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Man… I was born & raised on the east coast among snow and ice but I don’t feel all that confident driving in it since I’ve been living in Southern California for so long. Are you in the same boat as far as your winter driving skills are concerned?
This morning at the gym (getting ready for the seaon, ya know?), I saw a segment on the Today Show about the Bridgestone “Winterdrive” Winter Driving School in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Here’s a class that may be helpful for us snow betty’s that are snow-challenged!

They offer a range of classes, from a half-day of basic winter driving safety fundamentals for $245, all the way through to a high-intensity 2-day course for $2250 where you learn all the advanced tricks for winter driving as used by world-class rally drivers. (In that class, you’ll even learn “the ‘Scandinavian Flick’ as well as other rally-based cornering, acceleration, and braking techniques.” Wow! Sounds intense!)

On the show, they put a reporter behind the wheel to actually take the class in Colorado and practice his skills on the ice- and snow-covered track that Bridgestone maintains for lessons. Some of the tips from the segment included these that are most definitely applicable not just to driving, but to snowboarding as well:

1. Anticipate turns and stops. In the snow or ice, it’s slick, so a car needs about 4-10x the normal stopping distance as on a dry road. So proceed with the car in control, and always leave plenty of room for cars in front of, and around you, when possible. No rapid movements, which can lead to loss of control.
   • The same goes for snowboarding. Of course when you snowboard, you WANT to be going fast on the slick snow surface. But you can still ride safely, and anticipate your turns and braking in advance, so you don’t crash into other snowboarders. To that end, you should also be anticipating what other riders and skiers around you are doing… not everybody is as conscientious as us
2. Don’t oversteer. This tip, related to the above, referred to the tendency we have to assume that our cars will behave the same as they do on dry roads. Approach turns slowly and don’t whip the wheel around. Oversteering is likely to send the car into a skid, to which we usually overcorrect (spin the wheel in the other direction of the original turn) and make the car fishtail wildly.
   • In snowboarding, the tendency to overcorrect when turning due to an oversteer is oftentimes what causes us to catch an edge and crash. Take your turns gracefully - don’t jerk your hands or arms around to try to overcompensate for a badly-executed turn. This unbalanced, somewhat out-of-control upper body weight may cause an oversteer and you’ll find yourself flopping around trying to rebalance… you’ll likely end up on your face in the snow.
3. Look where you WANT to go. In the car, try to focus on picking the path where you want it to go. Instinctually, your hands will turn the steering wheel to keep it on that path. Do not look at obstacles, because then you’ll find yourself subconsciously steering into them.
   • This one really hit home for me. It’s so true for snowboarding, and for almost any sport that I do! You always pick the line where you WANT to go. One time I was mountain biking on a skinny pathway; I looked over and saw a huge cactus plant. As I rode past it, I kept looking at it, thinking “Man, it would suck to run into that!” Next thing I knew I was off the path and literally IN the cactus. That ride did not end well. Anyways, about snowboarding, yes - look down the mountain, assess the obstacles (trees, jumps, other riders) in your way, and figure out where you want to steer thru to get around. Pick your line. Keep the obstacles in your peripheral vision, but don’t look directly at them. It’s amazing how your subconscious keeps you on the path towards where you are looking!

Keeping these tips in mind may help you drive better on those foreign-feeling icy roads… and may also help improve your riding!