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Rob Stevens

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Everything posted by Rob Stevens

  1. The back foot pivot isn’t like the front foot version. When you do it on your front foot, the tail does go out wider and takes a different path. A pivot on the tail does not break the carve, happening as you’re carving from the back foot to the tail and lifting the front foot to a higher line. The track you leave in the snow would not show anything less than a carve. You can also do this as a centre pivot between the feet at the edge change as the board goes flat, to lose speed or make a quicker edge change. As this largely happens in the flat phase, like the tail pivot, you would not be able to see anything other than a carved track. These are hard to do, hard to spot, but very effective at tightening a turn without relying on bending of the board at the centre of the turn via edge angle, or the type of more centre-of-the-board pressure a narrow stance allows.
  2. Have you narrowed your stance at anytime to confirm your feelings? You’d be right in thinking the way you do, but there are techniques that wide stance carvers can use to make up for diminished bend in the board. With pressure easier to manipulate between the feet, you can ollie into the new turn to change edges and tip the board over aggressively early in the turn. A mellower version of leaving the ground to go from turn to turn would be pivoting on your back foot to close the turn and change edges.
  3. Literally from your first post, you asked about racing. People answer with freecarve advice and you remind us that it’s about racing. So it’s moved to the Racing forum. You then say it’s not about racing. Then you post James’ video of him at a moderate pace, with a quick switch and generating early edge angle well above the fall line, but taking the whole runs width on perfect RMR groomers to say he doesn’t pivot, or drift, or do anything other than perfect carves. News flash: That’s how you do that, but you seem to know. Like your coach who you’ve broken up with, maybe we’re being trolled too. Now I’m done.
  4. This one and then I’m done. “Yes”. If you need to ask why, go out to your steepest black run and freecarve without sliding some portion of one of your turns. When you get out of the hospital, ask that question again, but rhetorically.
  5. Same same. Unlike what the video says, BK is initiating the drift with countering… if he wants to start one on the heels, the back hand goes back. If it’s a toe turn, the back hand comes forward. In either case, he’s creating momentum with a large appendage so he has something to act against and “move his back foot”. I’d also say that you can practice drifting above the fall line and then gradually engaging the edge at anything from a slow pace and right up to race pace.
  6. “Asking too soon” is unfair. You ask when you want to.
  7. If you want to look it up in the ski world, you’d search “stivoting”. Steer / pivot. Before the skiers picked it up, we called it “Skivoting”, or skid / pivot. Really, it was just a tactic in our “Slarving” conversations at CASI where we’d be looking to do things that would allow the most carving while also riding steep slopes, knowing that pure carving would only make you die Doesn’t matter… Same same.
  8. Your original question centred on altering the radius of your turn on steep slopes. While that video does show solid form and is a mirror of what you’d ideally want to do, it is missing the “skivot” part. If you were to try what the racer in the video is doing on a steep pitch, you wouldn’t get far. Any course that can be purely carved is not a “steep” one, unless it’s so open as to not be a snowboard race. Not since single SG races went away. You said you wanted to leave “skivot”’s aside as the concept is confusing you… your present confusion doesn’t matter. You’ll have to figure it out. Your other option is to try to rail every course you come across and never finish one. At the risk of creating further confusion, you’ll… - Be rising up towards the edge change phase. The board will be loaded here and when you top out, the pressure will release and you will use it to bring the board up and under you, establishing the platform you’ll move to the next turn from. - In the video you posted, the rider begins to drop his hips towards the platform, creating simultaneous but gradual edge angle towards to fall line. He is on a pure, carved edge. This is the important part… if you do it like this on a steep hill, you will immediately accelerate, get “late” and blow out two gates later. - Knowing that you’d rather finish than blow out, instead of lowering yourself and engaging a railed edge above the fall line, you will take a moment and stay in your extended position, prolonging the “floating” part of the turn. While there and with a bare minimum of edge, you will either pivot on the nose or between the feet. I like to do it by slightly counter rotating. As before, the situation may call for rotation, so you should know how to start a slide using either. - In engaging this slide, you can maintain or reduce speed while also aiming the nose of your board into the fall line sooner than you could if you went right to your edge, made a rounder turn, taking “the long way”. - Once your board is aimed either into the fall line or more towards the next gate, you can now drop your hips towards the inside and build the edge angle in a carved turn towards max edge and force at and just past the panel. What you’ve done here is to insert the skivot between the switch / flat base and the part of the video you posted where the hips move down to create a railing edge. That allowed you to maintain a more direct line and a more manageable speed. If you’re actually an SBX coach or racer (not very clear) you may find some basis for your edge change question (so many “crosses”…) in the tactics you’d use on jumps. What did you have to do at the lip of a jump if you got hung up in traffic and felt like you were going too slow? What did you do before you got to the lip if you thought you would overshoot the landing at your current speed? Your answers have pressure implications which can be applied to turning. Remember too that “pressure” is not only applied, but received. Depending on the phase of the turn, you may be trying like mad to reduce it, but it only increases. Or build it, but nothing is happening At this point, you might also film yourself so that you can be seen on a steep course that you can’t rail. This would allow us to see if the reason you’re having difficulty grasping some of this is either you asking too soon and without enough knowledge base, or us getting it wrong.
  9. Burton?!? I resent the implication! That said, AK and Fishes are rad.
  10. Not in a bad way. If you want stiff, they’ll give you that. The design of them offers an even flex and they go under the laces well. In the 80’s and early 90’s, I ran them with my Koflach Hunters.
  11. This is a flat course, so missing the element you started this thread asking about.
  12. This has been a hack since the Raichle Flexon’s in the 1980’s It’s been almost 30 years since I last ran those, but if I were doing it again, I’d have a stiffer front one than in the rear.
  13. I’ll say it again, but differently. You wouldn’t extend to the apex unless you were ****ing up and needed to do what you had to do to stay on your feet. It’s not ideal, but better than falling over.
  14. You might extend a bit more as you go “out” while doing the skivot, but through the apex you’ll be at your most angulated and “lowest”, so not extending. Again, I’d say that extending to the apex is either a freecarve / EC move, or you’re making a recovery “shape” if that’s happening in a race course.
  15. If you’re bottomed out when you change edges, you’re too low. Make some room for your board to pass under you by coming up a bit, switch edges, pivot to aim and adjust speed, then move towards the board as you engage the carve and increase the edge to the gate and just after. Rise up a bit to make room for your lower body, switch edges and do it again. It won’t work for every turn, but if you’re in a good rhythm, that pattern will work in gates on a steeper pitch.
  16. No. Firstly, you won’t be at maximum edge angle as soon as you are on the new edge. You’d be jamming it and fall over. you have to build edge angle once you are on the new edge. It happens pretty fast, but don’t try and do it all at once. You’ll also be compressing and angulating into your max edge angle. As your hip drops, you’re “getting smaller”. Once you’ve passed the gate and are going across the hill, you’ll rise up, which flattens the edge. Extending while increasing edge angle is an EC thing done while really inclining.
  17. From what I see, a dual racer on a steep pitch will… usually up unweight, or at least rise up out of the deeply angulated end position, enough to allow room for the rebounding / releasing board to go from beside them to under themselves. Using a rotary or counter move (they have to know both as the release from the previous turn and terrain can be inconsistent) they will engage a skid - pivot to adjust speed and line with the goal of getting the right entry speed for the next turn with the most direct line possible. Between this point at about a third the way and half way through, they are building edge angle and pressure to their maximum, right around the position of the gate. That max pressure does stay on past the gate to redirect in the new direction and the rider will decrease edge and pressure to begin again. So this is definitely different than strictly making a purely carved turns very deliberate and fast switch well above the fall line and generating a lot of edge angle very early… it’s too much of a “round trip” so too slow. The “skivot” keeps the line direct and replaces the roundness tactics with sliding for a moment to adjust speed. You’d also talk about strength… there is no substitute for it, balance and nerve. Lastly, just watch good FIS racing. All of the above is clearly shown.
  18. You were on the US Olympic Team, that’s how you got those. I knew I’d seen you somewhere. Sims anything
  19. That’s a product Ride moguls You’re so fast your track is already there. I have so much time for gaiters. There was a time where I was co fronted with having to go without them and I almost didn’t.
  20. Get into it. 6 years deep, so don’t talk to me about those “Antiordinary” guys with their clear knockoff of my singular style! What’s your “calling card” that can be spotted from a mile away?
  21. It’s a technique he’s adopted to speed up transitions. The best way to characterize it would be to say that he’s reminding himself at the end / start of each turn that he needs to be quick edge to edge and immediately develop lots of edge angle. Call it an aggression cue You could also see him do a few turns on flatter terrain where he doesn’t use as much sparkle… if the terrain doesn’t require a criticality of immediate and maximal movement, he just “anticipates” without so much flair.
  22. This is a great take. I’ll focus on a couple of things that would be extensions of the above… The first is that carving is not that technically hard to understand and that all the information is out there and has been for decades. In that way, you’re doing what needs to be done, Skuller. The issue then becomes your ability to do “more” of what you already do. Speed, vertical and lateral movements all need to accelerate, or have a “wider” operational range. I don’t mind sounding ageist or build-ist, so I will. As a long time instructor type I don’t beat around the bush too much. Anyone with me in that environment payed to be there, so I should do them the courtesy of giving them direct feedback. If you can’t make the movements that allow steep terrain carving, then you’ll have to be happy with the pursuit, not absolute accomplishment. Your build is also very important. Most of the great softboot carvers I know are shorter, lighter, flexible and very fit. Stranda Lars is an excellent carver. He can also go from the seated position into a handstand and back in two movements. James is a rock climber. If they don’t wreck themselves, they may be able to keep carving very well into later life. If I knew your physical stats, I could tell you almost immediately what your chances are of improving in the way you want to. The one stat I do know that you’ve mentioned is objectively enough to say be happy with what you’re doing, learn to “centre pivot” and play the long game.
  23. Stiff bindings with “open” no “wings” highbacks. you want the bindings stiff and responsive edge to edge, but not wrapping around your lower leg. If they wrap too much, you can’t adjust weight tip to tail which will make powder riding harder and not make carving any easier. With freeride angles, that is. I’ve ridden in Drake Podium FF’s for years. I think James runs those too. My boots are relatively soft Vans. I go for comfort while also keeping the sole length as short as possible, rather than just “stiffness” and have a custom liner. To use the one setup for everything, I prefer to use internal strength to hold the boots where I want them, as opposed to relying on a stiff shell. Like the bindings, I don’t want the equipment to hinder my freeriding by locking my movements up. As boards go, I can generate low turns at a 27.5 shell with my 27 wide Stranda 164 Shorty Wide. I wouldn’t go narrower, but for an all rounder, wouldn’t go wider than a 28, or maybe 28.5 at the widest. Width is definitely the key to all of this and with a wide board, it’ll click. 6’1” and 225 lbs. Angles are 28 and 2. Width is as far back as it goes and one back from the front with 4x2 pattern. I’ve used a bit of the old “Gilmour bias” and liked it, though generally just try to keep it even heel to toe. The one board thing is my jam… I don’t like chopping and changing, especially during the day when on a big mountain, coming back to the car is a pita. That said, I ask A LOT of my boards and the Stranda’s have really stood up. Know that if you can get good with this setup, you can probably out carve most and go places the alpine board could, but wouldn’t want to.
  24. That is f u c k I n g amazing.
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