tjones Posted December 10, 2013 Report Share Posted December 10, 2013 so I'm still considering myself a beginner with respect to all this.. I can carve on my donek axxess 172, on bunny runs all day long, clean lines, edge to edge transitions smooth with no skid marks *laughs*... going to one step up in the greens to low blues range, i find i still build a bit more speed than I want (and I have yet to master the slight uphill turn to bleed off speed without bleeding off way too much and stopping or being unable to start the next turn)... but I can carve those with about 90% clean lines until i need to bleed speed. general ride style uses rotation as I'm comfortable with the flow that way, but still changing based on what I'm learning about what I can/can't do with my body. (I need to get stronger legs to absorb shock from the ride style to smooth out the run) The problem occurs on bunny slopes just as fast as it does on steeper terrain. So that explained, the question is this... I have an issue right now that cropped up.. UPZ RC10 boot with upz flo liner (tongue & boot style, not wrap around)... it seems when i push forward into a turn, either direction toe side or heel, I shift somehow, and slide my shin between the tongue and leg padding, then rotate the tongue completely out of the way in a turn... resulting in every turn after that on toe side being... painful. lol. This only happens on the rear boot. front boot is fine. Has anyone had this "habit" and how did you solve it? Boots are plenty tight (any tighter and i'll lose circulation, they're comfortable where they sit). I can take a turn or two and "force" the tongue to stay in place by riding the back seat a bit and shifting my weight to turn using my back foot straight into the tongue.. but that's not an ideal (long wide turns when i'm trying to learn how to shorten the radius and not a habit I want to form in general). My guess right now is that there's a twofold problem. the first is something with my technique - i'm exploring why my back leg is rotating like that... and the second is an alignment problem with respect to the boot fit, leg angle, and bindings that's causing me to line my back knee up against the side of the boot at the initiation of a turn, instead of against the tongue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kipstar Posted December 10, 2013 Report Share Posted December 10, 2013 Back in the day I rode in ski boots which tended to have the tongue shifting issue; it is caused by the pulling your shin forward slightly on heelsides then your shin will tend to follow a semi cricle until you are weighting your shin across the boot; slowly but surely it will rotate the tongue out of the way like squeezing a watermelon pip. Especially if u rotate as that often pulls your hip further which in turn may pull your legs together. It will affect your rear leg not your front. I would check using your finger if the tongue or liner has any hard points such as plastic u can grind away. If u have a way to lock the tongue in place with a strap for the liner only might help. Running heel lift and a small amount of inward can't might help or maybe reducing it may help; try to think about your knee moving as you ride and see if u can slightly modify. Also I would guess a flexier binding like the sidewinder or cheaper bindings might help you with pulling your knee forward in heelsides using the binding flex rather than the boot liner. But if u can think of riding with your knees apart more in both heelsides and toesides (like a cowboy riding a horse) you might also reduce the dgree of nward pressure on the cuff of your liner. In toesides think about using your calf muscles a little more rather than just leaning into the cuffi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kipstar Posted December 10, 2013 Report Share Posted December 10, 2013 (edited) Personally I like the wrap style liners nowto get around the issue also. Edited December 10, 2013 by kipstar duplicatew Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Ong Posted December 10, 2013 Report Share Posted December 10, 2013 (edited) My wife had the same problem, we fixed it by using stick-on velcro. cut strips and stuck them on the tongue and sides . The other side of the velcro strip goes on top when you have everything situated. Edited December 10, 2013 by James Ong Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjones Posted December 12, 2013 Author Report Share Posted December 12, 2013 thanks for the help guys! :) gonna try out a few of these next time i go up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shred Gruumer Posted December 31, 2013 Report Share Posted December 31, 2013 Waaaay too complicated...next. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjones Posted January 6, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2014 Waaaay too complicated...next. Shred Gruumer, I appreciate that my riding challenges are more complicated than a piece of velcro or a different cant plate, but it's not very welcoming of you to attempt to totally discount a post because you don't have an easy answer. It's easy enough to just not post. I'm sure you have a perfectly intelligent (if also complicated) response. I was just looking for some suggestions, which I got and were very helpful. Thanks to the others, the velcro suggestion helped a ton, and I can concentrate on what i'm doing as a rider again. As a result, I made a few small leaps in understanding of my riding once the tongues stabilized and I could feel which directions my legs moved more readily, instead of the shifty tongue on the boot. I'm still experimenting very carefully with different adjustments in ride style and equipment - as we all know, even small changes can make night and day differences in how certain styles of riding are affected. Thanks again all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icebiker Posted January 7, 2014 Report Share Posted January 7, 2014 ...and I have yet to master the slight uphill turn to bleed off speed without bleeding off way too much and stopping or being unable to start the next turn... T, I had the same issue a while back but following some tips on this forum and viewing some the videos from SES, instructed by several on this forum, I found that by putting comparatively more of my effort-per-turn into the beginning of the carve brings me around in a sharper "C" so I don't build as much speed as I traverse the slope. I have the same board as you. The Axxess has a VSR with a shorter radius nose than the tail, so when you weight the front downhill edge as you begin your carve you'll feel it lock the board into a quick turn...once around you can then shift weight accordingly to mellow out the carve or keep it tight. I found that once I got comfortable enough to initiate the turn more aggressively the prospect of running out of trail and/or losing steam became less of an issue. (that said, I haven't the courage to attempt this on the black trails yet...very happy with blues at moment :D, but that's my goal eventually). Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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