How to Hit Rails and Boxes on a Snowboard

Someone was asking about how to hit rails and boxes on a snowboard:

I have very good control with my board from my 3 year experience of just riding. I just recently went to a small freestyle camp to learn to get on some rails/boxes. I only had a chance to learn how to get on a ride on box (where the box was flesh to the snow.) Now i am bored with the ride ons and now what to try ones that you need a little jump to get onto but im a little nervous. I did try once and my toe of my board got caught at the beginning of the box and down i went. I want to know how to approach the rail and not get my toe caught on the beggining of the box. Thanks

You’re going to want to really be comfortable with your ollies, practice them in the backyard or whatever. Get to the point that you can ollie whenever you want (it’s a timing thing). Here’s a little intro to ollies & nollies.

Once you got your ollies on lock, then you’re going to want to approach, similar to the ride-on boxes with a flat base, nice & balanced. Pop your ollie as you get to the lip of the ramp. It might take a few tries to get all that timing down but that should help. You’ll want to make sure that you land your ollie flat-based onto the box, too, otherwise you’ll end up sliding off one side or the other.

Also, speed is your friend, especially on longer rails. The slower you’re moving across the rail, the longer you’re going to have to maintain that balance.

As a general rule, the narrower the surface, the more difficult it’s going to be. So start with those kiddie-sized 24″ wide butter-boxes just to get your timing down. Once you’re comfortable ollying on to the box and riding it, you can progress to the narrower boxes, and finally to legit “rails”.