Snowboard Addiction - Probably the best trick tutorials in the world

Snowboard Trick Tip Movies on the whole are the most frustratingly rubbish instructional videos on the planet. Browse Youtube or Vimeo and you’ll find hundreds of them, it seems every man and his dog has given them a go. Until recently I’d been blown away by the complete lack of anything resembling instruction in such videos, sorry but “pop hard, throw your shoulders, spot your landing and then ride away stocked” isn’t going to cut it when I want to work out the mechanics of a backside rodeo.

Then about a year ago stuck at my desk in the centre of London dreaming of fresh lines and going through a number of tricks in my head, I got a Facebook message from my brother Tom who at the time was spending the winter in Verbier. The posted link was about a new instructional video he’d found on Youtube that had helped him stick his BS 540s and move onto 720s. The video was the ‘Advanced Spinning Lesson’ by Snowboard Addiction. Nev and the team went through each aspect of spinning from run-up to spin initiation in such detail that it instantly blew every other instructional video I’d ever laid my eyes on out of the water. I emailed the guys at Snowboard Addiction to find out a bit more about their plans for the future and their other video tutorials.

Can you tell us a little about Snowboard Addiction, who is behind the idea and the brand and why you started online snowboard coaching in the first place?

Snowboard Addiction is the product of head coach Nev Lapwood’s tireless pursuit and passion for bringing freestyle snowboarding to shredders around the globe.  Nev wanted to create affordable yet superior tutorials that provided freestyle snowboarding fanatics a way to really progress their riding.  In it’s third year, with 17 employees and six language translations, Snowboard Addiction has branded itself as a unique snowboard coaching company that specializes in online coaching, making expensive snowboard lessons affordable for everyone, everywhere.  Nev has transformed an activity typically reserved for the privileged (snowboard instruction), into something that any shredder can enjoy for less than the cost of a lift ticket.  Snowboard Addiction has revolutionized the snowboard instruction game and continues to push the envelope providing fresh content season after season.

Can you give us a quick list of the courses available through Snowboard Addiction and an idea of the kind of tricks and tips contained in the videos?

Buttery Stuff
This section is all about buttering and flatland tricks. These are tricks you can do anywhere on the mountain, with or without a park.  Nose and tail presses, surface spins, ollies and nollies into butters, front blunt 270s, MFM butters and everything in between.

Riding Pow
This section outlines the fundamentals of riding the deep stuff.  We cover everything from set-up, stance, backcountry access and how to land big tricks in powder.  We also review necessary equipment when entering the backcountry, how it works and where to find more safety information.

Jumping Volume 1
This section covers 180s and 360s, giving you all the ins and outs for learning how to spin these tricks.

Jumping Volume 2
This section focuses coasting, popping, ollieing, nollieing into your first jumps and is designed to take you from your first air, grabs, spinning 7’s and beyond.

Jibbing Volume 1
This section provides an in depth analysis of some basic jib tricks: 50-50s, board slides and front board slides. We also have a section dedicated entirely to handplants.

Jibbing Volume 2
This section focuses on how to alter you body for a bunch of different advanced jib tricks including front and back 1s out of 50-50’s, shuffle technique, nose/tail slides, nosepress’s and tail presses, 4 different change-ups, Tailslide 270s, frontblunt 270s, and pretzels.

Data Disc
This disc contains mp3 audios and PDF manuals.
The audios cover jumping, jibbing, pipe, wallrides, handplants and transitions. They’re designed so that you can put them on your iPod and listen while you ride.  We also have strength and conditioning training manuals as well as a wealth of information to enhance your mental game while riding.  These manuals are key to harnessing the power of visualization (used by all the big name shreds), how to stomp tricks after bad slams and the one-minute-snowboard-mind miracle.

Advanced Spinning Teaser

Can’t our readers find freebie instructional videos that are just as good as Snowboard Addiction’s videos on Youtube and Vimeo?

You can find plenty of free instructional videos out there, but none of them provide comprehensive, easy to understand and highly detailed instruction on how to explode your riding like Snowboard Addiction.  Most videos out there today read something like this: approach the feature, jump/slide/bonk/grab, stomp it and ride away.  At Snowboard Addiction, we pride ourselves in featuring step-by-step instruction for everything, not just the how-to’s, but the why’s of these instructions, but don’t take our word for it, listen to what one of our stoked fans said: 

“Nev Lapwood describes the movements as if you’ve never been on a snowboard and also includes some easy to understand physics so you will understand WHY it works. Therefore, when you watch the videos, they actually “make sense” and you will understand what you have to accomplish with your OWN BODY in the real physical environment.”

Your videos are incredibly well made and give extremely detailed and accurate step-by-step instructions of how to nail each trick, but can SA take the place of a qualified instructor or freestyle coach?

The Snowboard Addiction Learn to Ride and Freestyle Program were created to provide riders with a cheaper alternative to private lessons.  After spending almost a thousand dollars getting geared up, most snowboarders can’t afford private lessons, yet they still want to progress their riding.  Snowboard Addiction provides this instruction for a fraction of the price and gives our customers something they can reference over and over again whether it’s snowing or not.  Many snowboard instructors and coaches have commented how our program provides a great compliment to their advice and gives their students something to take home in order to continue their progression.

Do you have any big name pro riders on the video roster?

We sure do!  All of our videos this year will feature pro riders Nev Lapwood, Jesse Millen, The Junkie (mystery coach) and a surprise line-up of Burton pros.

How do our readers get hold of Snowboard Addiction movies, and how much does it cost? Can I buy one course at a time and then add to it as my ability increases?

You can find a free introductory lesson on spinning here

and the rest of our rad videos can be found here

The price of our instructional videos start at $24.50 and come in both download format as well as physical DVDs.

You can definitely purchase each program individually, but it’s a better value if you purchase the entire freestyle program, which also allows riders to take full advantage of all the features in their local park.

I read somewhere that SA offers a 120% money back guarantee, if the purchaser believes his/her riding hasn’t benefitted from the videos. Can you really afford to refund more than you earned in the first place?

At Snowboard Addiction, we’re so confident in the quality and instructional value of our program and know that our customers WILL progress, that we decided to offer this incredible promotion.  We want to take our customer’s worries away from purchasing an instructional video and not learning anything (something many of our current customers have said about other “trick” videos out there).  As a testament to this, we’ve never had a customer need to take advantage of the 120%!

Does Snowboard Addiction plan to create any more instructional videos in the future?

We’re just getting warmed up over here at SA.  This year alone we’re releasing 6 more instructional videos, including our sought after How To Ride Pipe (which is due out this month).

Posted by Rich Ewbank in Features.