carving newbie needs help

[Guest meric]

hey guys!

been following this website since I've seen some carving videos... and said "I wanna do THIS!"

finally I thought its time to start from somewhere....

first of all I'd like to ask u if I can rent out a hard setup somewhere around LA... I really wanna try carving with a hard setup and see how it is like...... but can not afford to get a setup now...

right now I have a soft setup and I think I can carve a little.. I mean I do leave lines behind me.. but not sure if I am doing it correctly..or not..

I have few problems...

first one is when I carve, I lose my speed... and when doing a carved turn I can not gain speed... I just gain speed when I am riding down hill then start carving..

so when I link the carve turns... I lose all the speed and stop :)

2nd one, I can carve more easily when I lean forward ( toe side ) can touch the snow both hands ( when losing the speed )

however I can not even touch the snow with my left hand when I carve on heelside... is this because of my stance angles?

they are +21 , +6 , now..

my board is a burton indie , freestyle/freeride kinda thing, its a 158 and the running lenght is something like 118 or 120....

is it more easy to carve with a longer board ? or a board which has a longer running lenght ?

I appreciate if you can help me out..

TIA for any inputs....

[Jack M]

Hi Meric, did you check out the Welcome Center?

There's some info there that should help you get started with equipment and technique. I think "The Norm" should help you with that speed problem.

One thing you should realize is that touching the snow is not the goal of good carving. It is a byproduct of it. Actively trying to touch the snow will teach you bad habits, like bending over at the waist. In general, you never want your upper body leaning into the turn more than your lower body.

Have fun!

[Guest meric]

hi jack, thanx for your reply..

I've checked the welcome center.. will try the norm technique as soon as I get on the slopes..

and I think you are right about touching the snow ... u can see a pic of me trying toeside carving... I think you can comment on that...

on the other hand, how bout my binding angles? and is there a place I can rent a hard setup ?

thanx again.

[Guest Randy S.]

Meric,

Dave's in Tahoe City used to have some rental set-ups. They may still have stuff. That said, if you can get up to North Lake Tahoe, I have a small set of loaner equipment I let folks use. I have boots in sizes 9-10.5 and some boards and bindings that I could set up for you. There seem to be a fair number of SoCal folks on this board so maybe one of them has some equipment you could try out if you hook up with them.

As for your picture, my first response is that you are dipping your inside shoulder. Your shoulders should be level to the "horizon" of the trial, or basically level with the snow. If you reach your inside hand down toward the snow, you will move your weight off your edge and start skidding. Skidding is the best way I know of to scrub speed (perhaps the root of your above complaint)? You might try a drill I learned called the "boot top drill". When carving toe-side, touch your forward (right if goofy) hand to the top cuff of your forward boot, on heel-side, touch your rear hand to your rear boot cuff. The drill will help level your shoulders.

Good luck and welcome to carving. You're going to love it.

[alpinegirl]

stance angles... your angles are fine. if you have a suitable range of motion (flexion/extension. as in bending your knees), and can twist your board and plow through crappy conditions (as in you are comfortable and confidently in control), i suspect that your stance angles are just fine. carving is not about stance angle, stance angles merely affect carving styles and techniques. all equipment can carve. that's why this is such a cool sport. heck, i ride my softie setup duck. i can carve on it, however i will also acknowledge the fact that the technique is rather different from what i use while in hardboots... carving in hardboots looks so much better though.

a binding adjustment to think about making is rotating the highbacks to be more closely aligned with your heelside edge. also, if you have bindings that allow for this, they may also allow you to adjust the height of the ankle strap separately from the highback(burton's are great for this). a lot of folks (which means this may include you) use the highest hole in order to achieve the greatest heel hold. some folks instead run the ankle straps crosswise, using two different holes in order to have the strap run across the ankle differently for comfort adn performance. but hey, what works for you works. this is only food for thought. believe it or not playing with every seemingly excessive feature on your bindings is a good thing.

and with the stance angle thing. "the norm" is a technique that works regardless of what your setup is. in a way, it helps you to become better acquainted with your board by learning how it naturally turns when put on edge. heck, this very technique works while carving switch, even while setup at crazy high angles. i just would not recommend rotating your upper body to face the nose of the board. while carving at relatively low angles, you can rotate your body to face the fall line a bit (use your front binding;s angle as a reference). however, while playing with this try to keep your shoulder's, hips adn ankles aligned. think of it as stacking sections of your body on top of one another. ride "stacked" and keep your center of mass in between your feet.

stand up. on another thread someone mentionned arching the back. that is an idea to keep in mind on toeside turns. it does make a difference, along with flexing your knees. your photo shows nice flexion of the knees and ankles. AND it shows you bending over at the waist. oops. wish i could claim to never do this, but yeah. i was first introduced to the whole arching back thing at least 5 years ago, and i only started getting it recently. it does make a difference whether on plates or a soft setup. but it isn't necessary in all situations. however, standing up and not breaking at the waist is good for just about every situation.

i would propose that heelside turns are the most similar between setups. you can think of yourself as leading into the turn with your front hip without having to do anything that doesn't feel natural.

but hey, what do i know?? there is no right way to carve. so go out, have fun and post some photos of your riding so we can check out your style (and see what you're doing). happy riding

[Guest meric]

hey there..

I think I've found out why I am losing the speed when carving...

when I carve, I do very tight turns and I think this is because of the sidecut radius of my board.. which is 8 meters....

I checked out some freecarve boards now and their sidecut radius is around 10 meters and more ..

so.. it seems there is nothing I can do to avoid tight turns when carving.... unless I should get a longer board... sidecut radius increases as the board lenght increase....

for my soft setup.. I think I should get a longer board with a bigger sidecut radius..

what do you think ?

've attached a pic of my board, 158 indie.. u can see the sidecut..

thanx.

[Guest meric]

forgot to attach the pic... here it is..