2.  Regular or Goofy Foot?  You must determine this before renting the board. It's easy. Tell the unsuspecting friend to stand in front of you. Verify that there is nothing behind them that could cause brain damage. Make sure they are loose, comfortable and don't have a clue what the hell you're doing. Now, sternly push on the friends shoulders so that they're forced to step backwards. Watch which foot goes back first preventing the fall. This is the foot which is at the back of the board. Right=Regular, Left=Goofy.

3. Learning to Carve:  You're past the beginning stages of snowboarding. You can make consistent, skidded turns in both directions, and you're ready to carve. Probably the most difficult thing to learn about carving on a snowboard is making an early commitment to the turn. The three most important things for achieving early commitment are (1) a steep edge angle very early in the turn; (2) pressure on the new edge; and (3) an upper body that's balanced over the new edge.
All these things can be done by remembering a few simple steps as you begin a turn. For a toeside turn, roll the board onto the new edge by lifting your heels. As you move your weight to your toes, drive your front knee down toward the snow and in the direction of the turn. Keep your shoulders and hands level with the slope in front of you; this will help you balance over the new edge. Relax your legs a bit as you finish the turn.

For a heelside turn, start the turn by lifting your toes up and driving your forward hip toward the snow and in the direction of the new turn. Once again, keep your shoulders and hands level with the slope and your upper balanced over the new edge.

Try it on a moderate, uncrowded slope with a safe runout. If your board has a lot of sidecut, it should come around quickly; if it has less sidecut, you¹ll have to be more patient. Relaxing your legs at the end of the turn will help moderate the pressures on the edge, allowing consistent edge grip.
As you feel the board developing a consistent carve, experiment with more edge angle, a bit more speed, or steeper terrain. Before you know it, you¹ll be laying down serious trenches in the snow.

• Start each turn by rolling your board onto the new edge.
• Maintain your balance by keeping your shoulders and hands level with the slope angle

Turns with lots of body lean are exhilarating, but they¹re very hard to do unless the snow is perfect: smooth and soft. There is nothing wrong with getting close to the snow and even dragging your hands on occasion, but if you catch yourself skidding out at the end of your turn, you are probably leaning the upper half of your body into your turns too much. I always get best results when I angulate at the hips, keeping my torso relatively upright over my board, and use lateral movements of my legs and hips to work the board and control the edge angle.
The first step toward better balance and edge grip is to focus on hand position. Your hands should always be out where you can see them. Try to position your hands about three feet apart and at an equal height off the snow.
The shoulders position should parallel the hands. As your downhill hand drops at the end of a turn, so should your downhill shoulder. On the easiest flat terrain, your shoulders and hands should be fairly horizontal. On extreme steeps you should feel a lateral tilt in your spine and a stretching of your back muscles as you orient the plane of your shoulders to the pitch of the slope.

• Keep your hands up where you can see them and the same distance above the snow.
• Keep your torso upright over your board; avoid leaning too far into the turn.