Rob Stevens

Ok... That slackline video just keeps coming up, so I'll tell you why it does a poor job of trying to compare balance vs. stance. When the demonstrator stands in a low-angle "freestyle" stance, his toes and heels are completely unsupported. This is a pretty glaring problem if you're trying to talk about balance. Let's say, however, that he used webbing that was as wide as his feet... Maybe then we'd have something to talk about... Maybe.

Beckmann... I can just hear you, like an old Swiss guide, telling your client "Your riding hurts my eyes". I'd really like to meet you sometime... I think you'd be a funny bastard! Two Ravens... I have a problem with that slack-line video. My problem is that I think it's bull****! Everyone should look at it again and tell me why I think that. In no way do I say that with any meanness towards you! You seem like an awesome lady who shreds hard!!! Digger... The second guy is an old friend of mine. As a bigshot CASI type, he's got some real skills on hardboots, too. Like him, I really reach for as much carve as I can get in sb's because I know what hb's can do! Corey... That comment is gold, and pretty true when you think about it. I'm remebering a few top hb guys go through a park and pipe, making it look good. They were so comfortable on their gear. Backstory? The toe turn looks like it does, because these guys are serious surfers as well. In my mind, this is the real "surf-style" carving. Hilux... Tom's board looks overpowered for sure. It seems that everytime he waves his arms, it's right after the board flexes and hooks uphill. Mike, on the other hand, is not wavering much at all, to my eye. BTW... I wish HiLux's were available in NA. A diesel one at that. Scrapster... Yes. Duck. This to me is the amazing part and why I think that Mike's heelside is about the most amazing thing I've seen, carving-wise, on sb's in that stance. He's open to the nose, front hand down, hip-ass on the snow in a way I've never seen before. Sure... There are softbooters on this forum, the guy in Russia and others who can EC on sb's, but they universally run high angles front and rear. Mike's turn, to me anyway, is like the Holy Grail of sb carving, where the stance is (arguably) maximized for freeride, with the bonus of an unheard of ability to generate edge angle and ang-clination heelside. Blue... A word or two on the toeside... I wouldn't try and correct it at all!! People are not used to seeing this kind of body position, out of the water, anyway. What you're looking at is their effort to drive the front knee down in a way not many do. If you watch closely, though, they're not "locked" in this position. In fact, Tom (I don't know him) has an incredible amount of quickness in his hip mobility. Look how fast he goes from hips back to hips forward (a more traditional "arched" sb toeside)! This range of motion is something to strive for, I think. I was so intrigued by this toeside position and its relativity to surfing that I tried it over and over at my cat skiing joint the other evening, running sled laps on the noboard. If I get lazy and start a toeturn too open, my front foot will lift off the board and I'll be off the back. Starting with a more deliberate move to flex the front knee, with strong rotation cures that. Of course, the problem them becomes going OTB, so the balance between fore and aft is pretty critical!

And go. :o:nono::(:):lol::rolleyes:;):smashfrea:p:argue::D<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/XBYdtZ8R19g" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

So much noise. Your terrain is flat. Any move done with force, quickness, or strength at your ability level will result in more of the same skidding and falling. Please just stand on your board. Without using any techniques above. Just roll from edge to edge. Feel pressure edge to edge, fore and aft under your feet... Not anywhere else in your body. The rest of you is as unmoving as you can make yourself. The reality is that your board would carve itself, if it weren't for you committing those posture-crimes on top of it.

This is bad.

Isn't that "Norm" turn vid on here somewhere? If it is, you should watch it. That hill is so flat, you shouldn't have to do anything other than stand in a balanced position, while rocking side to side with even weight on both feet. There is nothing going on there to make you work as hard as you seem to be. If you want to do some "carpet boardin'", strap in standing in a doorway and just rock back and forth from one side of the frame to the other. No movement other than feeling your weight move across your feet from heels to toes, standing balanced on both.

... and then I read the OP's post. Sorry... I'm thinking powder and the question is about some new snow on top of groomed or firm snow. If I'm still riding on the under layer, it's business as usual. If i can't feel the base underneath, it's powder and I'd want a different board. If I go continuously from the powder to the hard layer underneath, I'm more likely to go in and have a beer, so board construction is irrelevant.

Type of board is the most important thing there is! It's about as relevant as it gets!! Soft snow doesn't want to hold you up, so the board will have to do that. Length as well as width are the main shape points you want to think about. Longer boards aren't the most manoueverable shapes out there but will support you when loading the nose or tail. Width is something that builders are still working on, with the limitations coming mostly from the raw ptex they can source. Ultimately, a carved turn in powder will never allow "edge hold" in a way you're used to from hard boots. It can give you the energy return and "snap" that you're looking for, but it comes morre from the fact that the whole base is supported by the snow, this just happens at lower edge angles. Just as construction makes for certain handling characteristics in an alpine board, the same is true for a really good powder board. If it's made for what it sounds like you want to do (haul ass and rail turns) you should be able to use most of the same tech you would on hard snow (pressuring fore and aft especially) with the only real exception being ultra high edge angles, unless you're at sonic speeds. I have a powder surf board that carves better than many freeride boards I've owned, but it has a 16 inch wide nose just ahead of the front foot. You'll find that most good powder boards move the widest point of the nose back further than any standard board, especially alpine boards where the wide point of the nose is basically right at the tip.

Beckmann points out the important distinction that riders should think about and that is anticipating a line isn't the same as "driving" at it. The idea that small movements, within a fairly small range of motion are really what's happening, not an exagerrated "projection" to your intended path. When I watch the best, it seems that they are in a fairly neutral stance, no matter where they are in a turn or transition and very basic, but exqiusitely well-timed movement of the ankles (dorsi and planar... not really rotary) and an anticipatory "tracking" of immediate obstacles with knee flexion and extension get pretty much everything done you need to do. Like Beckmann says, your perspective of the expert, when viewed from below, or any more or less static observation point can have the onlooker thinking that things are happening that just aren't. Old technical touchstones like gross rotary moves with the upper torso, the same movement with the hips as a novice, and stability-****ing side-to-side movement with the knees for the intermediate. When I sojourn down the mountainside, I try to imagine a singletrack in front of me, which I won't take my eyes off of. This makes me look like my head is swiveling around. It's not, but leading the rest of my body by a bare few degrees. To my hips, I follow my shoulders, which are ony fractionally moving after my head turns. From below I look like I'm rotating. If by that, another might go out and turn the upper body, hoping the lower will passively follow, I'm sorry for that... They're firmly attached via some core stability. The magic is in the lower body, but, again, it's really subtle... Tracking terrain changes with knees is the visible movement (which can look like "extension - compression when it's not), with planar / dorsiflexion of the ankles (mostly on a toe turn) and advancing / retracting the board along its track to change the pivot point and engage pressure points in a heel turn.(important on toes but your most important tool on the heels). Another myth is "leaning into the turn", like you're "falling" to the inside. It never feels like that. The truth is you always feel supported because the speed is holding you, just like you were vertical and unmoving. If you "feel" like you're "falling" inside the turn, you probably are. You can't say enough about how little is really going on in a performance line. The best simply have much finer micro-movement paths and don't let the speed alter their posture. That's an inportant point: Because you're going faster, doesn't mean you have to do more. Even recovery moves get smaller, the better you get. (Caveat - You should probably have strong legs and a fairly strong core) Sorry... Gotta go... There's an r/c snowblower on TV, then Anaheim 1 starts.

That was accidentally put up by the estate.

Devices for the real surf-style carving.

Buddy... No need to feed me the stats. I spend a lot of time out there and own a pack with an airbag. I think it's safe to say, though, that if you had one on in a slide of this size, it might still be attached to your torso... Your legs, arms and head would likely be found at a later date. There are many people out there who believe that airbags "prevent" things... Sure, it might prevent you from dying in certain circumstances, but they don't prevent slides, or the things that go along with them, like getting strained through the trees, falling off a cliff, choking on a plug, or getting caught in anything with enough kinetic energy to tear your limbs off. People have to think in the same way when they wear one as not, because they are next-to-nothing when your timing is wrong. Sorry... I just don't like the word "prevent" when used in this context. I guess I'm picky.

Your avi airbag isn't going to prevent this. It was an 8 ft crown! You don't pull the handle and a force field surrounds you...

I suggest that if you haven't encountered this problem before, you are not in a position to self-analyze very well, nor differentiate good advise from bad... Both of which have been given. You might remember this from your Level 1, regardless of where you took it. For progress to be made, you should be riding in a "Training Cycle". You ride, someone watches you, gives you pointed feedback and you ride some more, attempting to incorporate this feedback into your riding. You have put something like this together here, but it falls apart when 1) Your self-analysis of your issue might be wrong, then 2) Strangers are going to give you random feedback which, 3) You try and incorporate, good or bad, with questionable results. Not to say this cant happen live... I've seen instructor candidates completely miss-call problems and give the wrong movement or suggest the wrong terrain, but it's a much straighter line to success for you if there's a visual in place for us. It's even a good filter for bad advise, as the people who know what they're talking about can let you know why the other stuff won't work. Lastly, there's a danger here in incorporating movements that work temporarily. Excessive rotation is one of them. It might help you "turn uphill" on your heelside (why you would want to do that when riding downhill, I don't know), but I can almost guarantee you'll be back wondering why your toesides take so long to hook up.

You can't get someone to video you? Borrow a NoBro's and video yourself? Might as well... This feedback is being given in the dark. As a former instructor, I bet you never gave a lesson over the phone.

As your wife is likely lighter than the average rider here, the above is no doubt true for her. Go for comfort and size. Anyone else over 175 lbs, or expert, should disregard that statement. The difference between glass, carbon, or aluminum is obviously shocking. Ride on a pair of Cartels? I don't think so. Anyone who's actually paid attention to the gap between baseplate and topsheet in a toe turn, or the flex of the highback on heels has to know that a binding that does neither of these things is a better choice, unless slop is what you're looking for.

Mark Fawcett, a guy who gets the carving done, really likes his Flow setup. I really dig the Nitro Raiden R9 (old) and Nitro Machine (new). Both of these bindings are stiff, but comfortable, with well-padded footboards for vibration dampening. The also have ultra low-profile (or non-existant, in the case of the Flow) baseplate heel loops, allowing you to really tip on edge heelside. Bindings like Burtons (a company that doesnt really make a very good FR binding anymore... Not for my weight anyway) have quite thick heel loops which cause drag at higher heelside edge angles. Stay away from the machined aluminum soft bindings. Total overkill, in my opinion. If you're doing the boots too, look into the Deeluxe Spark. It has a true Vibram sole (the ice climbing one, not the flexy one on the Burton Driver) and a solid backstay. The lacing system is sh!t, however. I do like normal laces on softboots, so look into the Flows there as well, or a nice pair of 32's.

Awwww. That vid proved Steve P right. Dammit! So much for my "No friends on a POV day" theory. The reverse angle attached to the board works well! Anyhow, I figured the OP might have the same issue, so I'll step in here with Benno's... I'm going to leave the rotation and hand position stuff out of it. I've learned that while both are solid visual cues to let you know where you may be in a rotation phase, it's not indicating where you're at in terms of hip angulation, where I think the solution (problem) lies. Because it's easy to generate edge angle by dropping the hip to the snow, riders will do this excessively. If you're edging at high edge angles, you can expect some chatter, especially if you're static at that angle for a time, just riding the rail. You're really at the limit of the boards capability when it's tilted over that far. Sure... You might say, "but I'm edging that hard on my toes", and you probably are, but you have ankle flexibility to absorb it, so the chatter gets "tuned out". On the heels, if your hip is that low, when the board starts to chatter, you have no ability to absorb, except in your knees. You might find that those are pretty straight too, because that's generally what happens when someone drops their hit to the snow like that. Excessive ritation only makes it worse. Turn your torso a bunch and watch what happens to your front leg... It straightens. So... How do you tighen up the radius without more edge angle? Pressure control. Especially on heelside, where you don't have the benefit of ankles for absorbtion, you have to regulate your edge angle more carefully so you don't over-do it. The back foot pivot is what I do. Entering into the turn, I'll add edge as most do, but towards the apex, I won't just let my hip drop to the snow, but keep internally rotated (hips higher and in line with the body more, using abdominal strength... There is NO SUBSTITUTE for core strength). This is where pressure comes into it. I'll apply a downward force to my rear heel, while lifting my front foot to a higher line. I'm also looking across the hill, rather than down, selecting a target at the side of the mountain I'm trying to aim the nose of the board at. Rather than trying to rotate my body and hope the board will follow, I'm keeping my body more aligned, using less edge angle and pressing off the back foot, raising the front, moving the nose to a higher line. It's almost like a skateboard ollie in slow motion. Through using the legs independently, you're creating a turning force in the location that actually does something. Upper body rotation does have an effect, but at a point it becomes useless or counter-productive. This is very useful for racing, as you stay more stacked in the body. Do you need it for freeriding? No. Heavy hip anguation is fine, so long as the snow is good. That's what's so great about freeriding... You're free to ride the mint groomers. In a race, you have to ride what's there. By "what's there" I mean "what's left", as the course is probably haggard by the time you get to it. In snow that's going to make you chatter getting all hippy like that, just don't do it. Keep the hips higher, using less edge and better pressure control between the feet. A great way to make it impossible to edge too much, while getting better at "steering" your board to the line you want through independent leg action is to commit the crime of riding your alpine board in powder. You won't be able to edge heavily, or you'll fall over, forcing you to use other tactics.

Cool minds think differently.

I said some other stuff, but erased it in favour of saying "put a space after your commas". That'd be ultra cool!

No doubt! Don't even bother asking for feedback on your riding without images of the riding!!! Sorry to be a dick, but any "tips" you get could totally lead you in the wrong direction. Oh yeah... If you do get video, get someone to hold the camera. No POV or reverse-angle GoPro (I mean NoBros... The camera of choice for the terminally friendless) footage!

Phil... Help me out here... I've never understood this. Unless I have this wrong, you're saying that the snow rides differently, depending on what it's fallen on. Depth aside, where there might not be enough new snow to keep from hitting the old snow underneath, I don't find any difference between 40 cm's off the lifts vs. 40 cm's off the sleigh, cat or heli. We'll also put aside avi risk, and the other variables you mentioned like density, wind effect, etc.

Like it's going to go back to 0... Pffff. And who cares how / what anyone rides for a board or a stance? Neither of those things is "killing snowboarding". Want to know why duck is used in beginner lessons? Because it works. Anyone who says it makes someone who learned that way less capable of "carving" later is out of it. Want to introduce people to carving? Change the stance. You don't need specialized gear at all... Anything with sidecut and forward-angled bindings on it will do. Anyone who says otherwise is too dependant on their crutches. Stances? Boards? I just rode with a few guys who would smoke most of the people on this site with no bindings at all and constantly changing stances. If there's a reason numbers are declining, it's the cost. Period. Statistically, people who are serious make up more of the overall numbers than ever before. It's the part-timers who are bailing. The fun doesn't equal the cost / effort, likely. If you're going to fret about the OP's statement, hone in on the real problem... More shredders tracking the pow and trenching the cord than ever before... That's what I see, but I live in Paradise, so I have a different reality. Cry of the Terminal Intermediate? I'll bark it... "Just riiiide Maaan".

I wouldn't worry about it.

Get more than 4 hours on a sled before you enter the best trick comp. Short the parent company of ESPN.