Nose Chatter

[RDY_2_Carve]

What does nose chatter mean? Lack of technique? I'm getting it alot on my heel side in anything that isn't perfectly groomed.

Will it help if I post my board specs? I'm thinking my board is too short? It's a 158 Burton Speed.

Thanks in advance for your input.

JPW

[SWriverstone]

That happened to me a lot on heelsides too (this was my first season). It really bugged me. I'm sure it was my technique, most likely from not pressuring the edge evenly throughout its length. I tended to ride too far back. When I made a conscious effort to get more forward entering heelside turns, no chatter. (I'm not sure that was the right solution, but it helped me a lot.)

Scott

[kamran]

I remember having that problem. A wonderfull carver taught me to relax my legs a bit (specially the rear leg) and the chatter would disappear immediately. The relaxation allows the system to absorb the chatter nicely.

[Gtanner]

A common problem is that people throw their weight forward into a heelside turn and essentially straight-leg the turn. This doesn't work too well on hard snow unless you are an advanced rider. By keeping the legs relaxed, you are taking the majority of the weight off your front foot and are allowing the each leg to work indpendantly throughout the turn.

Another reminder, don't incline on your heelside turns (keep those shoulders level with theslope) that will also keep your center of gravity over the edge thus forcing the board through the turn and not let it chatter.

-It's all about body position.

Gord

[RDY_2_Carve]

I "crunch down" a whole lot more on my heelside. Just easier for me to bend the knees as opposed to toeside. Oddly enough when I noticed the chatter at it's worse was when I was carving my heelside hard and was really low (for my standards). My body definatly isn't upright on my heelside.

Perhaps I'm not describing it correctly, but it's like the nose of the board is bouncing up and down while in a deep carve. It doesn't really affect my carving nor does it blow out my heelside. It's just rough on the legs and doesn't look pretty.

JPW

[SWriverstone]

Great tips Gtanner and kamran...but I'm confused---in my experience, there were definitely times when---on the same run minutes apart---I'd get lots of chatter, then by weight shifting (and relaxing a bit) I'd eliminate it completely.

I guess I'm just trying to sort out the difference between chatter and "normal bumps." (Or maybe there is no difference since the bumps cause the chatter?)

Scott

PS - I still think that if your weight is too far back (and the nose is "light") you're much more likely to have chatter---hence my remedy of shifting my weight forward more at initiation to even out the pressure. During a lesson, I realized what I thought was centered actually wasn't---I was consistently riding a little to the back.

[kamran]

AFTER the turn has been initiated and I am in the say 1/3 of it I shift the weight on my rear foot. I really put a lot of weight on the back and load the tail as much as I can. Yet with proper relaxation (and hence absorbing space in my leg to board system)I am able to complete the carved turn with no chatter. Good luck.

[Gtanner]

Picture the perfect turn as a bicycle wheel. Initiate the turn with your weight forward. As you pass through the apex start moving your weight backwards. Finish the turn, change edges and move your weight forwards again. It makes for very dynamic riding, but it will force the board to carve hard and it will also reject you from each turn so edge change will come naturally and the speed of the "cross-under" will feel great.

Good luck,

Gord

[astrokel]

When that happens to me it feels like the scr is too small for the pressure applied to the board. It seems like the board is trying to track along the SCR but since it's too small for the pressure somehow it lets go and that's the "chatter" (at least that's how I'm interpreting it, sometimes it feels more like flopping but at a high frequency). If you look at the track on the snow it looks like the trench widens out for a few feet then comes back into a slit then widens out again and so forth until the chatter stops. The advice from Kamran's mentor seems to work to a certain extent but what happens for me is just that the "chatter" becomes of a lower frequency but doesn't really go away. It only happens for me at higher speeds with the board cranked over at higher angles to the snow, is that the case for you guys? I suspect if I did the same thing with the same body positioning, weight distribution and speed on a board with a bigger SCR the chatter wouldn't happen until again I was going too fast for the board for the body positioning, etc. My experience with shorter boards as compared to longer boards is that the body positioning is way more critical on the shorter board than the longer board (sort of like shorter and longer wheelbased bikes). Another thing that made a difference was my stance width which allowed the board to bend in a different way. There seems to be a sweet spot for a board stance width wise for certain snow conditions (for my Incline160 it seemed that a narrower stance slightly forward of the center of the inserts was good for hard snow and moving the rear foot back for a wider and more rearward stance as the snow got softer).

[mnovak]

I get a similar problem on heelside, which I do not get at all on toeside. In my case, I get the impression it is caused by two things: first, not enough edge angle at the beginning of the turn and second, trying to increase edge angle after passing the apex of the turn when there is insufficient G forces to really apply pressure to the edge -- hence nose of board rapidly vibrating trying to keep an edge. Amazingly, still leaves a trench, but is not a confidence inspiring feeling.

Not sure if this is really what is happening or whether this is the "chatter" you are talking about, but just comparing heelside to toeside -- able to get on high edge very early in toeside and apply pressure throughout the turn and never experience any "chatter."

[trikerdad]

If it's the same problem I've had since putting my old Raichles in the closet, it's not enough edge pressure on your back foot. I have 5 degrees of valgus (knock knee) in my left leg. My right leg has been surgicaly straightened after crushing my knee joint. My old boots had a lot of cuff cant available in them that allowed me to compensate. Since changing to UPZ's, and a pair of Indy's, I've been having trouble with what I call "nose walk" on my heelside turns. The nose tries to turn more than the rest of the board then keeps popping back in line until I start another toe side or the tail slips out. I was already using all the boot cant so I turned the back TD 2, three degree base, to give me a full 3 degrees of side cant. Problem solved! I don't know if this will help you, but you can try canting your rear boot towards the toe side with the cuff, or the binding base, and see what happens.