Phil

My wife is a Prosthetist (not to be confused with a prost.....;) ) and I am a snowboard instructor/trainer/coach. We have had many discussions about this. It is a place where our occupations converge. There have been amputees who have successfully made the transition to being a snowboarder. Are you an AK or BK? It would really help to know that. I will also try to find some pictures of successful BK and AK amputees that have taken up snowboarding. I know that she has shown me a few in the past. The good news is that at the beginner level, a lot can be done with just the front foot. So... before really getting into it... what is your snowboard setup? Are you an AK or BK and what device(s) are you using? If it gets too technical for me on the prosthetic side, maybe she will get a BOL account and chime in.

What did you ride?

We have until the twenties of March, although some PA resorts will try to make it until the beginning of April. We had an unusually long winter thaw that lasted from late December to mid January. Our winter thaw usually happens in the month of January but is usually isolated to 2 or 3 weeks. Other than that, the season has been pretty predictable and probably will continue to be. My averages for snow time are pretty close to every other year and when we have been open, the snow has been stellar. BTW - We missed you at MAC Tracks Chubz.

I disagree with this. Maybe you could expand on it a little bit. What is so different about the technique between the two? I find that the major differences are: 1. the angle that your feet and therefore your body is facing in relation to the board 2. the plane on which your body now has to angulate 3. where your feet pressure your board - or rather, where your board pressures your feet I don't see these as technique issues, though. I think that technique between HB's and SB's is very similar. I encourage HB'ers and SB'ers to crossover often to help their skills on both sets of equipment. I would even dare to say that a truly good softbooter will take to HB's easily and vice versa. Of course, there are always the softbooters that think that they are good....

My apologies in advance to Boostertwo for stealing his pic from another thread:

If there is one thing that I have learned from running the circle carve at MAC Tracks, it is that everyone has a different side that they are comfy on. Some would not dream of doing it toeside and others are completely comfy on their toeside. Everyone is different.

We have a circle carve at MAC tracks every year. We come in fast off of an intermediate slope and let 'er rip. It is possible to do circles, double circles, and figure eights. That is the extent of what I've seen, but I am sure that other variations are possible. As far as what is done on the hill, I have not heard of anyone going past 540.

I would agree, but I believe that the rotation should be a result of what is done with the lower body instead of rotating the upper body to cause the correct result with the lower body. Again, I am with carvedog on this one - why teach something that is not as effective at a higher level? If you teach from the feet up, they will be able to build on that foundation for all levels of riding. Using your feet does not mean that you have to steer, though. I focus on starting in a good neutral position and then pressing on one edge or the other with the front foot. For example - if a student stands up on their toeside edge, I would have them simply press the heel of their front foot down a little. This, of course, releases their toeside edge at the front of their board, starting their board downhill. I often do this with a traverse - encouraging them to then press back on the toes again to turn uphill and stop. Garlands are done the same way - front foot - toe then heel then toe and so forth. From there I go into the first C-turn. I basically have them initiate everything from the front foot by pressing - not necessarily steering. This works at speeds even less than 2 mph. This causes twisting of the board - which has been a good point of debate in AASI (where does twist belong?). In children, I do this with rotation because they do not have the lower body development to work from their ankles. Rotation will accomplish the same thing, only with a lot of wasted movement that they will have to unlearn later. Rotation used to be taught in the states - and still is in some places. Like I said, I still use it with children (and sometimes with adults as a last resort). I used to teach rotation in the '90s, but I have found that independant foot pressure, or twist, works far better - and then sets a student up for better riding in the long run. Face the nose/fall line for moguls with counter rotation is exactly why I would teach movements from the feet up. If you can ride from your feet up, your board will work it's way through the moguls. If you are taking a tight line, I would point my lead shoulder down the fall line and work the board under me - with as little counter rotation as possible. There is little or no counter rotation involved, as the forces involved would allow the board to "ride" under you - basically a cross under turn. The reason that I really don't like lining up facing the fall line is that when you are bringing your board across the hill for a toe to heel transition, you are now twisted up 180 degrees - then when you bring the board across for a heel to toe transition, you are totally facing your bindings. On skis, facing the fall line gives you 90 degrees of upper and lower body separation on each side - on a snowboard with low softie angles, pointing your shoulder down the fall line gives you 90 degrees of upper and lower body separation on each side.

I thought this was a great saying. What happened to the post?

I am pretty sure that nobody here has ever broken a Burton plate binding. Do a search and you will see. Burton bindings are highly esteemed for their longevity. They are much more durable than Bombers and Cateks. O.K., on a serious note, a friend of mine broke a disc, went in and replaced it, came back out and broke the replacement. Then he was mad because he did not have any more. I came to his rescue - I gave him an extra one from my tool box. Three runs later that one was broken as well. It was a freak thing - the one he put on after that has lasted 'til this day.

I use a RED/Burton Ninjaclava. I hate having my face covered, but if I must, this is the best I have found so far.

I use the terms inside and outside ski. The problem I still have when talking to skiers is - right turn or left? When I am going left, I am turning to my right and when I am going right, I am turning to my left.

I'd like to see the hit/feature that they were waiting for - it must have been good.

Wow, I totally missed the 183 part - way too long to start. I assumed that you were talking about the low 170's which would be much better for you.

I just emailed you and then came to Bomber and saw your message. Check your email. Good luck sneaking that $1000 prior under the radar. ;) What happened to your other board options?

I did a video clinic yesterday. One of the guys who took the clinic said "when I am on the snow, I feel like I am going so fast, yet when I look at the video, you guys (the rest of the people in the clinic) are going twice as fast as I am." Those guys were all carving well, the guy I am quoting was not. When one learns to carve well, edging becomes as much about speed maintenance as it once was about speed control. If you have a good GS carver and/or racer, they can make GS turns down a slope and pretty much keep up with the unibombers. At that point, you realize that you are going much faster than them in order to be making big turns and covering all of that ground yet still keeping up with them while they go straight down. You brought up Minuteman. That is a great example. Minuteman is a great cruising/carving slope. I don't know many who don't like it. I do, however, know plenty of people who cannot stay on it very long because you just cannot generate a lot of speed on it. Go one over, say to Exhibition, and there a whole other world of speed to be had. (Sorry, I have never been to WT, so I cannot comment on their slopes)

Upper Ramrod is a nice black that is narrow enough to make it interesting on a GS board. It is at Ski Roundtop where MAC Tracks was held on Friday (as the O.P. noted).

I believe that anyone - even experts could benefit from this. I think that this will really help you. I think that you need to get used to doing nothing but carving. It needs to become second nature to you. At that point, you will be able to take it to the blues. And yes, this IS an insider's POV. Yes, but have you gone fast yet? I'm not trying to call you out by any means, but there is a whole other world of fast that awaits you once you master the carve. Someday, you will experience the feeling of pulling serious g's that bend the heck out of your board and accelerate you in a way that you did not know was possible. At that point, you may change your mind and decide that steep and narrow with tight turns (going faster than you did with the big turns on green) is one of the ultimate ways to ride. Have you seen Upper Ramrod? That is my fav around here.

Jack, you fargin bastage. I can't believe that I did that. I am going back and editing, although your post will stand. AARRGGHH. (I am laughing on the inside) I thought that I had really put a lot of thought into that post ..... then I screw up like that.

I am not sure why everyone is getting so upset over this. Those of you who think it is simple probably do not realize that what you refer to as frontside and backside turns are indeed referenced quite the opposite way by a lot of people. Who is right? Well, everyone thinks that they are right. I, too, have found that simply dropping frontside and backside and replacing them with toeside and heelside makes things a lot easier. There is no confusion in the terms toeside turn and heelside turn. Blame it on round turns. Initiating across the fall line and finishing the other way across the fall line means that you can not use the mountain as a reference for FS or BS. You could categorize it with airs, like a lot of people do, but then you are confusing those who refer to FS and BS edges and vice versa. It seems to me that the people who have gotten offended by this post are not realizing that there are a lot of riders who consider FS and BS turns to be the exact opposite of what they do. The terms toeside and heelside eliminate this problem. From a Freestyle Coach's perspective, there is enough to learn about FS and BS off of straight jumps, halfpipe, and especially rails - which seem to confuse everyone (a FS boardslide and a BS lipslide look identical to the undiscerning eye - as Mark J. referred to). Throw switch into the mix and you have a whole new set of ideas to learn - switch FS and switch BS. The last thing that I would want to now have to clear up with athletes is which is a FS turn and which is a BS turn. Don't use toeside and heelside if you don't want to, but understand that it IS confusing to some. OR, someone can try to standardize which is a TRUE frontside turn and which is a TRUE backside turn. Of course, that person would probably get reamed out by the Bomber masses for assuming that they hold the power to set the FS/BS standard. ;) edited so that it gets my true point across - Jack! :D

That is what I figured, but I forwarded this thread to Big Daddy, so I wanted to clear that up. D-Sub - He is pretty average sized, but I had my UPZ's on, so I was probably pushing 6'9"...?

Nothing "simple" about laying down GOOD cord at a place where 100% of the snow is man made - especially as seamless as he makes it. The case was for the good cord - it is good EVERY day - not just at MAC Tracks. In case you can't tell, Big Daddy is this carver's hero. D-Sub - 5'18"

Mark Brown brought a case of beer for Big Daddy. He certainly deserved it for the conditions that he gave us on Friday. Unfortunately, I dropped the ball on getting him to visit us in the Alpine room for MAC Tracks. I gave it to him this morning on behalf of Mark and the MAC Tracks crew. Here are the pics:

You can have all of the newest grooming equipment possible, but without a good groomer, it means nothing. I get people coming back from all kinds of ski trips only to tell me that the conditions were not as good as they expected. In the mid atlantic, and more specifically, at Ski Roundtop, the grooming is outstanding. What we lack in vertical, we make up for in conditions. I rarely experience poor snow. Every morning one of the first people I talk to is our groomer "Big Daddy". He is sure to stop into our Learning Center and let us know what is groomed really well and also ask how things have been groomed the day before. He takes great pride in what he does - as he should. His cord is exquisite almost every day. Friday we had MAC Tracks. Mark Brown decided to bring a case of beer for Big Daddy. Unfortunately, I dropped the ball on getting him to come meet everyone (Mark was setting gates anyway). This morning, I was sure to meet up with him and present him this gesture from the MAC Tracks '07 crew. Be good to your groomers - they are good to you. edit: Big Daddy is the one with the beard.:)

Rich, I believe that you are on track for learning how to ride this way. Once you have mastered the basics of carving and are very comfortable with them, I believe that you will be able to EC given the right conditions. At RT, Ramrod is the perfect EC slope. Having never ridden WT, I don't know their trails at all. With your natural ability and passion to learn, you'll be EC'ing in no time. BTW, we missed you at MAC tracks - there were a few people throwing some EC there. Of course, the limbo is practically an event dedicated to EC.