Compared with the several virtual-reality snowboarding training gizmos already on the market, Mr. Martin's device seems extremely simple.
Carving a path down a mountain on skis or a snowboard takes training.
[C5.] Inside Training for Snowboarders Danny Martin, a snowboarding expert, has patented a training snowboard to be used inside, before the novice snowboarder ever hits the slopes.
He played soccer and football in junior high school, took up snowboarding and trained in the martial art of ninjutsu with his father.
"When I first started snowboarding, nobody trained off-hill," said Gretchen Bleiler, the 2006 Olympic silver medalist and a favorite to top the podium for her event, halfpipe, scheduled for Feb. 18. "People weren't going to the gym and getting stronger.
On Dec. 23, Mr. Martin, who lives in Avon, Colo., patented a training snowboard to be used indoors, before the novice snowboarder ever hits the slopes.
Afterward, make like the many snowboard pros who train in Breckenridge and have your picture taken with the bronze donkey sculpture outside the store.
Mr. Martin has written a snowboarding manual explaining his shoulders-first method, which he intends to be sold with a plastic, mass-market version of his indoor-training snowboard.
When June arrives, Whistler closes its skiable terrain but Blackcomb's Horstman glacier is open until early August, catering mostly to snowboard and ski camps, training teams and clubs.
