Just like an aircraft on final approach, you need to lower the landing gear and prepare for landing. As you start coming toward the unloading area, say at the last tower, you need to position your body to ride off of the chair.
Do this by raising the safety bar if you had it down and grabbing the back of the chair with your back hand. Slide yourself around so you are now sitting half on-half off of the chair. You are simply moving your body to the same position it was in to load the chair. Your front foot should be hanging down relaxed and tip of your board should be pointing the direction of travel (no sideways boards here, keeping your board straight and true is crucial to getting off of the chair smoothly).
One tip that seldom gets passed on is, as you are about to land, put your back foot on your stomp pad, or on your board next to the rear binding.
The idea here is to simply stand up and ride away without having to stand up one footed and find your board with the free foot as you`re gliding off of the ramp. Just like that aircraft coming in to land, you need to flare by raising the nose of your board so that it makes contact with the snow under your bindings. At this point, all you need to do is stand up. Use the chair for balance as you are getting up. I recommend putting the flat of your rear hand on the seat cushion and pushing off of it gently. Again, there is nothing special about this; you are now in position to perform a basic, simple glide away from the chairlift. One of the biggest problems for the new rider is they lean back when getting off of the lift and their board goes out from under them, dumping them on their butts.This is alleviated by aggressively leaning forward (toward the nose of your board). Leaning back is a recipe for disaster...DO NOT LEAN BACK! .
When getting off of the lift, if you think you are leaning too far forward, you are probably just about right. Don`t let the steepness or iciness of the ramp freak you out. They all have good runouts usually. The steeper the ramp, the quicker your board will take off and the farther you should lean forward; stay ahead of the board and be ready to anticipate how it is going to react! Also, keep your knees bent so you can shift your weight as needed for balance. Try not to worry about turning or doing anything fancy when gliding away from the lift other than avoiding other riders or fixed objects of course.
Unloading the Chairlift
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Snowboarding lesson
» Unloading the Chairlift
