Progression

[Louis]

Hey guys,

In the past few years I've been teaching snowboard, mostly beginners to intermediate level riders. I did bring some to the carving level. I wanted to have perhaps a bit of feedback on how you would approach the feeling of carving and integrating it in a turn.

But first let me detail how I usually proceed :

Level of the rider :

-Has a good position, centered

-Initiate turns with fluidly with all his body (can drive a turn from his shoulders, hips, knees, and feets)

-Utilizes very well flexion and extension

-Already know how to cross the trail on his edges

-Already did some angulation exercices

From there :

1) I teach them a single turn (megacarve) by doing a U shape turn on the snow. They start going directly foward, as they put some angulation to initiate the turn they begin to flex to reach the apex of the turn and go back up the hill on both sides.

2)Once they mastered step 1 and can feel various position while doing their megacarve, I introduce the notion of changing the point of flexion-extension in their normal S shaped turn. The extension movement(at the beggining of the turn) which was helping to turn by releasing weight off the board, will now transition (at the end of the turn) slowly enable them to switch the edge between turns. The goal here is to bring some flexion while entering the turn and extension to release from the carve.

Some kid really pick it up and can work on there own with these tips, but I'd really like to have some neat tricks. Until I pass another level of teaching wich would probably help me with the teaching part of carving !! (i'm only level 1 ACMS instructor)

We are still far from those push-pull turns, keep in mind that its on fairly green-blueish runs with good conditions. Most of the time I try to motivate them to be aggressive in the flexion part to generate a good edgehold, and pop the extension to make a nicer release..

I thought this could be a good discussion, asides from the articles there is on the site... Maybe some instructors could give us some inside, or perhaps some members that had good experiences with friends, family ?

[Jack M]

Sounds similar to what I used to do, "The Norm":

http://www.bomberonline.com//articles/feel_the_carve.cfm

http://www.bomberonline.com//articles/the_normII.cfm

I'm going to be re-writing those soon. In truth, the ultimate goal is to have the student facing their binding angles or a little more, but not the nose of the board. However when I was teaching I found I had to tell people to overshoot the target in order for them to hit the target. Ya know?

[Louis]

The good body positioning also comes into play,

On a freeride / freestyle board it is much more obvious than on a race board. I've been on a freeride for the past year, getting back on the race this year, and it made me rethink about my race technique.

If you ride too much facing the nose of your board you'll have the bad habit of having your shoulder out on toeside turns, and you will probably have some problems inherent to your body position while initiating your turns from the bottom up.

I'm going to hit the slopes in a few days (and perhaps with a brand new coiler!), I'd like to have something to think about position-wise, any tips could be good.

Jack since I'm going with a board with similar specs to you, maybe you have some feedback on how the board likes to be handled, I usually throw myself in the turns I'll be entering the turn with my body more over the nose, going gradually back when I release from the carve into the other. In a perfect world I should probably be perfectly centered at all times.. I need some more thinking, feel free to add your 0.02$

[Jack M]

If you ride too much facing the nose of your board you'll have the bad habit of having your shoulder out on toeside turns, and you will probably have some problems inherent to your body position while initiating your turns from the bottom up.

On softboots I'd say facing your bindings is more important. In hardboots at binding angles of ~60 degrees, facing the nose vs. facing the bindings is a smaller difference. Sometimes I'm facing the nose, sometimes not. It hasn't been a problem. (pic)

I'm going to hit the slopes in a few days (and perhaps with a brand new coiler!), I'd like to have something to think about position-wise, any tips could be good.

Jack since I'm going with a board with similar specs to you, maybe you have some feedback on how the board likes to be handled, I usually throw myself in the turns I'll be entering the turn with my body more over the nose, going gradually back when I release from the carve into the other. In a perfect world I should probably be perfectly centered at all times.. I need some more thinking, feel free to add your 0.02$

If you got a metal Coiler like mine, (Schtubby X2 or M-spec) you'll find it's a great medium-GS board. It's very easy to ride and very forgiving. Most boards have a sweet spot and/or reward really diving on the nose (or not) at initiation. This board's sweet spot is like.... the whole board. Just ride it. Seriously. It rarely protests, if ever.

If you're talking about another board with a 13-14m sidecut, well, it will make a medium-GS size turn.

[Rob Stevens]

You sound like a great candidate for a Level 2 ACMS.

You'll probably get really good marks and you will meet some good people.

[chewy]

CASI-ACMS offer a carving module to level 1 instructors

this course is a 2 day overview of beginner to advanced carving and a solid bag of tricks for basic carving to intermediate carving teaching(green and blue)

get 4 level 1s interested, and I can do the course over a weekend or in 3-4 nights somewhere in the St Sauveur valley...your call

[BlueB]

It would be way easier to do it, at least in BC Lower Mainland, if there was a course Thrursday to Sunday, or 2 consecutive weekends. For the people who have weekday jobs it is almost impossible (or simply too expensive) to fork out the cash for the course plus the lost income...

Not even to mention that my home mountain has only one term this year (spring), instead of usual early winter / spring, 2 terms. That would probably mean extra cash for the 4 day pass on another mountain too.

[Rob Stevens]

If you can get a carving course, that would be an opportunity. Not many regions can get the numbers together to make one happen. A level 2 would be more widely accepted, in a strictly teaching sense.

[Louis]

Doing my level 2 is more a question of $$..

I'm not sure its worth the investment at the moment, I do teach, but only a dozen of days / year.

I'd like to improve my riding, I may take chewy's offer, I hope I could find someone that would coach me for fun.

We have a couple of level 1 trying out level 2 this year, we'll see how it goes.

Anyways, back on topic, I think that I lost a certain degree of confidence before last year, I took some nasty wipe outs while carving on very steep trails. Combined with transitioning to freeride and busting my front knee, I feel a little weak to rip some carves again.. That cowboy stance really put my knees off their comfort zone (wich was harboot angles) lol

I'm way too agressive on my freeride (Elan Vertigo 168 cm) I push it hard on any kind of terrains, and yeah I fall alot :) I need to get my mojo back before steping up on my new board.

Any ideas ?

[Rob Stevens]

I'm way too agressive on my freeride (Elan Vertigo 168 cm) I push it hard on any kind of terrains, and yeah I fall alot :) I need to get my mojo back before steping up on my new board.

Any ideas ?

Start mellow, buddy. There's alot of season left.

Maximum effort on minimum terrain.

By that I mean go out and ride hard on slopes you know won't be a problem. Don't make the pitch or snow surface challenging. You want to choose an easy slope and up your effort. That sort of riding is way easier to control and manage your risks.