I just boarded for the first time!

[Guest kc0716]

The whole family went to a local mountain for a snowboarding trip. I had blast riding snowboard for the first time! The first day was the worst experience of my life, but second and third day, I was a lot better. I've been an avid skier for about 5 years and I guess it's time to change to snowboarding.

Anyways, I began to carve a little bit..I can only change directions slowly though. I was having this particular problem. Basically, what I did was, start going straight for some speed (I ride regular, left foot front), then I would start toe'ing first. I basically kick my right foot backwards, at the same time leaning towards the mountain and try to "stand on my toe". Toe'ing was easy for me, but I had trouble switching from toe to heel. When I want to change directions (by this time, my board is almost perpendicular to the hill, meaning sideways),

Then, I slowly try to bring my back foot forward this time, and leaning backwards at the same time, heeling. And a lot of times, this is where I lose balance or the boards gets stuck in snow or something, and I fall on my butt. I got a big bruise from last time on my butt.

When I watch the good people ride, they carve so fast. They spend barely any time on one side of the board, constantly switching from toe to heel very fast. I know I'm spending way too much time on TOE'ing. It is because I'm afraid I'll fall on my butt for the 20th time so I try to reduce a lot of speed while TOE'ing.

I found http://www.bomberonline.com/ from here and they have a carving board so I'll look around there as well. But does anyone think they know how I can go about, or how I should approach changing from TOE to HEEL?

I also noticed that the bottom of my feet start hurting REAL bad (basically the muscle located between your heel and toe, the inward part). Is that something wrong with the boots? Or am I just putting pressure way too much or tightening the bindings/boots too hard or something?

All advises are welcomed! thanks