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Fakie carve


Neil Gendzwill

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Hi everyone,

Is there also a video (or more pic's) of him doing fakie (or any other hard-booting tricks) posted somewhere online? I wanna see both sides' turns & the transition in-between, too.

Also, I'd like to know how exactly he spins to fakie (then back). Is he nose-bending & pop to spin, or just slide & spin quickly?

As something similar, I've seen Pure Boarding's videos, but I can't do any of them for the life of me. Maybe a tiny-mini olly, but that's about it.

Please help with with technical "how-to" on this (& any other hard-booting "tricks" like 180's, 360's, or whatever else), and how to go about practicing/trying them first, etc, etc.

Thanks for your info/feedback in advance.

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We have been shooting lot of new video for this year and it has a bunch of switch riding.

On my good board I usally just flat spin or nose butter to switch but I have no problem landing switch, but I also still ride lots of freestyle so i think that helps.

If you are learning to ride switch just practice on grades and at speed you are happy with.

Like with anything else you can only get better with practice. :D

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When the snow is decent and the hill not too busy, I like to practice the occasional switch riding at the end of a run where the pitch is moderate and not too fast. Would like to push it a bit more, but don't want to kill myself trying. The fun to risk ratio just isn't worth it I guess. Although it's tempting after looking at that pic!

As I recall, when I first starting trying it out, there were parallels to learning to ride in that if I found if I just relaxed, I could get into the rhythm of the carve a lot easier. And like carving forward, it's actually easier once you get up to speed where you can carve as opposed to sliding it out; which is likely what you're inclined to do if it feels uncomfortable going the other way.

On a related not to riding fakie, has anyone ever tried setting their bindings the other way and carving? (i.e. if you normally ride regular, you would change to a goofy setup) No big deal on a soft board setup with the usual moderate angles, but I think it would feel a lot more foreign with the steeper angles of a carving board.

I recall a friend trying this a few years ago with limited success.

Gabe

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On a related note to riding fakie, has anyone ever tried setting their bindings the other way and carving? (i.e. if you normally ride regular, you would change to a goofy setup) No big deal on a soft board setup with the usual moderate angles, but I think it would feel a lot more foreign with the steeper angles of a carving board.

I recall a friend trying this a few years ago with limited success.

Gabe

very limited success

tried it with my son. He's the only one in the family that rides regular. We switched boards one run. I was trying to convert him to goofy. Neither of us really got to far before wanting to switch back. that was a few years ago. He's still the regular. I'm still goofy. Both of us are happy with that.

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D-Sub, thanks for pointing me to the URL.

Billy, saw the fakie section in your "Size Doesn't Matter" vid. Impressive speed at which you can fakie. Also, recognized the "jump & land fakie" move you wrote about. Not sure if I noticed the load-nose-and-pop (to turn/spin) move (like Pure Boarding folks), though I might've missed it(?).

Gabe, agree about the 'risk ratio' thing. (And I'm scared/chicken!) When fakie, I feel that my body gets 'left behind' (board's-rear / body's-front, when fakie) as speed increases, which is just like when learning to snowboard the very 1st time. Any tips to keep the body weight centered (if not a bit board's-forward / body's-rear, when fakie), with the average boot lean setup (say, "3"/middle in Raichle), etc, that carvers have? I mean, my lower back doesn't bend the other way (& I'm no double-jointed yoga master). I suppose I can try to stick the butt out to compensate/balance? No idea...

Now, can anyone also share some how-to tips on all the load-nose-and-pop/spin tricks? I never freestyle-snowboarded before getting into carving, so - though this might be kinda basic (I see freestyle kids do it often) - I have no idea how to even start practicing these at first. I emailed Pure Boarding folks, and got some answers on setup (ie. rear boot in "walk"), but no specific/descriptive how-to (other than the "just practice, practice..." phrase). I will "practice", but I'd like to know how to possibly go about it or what to speifically do / aim at, while doing so. (Yes, I'll try it on my Burton Coil 165, not on my Proton 172.)

Thanks again,

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Kent, could you elaborate? What happened and what deck?

I don't really want to pick on one particular manufacturer. But, if you look at the delta b/w the front of "most" boards and the rear of others....it's fairly obvious.

Pretty much any aquare tailed board with some sort of aluminum tail protector sandwiched in the rear. Hit a bump and the board might go under the snow rather than over.

For all the cool factor it feels to ride fakie on a carve board, ruining your prized steed takes it all away in a hurry.

K

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Hiroshi: The nose load and pop/spin thing is acutally pretty easy and it's something that you can do at any speed once you get comfortable. The nice thing about it is that you can practice it while not even moving (if you have snow in your yard). Explaining how to do it may be a challenge but here goes: Get in a normal centered stance with your knees comfortably flexed. "Prewind" your shoulders at an angle about 45 degrees to the rear (45 degrees relative to your board). Unwind your shoulders and at the moment that your shoulders become paralell to your board, dip your head and upper body down toward the nose (or just foward of your front binding). Unwinding your shoulders gives you rotation and dipping your upper body weight toward the nose gets the tail off the ground so that you can easily pivot around the nose. The trick is to get the rotation and tail lift to happen simultaneously (although the shoulder rotation must preceed the tail lift slightly.

Other things to consider:

It is much easier to learn this on your toe side (front side rotation). The toe edge gives you a little leverage to get that rotation around. Start by going across the slope with a little pressure on your toe edge then follow the sequence I've outlined above (prewind, then unwind and dip the upper body down to the nose). If you do it correctly, the tail will come up and around and the momentum of your rotation will roll you right into a toe side turn going switch (even at a slow speed).

Obviously the stiffer the nose of your board, the more difficult this is but once you get the hang of it it can be done on anything.

There are many variations - you can really load the nose and pressure pop off the snow or just lazily roll around. It is so much more fun than just flat spinning to switch and back. It is also much easier to do than you might think. Sorry for the long description - it takes a lot of words to describe something that I could show you in about 2 minutes. Good Luck :biggthump

PS: My wife says that "pre-wind" is not a word. Whatever, beeyaatch.....!!

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I am most comfortable hopping to switch directions. I'm regular, reverse the directions if you're goofy:

Crouch

Hop, and push against the toeside edge to get my body rotating to the left

Keep the board off the ground for the first 90 degrees

Pull in rear leg, extend front leg, touch the nose to the snow (on the heelside edge if possible)

Slight pressure on the front of the board as I land and complete the 180

Shift weight to the tail (leading end) of the board as soon as it lands

My upper body probably only turns about 90 degrees during the 'hop' portion. I start the hop twisted quite a bit left (I'm goofy) and end twisted quite a bit to the right, so that it feels more like picking up the board beneath me and turning it around, rather than rotating my whole body.

It helps to dig an edge in a bit as I land, not necessarily carving but I need something to push on rotation-wise as I land, just as much as when I hopped, but in the other direction. Otherwise I tend to do another 180, like it or not, because my upper body is still rotating.

I put very little pressure on the nose, just enough to make it touch down first. It just feels smoother and more predictable to land on the nose (could all be in my head though).

In some ways it's easier to do 180s off bigger jumps, just because it takes less twisting motion. Bigger air = slower rotation = easier to stick the landing. But this is do-able on flat ground and it only takes a trivial bump in the snow to make it feel almost effortless. Get consistent with sliding 180s and riding switch first though.

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Heh. I had a go at this today. Carving one way or another, fine. But I managed to stick myself in a big pile of snow doing a heel-toe transition (left it too late, ended up buried in a big pile of snow at the side of the piste).

More practice required, I think.

Simon

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The Carve Father lives for riding backwards. He even had Prior make a special WC with a turned up tail. I was working on it with him last time I was out. I can get the heel side but transitons are still a bit worrysome. You really have to stick your ass out there which is kinda weird. After the operation I am still a bit worried about my back hitting the ground, hopefully after the trip to the Butte I will have it down.

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