Jrobb Posted March 8, 2007 Report Share Posted March 8, 2007 A ducked stance is used primarily by freestylers. It makes switch monouvers easier and more symetrical to perform (jumps/landings). Carving is primarily directional discipline and so a duck stance is not only ancillary but a hindrance. I can't ride ducked, it hurts my knees and at 6'3" I like a 19" stance. A bit narrow but it works for me. You're still learning and I think all this fiddling could be throwing you progression back a few notches. I would start a somewhat scientific approach to the technicalities. Center stance off of manufacturer's marks, pick binding angles both positive (if carving say 21/12) to start that allow you to still ride park. Pick stance width that's comfortable and leave it alone. Try to keep things like that till you're comfortable and/or you hit a wall with respect to. Then change only one thing at a time. Once stance and binding placement are comfortable you can fiddle with angle. From there you just have technique to work on. If one of the parameters (angles, stance placement) keep you from being able to perform specific motions to carve adjust that...most likely angle. Time is your best adjustment...you need to give yourself time to work with your gear...it's not always its fault. J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cafercr35 Posted March 8, 2007 Report Share Posted March 8, 2007 You're still learning and I think all this fiddling could be throwing you progression back a few notches. I would start a somewhat scientific approach to the technicalities. Center stance off of manufacturer's marks, pick binding angles both positive (if carving say 21/12) to start that allow you to still ride park. Pick stance width that's comfortable and leave it alone. Try to keep things like that till you're comfortable and/or you hit a wall with respect to. Then change only one thing at a time. Once stance and binding placement are comfortable you can fiddle with angle. From there you just have technique to work on. If one of the parameters (angles, stance placement) keep you from being able to perform specific motions to carve adjust that...most likely angle. Time is your best adjustment...you need to give yourself time to work with your gear...it's not always its fault. J I've been riding hard shells for 11 years now. This above explains very well my experience. Even though your speaking soft shells..this advise above worked for me. At the beginning, my first 3 years, I would basically change my stance, angles, cants repeatedly trying to get "the carve" intense. My progress consisted of developing more problems than before. I was told by a much more experienced carver, to leave it alone an "get comfortable" I rode flat with 60/60 angles for 2 years - and then one day, BAM! the trench showed up and I was carvin it up. See it wasn't my equipment, angles, stance - it was my confidence in myself and the board. And the comfortablility I had achieved. I now ride 66/66 3 degree toe and heel lift - inside cant on both at 21" apart. I didn't go to my tweaking until I let the board carve for me. AND -ONE ADJUSTMENT AT A TIME IN SMALL INCREMENTS - is what helped me. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bamboo_Girl Posted March 8, 2007 Report Share Posted March 8, 2007 Hi... Lots of material here to read and stuff to ponder. As far as the simple notion of putting the board on edge, doing nothing, and letting it carve....sure it is good advice. No argument here on that. That's basically the idea behind that first article about norm carving that Jack Michaud wrote. I can do that already, it isn't especially hard, or to be honest, especially pretty, but bottom line, it works. My hope though, was to get beyond that, to at least do the things outlined in the 2nd part of that article. I think he called it half-norm carving or something like that, maybe dynamic is the word? I can do those things on my toeside, have my body right, arms parallel to the slope, etc. Heelside it all breaks down and my form is poor. With all that has been suggested here, I'm going to go back to binding angles of something like 21/6, maybe 24/12, or the like. Also, I think I'll do some j-turns and such, with a more dynamic body position. Maybe if I can get it that way, I'll be able to link those dynamic turns on the heelside. I've got 3 days straight of riding this weekend so I'll figure something out. Maybe I'll write about it, maybe not. Thanks for all of the advice. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D-Sub Posted March 8, 2007 Report Share Posted March 8, 2007 alert alert! overuse of the word "dynamic!" You have exceeded your allotment! :) question: what does "dynamic" mean to you in relation to carving? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jrobb Posted March 8, 2007 Report Share Posted March 8, 2007 I think she means "aggressive"...strenuous, high energy, lots going on, technical. Instead of relaxed, and laid back. and I don't mean EC laid back. J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buell Posted March 8, 2007 Report Share Posted March 8, 2007 There you go D-sub! :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol: D-sub and "dynamic" go way back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pebu Posted March 8, 2007 Report Share Posted March 8, 2007 Does the D in D-sub stand for dynamic??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tex1230 Posted March 8, 2007 Report Share Posted March 8, 2007 It's short for "Don't tell me to be more Dynamic, you moron!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D-Sub Posted March 8, 2007 Report Share Posted March 8, 2007 LMFAO! those were some dynamic responses. Jrobb...I asked the girl ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jrobb Posted March 8, 2007 Report Share Posted March 8, 2007 LMFAO!those were some dynamic responses. Jrobb...I asked the girl ;) "Say no more, Say no more...wink's as good as a nudge to a blind bat. Right? Right?" I only read what I want to read sometimes. J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bamboo_Girl Posted March 12, 2007 Report Share Posted March 12, 2007 Hmmm, well I could write up quite a review of my weekend's riding exploits. Then again, it would probably be best in a freestyle forum. Yeap, I was up in Durango and realized real fast, that a mountain for carving it is not! For jibbing and play, it was OK. Then again, the snow was thin and generally mediocre. It was so strange, as most of the mountain was heavily terraced which made, at least for me, carving very difficult. I've come to realize that good carving runs aren't a given. Anyway, the accomodations, staff, and the whole place in general left a real bad impression with me. Ironically, we have far more snow locally, in my home mountain if you will, than up there. Drive 200+ miles north for half the snow...Makes perfect sense right? Have any of you been to wolf creek? I know they have a lot of snow but don't know anything about their terrain. Any other places people suggest in say, Colorado? So all that advice and those suggestions are still, on the drawing board. The one thing I do wish we had here were more demos. It would be great to at least try out a real alpine board. I'm curious as to what a board with a more pronounced sidecut would be like on the snow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cafercr35 Posted March 12, 2007 Report Share Posted March 12, 2007 [quote=. The one thing I do wish we had here were more demos. It would be great to at least try out a real alpine board. I'm curious as to what a board with a more pronounced sidecut would be like on the snow. Once you go alpine you won't go back! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bamboo_Girl Posted March 13, 2007 Report Share Posted March 13, 2007 heh...I can believe it! Today that whole small sidecut, turn radius thing of my board really hit me. I was flying down the green runs, carving nicely, but realized how quickly the board turns. You just don't slow down. I tried that on a steeper blue run and I went past my comfort zone (speed-wise) very, very fast. I need one of those 12m sidecut radius boards where I can shed plenty of speed in the steeps :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonerider Posted March 13, 2007 Report Share Posted March 13, 2007 heh...I can believe it!Today that whole small sidecut, turn radius thing of my board really hit me. I was flying down the green runs, carving nicely, but realized how quickly the board turns. You just don't slow down. I tried that on a steeper blue run and I went past my comfort zone (speed-wise) very, very fast. I need one of those 12m sidecut radius boards where I can shed plenty of speed in the steeps :) Well, a longer sidecut board won't automatically shed speed, but it will let you carve a wider carve, which are easier to handle at higher speeds (eventually you can go just way to fast to hold such a tight turn).I mean you also can shed speed by carving really hard as well, but I just don't want you to think that you will automatically will be going slower with a longer sidecut board, more like you will feel more comfortable going faster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philw Posted March 13, 2007 Report Share Posted March 13, 2007 Yeah, I like small slalomy boards. The bigger they are, in general, the faster you have to ride them to make 'em work. I'm sure you could get a large radius board which was floppy, but watch out for GS boards as they're good, but they need to be driven very hard. Sounds like you just need a few more miles on the clock and you'll be making small turns down anything and controlling your speed that way. If you think about it, carving doesn't dump speed per se, so you have to either skid a little to dump the speed, or edge check very hard, which does the same thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike T Posted March 13, 2007 Report Share Posted March 13, 2007 If you think about it, carving doesn't dump speed per se, so you have to either skid a little to dump the speed, or edge check very hard, which does the same thing. Carving around back up the hill doesn't dump speed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pebu Posted March 13, 2007 Report Share Posted March 13, 2007 Even on my xvas in soft snow I've layed (layed, lain... whatever) one down so hard that when I came back around I barely had enough speed to stand me back up. Man that felt awesome though. I didn't even really go uphill all that much, just take all that extra energy and dissipate it into standing your body up. A very hard habit to get into though and if you have too much energy you'll end up collapsing on your board. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bamboo_Girl Posted March 13, 2007 Report Share Posted March 13, 2007 Thanks for your comments. I just need a demo to try it. It all makes sense, you know, in my head and all. The proof though, at least for me, is in actually riding such a board. Maybe next season I will go up to Colorado (somewhere other than Durango!) and give one a try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Dold Posted March 13, 2007 Report Share Posted March 13, 2007 Go to Aspen sometime around the 10th of February Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDY_2_Carve Posted March 14, 2007 Report Share Posted March 14, 2007 I don't know how I've missed this post for this long. Much less from a fellow "New Mexico" carver...or at least a "to be" carver. Honestly I've been trying to stay away from BOL as I'm turning into an equipment junkie and I should be content with my current equipment! Equipment: What size boots do you wear? Unfortunately I only have one set of hard boots right now. There is the ski boots option, but all my bindings are Intec so that's not goin to happen. If you're MP26, or close to that, then we are in business. I just hope my Stratos Pro's aren't too stiff for you. Experience snowboards in Angel Fire might be able to help you out. He's got alpine gear and might have some boots on demo. Perhaps he can set you up with an entire setup, or worst case boots/bindings and I can provide the board. I can check with him this weekend, or better yet, you can check with me... Video: My brother in law's digi cam makes decent avi's. Good enough to post here and get some quality feedback on your progress. I also have a 3CCD camcorder but that's totally overkill for technique critique. Instruction: I don't know how much I can help with this but I'm willing to try. I have the "book smarts" but my technique is sub-par. Assuming you can fit my boots here's the setup I can offer for you to "demo": Head Stratos Pro's with Yellow BTS, F2 Intec Titanflex, Hooger Tuned 163. Maybe we can get you on the Coiler PR 173 before the end of the season depending on your progress. It's already spring conditions though so I'll probablly be retiring the Coiler for the season soon. If you can't make Angel Fire then I plan on riding Santa Fe one time before the end of the season. Probably the first weekend of April. We'll be riding Angel Fire every Sunday through the end of March. Santa Fe is definately the BEST place to carve in New Mexico, and IMHO it's as good or better than most places in Colorado too. But that's my biased opinion so take it with a grain of salt. P.S. Wolf Creek is decent for carving, but they don't groom a whole lot. They are known for their powder/tree runs mostly. Great place, just not necessarily carver friendly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philw Posted March 14, 2007 Report Share Posted March 14, 2007 Carving around back up the hill doesn't dump speed? I don't recall mentioning "back up the hill". Riding into a brick wall would also dump speed, but I didn't mention that either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damion Terrell Posted March 15, 2007 Report Share Posted March 15, 2007 ...Experience snowboards in Angel Fire might be able to help you out. He's got alpine gear and might have some boots on demo. Perhaps he can set you up with an entire setup, or worst case boots/bindings and I can provide the board. I can check with him this weekend, or better yet, you can check with me... .. Instruction: I don't know how much I can help with this but I'm willing to try. I have the "book smarts" but my technique is sub-par. If you can't make Angel Fire then I plan on riding Santa Fe one time before the end of the season. Probably the first weekend of April. We'll be riding Angel Fire every Sunday through the end of March. Santa Fe is definately the BEST place to carve in New Mexico, and IMHO it's as good or better than most places in Colorado too. But that's my biased opinion so take it with a grain of salt. P.S. Wolf Creek is decent for carving, but they don't groom a whole lot. They are known for their powder/tree runs mostly. Great place, just not necessarily carver friendly. Santa fe could be better if they didn't have their head some place else. But then I'm just biased against the management who doesn't encourage any sort of competition or team environment. I still think Angel Fire is the best place to carve in NM, but it is more because of the people. They use competition (GS,SL) to improve and everyone encourages everyone else and work mutually to help improve ridding habits. Plus there's more hard booters per capita at Angel Fire then any where else in NM. Experience Snowboards does have basic hard boot equipment to rent there too. I do agree, if you can make an Expression Sessions event, it does help your riding immensely Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.