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What happens with your legs as you go through a turn?


skategoat

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When I watch really good carvers, their turns seem effortless. I also don't see a lot of up and down motion. Their legs seem fairly static. There is angulation but not a lot of compression/decompression of the legs.

When I enter a turn, my legs are quite compressed. I try to transfer my weight to the nose of the board in an effort to get the nose to hook up. I can only manage this when I am low to the board which is why I feel like my legs are compressed.

As I move through the turn, I feel like I am pushing my board away from me (or at least trying to) in an effort to stay with the turn. When I come out of the turn, I am standing tall and then as I go into the next turn, I squat again.

I think I am doing this all wrong because man, after a few runs, my thighs are burning.

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I would pretty much suggest to read through this: http://www.extremecarving.com/tech/tech.html

Also the vids will help you a lot.

Cheers

ps.: this is not intended to start a fight about different techniques. I just think this page covers it pretty well. If you don't like rotation, or you ride a very narrow board, just do less rotation.

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crossthrough.jpg

photo by boostertwo.

Hi QQ,

The image Jack attributed to me was shot/produced by Ron LeMaster, and should rightfully be attributed to him. I'm fortunate to have had Ron's guidance on how to create photosequences out of digital video footage, but my involvement with this image was as subject, not as lensman.

I'm happy to upload a larger image, but first need to ask if anyone would be able to direct me to a free image hosting site that can accomodate large (11MB file sizes).

--Thanks!

FYI, Ron does remarkable work shooting some of the world's best skiers. He works as technical advisor to the US Ski Team, and does annual technical presentations for snowsports schools and teaching/coaching organizations in the USA and Canada.

He has addressed the issue of pressure management (addressing one aspect of the OP's question 'what do you do with you legs in a turn') in this article, and in some of his archived presentations.

Ron is an accomplished ski writer and photographer. His book, The Skier's Edge is, IMO, one of the better resources out there that explains how skiing (and, by extrapolation, snowboarding) works.

In his spare time, Ron also works as a physics professor at CU Boulder. His work includes designing web teaching tools to help people learn and understand physics (check out the simulations on the linked site). He has a gift for describing mechanics in simple, easy-to-understand language and is a world class ski writer and photographer to boot.

This image of Men's PGS Champ Justin Reiter serves to complement Ron's image. Justin is extending his legs at the transition; the rider in Ron's image is flexing them. IMHO, a versatile rider should be able to do either movement to manage forces through the transition (and, as Ron says, to target the apex of the next turn).

<img src="http://i11.tinypic.com/72uylip.jpg" border="0" alt="Justin Reiter, A-Basin, CO.">

Cheers,

B-2

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Hi QQ,

The image Jack attributed to me was shot/produced by Ron LeMaster, and should rightfully be attributed to him. I'm fortunate to have had Ron's guidance on how to create photosequences out of digital video footage, but my involvement with this image was as subject, not as lensman.

I'm happy to upload a larger image, but first need to ask if anyone would be able to direct me to a free image hosting site that can accomodate large (11MB file sizes).

--Thanks!

FYI, Ron does remarkable work shooting some of the world's best skiers. He works as technical advisor to the US Ski Team, and does annual technical presentations for snowsports schools and teaching/coaching organizations in the USA and Canada.

He has addressed the issue of pressure management (addressing one aspect of the OP's question 'what do you do with you legs in a turn') in this article, and in some of his archived presentations.

Ron is an accomplished ski writer and photographer. His book, The Skier's Edge is, IMO, one of the better resources out there that explains how skiing (and, by extrapolation, snowboarding) works.

In his spare time, Ron also works as a physics professor at CU Boulder. His work includes designing web teaching tools to help people learn and understand physics (check out the simulations on the linked site). He has a gift for describing mechanics in simple, easy-to-understand language and is a world class ski writer and photographer to boot.

This image of Men's PGS Champ Justin Reiter serves to complement Ron's image. Justin is extending his legs at the transition; the rider in Ron's image is flexing them. IMHO, a versatile rider should be able to do either movement to manage forces through the transition (and, as Ron says, to target the apex of the next turn).

<img src="http://i11.tinypic.com/72uylip.jpg" border="0" alt="Justin Reiter, A-Basin, CO.">

Cheers,

B-2

Hey thanks for the super informative response boostertwo! This evening, I will create an FTP account for you on my domain, so that you can post big files. I will send you the login info by PM.

Speaking of carving and the web, I have been throwing around a cool idea for a small web application to help carvers find other carvers on the mountain, using web browsers and cellphones! Hope to have it better thought out by next weekend.

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Cool photos....But when did eurocarving come back in style?

With 122 participants so far for their 5th annual EC session at Zinal, it's not a small number (relatively) , at least outside of N.America.

They had close to 170 people last year, from 20 different countries! I wish it was smaller world...

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