Starting out freeskiing this winter!

It only hurts if you fall. Start small and work your way up. You don't need body armor (if you can afford it, why not get it though), but definitely wear a helmet. Most importantly, don't mind the rest of NS or people on the mountain who will make fun of you.

Yes. Start off small; get your 3's down first and the rest should come naturally. Have fun.

even though they tell you to ignore hate, that can be hard to do. so heres what you shouldnt do to avoid hate:

No.

See what you want to focus on, some rider love jumps, some riders love rails. If you like jumps go to your backyard with shovel and build yourself a small kicker to learn things on. If you like rails, go to lowes and pick-up some pvc and build a rail. Get used to tricks with your friends so when you get to the mountain you are more confident. +K please

Glad you want to enjoy our fantastic sport, wear a helmet and have fun!

The biggest kicker they have at the ski area i go to is a 30 foot gap. i fell on it a couple times last winter and it didnt hurt at all. it just shook me up a bit lol good luck man!

As everyone else said, learn the basics. Get your pop down off a jump - racing teaches you to absorb lips, but this is drastically wrong in jumping.

Work on small features and get real comfortable. Work your way up to the big stuff, and then repeat for various tricks.

In terms of staying out of the way, just always stick slightly to the side of the inrun/outrun of a feature. I'm sure if you've been racing you'll have a sense of not standing in the centre of a race course, so this is same dif.

I wore pads for a while with rails, as some of the falls there won't kill you but they sure as hell will sting. Of course, couple of bruises from rails is a badge of honor.

The most important thing when doing rails is make sure that your feet are always wider than shoulder width apart. Most racers will attempt to hockey stop on a rail, and this will lead to falling back and getting the rail either in the hips or ribs. Both suck regardless of pads.

Feet shoulder width apart on rails, proper pop on jumps, and success in the halfpipe means you got 30 hits in, not 3.

Racing is scarier and more dangerous than freestyle skiing. You shouldn't have anything to worry about.