Softie angles

[Guest Mark Jeangerard]

That's only me, and in part it's my shortcomings as a rider. For solely carving in softboots I'd still go with a more forward stance and less of a split.

There's also a general technique issue involved. Many of the photos on this site still show people facing the nose of the board, dropping the inside shoulder, etc. Those riding approaches, while they may work perfectly well for those people in hardboots, will in general cause duck to be very ineffective in terms of edge pressure, and likely lead to knee or back pain with a duck stance. Duck used to be considered something to avoid if you wanted to be able to walk up and don stairs painfree in a few years, now it's often recommended as way to avoid knee stress and pain, I think the difference is in what the upp body is doing.

If I had to say there is a weakness in duck it is in the deep carve. Firstly, because risers have to be implemented in my case to get any worthwhile edge angle. Secondish, heelsides are very hard to angulate. I can trench like mad on my softy, but the work involved... maybe not the work, not the technical aspects or even physical, but the need to step outside a natural 'fall into the turn' kind of flow. On the heelsides I need to be more attentive to angle and angulation. When I'm really powering through a heelside, I do turn my shoulders very far forward. Not a very reactive position. For a better carve, yeah, more forward feels nice.

Unless you decide to flip it around and carve the other way. Then, awkward or not, at least you use the exact same techniques either foot forward.