The 50-50 — Your First Box Trick

The 50-50 is the simplest box trick in snowboarding: ride straight across a box or rail with the board parallel to the feature. It's the entry point to every park progression that comes later.

What You Need

• A small flat box in a beginner park. Look for one that's wide (40 cm+), low (15 cm+), and short (2–3 m).
• Approach speed — slow enough to control, fast enough that you carry across the whole box.
• An ollie — you'll need to hop onto the box.

The Move

1. Approach the box straight on, board pointed straight, knees bent.
2. Ollie onto the box — a small jump that lands the board flat on the surface.
3. Stay flat-based. No edges, no turning. Both edges parallel to the box edges.
4. Shoulders square to the board, eyes looking off the end of the box.
5. Ride off the end with knees bent to absorb the small drop back to snow.

The Common Mistake

Trying to ride the box on an edge. Box surfaces are slippery and edges grab. The board needs to be perfectly flat. If you feel yourself tilting, you'll catch and slam.

Practice the flat-based glide on snow first. Find a smooth flat groomed section, ride straight at low speed on a flat base. If you can do that for 5 m on snow, you can do it on a box.