In all sports you will be able to obtain optimal performance levels by including cross-training in your regimen. Snowboarding is no exception to this and we would like to give you some suggestions that will help you to cross-train and become a better snowboarder. The first cross-training sport for a snowboarder is skateboarding. It is the easiest and most obvious transition for a snowboarder to make. Snowboarding actually kind of owes its very existence to the sport of skateboarding and they offer many similarities and movements. The great thing about skateboarding is that you don't need snow or mountains to be able to train.
Skateboards come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. The ones I recommend are those ridden by surfers who cross-train with skateboards. They are the "longboard" or "carveboard" style of skateboard and come with oversize wheels as well. You can even get an off-road version that will allow you to carve down large hills giving you a very similar experience to snowboarding. The next options are wakeboarding and surfing.
Both of these sports will keep you in great shape for snowboarding but for most snowboarders wakeboarding will probably be the easier of the two to realize just because of geographical issues. In most cases snowboarders will have much easier access to a lake or large pond on which to do wakeboarding than they will to surfing, unless they live on the west coast and have the beaches within a couple of hours drive. Wakeboarding has some similar movements to snowboarding but it also brings the upper body into the equation as well, something many snowboarders are sorely lacking. The major issue you will have to deal with is having access to a boat. The next sport we want to look at is surfing. Surfing is a great sport with many similar muscles being used as used is snowboarding.
Like wakeboarding though, surfing also requires the development of upper body strength due to the paddling involved in getting out to the waves. If you really get into the sport and get into the big wave riding that has been popularized of late by guys like Laird Hamilton you will definitely get the same adrenaline rush that you get snowboarding down a mountain. Actually, it is more like snowboarding with an avalanche behind you! Another sport you can get into that is fairly easy for snowboarders due to their location is mountain biking. It doesn't offer the similarities in movement but it will keep you in shape physically and aerobically for the snowboarding season. .
By: Gregg Hall
