use of back foot

[Guest kriss]

I would like some clarification on weighting the rear foot. I am working on learning the carve and am confused about weighting the back foot. Do you initiate the edge change with front foot and then ride the rear foot through the carve, ride both feet equally or some other combo? thanks.

[ar(angel]

but by putting weight or applying pressure to the back foot, for me at least, it brings the carve around quicker than doing nothing at all. I guess it's kind of the same principle as using the back brake on a motorcycle when cornering. By creating drag or resistance on the back half of the board (wheel) it tighens up the arc (curve). I know when I really push hard or apply weight to the tail of my boards, either by leaning slightly back or pushing with my legs, it causes the board to "hook" around on me, and sometimes if done correctly I can load the tail enough to "hop" or "porpoise/dolphin" into the next carve. You can also "wheelie" and be headed for the trees if not careful, something I experienced on my Burner I recently purchased one of the Oxygen LTD 2002 models with the reverse taper and this board exemplifies the use of pressuring the back foot or tail with subtle inputs due to it's built in ability to want to come around sharper because of the reverse in taper. You should try using different amounts of pressure/lean in the flatter areas of the runs you frequent to see how the inputs change the arcs of your carves and affect your ability to hold or lose an edge. I'm sure there are articals here on Bomber that can help you much more than I can, and a miriad of excellent technical riders (i.e. Jack M, Bordy, Kent, Mellow Yellow, etc.) who can give you practice drills and other things to try to develope your skills. Welcome to the community!

Have fun,

Paul

[Baka Dasai]

Weight both feet equally. Sure, people say to start the turn with your weight forward and end the turn with your weight back, and that's not wrong, but it's de-emphasing the basic priniciple, which is to weight your feet equally.

[mirror70]

Originally posted by kriss

I would like some clarification on weighting the rear foot. I am working on learning the carve and am confused about weighting the back foot. Do you initiate the edge change with front foot and then ride the rear foot through the carve, ride both feet equally or some other combo? thanks.

I see two things here. You're asking about weighting the back foot, but you also mention initiating the turn with the front. The latter implies tipping and not weighting. With regard to that, you always want to be tipping the board using both feet equally. People have a tendency to tip the board using the foot with less weight on it. Moving weight around can help fix that, but such a solution is treating the symptoms and not the disease. Always tip the board evenly using both feet.

To carve, having your weight even between your feet is a good start. From there, you can start moving it forward and back as a way to change the shape of your turn. Push it forward to get the nose to bite, then shift it back to being even to hold the turn.