Beginner's Log....day 5

[Duke]

I told Monk i would post some updates and hope he does also.  Would love to hear sagas from other noobs too.  Learn together!

 

I already posted about my rocky start.  Just about threw in the towel the first time down.  I finally tried "The Norm" and got the feel for it.  Then....spring came early to Idaho and we had April conditions.  I went out on the "hero snow" as we call it.  In the mashed potatoes I was gettin' my grove on.  Making some good tracks and thinking I was getting it pretty quick.  I was reading here about trying to lean away from the hill and not into it....trying to keep my body upright......bend at the hip...according style, etc, etc.  In the mashed potato snow I was getting some good hip movement and feeling good.

 

Then......it hit.  Icy conditions......and I mean icy and lame.  I was immediately back to fulltime skidding.  I can tell that I am not getting the angulation.  It was a hard realization that my style was not so awesome in the first place.....just the "hero snow syndrome".  What a bummer.  Not gettin' my grove on after all.      "Where's that sharp knife we had around here?"  (line from Bill Murray in Stripes)

 

Lucky for me the only hardboot rider within 50 miles was around and I talked him into following me for some pointers.  He was nice enough to sound positive and gave me the "well....learning to ride the board and make some good, well shaped, skid turns will help learning to carve"   Which is nice guy speak for "you didn't carve at all and are skidding everything".  He did tell me that I have to get that back arm up front instead of hanging it behind.  I am hanging it back....riding more softboot style.  Then I remembered that Russian guy's video.  Arms out in front like a zombie.  It was a bit odd to me when I first saw it and I didn't get what the message was but now I see that it was trying to teach me NOT to leave the back arm back behind.  I guess I need to look that video up again and try to decipher the subtitles.

 

Carving toeside I can put my outside hand down near the top of the boot where it should go....because that is natural for me anyway.  Trying to do it heelside just seems impossible to me.  After his input I did some runs, Russian Zombie style, to try keeping squared up more.  Sheesh.....so much easier for me in the mush!  At least for me anyway....but I'm sure my style was way off...even in the mashed potatoes.

 

I'll keep it up and will get there sometime.  I'll head to COW and will hit some of you up for some more advice.  

 

Monk....how's it going for you...and any other newbies out there reading? Any similar experiences??

[That Guy...]

Ice is no fun, but it'll teach you to stack your weight.  Keep heading out in bad conditions... it'll make you a better rider, but use your judgement- if it's unsafe, don't go.  At this stage, you should be taking just about every experienced riders advice to heart.  There is a right and a wrong way to do it, but the right way is open to a whole lot of interpretation, so if someone says to try something that seems counterintuitive, give it an honest shot and if it works, incorporate it in your style.  If not, discard it and go back to the way you were doing things.  I've found that if the advice someone gives me is right, I'll see an improvement in a turn or two.  Just remember- what works for one person may not work for another.  

[AcousticBoarder]

Hm, your post has made me wonder about how I was doing last time and if I wasn't making as much progress as I thought. Last time I went it was really soft, and I felt like had improved a lot by doing a few things. We have so little snow at the moment that the nearest hill is currently closed until more snow falls, so I have not been able to go since.

[Duke]

One of those days I was one of the first down the groomer, before it had warmed up.  I was thinking.....finally the fresh groomer everyone seems to love.  It wasn't going well but I "got better" as the day got warmer.  Instead of thinking I was a fast learner I should have been thinking "hmmmm.....I don't do well on the conditions that the good carvers like and am better on snow they don't like" and realized that it most likely meant that my technique was far enough off that I was doing some sort of pheaux carving and not the real thing.  Trying to bite off too much and get there too soon without getting the basics down and progressing in step.

 

"A fool thinks himself wise but a wise man knows himself to be a fool"

[Monk]

I told Monk i would post some updates and hope he does also.  Would love to hear sagas from other noobs too.  Learn together!

 

I already posted about my rocky start.  Just about threw in the towel the first time down.  I finally tried "The Norm" and got the feel for it.  Then....spring came early to Idaho and we had April conditions.  I went out on the "hero snow" as we call it.  In the mashed potatoes I was gettin' my grove on.  Making some good tracks and thinking I was getting it pretty quick.  I was reading here about trying to lean away from the hill and not into it....trying to keep my body upright......bend at the hip...according style, etc, etc.  In the mashed potato snow I was getting some good hip movement and feeling good.

 

Then......it hit.  Icy conditions......and I mean icy and lame.  I was immediately back to fulltime skidding.  I can tell that I am not getting the angulation.  It was a hard realization that my style was not so awesome in the first place.....just the "hero snow syndrome".  What a bummer.  Not gettin' my grove on after all.      "Where's that sharp knife we had around here?"  (line from Bill Murray in Stripes)

 

Lucky for me the only hardboot rider within 50 miles was around and I talked him into following me for some pointers.  He was nice enough to sound positive and gave me the "well....learning to ride the board and make some good, well shaped, skid turns will help learning to carve"   Which is nice guy speak for "you didn't carve at all and are skidding everything".  He did tell me that I have to get that back arm up front instead of hanging it behind.  I am hanging it back....riding more softboot style.  Then I remembered that Russian guy's video.  Arms out in front like a zombie.  It was a bit odd to me when I first saw it and I didn't get what the message was but now I see that it was trying to teach me NOT to leave the back arm back behind.  I guess I need to look that video up again and try to decipher the subtitles.

 

Carving toeside I can put my outside hand down near the top of the boot where it should go....because that is natural for me anyway.  Trying to do it heelside just seems impossible to me.  After his input I did some runs, Russian Zombie style, to try keeping squared up more.  Sheesh.....so much easier for me in the mush!  At least for me anyway....but I'm sure my style was way off...even in the mashed potatoes.

 

I'll keep it up and will get there sometime.  I'll head to COW and will hit some of you up for some more advice.  

 

Monk....how's it going for you...and any other newbies out there reading? Any similar experiences??

Hey Duke I too have to had some troubles learning as well but you know what they say practice makes perfect. lucky me almost everytime Ive gone out to my local hill ive bumped into someone with an alpine board who has given me pointers on some do's and dont's the norm has helped in a huge way and i too thought I was making some progress in my skills going up but I actually had a bad fall last week going down hitting a rut in the hill and banging my head off the hill but everything is good now going out next weekend will keep you update 

[www.oldsnowboards.com]

Duke, this is a great idea, keep it going!! 

 

This can not only help you but many others during their early days of alpine riding. 

 

Can  you find someone to video your carving?  It can be invaluable!!

 

Stay with it,  it is worth it. 

Bryan 

[Duke]

Duke, this is a great idea, keep it going!! 

 

This can not only help you but many others during their early days of alpine riding. 

 

Can  you find someone to video your carving?  It can be invaluable!!

 

Stay with it,  it is worth it. 

Bryan 

 

Sure...I'll get some vid, and thanks for the words of encouragement.  But....I think maybe you just have a soft spot for me because of my avatar pic :)

[www.oldsnowboards.com]

Duke, you are correct, oldsnowboards always get my attention,  you might be surprised how many old school riders on on this forum.  Many have 20-30 years of snowboarding behind them.  Enjoy!

[purpletiesto]

Allot

[Allee]

Duke, if you're going to COW, or heading in the direction of Targhee generally, drop TwoRavens here a note. She's a talented carver and could pass on some great tips to you (hell, she fixed my three years of crappy heelsides in five minutes for me over Xmas, so I think she's a genius.)

[Duke]

Duke, if you're going to COW, or heading in the direction of Targhee generally, drop TwoRavens here a note. She's a talented carver and could pass on some great tips to you (hell, she fixed my three years of crappy heelsides in five minutes for me over Xmas, so I think she's a genius.)

 

Thanks I will....and I will be at COW.

[two_ravens]

Ha ha!!!  Allee, that was the easiest fix ever!  "Get your butt over your board."  "That's all?  Just get my butt over my board?"  Yup. Done and fixed!  Wish your lack of snow was as easy to fix!

 

Duke, I've had a hitch in my git-along for awhile, but seem to be on the mend, at least a little bit.  Really hoping to make it to COW, for at least one day.  I am totally out of shape, so I'll be happy to slow down and help you out.  Eventually you'll want to ride like BigDogDave, but I think I'm a little better at teaching the skills to get you there.  So we can let BDD and Cramer lap us a few times and see if we can get you on the right track....  :)

[st_lupo]

Hi, another softboot oldtimer here.  I think this could really be a useful thread for the rest of us carving noobs.  With the exception of one day, 20 years ago, I haven't even started my journey on hard-boot boards... yet.  I've got some kit arriving this week and I've been trying to mentally prepare for my first real foray into carving at the local hill next weekend.  Threads like this can be just as informative as the links describing "the norm".

 

I think the great thing about hearing from other beginners is that you hear about some of the "obvious" stuff that the experts might take for granted.  That, plus the terminology is great.  If "zombie hands" isn't a part of the official alpine lexicon, it should be.  That's probably all that I'll be thinking about during next weekends ride.

 

Does anyone care to expand on getting our butts over our boards?  Just how how over the board should the butt be, and what kind of stance is this trying to clean up?  Is this about riding "squared-up" to the board and crouching as opposed to sidewise and squatting over the side?

[Duke]

 

Does anyone care to expand on getting our butts over our boards?  Just how how over the board should the butt be, and what kind of stance is this trying to clean up?  Is this about riding "squared-up" to the board and crouching as opposed to sidewise and squatting over the side?

 

St_Lupo.....if nothing else I will ask her if she makes it to COW.  I suspect it is a recommendation to keep the weight lined up over the edge and not to stick it out while on toeside edge as most softbooters do.

 

6th Day:  I hit the slopes again and kept my arms out in front.  I can tell that this is the distinct switch I need to do so that I can keep squared up.  It helps to prevent me from just applying soft boot technique to my hardboot board.  I was much more used to it by the end of the day....and for the first time felt like I might even want my back foot rotated more forward instead of wishing it could be a full perpendicular like I have wished every other time.  It was snowing just a bit.  1cm on top of hard crust which turned to 2 cm by afternoon and 3 cm by the end of the day.  I would lean and try to get the angulation to get my weight over the edge, but as it would hit that hard crust it would make a difficult transition for me.  Toward the end of the day it was easier as the other boards and skis had chopped up the hard surface and more snow had fallen.

 

In the difficult conditions.....if I stuck to the mellow green dot and went slow....I was able to carve some decent groves.  The faster I would go the more I would slide.  I think it would have been better if I had some softer snow under the  small layer of new snow.  I went solo and didn't get any video.  I'll still work on getting some video as I definitely want some input.  I was the first down this short, green dot the first few runs so I did get a shot of some of my tracks.  Some good turns and some sliders.  I'll get some vid.

[two_ravens]

Duke, nice tracks!  Clearly you're doing something right!  :)

 

Ok, I'll expand on the butt comment, but with two caveats.  First, I am in no way recognized around these parts as a legitimate hardboot instructor, though I do have a solid background in teaching in general and teaching skiing in specific (tutored by Bill Briggs, a singularly brilliant man.) Where edge meets snow, there is a lot that translates from that training.  Second, it was a super easy fix for Allee because she's a superb athlete and has been hardbooting quite awhile so she had all the other pieces in place - one small adjustment brought it all together.

 

As a beginner the two things I struggled with most were getting the gear set up so it was reasonably functional (with some misguidance, that took 3 years) and figuring out just how to get my body lined up over the board.  If you come from a softboot background, the body position is quite a change.  I see more beginners struggle with heelside, but toeside can be an issue too.

 

Most people I see helping beginners try to get the alignment starting from the top down -  the beginners will often be advised to look where they are going.  (Ok, always good advice, but you've been doing that sideways on softboots, so that won't get you there.)  Then they'll be told to get their shoulders squared toward the nose of the board.  Well, there are a few talented souls who are quite flexible enough to get their shoulders pretty much forward and still have their butts sideways.  

 

Then they'll be told to get their hands forward - put the rear hand on the front knee, or 'zombie hands', etc.  :)  If they happen to bring their butt around with the hands, then this will help.  But hand position (seems to me) is much more a matter of style than function.  There are phenomenal riders whose hands are flapping all over (look up video of Bruce Varsava - few can match his skill on a board, but he is one of the easiest riders to spot anywhere because of his signature arm waving.)  And there are people with nice quiet forward hands that just aren't quite getting the job done on the board.  So - I strive for quiet hands, I like the aesthetic, and thinking about hand position might help you get lined up if you're connected that way, but hands won't make or break you.

 

So then - let's start at the bottom and work up.  I am assuming you have reasonably forward angles (say front foot at least 50 deg.)  Press your front knee toward the nose of your board.  Now press your rear knee toward the nose of the board.  In reality you will want to ride with your knees a bit apart (the rear knee will end up pushing a little bit toward toeside but still with strong forward pressure toward the nose.) But just for now, to get a feel for getting forward pressure on that boot, exaggerate the forwardness of the pressure - maybe even see if you can touch that back knee to the front leg.  Now swing your hips around over the board and line your pelvis up so it nearly faces the nose of the board (you will actually want to ride with your hips facing the angle halfway between the direction of your toes and the nose of the board more or less, but again - for now - exaggerate it a bit.)  Now tuck - folding forward *at the hips* (very little bend at the waist).  Exaggerate it - see if you can flatten your back and have it parallel to the ground.  This last part is not how you will ride all the time - the steeper, icier, or more challenging the terrain, the more tucked you will want to be.  For mellow cruising, you can be very upright and ride quite effectively.  But for now, this tuck will help break old muscle memory, because it's probably quite different from what you've been doing, and it's a great tool to have in the kit.  And I'm going to have you fall down here in a minute, so you might as well be as close to the ground as possible.  Once tucked, you can find a nice comfortable forward zombie position for your hands, maybe near your knees.

 

Practice this sequence - knee, knee, hips, tuck - until it feels familiar and reasonably automatic.  Best to start flat on the carpet at home.  Then do the sequence and add tilting your board on edge each way, supporting yourself on furniture, and maintaining the position.  If you draw a line up perpendicular from the top of the board, your butt should always be quite close to that line, whether you have the board flat or on edge, so you are tilting as a unit.  (My avatar photo is a reasonable example - my hips are shifted just a bit toward the inside of that perpendicular line, but still in the zone and it's a very functional position.)  

 

For more of a challenge, see if you can assume the position, then hop up and land back in position on the carpet. Then take it all to a flat spot on snow - basic sequence, then adding the hop.  If needed, you can put a glove under your board to keep from sliding.  Now find a slope that is gentle enough that you can point your board straight down the hill for a few seconds without picking up too much speed.  

 

Ok then, point it straight down hill, pick up just enough speed for stability - then "knee, knee, hips, tuck, tilt."  Most people find it easiest to start toeside, but do whichever feels comfortable for you.  Just ride that edge around until you point uphill, letting yourself fall over when you run out of speed, striving to hold that lovely position until the end.  Do a few one way, making a garland across the hill, then do a few the other way.  When that feels good, start in a traverse.  So if you're going to turn toward your toeside, be traversing on your heelside, get enough speed for stability, then "knee, knee, hips, tuck, tilt".  This is where you will be starting to get that downhill edge carving!  When you are confidently starting in some degree of traverse and holding the position until the end, you can start linking them up.  

 

This tucked position will feel kind of stiff and strange for awhile, but as you get skilled at keeping forward knee pressure and keeping your hips lined up nicely over the board, you can stand up and relax a bit on easier terrain.  You now have a solid position to work from as you explore the complexities of adding more dynamic inputs to your ride to control transitions and turn radius and such, and finding your personal style (angulation or inclination, race, bomber, euro) - endless adventures in the learning curve!  There are so many ways to carve, but all the best riders have their butts pretty much lined up over the board, no matter what kind of turn or style they are rockin'.  Ok, hope that helps......

 

*Credit where credit is due - the knee, knee, hips, tuck sequence comes from John Gilmour, straight out of the first lesson I took from him.  It works.  I learned on a hill that many said was too steep to learn to carve on.  Without this sequence, it would have taken a whole lot longer for sure..... 

[AcousticBoarder]

Great post two_ravens, last time I was out I was thinking it would be really nice to have a sequence to practice to get form right. I was going to scour the forums today and write down everyone's advice and try and make a list of it... this seems like a better idea to start with :)

[Duke]

NIce!  Now that is what I call some good input.  Thanks Two_Ravens!  I was trying to bend my knees and tuck down a bit but it wasn't happening very well and was just too awkward.  I felt I wanted my back heel lifted to help....but in reading on here that does not seem to be the purpose of heel lift so I think it is just that I didn't know what to do with my knees and legs.  This will help.  Thanks.

[That Guy...]

That's the thing about boot, binding and stance setup... there are rights and wrongs, but in the rights column, there's a whole bunch of room for interpretation.  I think I mentioned this to either you or Monk or someone else- listen to what people say, try their suggestions, but if they don't work for you in a reasonable amount of time, go back to doing it the way you were.  Above all, don't be afraid to experiment, but only make one change at a time.  Try the heel lift and see how it works for you.  Depending on what bindings you have, it's either a two minute or a five minute job to lift the heel and if it doesn't work, go back to the way it was.  

 

If you do add heel lift, you may need to remove some forward lean from your boot, so keep that in mind if you add the lift and feel a ton of pressure at the cuff on the back side of your leg.

[Duke]

Getting a bit deep into this thread, but, I do have a new data point.  

 

If I go slow slow on good groomer, green dots I can get some good grooves.  But, get any speed at all and I turn back into a skidder.   I talked BigDogDave into following me for a couple of short runs.  He told me that I am doing some carving on heel side turns but am just short of getting there on toe side.  Everyone else seems to have an easier time on toe side so, of course, I have to buck the system    Dave thought it might be my shiny, spanking new UPZs that I just got a week ago.  That perhaps they are not allowing enough forward flex.  I put a gopro mount on the back of my deck and took a run or two to give some visual insight.  Not the video to get good input on my technique I know....still working that one.

 

This vid was interesting for me though.  I was surprised how much flex these old, Burton race plates have....particularly right at first when scooting to the lip to drop in.  Also, about 20 seconds into it I drop into a narrow run with lots of turns.  Watching the back of the boot it seems to me that the UPZs are giving me good flex.  I don't have much to measure that against, but they don't look too rigid anyway.

 

So, back to the drawing board.  I think it is just...practice, practice, practice!  One problem I am having now with that is that I can skid around just fine on the carving board.  Seems like it wouldn't be a problem but it is because I have to choose between riding with my boys/friends or cutting them lose and heading to the green dot to "practice correct form".  The latter gets pretty boring after a few runs.....but is what I should do!  

 

10 points for anyone that recognizes the music in the vid.  (still trying to figure out how to embed vs posting the link.  sorry)

 

http://desertdukephotos.smugmug.com/Learning-to-Carve/i-frTNJ4B/A

[Bobby Buggs]

Cool vid, one thing I noticed was on heel side your hips are still pointing in the same direction. 

[Duke]

Cool vid, one thing I noticed was on heel side your hips are still pointing in the same direction. 

 

Thanks oh "evil one", but please elaborate.  Meaning you believe I need to rotate my hips to a different position for the entire run or they need to be different for each turn and on heel side you noticed that mine are not correctly aligned??  Thanks again BTW.

 

p.s.  For anyone else seeing the vid.....how about that Bomber sticker placed front and center like it was an awesome product placement move eh?

[st_lupo]

Duke, I like the video!  I'm going on (maybe) my last ride of the year this weekend and I'm going to try doing the same.  Its pretty hard to get my wife to film me when I'm riding since she's got her hands full teaching our youngest to ski but I hope that with my old GoPro on the tail of my board I can get an idea of what my stance it doing.

 

As far as technique, I'm a beginner too so I'm not qualified to critic anyone's style but I can tip you on what has helped me get on edge pretty reliably... First off get really comfortable with two_ravens exercise: "knees, knees, hips, tuck".    That really helped me put my butt where it should be, and helped me face the correct direction.  A proper stance is an essential foundation to everything that we are trying to do. In the "knees, knees, hips, tuck, tilt" part I found that the tilt must not originate from throwing my center of gravity to the inside of the turn.  IE don't lay into the turn.  Laying into the turn I think I created two problems: 1) the line between my CG and carving edge is no longer (nearly) perpendicular to the slope (this is talked about in some threads, but I'm not entirely sure how important it really is) and 2)biomechanically this will prevent my carving edge from achieving a high degree of inclination on the slope.  For me the tilt comes best from driving my hips towards the inside of the turn and bend my torso to the outside of the turn, perpendicular to the board's longitudinal axis (angulation).  If my stance is good (squared to the board, with my butt over the board), this is going to force the board to roll/inclinate up onto it's edge, bingo!  My CG position remains relatively unchanged and I'm bending kind of like a piece of macaroni.  By driving your hips to the inside of the turn your legs will press against the sides of your boots and get the board on edge.  Angulating away from the snow with your torso (keeping your butt over the line running perpendicular from your board's topsheet) gives you a lot more clearance between your body and snow, allowing you room to get higher inclination angles on your cutting edge.  Also the conservation of angular momentum is going to drive the board to higher inclination angles the more that you angulate your torso away from the inside of the turn.  Another benefit is it reduces the temptation to reach for the snow with your hands, which at our stage in the game is a killer no-no.

 

For me trying to do the angulation part of the bomber style was like fighting against years of habit from softboot riding (even though I was carving on soft boots).  At first it feels pretty unnatural and personally I feel kinda vulnerable when I'm opened up on a toe-side turn.  At the first chatter of ice, my conditioned reaction is to sit on the toilet and reach for the snow (or at least close up my stance and protect my body).  That reaction guarantees a lost edge and needs to be reconditioned into the a response of increasing angulation.  When you feel that extra few degrees of edge inclination that angulating your body gives you, man its good!  The first few times I just had to say f-it and trust that my board was going to catch me.  When you experience that it does catch you it gets easier.  For me, I also had to do all the motions to the point that it felt like I was really exaggerating.  When I saw a video of my riding I saw that I was hardly angulating at all compared to experienced riders, but it was getting me a better edge than I've ever had before.

 

My impression is that we beginners can really derive a lot of benefit by initially focusing on three things:

1. Stance (naturally facing somewhere between the board's nose and the mean angle of your bindings throughout the turns, adjust bindings/boots so this is comfortable)
2. Angulation (this leads to edge inclination, practice this in front of a mirror)
3. CG (keeping our butt properly over the board)

Each one of these skills gives a big payoff, and (for me at least) they are the easiest things to focus on while riding.  You can set a good stance while you calmly approach a downhill and it pretty much sticks through the run.  Angulation (at our level) is created by large scale movements which are reasonably easy to perform/monitor.  CG is a bit more subtle but is critical to master.  A lot of the other things are just out of my capability to evaluate or do anything about right now(cross-over/cross-under, for-aft weight distribution, etc).

 

Of course if anything I say is wrong, creates bad habits, or is just plain stupid I defer to the masters on BOL!

Edited March 19, 2015 by st_lupo

[Duke]

Thanks St Lupo.  Very good input.  I am traveling in Oregon right now but am planning to hi the slopes twice next week.  However, with the melt I may even take my softboot set up for slush surfing.  Perhaps in the morning I can try carving for an hour or two.  Here's hoping!

[Bprime101]

As a very new hardbooter, these are very helpful discussions. Thank you! I am only 8-10 hours into the hard setup, and feel comfortable with the angles and have no problem doing quick rotational turns, but definitely just barely getting into the real carves. The norm is extremely helpful, allowing me to feel a real carve (and want more!). Like others, front side seems easier, perhaps because the heel side is that much harder to get the weight forward where it needs to be and creating skid-out. One problem I can't quite get over is that I can lean, and the radius on the board will eventually catch my fall by turning, but usually a little too late. Would love a little advice on how to initiate the carve and get it going sooner so I can keep my balance.

As far as my setup, I am on a Burton Ultra Prime 162, 60 degrees both feet to keep the boots inboard of the edges (barely). I hear that lower angles make things easier, perhaps when I scrape up the money for a wider board, but for now I am comfortable with the forward facing setup, especially as it has very quickly erased soft boot habits. I like the board, but have nothing to compare it to. 

I am definitely hooked, and thankful winter shows no signs of abating here in the northeast!

[st_lupo]

As a very new hardbooter, these are very helpful discussions. Thank you! I am only 8-10 hours into the hard setup, and feel comfortable with the angles and have no problem doing quick rotational turns, but definitely just barely getting into the real carves. The norm is extremely helpful, allowing me to feel a real carve (and want more!). Like others, front side seems easier, perhaps because the heel side is that much harder to get the weight forward where it needs to be and creating skid-out. One problem I can't quite get over is that I can lean, and the radius on the board will eventually catch my fall by turning, but usually a little too late. Would love a little advice on how to initiate the carve and get it going sooner so I can keep my balance.

As far as my setup, I am on a Burton Ultra Prime 162, 60 degrees both feet to keep the boots inboard of the edges (barely). I hear that lower angles make things easier, perhaps when I scrape up the money for a wider board, but for now I am comfortable with the forward facing setup, especially as it has very quickly erased soft boot habits. I like the board, but have nothing to compare it to. 

I am definitely hooked, and thankful winter shows no signs of abating here in the northeast!

Welcome on board Bprime101!  As far as wide board / narrow board:  I was told by a friend that I definitely wanted a wider board to start with (the recommendation was a SilberPfeil Vantage), but I got a fairly narrow board instead (normal SilberPfeil) because I found an unused 2012 model for small cash (I'm cheap!).  For me transitioning to the narrow board seems mostly just about making peace with the very forward facing stance.  If you can ride the narrow board and face (more or less) squared off to the nose in a neutral feeling stance I think you're good to go on a narrow board.  Other than that there definitely seems to be style differences between riding a narrow vs. wide board.

 

As far as getting the board to catch you on the edge... That can be due to a few factors I think.  First is your overall ability to balance.  It sounds like you are coming from softboots (like me) so we'll assume that overall balance and coordination is not a problem.  Whenever I've had a problem with either loosing an edge or not catching my balance on a transition it's pretty much been because of bad habits from softbooting getting into my hardboots.  1) Do two_ravens exercise from earlier in this thread,  2) drive the board with your hips, 3)keep facing towards the nose and 4)angulate your torso away from the snow, not towards it. Never reach for the snow!  Or an easier way to remember things based on lots of help from the forums:

 

1)Butt over the board (two_ravens)

2)The action is all below the waist, as the actress said to the bishop.  (philw)

3)pretend there's a steering wheel or handlebar attached to the nose of the board (markbvt) <--sounds goofy but it does work!

4)The snow is hot lava (ExcelsiorTheFathead)

 

I've gotten lots of use out of these four things.  I guess just one other thing... don't transition when you are going too slow.  You need enough forward velocity to generate the centripital acceleration that you are going to need to keep yourself up.  This problem becomes obvious if you just flop onto the slope and stop right away.  

 

Read the tech articles on BOL.  There are a lot but certain critical concepts are repeated often and really stick out.  Visualize your movements in your head and practice in front of a mirror.  Take some video on the slope, the people on this forum are great at dissecting it and offering positive feedback.

 

Best of luck and don't give up, this is a blast!