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Tips for Snowboarding the POW!
We like our spring riding light and fluffy.
Fun fact, at Banff Sunshine Village the snowiest months of the ski and snowboard season are typically March and April. As we ride into April, we’re still giddy from all the incredible powder March brought. Throughout the month of March, 167 cm of our world-renowned Canada’s Best Snow laned on our Rocky Mountain slopes. That 5 feet, 5 inches of pow – deeper than Canadian icon, Shania Twain herself. Looking at the numbers, March 2025 was Banff Sunshine’s snowiest month in eight years!
There’s still more than a month and a half of Canada’s Best Spring Skiing and Riding to be enjoyed at Banff Sunshine – including *fingers crossed* more surprise powder days.
Carving up our famous smoke dry powder feels a little different, takes practice and some technique adaptation. We asked our senior Snow Pro’s from our Sunshine Village Ski and Snowboard School their powder riding suggestions on how to get perfect surfy style carves after a fresh dump of Canada’s Best Snow.
10 Tips for Snowboarding in Powder:
1. Warm Up – before hitting the slopes for first tracks, take a second to warm up. On a powder day, you’ll work your back leg more. We recommend limbering up your torso, legs, and arms prior to loading your first lift.
2. Keep Your Tip Up – When snowboarding pow, you’ll want to keep the nose of your board up, so it floats above the pow. When your tip sinks in, you’re at risk of going over the handlebars. To keep the nose of your board up, shift your weight back a little.
3. Find Your Balance – A common misconception of riding powder is the thought that you have to, “LEAN BACK.” Riding pow is a balancing act. You’ll want more weight on your back foot, but just a little more. In pow, you still steer with your front foot.
4. Stay On Top Of Your Board – Sounds easy right? When riding pow, it’s harder to make micro corrections. Try and keep your upper body over your board as much as possible.
5. Speed Is Your Friend – When riding pow, speed is your friend. The soft fresh snow will naturally slow you down. Start off riding more fall line than usual to help generate speed.
6. Keep Your Turns Open – There’s no sweeter feeling than painting a powder field with beautiful turns. When riding pow, make your turns more open. Instead of completely finishing the C, think about making continuous S turns.
7. Watch Your Edges – For that true “float” feeling, you’ll want to try and keep your board relatively flat. In pow, if you edge to hard, you’ll fall into the deep snow. Think about making gentle edge turns as you cruise through the fresh snow.
8. Choose The Right Board – When riding deep powder, the right board can make all the difference in the world. If you’re keen to try a powder board, check out our Salomon Demo Tent at the top of the gondola.
9. Après Shred, Stretch – Snowboarding in deep powder is a serious workout, especially for your legs. After a day of carving up Canada’s Best Snow, be kind to your body and stretch out your muscles while paying extra attention the those in your lower body.
10. Book a Lesson – Perfect your turns with a lesson from one of our Snowboard Pro’s. Up your powder snowboarding skills on the slopes of Banff Sunshine Village with personalized tips to help you master the slopes from a Pro.
With a month and a half left of Canada’s Best Spring Skiing and Snowboarding, there’s still plenty of time to hit the slopes! Banff Sunshine is wide open until Slush Cup Monday, happening May 19th, 2025.
This spring, treat yourself to the best of the Canadian Rockies as you carve up Canada’s longest non-glacial ski and snowboard season with a Sunshine Spring Pass. At $660+GST, our Adult Spring Pass is your all access pass to the Rockies coolest events, (including our Untracked Concert Series and Slush Cup). Adult Spring Passes ski off in just 4 visits to Sunshine Village.