RJ-PS Posted November 8, 2004 Report Share Posted November 8, 2004 Just finished my first day at Dodge Ridge. My rockboard is a 1991 Burton Air with the Burton Air bindings not the three strap version that some came with. Anyway, as it was my first day out I found that I could get right back into carving toeside, as long as I wasn't trying to power the nose too much. But on heel sides I was getting quite a bit of chatter and often losing my heel edge. Sometimes I could get out of it, others I just hit the snow butt first. Didn't happen at all on toeside. My questions is: what are the possible causes? Thanks in advance for the help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobdea Posted November 8, 2004 Report Share Posted November 8, 2004 but one thing that happens in softboots on a heelside is that lots of people transfer too much pressure to the rear of the board also many people straighten their legs out on the heelside that is a no no as well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest AlpentalRider Posted November 8, 2004 Report Share Posted November 8, 2004 i'd agree with bobdea, my guess is your straightening out your legs. You might also be leaning back as well as a natural instanct to get the edge to dig in more. Remember to stay angulated and don't lean back on your butt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dragon fly jones Posted November 9, 2004 Report Share Posted November 9, 2004 There is another option, there, one of my kids was experiencing the same thing at Loveland. He was riding far to up Standing is more like it, I had him decrease his area, ie getting smaller through the turn and then opening back up vertically. By working in that smaller area, the upper body does not teter in a vertical or horizontal planes. I wish I had the words to explain it better. I am sure that I could get Jack or someone to put it more eloquently. But it work(s)ed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corey Posted November 9, 2004 Report Share Posted November 9, 2004 I fought with the same problem. Someone here described putting their rear hand forward to shift the weight to the nose. They described the action as "pushing an ottoman" on the snow in front of you. That worked instantly for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpinegirl Posted November 9, 2004 Report Share Posted November 9, 2004 hey, i am curious what your binding angles are. that can affect your alignment to the board (as in, duh). but, depending on how you are aligned with the edges of the board, one particular carving style may prove to be more effective than another. then again, we're all human and tend to have our own "styles." point of consideration. read up on the cross-through, cross-over and cross-under carving stuff in the tech articles section. it's well written and i believe that it describes some beautiful images to hold onto. there are concepts in there to play with. dragon fly jones pretty much described a way to get into crossing over. personally i think that's a pretty good place to revisit playing. there is a tendency to end up on edge while turning if you lower your center of mass as much as possible (appears goofy, but it's really good for ankle flexion/extension, balance and the freak factor). in the off chance that you are not riding at very high angles (which i guess means under 30 in softboots on this forum), you may wish to try yet another confusing image. while not riding super high angles, it is easier (in theory that is) to ride square to your board edge, as in tip - tail lines up parallel to your shoulders. while riding in a position like this, one way to consider where your center of mass is traveling is to follow your butt in a figure 8 movement over your board (between the bindings of course since we haven't gone to extremes yet. afterall, this is early season). try this on a fair slope, more towards the depressingly flat side, at a moderate speed, like once until you get bored. so talked through even more.... toeside turn initiation finds your center of mass (CM) kinda traveling out over your front foot's toes. so that's towards the nose and over the toeside edge. through the turn your CM can travel towards your back foot, while remaining over the toeside edge. then transition to heelside and allow your CM to "gravitate" over your lead foot's heel. and here again we see it traveling towards your back foot throughout the turn. remember, your mass always remains between your bindings and never goes past them. what is this all about?? playing with fore/aft pressure. it's actually an exercise i had recommended to me for working on switch riding. but it's kinda cool when you can lock in on it. afterall, we;re all just a bunch a kids playing with really expensive toys. also, this movement is really only possible in a controlled manner if your knees are flexed. it should be smooth. otherwise you end up looking like a weeble. gotta keep the upper body upright. the babble continues... again, this is all assuming that your binding angles are under 30*. the butt moving figure 8 pattern was described for use while keeping the shoulders fairly parallel with the board edge. food for thought on that. geez, i now realize that i am moving towards the "ducky" extreme. anyway, if you rely on rotating your body leading into every turn, chances are that this movement may in fact be hindering you on your heelside turns whereas it is rather effective on toe-side. try twisting your body sometime while on a level surface and pay attention to what happens to your lower body. especially pay attention to what happens to your back leg. does your knee straighten out? are you able to pressure your heelside edge as effectively with your back foot as your front foot while in this position without shifting your weight?? if you are shifting your weight, in order to reach a point where the edging is effective while riding, mid-turn there is a great chance that your weight can potentially end up being too far back adn kinda locked into that place. this of course leads to chatter. anyway, sorry to babble soooo much. it has been a long off season and i can't wait to get back on snow. i am super curious to find out if your try this at all, and how it seemed to work or not. i can't exactly get out there to try it myself yet (we just got our whopping first 1/4" of snow tonight. yee-haw!!!). so happy riding. i'm only able to get my brain warmed up at this point in time. and i do accept all help in the brain warming up process. it tends to take a lot longer than my body to get going! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D-Sub Posted November 9, 2004 Report Share Posted November 9, 2004 marry me? ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonerider Posted November 9, 2004 Report Share Posted November 9, 2004 Originally posted by D-Sub marry me? ;) Dude you already have a girl who is getting into alpine... at least give us young, single guys a chance to woo her :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D-Sub Posted November 9, 2004 Report Share Posted November 9, 2004 AAAAAAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA! maybe Im mormon?:) I just drooooool when girls talk tech of any sort. I was seein a girl who was into electronic music production for a while and man o man was that a double blessing! she was stayin with me for a while, and one night I came home after I had left for a bit due to an argument...so...I come home, and theres this cute little hawaiian with with nothing but one of my t-shirts sitting in a dark room in front of my studio workstation, lights glowin... it was impressive to say the least:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Gendzwill Posted November 9, 2004 Report Share Posted November 9, 2004 Nice post, Alpinegirl! However I think the vast majority of the time when people have the problems the OP mentioned, theyre riding straight-legged on the heelside turn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpinegirl Posted November 9, 2004 Report Share Posted November 9, 2004 neil, i absolutely agree with you on that. i do agree that a vast majority of the time that straight legs are a problem. i just opted to focus on something else that can contribute to carving because rarely is there just one problem. although with straight leggedness, maybe that phenomenon could be regarded as stiff leggedness. even while angulating, the moment we cease to remain dynamic and adjust throughout a turn, we risk losing our edge (and bonding with trees, snowguns....) regardless of how much our knees are bent. carving is like exercising strength with a great deal of sensitivity. the power involved in it is absolutely tremendous, yet it is hard to control it in a manner that is not fluid without risking destruction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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