pow4ever Posted February 19, 2019 Report Share Posted February 19, 2019 I kinda know what a good carving should look/feel like. What about powder riding? Any good video that demonstrate proper powder riding style with hardboot? What I am doing: On fresh pow: seems pretty easy; go straight and make smooth surfy turn. On chopper up pow: as Corey phrase it; plunge the back foot, kick turn while going straight down-ish. Making powder splash side to side. Doing this on 178 Dynastar 4807 is a blast. First time I had it in proper powder. Work great in powder and easy tree run while seeking shelter from the cold/wind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueB Posted February 19, 2019 Report Share Posted February 19, 2019 4807 is a beautiful beast! Welcome to the club. Don't kick the back foot around. Just play with weight distribution and timing of feet engagement. Like, for a carve you'd do everything simultaneously with both feet. For "slarving" try doing everything with front foot first, then the rear follows the motion. Weight comes back a bit later then for carving. Also, some rotation of upper body and hips - anticipating the turn, helps a lot - it puts you in a better position to drive with legs. Also, play with the features in chop, plan your turn where there is something to help you. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pow4ever Posted February 19, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 19, 2019 Thank you BlueB for the tip! Too bad I only get to practice in powder once in a blue moon. I believed I got the 4807 from you from way back when Was always afraid of it for some strange/illogical reason. Might because I rode it flat and couldn't make any turn; adding toe/heel lift really make it come alive for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b0ardski Posted February 19, 2019 Report Share Posted February 19, 2019 (edited) my powder technique move the binders back a notch, point it, aim for the soft spot and turn hard, bounce into the transition, repeat as necessary Edited February 19, 2019 by b0ardski 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billyt. Posted February 19, 2019 Report Share Posted February 19, 2019 Most boards work in pow. be careful on your alpine board not to submarine. Keep your speed up and check it into the turn or bump to regulate. Set boots to pow mode, Deeluxe and ease your angles just a bit. I ride an all mountain Donek for most east coast pow conditions. Real powder, like they have been getting out west all winter, requires special gear for the deep stuff! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neanderthal Posted February 20, 2019 Report Share Posted February 20, 2019 It all depends on what you mean by powder. 6-10 inches inbounds I like to lean back and maximize the surfy feeling turning with the front foot like a waterski. Any deeper or if its for a longer run the first thing is to keep as much speed as you can control. I find that leaning back robs me of power and mobility and want to be neutral or even lean forward if really charging. It helps to have a powder board or at least be back a bit on the bindings. For bottomless powder its all about the bounce. Not sure exactly what the timing is but It feels to me a bit like down-unweighting with a slight delay. If you come down just before exploding up then in that instant there is enough compression of snow beneath you that you can feel resistance and get some pop. This pop is enough that you may have unlinked tracks in powder that is waist deep and that is the feeling and the days I live for. My carving is not the euro push pull style but the powder technique seems to be similar. There is certainly a pumping motion that propels you sometimes above the surface of the powder but also works to pump you a bit when coming to the flat and has got me further than just straight-lining it in these transitions. I think this technique favors stiffer and longer boards and have had great fun on carving boards that would submarine if not actively pumping like this while being unhappy trying a dedicated powder setup that is just to soft. Someone who rides push-pull please comment. My focus has been the up and down but I suspect that there is a component of rotation to this. It is just so hard to commit to rotation because if I focus on that and need to make a quick adjustment I am only primed to turn one direction. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pow4ever Posted February 21, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2019 @neanderthal Thank you: Great points on nomenclature of powder. Inbound/resort for me: gotta learn how to crawl before walk/run Give me lots of think about next time I am lucky enough to encounter fresh snow with the right equipment. I was trying all sort of different things but the snow get chopped up with each run and diminishing return sets in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post carlito Posted February 21, 2019 Popular Post Report Share Posted February 21, 2019 7 hours ago, neanderthal said: Any deeper or if its for a longer run the first thing is to keep as much speed as you can control Quote I might add the concept of "stalling", as a sort of metaphor linked to aviation/aeronautics where at a certain (lack of) speed the wing stalls and stability is lost. In powder, you need enough speed to get the board to provide enough lift to, well, lift. Kinda like the idea that powder riding is like flying! After that, everything neanderthal said makes way more sense: in order to bounce, you need to be going fast enough to get the board to counterflex, then there is something to "push" (react to) aginst. An interesting thing is how most powder newbies, even in chopped resort powder, don't go fast enough. There is so much friction. A quick look at my own tracks at MCC (where there was lots of powder...) shows just how little deviation there is in the actual downhill trajectory taken - I felt like I was turning up a storm, but the tracks are pretty much just downhill wiggles.... This is a result of having to maintain a certain minimum "stall speed" in that high friction context. Just the snow slows you down, even in a straight line. Turning, again in a manner similar to aircraft, increases the stall speed, and slows you down! If you are going to turn, it had better be steeper than you think! "Stalling" leads to something we are all familiar with: the board knifes to whichever side we are pressuring even just a teeny bit more, and starts to sink. More "powder friendly" boards, fundamentally, just lower the stall speed, and make the stall more predictable and easier to recover from/avoid. A quick mental inventory can't bring to mind any time. None. Where I had a bad situation manifest itself by going too fast in powder (well, maybe one). The opposite is quite common (this could just be me...) The difficulty is that it takes a while to "calibrate" your internal speedo to take that friction into account: "Just go straight? ill go so fast i wont be able to turn!" Actually you'll be lucky to make it across to the groomed pass.... it is so different from riding hard groomers where nothing slows you down enough. In short: Point it until the board floats/get light. Stay centered once floating. Turn gently but deftly Everything you do will slow you down - so do only what needs to be done. Embrace the chaotic freedom of movement in three dimensions that comes with the speed and accompanying flight Enjoy the ride. Thank your riding partners/buddies and get back on the lift. Those days are precious and fleeting. 8 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
softbootsurfer Posted February 21, 2019 Report Share Posted February 21, 2019 Powder? ...Bottomless requires way more pitch and when heavy like after an hour or so of sun you will need to stay on top or find a shovel ... 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pow4ever Posted February 21, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2019 12 hours ago, carlito said: Everything you do will slow you down - so do only what needs to be done.Embrace the chaotic freedom of movement in three dimensions that comes with the speed and accompanying flight Enjoy the ride. Thank your riding partners/buddies and get back on the lift. Those days are precious and fleeting. Wow... Thank @carlito for the in depth and thoughtful/beautiful reply. I hope one day to be able to comprehended it fully. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corey Posted February 21, 2019 Report Share Posted February 21, 2019 13 hours ago, carlito said: In short: Point it until the board floats/get light. Stay centered once floating. Turn gently but deftly Everything you do will slow you down - so do only what needs to be done. Embrace the chaotic freedom of movement in three dimensions that comes with the speed and accompanying flight Enjoy the ride. Thank your riding partners/buddies and get back on the lift. Those days are precious and fleeting. That's a great summary. I watched you charge into stuff at MCC that made me fear for my life. Inspiring to watch and to try to emulate! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neanderthal Posted February 22, 2019 Report Share Posted February 22, 2019 Carlito - YES YES YES On 2/20/2019 at 9:17 PM, carlito said: A quick mental inventory can't bring to mind any time. None. Where I had a bad situation manifest itself by going too fast in powder (well, maybe one). The opposite is quite common (this could just be me...) We have all had that one time. I encourage everyone to think not just about the down up down of old-school powder 8 skiers but add a bit of the side to side that comes from the push-pull techniques. You will be amazed at the turns moving from squiggles to arcs but more importantly it allows you to force a turn when needed and not scrub speed then spend the next 10 min digging out. Of course this is speed dependent and more is better! On 2/20/2019 at 9:17 PM, carlito said: Embrace the chaotic freedom of movement in three dimensions that comes with the speed and accompanying flight This one line sums it all up for me! Pardon me if I steal it in the future because you nailed it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dredman Posted February 23, 2019 Report Share Posted February 23, 2019 @carlito your last lines sound like fine art or good religion. Beautifully stated... A reasonable Montucky translation would be... “go fast, turn little, giggle a lot, repeat” Most importantly, giggle a lot! Playing in snow is fun! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b0ardski Posted February 23, 2019 Report Share Posted February 23, 2019 i'd drink Carl's koolaid there could be 193 in my future montucky reminded me that the Craig Kelly tuck knee technique is great for reducing the snow resistance 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Gendzwill Posted February 23, 2019 Report Share Posted February 23, 2019 Similar advice 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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