Mark Brown Posted February 8, 2007 Report Share Posted February 8, 2007 ... like Yoda said, "Do, or do not- there is no try"... Amen - when I actually commit, things really come together. Cautious and the wheels fall off... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sierra Posted February 8, 2007 Report Share Posted February 8, 2007 Stay low. Set your downhill edge almost perpendicular to the fall line at the top of the turn, and commit. Then, as Jack said, allow your body to crossthrough downhill (the feeling that your body is traveling downhill ahead of the board). Standing up and unweighting between edge changes on the steeps will quickly put you into the "Sideslip of Despair".... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kipstar Posted February 8, 2007 Report Share Posted February 8, 2007 a lot is mental. We got conditions like that a lot back in New Zealand in light snow years, and sometimes it would be tough to pych yourself to run gates or whatever over conditions like that, when sometimes it was still chopped up and then frozen over from the day before without grooming. A lot of it is eyeline and technique. So if you can break things down into pieces, that can help. Find a run that is similar to these conditions, and then just work on doing one turn and really getting it right; good rotation; cross through turn, finishing the turn in control. Then traverse; think about what was right and wrong, then do just one good turn the opposite way. By doing only one turn at a time, the speed is already under control at the start of each turn. I have a board, a scorpion, that rides similarly to what you are on; and am a similar size, it is not equipment based, and your technique is unknown; but you can probably learn to ride this condition if you can break things into one turn at a time; once you have mastered each turn, then start linking them together. My absolute favourite riding condition used to be chopped up terrain that other people wouldn't ride; then just launching into turn after turn after turn; usually something about an hour after grooming such as Cornice Bowl on Mammoth at the times they would groom it; by about 10am, it would be littered with people standing around trying to find their way down. Siberia Bowl on Squaw the same. Easy to carve up when smooth, more challenging was it starts to get chopped up. The nitros have a reasonable amount of float; one of the keys for me is really concentrating on staying loose; starting the turn and committing hard right from the start of the turn; at the start of the turn don't be gentle; really think about getting the board hard on edgewith a nice upright upper body; I like to think of it as a compact centre of gravity rather than an extreme carving style 'lever' (not that this isn't cool, actually it is exactly the same concept in some ways, as it is about starting the turn early); being dynamic and for me, rotation is a part of my turn style; it is not necessarily part of other people's technique (racers for instance seem to now not rotate at all). But for me, hard rotation and eye line forces me to think about tight turns. I still suffer from panic in narrow runs where i start worrying about going off the sides; when this happens; break it into pieces, get the pieces right then build back up again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fleaman Posted February 8, 2007 Report Share Posted February 8, 2007 I am no expert, but what I learned over time is to trust your edges. If you are low and angulated with lots of board tilt, ride the edge and let the board turn by itself. Keep railing until you are heading back uphill then stop. get up set yourself up for the opposite turn. Ride that edge until the board is going uphill again then Stop. Then try linking 2 turns together. Yes you will pick up a lot of speed while turning but you will scrub it when turning uphill. Hang on and enjoy the ride. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derf Posted February 10, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2007 Steep is ok. But steep and chopped up... That´s a what you call a "WHY?" slope. Go home and put on your crosscountry skis and enjoy the silence in the wood;-) I ride when I can and I ride what I find. If I wait for the perfect slope, I won't get any better and/or I won't ride/will ride less. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derf Posted February 10, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2007 Thanks everyone for alle the info. Here is what I noted: -Commit early to the turn/dive in the turn -Pressure equally -Do cross-through/cross-under turns (I wll have to reread the related article). -Ride more I already bends the knees to get a lower center of gravity and I already rotate. I'll see what I can do about riding more, but like I said, I ride when I can as snowboarding is not the only thing I do during the Winter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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