Promoting snowboarding to local youth, Jeff Boliba, the Vice President of Global Resorts for Burton Snowboards, and the Burton Learn to Ride Group visited Nordstrom Elementary School on Wednesday to show students the fundamentals of the winter sport.
The Burton Learn to Ride Group’s new learn-to-ride program combines youth, learning to snowboard and school fitness called PE Snowboarding.
“The core strength and balance that students can learn from the snowboarding program will help them in any sport,” according to the organizers. “The unique PE curriculum is based on years of successful teaching experience on-snow and uses Burton’s revolutionary Riglet Board, Reel, Hover Cover and Learn To Ride gear, and tools combined with a fun instructional video to teach kids the basics of snowboarding in their own class gym.”
Boliba, a multisport trainer originally from Fremont, coordinated with school staff and the PE teacher to plan the session, arriving 45 minutes before the start of the PE class Jan. 6 to set up the hands-on demo. Once the class started, Boliba welcomed the group of local students, talked to them about what the kids are going to experience and then took them through active warm-up and snowboard tricks introduction.
Three-time Olympic champion Kelly Clark, of Vermont, starred in the video that helped to warm the kids up before they tried snowboarding in their gym class.
Students were divided into four groups and moved through different learning stations, picking up a new skill needed to learn to snowboard at each stop. The stations were: Team pulling (two students pulling another on a Riglet board); Grab game (students learn grabs and practice doing them); Foam blocks (students learn to twist and bend the Riglet boards on foam); and Spooners (students practice balance moves on Spooner boards.
