your rear foot basically planted so as to actas a virtual pivot point. An important thing to bear in mind isto not twist your hips.

Twisting your upper body may be a little easier. The easiest wayto twist is to simply

point your head the way you want your bodyto turn and the rest of you will naturally follow. Once again becareful not to twist your hips, as they are the anchor pointsfor your body. If you do twist your hips you may find that youturn too far and thus have trouble giving the impression ofhaving turned 180-degrees or landing your trick smoothly.

If you time everything correctly you will complete the maneuverjust as your reach the peak hieght of your air. At this point itis time to start returning to your normal position and preparingfor the landing. The hardest thing to realign is your feet. Makesure you focus on twisting them back to normal even before youstart to untwist your upper body. As you approach the groundmake sure that you are looking where you want to go, that yoursnowboard is straight and your knees are slightly bent to absorbthe impact.

As you can see a Shifty is an interesting optical illusion thatyou can easily learn to do. While challenging yourself is agreat way to improve your skills quickly, begin learning thisone by turning only 45-degrees the first few times. This willhelp you avoid an uncomfortable landing that can put an end doyour day of snowboarding.

About the author:Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.snowboardinghelp.com.Please visit his website to discover the world of snowboarding!