anybody having a knee pain?

[sxybst90]

alright so today was my second time on the slope with my alpine board and i have this pain on my right knee seems like i tend to twist my knee when i fall on my ass.. i guess i just don't know how to fall with alpine on? i ride regular btw.

also i made a reeeeaaal dumb mistake today and ran straight into a metal fence for the lift line.. or should i say i hit like 10 million bumps while braking and fell on my face and couldn't stop myself from running into the pole and my upper arm has this GIANT i mean seriously GIANT dent(?) and bruise on the either side of it... got taken in by a snowmobile and had like 6patrols(don't know why so many... i guess they just didn't have much to do) on sight and everything.... glad i didn't break my arm though.....

my plan is next winter go out to west somewhere and actually learn how to carve from professionals... not from reading bunch of articles!

oh and btw lemme know if anybody had similar knee pain that i had! thanks!:lol:

[kjl]

Yes, I got that knee pain for the first few days (weeks?) of being on an alpine board. I assume you're regular and your right knee is your back one? What happens when you are used to softies at flat angles (and if you are used to counterrotating your turns, which is almost universal in softbooters unless they've really trained in carving technique), is:

1) if you turn heelside

2) or skid to slow down heelside

3) or fall on your butt heelside

your first instinct from softbooting is to face the toeside edge of your board with your upper body and hips as you kick the tail out and/or land on your butt. That is fine is softies at flat angles, but if you've got your back boot rotated towards the nose at 45 degrees or more, you're basically twisting your foot 45 degrees inwards, which is actually quite painful for the back knee, especially if you're bending your knees and absorbing little bumps and stuff as you skid.

The quick trick to make the pain go away (and is probably good habit anyways for riding in general) is, when you skid to a stop or turn heelside in general, try to keep your upper body facing the nose of the board, or at least facing the direction your toes are facing. To really exaggerate it, when skidding to a stop, try to face completely sideways to the slope so that your right shoulder is pointing downhill instead of your chest. And when you fall backwards, land on your left hip instead of your ass.

As soon as I figured that out that twisting pain in the rear knee went away.

You can verify that this is what is causing the pain by strapping into your alpine snowboard in your living room, facing the toeside edge of the board, and squatting. If you rotate to the left, towards the nose, the pain goes away.

[Cindy Kleh]

This thread should be named Does Anyone Not Have Knee Pain? This is the first season in a decade that I haven't had wicked knee pain. Usually I have to quit after about 2 hours of riding and apply icebags. I couldn't ride more than two or three times a week.

This year, I still ache after riding but not anywhere close to the past. I think it's because of the following reasons: lots of bike riding and weight machines to build up the muscles around the knee, I'm learning to land air more gently and I think about the sweet spot of the board on every turn and with even weight on both legs, the knees get less torque.

[BobD]

I may be wrong, but it sounds like you have your feet pointed forward, but your hips are still facing the side of the board, and this is twisting your knees. Just keep your hips facing the same way as your boots. When you sit down on the heel side, it is onto a hip, not your butt.

It can help with skidding, and low speed control, if you lower the angle of the rear binding. You likely won't be worrying about boot out when you first start riding alpine, and you can bump the angle back up as you get used to the set up.

BobD

[Pat Donnelly]

Get in touch with me early next season and I will spend some time with you @ Pine Knob. Do not get in rush to be on the hill during the first few opening days as the conditions are usually not prime time for carving and too many people on just a few runs. If I go out on opening day, it is on skis just to check the conditions; thin coverage and variable snow/ice is to be expected.

Curious on your build for the 185 FC you are riding; just how tall are you and how much do you weigh? Maybe we should find you a shorter used board for you to cut your teeth on?

Heel fast!

[sxybst90]

Hmm i where my problem is.. Whenever i turn my hip to face the nose of the board i tend to lose my balance on the heelside turns. Is this common??

Btw i am about 6'1" and 210 pounds.. The guy who sold me this board said it was built for 200..

[kjl]

Hmm i where my problem is.. Whenever i turn my hip to face the nose of the board i tend to lose my balance on the heelside turns. Is this common??

Btw i am about 6'1" and 210 pounds.. The guy who sold me this board said it was built for 200..

You're just new at the sport and the equipment. You'll figure it out. No, there's no equipment issue.

If you are used to softbooting at low angles, you are used to being able to feather the edge angle of the board with the ankle joint, and also strongly with the knees. In hardbooting, you have pretty much completely eliminated any control of the edge angle from your ankles, and sharply decreased the effectiveness of your knee joint at controlling edge angle. You have to drive it mostly with your hips.

You just need to put some more hours on the board in and the balance will come. But some things to think about maybe: hardboots make it so your don't actually have to work very hard to keep your edge angle up when you're skidding to a stop. If you're pushing really hard with the back foot and getting knocked around, you can relax, just stand comfortably on the board, push your hips slightly towards the snow, and let the boots do what they were designed to do: hold your edge angle.

[SteveInOregon]

I'm new to alpine ( 3 months ) so take this for what it is " rookie advice "

If you use the search function here with the terms knees or knock knees you will find some very informative threads.

Also I think Jack the moderator here wrote an article on binding cant / loft and degree set up and it talks about knees in relationship to the board and the facing carve turns , plus pain ???

Myself I had bad knee pain on my very 1st run in hard boots this year , so bad I had to stop at the bottom and walk over to the board repair & wax shop and ask a long time carve board builder / rider whats up , well at the time my plates were both parallel around 45 degrees each, more degrees than my old soft set up.

We changed to more degrees on the front boot pointing more in line towards to boards nose ( cant remember the # some were around 55 ) and a less degrees on the back foot, for a difference or differential.

Not only that but we took that flat out of both bindings , we lifted up ( is it "tilting" ) the heal up on the back foot binding and lifting / tilting up the toe on the front binding did the trick for me > no more knee pain.

Pointing my lead / front boot more towards the nose took a few run's to get use to because I could not ankle my turns I had to be a surfer again and lean like a long board surfer so I caught on fast from already being a surfer, now I want to go even more in line with the nose almost like a Sqwal.

Everyone has different knee posture and angles, I think one technical name for extreme turn in of the knees is called "knocked" and then going to a middle ground of "neutral" and the duck or "splayed" or something like that ???.

Check it out, I am kind of neutral in the middle, anyways do some searching and you "will" find all the answers here from experienced hard boot guys here, take care

Hope that helps.:)

[sxybst90]

thanks everyone!

i'll prolly have to try those things next season though!:eplus2: