Hey Frosty, Before I go ride the rails, I just wanted to know how and what is the best way to ride the rails, and not falling on my back.

Thanks for the help, but should i hop off the raill or just slide down the side?

For some reason when I get on a rail I either slip of or lean to much on one side.  What should I do?

If you are coming from a skateboarding environment remember the rules are reversed for rail slides.

In skateboarding, you have a very quick (depending on slope) deceleration in speed. When snowboarding it is like hitting a piece of ice... you are going to feel as if you are actually going faster than you are.

Start out with small rails close to the ground. You ARE going to wipe out A LOT. Get the feel of it. Keep your body and weight centered on the rail and shoulders square to the pipe. Coming off the rail you will want to move your butt down and tuck for stability. Keep your arms out to start and then when you get your balance you can bring them in.

When you get good enough you can go rail to fakie (what a RUSH!) by moving your head behind you as if you are looking at your back and allowing your board to swing around with you. There is no jumping required as in skateboarding where you need to go air to fakie but you will have to learn when to stop your twisting momentum. This is quite an advanced trick but one that is cool to try on small pipes once you get the basic slide down.

Zelo

http://www.zelo.com
http://www.name-stats.com

hey frosty i need some tips for grinding rails...I've been snowboarding for 4 years 1.5 years in the park and whenever I try a battleship rail I always fall. Ever since i fell 2 times really hard on the same rail on the same spot on my body i've been afraid to go try the rail again. Sadly enough i've been scared to try any rail again except for the picnic table. Thanks
                                                                                 

Do you typically fall the same way?  How do you usually fall when trying these rails?  Can you explain in detail?

So you normally approach a rail with your right foot leading.  Then you mount the rail.  Say do you usually 50/50 or crank sideways to a boardslide?

Yeh, rails take an incredible degree of focus.  Crashes can hurt bad (boy do i know , LOL).

what really really helped me get over my fear of rails (which was huge due to many many many skateboarding mishaps) is nose/tail slides, but riding hard on the boot side and trying not to be so stylish and far out on the nose/tail.

the whole fear for me was wacking my head on the rail, so i went this route and it had me confident within a few weeks (tip/tail slides are a bit tricky so it'll take longer to learn) but when you fall, you fall just as if you had caught an edge (which if you snowboard, this has probably happened many times before and many times again)

also, taking an old 2 liter soda bottle and a skateboard deck (no trucks) and standing on it helps with balance as far as boardslides. just put the board in the middle of the bottle kind of in a plus formation and see how long you can keep both ends off the ground. when you can keep it up as long as you want effortlessly then you've got a pretty good standing balance for boardslides. now just factor in forward motion and you're set. and there are plenty of youtube videos on how to make a balance board out of an old skateboard.