Minneapolis Snowboarding & Winter Recreation
Rental Info: Burton LTR (Learn to Ride)
With Burton Snowboards engineering innovative Learn-To-Ride (LTR) products specifically designed to facilitate and accelerate learning, want-to-be snowboarders around the world are living large after years of ignorance and misdirected instructional programs. Developed in conjunction with the American Association of Snowboard Instructors (AASI) and major resorts around North America, the LTR methodology stresses getting people to link turns—actually feel what it’s like to snowboard—in the first lesson. Coupled with the LTR learner-specific products, it's a methodology that makes learning to snowboard fun, easy and painless. 
This program is is geared to bring novice snowboarders back to the hill for repeated visits. Without LTR, where mountains still use inappropriate equipment, side-slipping methodologies and large-group lessons, data shows that people who take one lesson rarely return to the mountain. With LTR, however, rider retention is up considerably, giving mountains visitors a better experiance and the snowboard industry an ever-expanding base of customers. 
With a development history dating back to 1998, the LTR program enters it's seventh product year in 2007 with a complete line of tools that take the pain out of learning to ride a snowboard. To dial in the right geometries and flex patterns, Burton's board designers tested prototypes with true beginners in lessons conducted by AASI instructors who were part of the LTR development team. The instructors observed how learners fared on the different prototypes and guided the design direction according to proven successes in their lessons. 
The success of the LTR program is inextricably linked to Burton's product innovations. The program is based on a two-board progression that first puts riders on a board strictly designed for the first lesson and then graduates them up to a second board that is beginner-friendly, but tuned to let them explore more of the mountain.