Hotbeans Posted January 1, 2009 Report Share Posted January 1, 2009 ok. My son took a brief vid of my 3rd run the other night while I was trying some gs carves on ice. Take a look and feel free to comment on what I could practice to get better. I will say that conditions were after 3 days of rain/freeze at night, so the loose stuff was like corn snow with ice underneath. I noticed as the night wore on, I felt better in the turns by almost jumping into the next turn while getting lower over the edge of my board and being more aggressive. This stands in contrast to the beginning of the night as putting much weight over the front of the board (ie: "getting low") caused the rear of the board to skid out. I'll have to get more vid of when I'm diving into the turns.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Bird Posted January 2, 2009 Report Share Posted January 2, 2009 what did you do different from the first few runs compared to the last? It looks like you are rotating on your front foot. In my mind, this will take weight and pressure off of your back foot causing the tail of your board to skid out. I think that you should not be twisting so much and also be driving your shin in to the tongue of your rear boot instead of the side of it. $.02 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hotbeans Posted January 2, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2009 rear boot: what side does it look like I'm pressuring? I will try higher angles next time because I'm feeling like I AM twisting to get my hips square to the front of the board (fighting the low angles on the rear boot). When I do that, I feel like the back end comes around on me. Thanks for the f'back. Rob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Bird Posted January 3, 2009 Report Share Posted January 3, 2009 while in your turn your pressure should be on the tongue of your boot or 180* different on the back of your boot. some variation of that will occur, but that is the starting point and focus. Limit your twisting. I think that higher angles will not help. Quit f-ing with your bindings and start focusing on your technique. WHen you have your technique dialed then binding adjustments might be helpful, but not critical. good technique will over come binding settings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hotbeans Posted January 4, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2009 Well, You know we differ on this "messing with my bindings" topic! I'm constantly analyzing where my cg is over the board and how the shift relates to board performance. AND cant angles/lift has a rather major role to play in where it is(in relation to a 'neutral' stance). For example, I started running 58/60 last night and was really unstable and turn initiation took some serious commitment driving the knees. There were several sweet downhill edge hook-ups which impolitely dumped me on my face 7 feet downhill. I moved the angles back to 54/58 and the diff was night/day. If you're saying forget where your cg is and just ride and it'll be better, then that's a leap of faith a bit too far for me to make right now (especially since this body I'm in is getting a bit more worn/fragile). Maybe as I get more confident with body positioning then the angles wont have as much of an effect? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingCrimson Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 Aaron caught me doing something you're doing today.. Face the nose on toeside, and lean away from the snow, and try to drive your knee into the slope. Really gets the board high on edge. Also, getting fiddly (I'm a fiddler) with bindings is detrimental..it's a different ride every time you go out, so you don't know what is right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hotbeans Posted January 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 Oh yeh, I'm a fiddler.. Toesides at a 58/60 angles are good enough to feel like I can build technique on (I am comfortable 'dropping' my knees towards toeside), but the heelsides really lack any power whatsoever. Those faceplants I took last night were in the transition from toe to heelside. -Just spent too much time in the transition trying to get any "drive" towards heels and the edge caught hard. I occasionally found my rear leg locked out straight just trying to get my weight headed heelside... I would assume from having my rear leg locked out that my setback may be too much towards the rear of the board, but in a relaxed posture with the lower angles, the board carves very tightly at moderate speeds. At least with the current setback and lower angles, I can shift my weight along the length of the board to modulate the radius of the carve... weight front= tight carves, weight back, gs carves. Unless having higher binding angles (lower leverage?) necessitates a more centered stance, (which I may try), then .. oh crap..see how much I dwell on all this? I just want to lay down hard carves on the steeps and ice. that's all.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingCrimson Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 Then quit dicking around with your equipment and get outside. I've learned there are three things in carving..it got me pretty comfy pretty fast. Take care of these three things and the other stuff will fall in place. Drop the hips into the snow on heelside Drive the knees into the snow on toeside Keep your hands where you can see em. Master Chief tells all.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawndoggy Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 back hand to front boot cuff on heelside; think of driving the turn with your rear knee (i.e. getting not just the front knee moving over to the snow, but the back one too). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hotbeans Posted January 6, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2009 Thanks for all the feedback on this. I went out for ~2hrs tonight, and, like usual, about 30% of the slopes were blue ice. I did have somewhat of a decent night though. I concentrated on higher board angulation and keeping my hands out over the front of the board. Tricky little exercise on hard ice, but was able to keep a few ~20meter arced carves that were locked in throughout the turn (~20-25mph). Ice really amplifies my mistakes and gives great reminders in the form of bruised knees/elbows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingCrimson Posted January 6, 2009 Report Share Posted January 6, 2009 Which board were you doing 60 foot carves on? Sounds like you aren't getting it up enough, that's pretty wide stuff and not particularly fun on steep stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hotbeans Posted January 6, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2009 board has a 9-10-ish sidecut, so, yes, I was back over the tail a bit. I do understand that I might be trying to turn a gs carve on a short board that could add to the complexity, but I did biff it hard a couple of times due to the edge popping out on shorter radius turns. So I was looking for a sweeping gs "locked in" carve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingCrimson Posted January 6, 2009 Report Share Posted January 6, 2009 Overthinking it adds to the complexity. Go back to the norm drill and let your carves terminate. The edge shouldn't just "pop out" on any radius carve. If you force the board into an arc different from the shape of its flex, you just skid. Realistically you can do any turn on any board. It's just the extent to which you angle the board and consequently flex it. My 16m board will obviously be much more comfortable burning up the whole width of a slope, but you can certainly do that turn. Your board might do cross under and scrub speed very well, but mine does that too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carvedog Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 back hand to front boot cuff on heelside; think of driving the turn with your rear knee (i.e. getting not just the front knee moving over to the snow, but the back one too). Work on keeping downhill shoulder lower or closer to your edge - this is a variant of this ^^^^^^^^^^^^ above. Try to keep doing the shoulder thing earlier too. It looks like the hardest part of your turn is really close to when you cross the fall line. If you set edge earlier, shape earlier this will equal less pressure on edge as you come around the bottom and less blowouts on ice. But some of the right coasters may have more tech on ice riding. Looks like some times you are unnaturally forced to the nose. While this may work for cross under, more down the fall line turns, it may not be the best for relaxed longer radius carves. Anything other than matching your feet angles will tend to straighten front leg, put weight to the back and due to applying turning force of can lead to over rotating heel side turns. Could work on more up and down with legs too. And spine, but that was addressed above with shoulder movement downhill. I would tend to kind of agree with Theo, get your bindings set and leave them for a month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hotbeans Posted January 7, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 Ok. I'm mentally processing all of this advice and will get tomorrow night and friday on the hill again. It'll probably be ice again as it's freezing rain right now. Hopefully I can find a decent cameraman! Thanks for all the help, I'm workin' on it! (and now over to the thread covering body protection. My knee's and elbows are rather bruised.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carvedog Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 I know that was a lot to process. To keep it simple think downhill shoulder early and low. Keep it up. I am hoping to get some free carving in soon. Taught a ton over Christmas but not so much freeriding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hotbeans Posted January 11, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2009 I spent monday pm, thurs pm and friday riding. The 'touching your boot cuff' exercise really helped hold the carve tight all the way through and helped a bunch. I was able to link a few completed carves on a black run, but then it started getting moguled out. I noticed that my toesides on the steeper stuff really sucks now, but it sure feels good to be progressing. btw, this is feeling REALLY different from carving on my freeride board, which is surprising me-- I thought there were more common elements that carried through. I suspect part of that is due to the higher binding angles and having to use ankle/knee/hip 'stacking' over the edge.. Thanks again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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