Softboot carving thread

[John Gilmour]

double post

[John Gilmour]

too angled does kill jump turns to some degree because landing toeside is harder.. However... I am looking to carve high speed in pow or ride pow steeps...not as much into becoming a human shelf.

Not much speed as the shelf..

... but if you need to get to some insane out of bounds descents and be hte shelf to get there...... well you have to go less steep... Aspen backcountry is a bit too dangerous this year because the snow pack is unstable.

If you ride say at Snowbird where the carving isn't great on the groomers and there are good steeps..I likely wouldn't be as steep angled on soft boots.

I am trying to use softboots and not feel like I am giving up much carvability (or really very little) on groomed trails ..up to as hard as chalk or softer race injected chalk, in exchange for more terrain and snow conditions....(Ultra hard wind blasted granular exempted.)

This way.... if I run into hardbooters..I can carve their terrain, and if softbooters bump into me...I can ride pow, tight trees and even bumps with them.

Sure it's a compromise..I would rather ride pow, bumps (yay soft powdery bumps) and trees on my 160cm salomon sick stick (doesn't carve for crap) and rather ride chalk and harder snow on hardboots.... but hey.... if the conditions are in between... I like the softboot set up versatility.

If I bump into skiers...(like my little 22 year old ripper fastest skier on Aspen .. tiny nose ringed hottie friend Kirsten) I can run the same variety of terrain with her and not feel the need to switch boards or have her wait for me.

[kjl]

Kjl... From your heels to toes, or toes to heels?

Toes to heels. I think it only affects me when I have to jump turn or brake hard, like in trees. I think I do a very counterrotated kick turn and end up facing straight downhill with the board sideways and weight on the back foot, which makes the back knee hurt if the angles are too high (twisting of the foot inwards). The "performance" of the turn is not necessarily compromised, but the cartilage in my knee might be :)

[Rob Stevens]

I think counter-rotating with higher angles is always going to be stressful on your ankles, as there is a big difference between where you're pointing your toes vs. your torso.

Hard to get away from that, really, especially in a emergency braking situation. You'll just do what you have to to get the job done.

A jump turn is a different situation, as it is more planned and proactive, than reactive.

Extension and an agressive move of your centre of mass to the inside of the turn is critical. Most people will extend straight up, wasting the movement. As you rotate hips and shoulders to the fall line, the board will start to flatten out and you'll become more perpendicular to the slope as you come off the toe edge. At that moment, extend and you will be pushed out, away from the slope, If you keep that rotation going, your board should come around the rest of the way and line up with your torso.

People shouldn't get confused here, thinking that I'm promoting a turn powered by rotation. Rotation is an important part, but is made effective by edging and steering efforts made at the same time by the legs.

[kjl]

I think a few years ago when I was more aggressive offpiste I would have been better at "proactive" jump turns where you're not "braking to stay alive" but "setting up your next turn".

I think the fact that I carve so much and softboot so little these days has made my off piste riding deteriorate. I'm sure the skills are still there, but the confidence, aggressiveness, and on-the-fly route planning are not what they used to be.

So now when I do tight trees I am braking around tree after tree instead of tracking along on a line that meanders in between them, if you know what I mean, which probably looks about the same to a causal observer, but I am doing lots of brakey counterrotating turns instead of real turns.

I know what you are talking about regarding extending and letting the board come around. It may require a tiny bit more effort to do because you have to engage more body parts, but when you do it it seems like it takes much less energy, is much smoother, and you end up in a better, balanced riding position for starting your next move. I think for me it's more about mentally preparing myself and getting into the zone more than actual technique.