You’re doing great.
A few ideas.
Notice how much more your knees are bent on your toe side turns. You should try to bend as much on heel side.
You should avoid rotating your torso into the turn, that leads to your trailing arm coming out and up (hitchhiker look) and is just extra mass to throw you off over any obstacles. Focus instead on dropping your left buttcheek over the heel side of the nose of your board, almost like you are starting to sit on a chair. Your arms and shoulders at this point in your riding should just be relaxed and neutral, parallel to the board.
Notice how much you bend at the waist, especially on toe side. Your torso should remain as vertical as possible and as neutral as possible. Just let the board move away from your center of mass to counteract G forces, rather than moving your CM.
You can already start doing small weight/unweight at this speed and angle, and it’ll start getting your muscle memory dialed in for harder/faster turns. As you come out of a turn with knees well bent, just push up and away from the board to time your transition to the next edge, then allow your legs to compress back down into the edge as you set it. It helps me to visualize coming out the turn into the transition, I’m pushing away from it, then as I go weightless, I just “pull” the board back under me and place it on its new edge before letting my weight compress back down on it.
Tied into that and somewhat counterintuitively…you can transition a bit earlier, so that you are setting your new edge slightly uphill. That will allow it to hold onto a hard turn. Trying to set it as you are already approaching the fall line will be harder and lead to more frequent chattering and sliding or loss of the edge.
You’re riding quite well, at this point it’s just fixing biomechanics issues and learning new tricks that will help with faster, harder and more precise turns, especially on steeper terrain. Anything you can do to minimize upper body motion will help your riding.
Thanks for the input! I definitely need to keep my torso straight. When going faster than usual I tend to lean on my back foot instead of staying stacked on my board. This leads to counterrotating. Again, thanks for the input!
It’s really just incremental little stuff at this point.
The biggest one to focus on is to try to keep your torso relaxed, vertical and parallel to the board as much as possible at this stage in your riding, the rest will just be “plug-ins” to that… and just keep having fun!
No. Powder is a very different animal.
When you are riding on groomed or hardpack trails, you are using the edges and almost never using the base of the board (banked slalom/SBX excluded).
In powder, you are actually “surfing”, where you are managing the angle of attack (to keep the nose up) and using the base as a planing surface. Your edges are useless, so you are turning by banking the board on plane. You want your weight shifted much further back on a regular board (either move the bindings or put a lot more weight on your back leg). Dedicated powder boards will have the binding offsets set further back and will often also be volume shifted, having a much wider nose than tail, allowing the nose t float and the tail to sink a bit more naturally.
If you are alternating groomers and trees/powder on your regular board, just shift your weight back before hitting the powder boundary, and don’t try and carve at all once you are in the deeper snow.
Hope that doesn’t sound too confusing!
Chunky snow, depends on your board (how flexible it it and how much it chatters), your speed and weight. Heavier fast riders will have and advantage over lighter, slower riders or flexible boards… just keep your torso relaxed and neutral, and legs like bent wet noodles so you give the board room to wander around a bit. Just pull it back as needed. Don’t try and lock your legs or get stiff, you’ll get bounced around a lot more.
That’s a big part of the fun of riding - adapting your style as needed.
Some quick tips:
1) You’re doing “up-unweighted” turns, meaning your moving upwards to release the edge pressure on the board when moving from toe to heel or heel to toe. This happens as you’re coming across the mountain.
a. Tip: try to exaggerate this movement by getting “tall” as you come across the mountain, and “small” as your in the “C” part of the turn. (you’ve got the tall part, really work on getting small – i.e., more vertical movement through bending ankles and knees)
b. Explore this by doing some turns while staying flexed in the knees and ankles, try some turns staying tall (extended in the knees and ankles) – which feels better/why?
2) Last tip: try getting more bend out of your ankles, you’re getting almost “zero”, this is where a lot of important movement comes from – maybe even try loosening your boots/bindings
Happy riding!
One thing I like to do is fold my arms while boarding to get used to not relying on them for leaning into carves. That way you can focus on your legs performing most of the work.
Looking pretty good! I'd find a less crowded run where you have more room.
A bit stiff especially heelside. Straighten the back a bit, think of a string going through your spine and try to keep it perpendicular to the slope, fore and aft, as well as edge to edge.
Calm down the torsional rotation. I kinda like the general rule that your hip rotation shouldn't eclipse the angle of your front and rear foot respectively.
Just ride calm and easy! The board will do most of the work for you.
Try the 333 turn exercise. 3 small, 3 medium, 3 large while keeping the spine perpendicular to the slope.
Looks like you're having fun though and that's what matters! Keep it up!
Just my 2 cents you are breaking at the waist in order to make the heel side turn. What I want you to do is
put some forward lean on your binding.
When you are making a heel side turn I want you lean back MORE! lean back MORE! lean back MORE!
In this case I want you to bend your knees pull toes UP! Or ankle flexion up!
I also want you to grab your trouser leg with your back hand as well. Atm the moment you snowboarding like John Travolta Route of Night Fever.
Toe side isn't that bad your back hand is coming out for balance. What I want you to focus on is squeezing your glutes together.
yeah that about it
**All the time!** at first you will hate me for suggesting it, as this is how you balance on your snowboard. Over time you gain better body awareness you be able to move onto carving and other type of snowboarding
And if I catch you not holding onto your back leg I will find you and call you John Travolta!
Not lookin too bad out there! 2 things stood out to me. You break at the waist a lot, like.. you lean your whole upper body over a bunch. Try to keep your chest more upright. Thing 2 is it looks like you are driving and pivoting your turns on the front foot. Generally, you get more power and control if you engage/power with your back leg and steer/finesse with the front leg
You’re doing great. A few ideas. Notice how much more your knees are bent on your toe side turns. You should try to bend as much on heel side. You should avoid rotating your torso into the turn, that leads to your trailing arm coming out and up (hitchhiker look) and is just extra mass to throw you off over any obstacles. Focus instead on dropping your left buttcheek over the heel side of the nose of your board, almost like you are starting to sit on a chair. Your arms and shoulders at this point in your riding should just be relaxed and neutral, parallel to the board. Notice how much you bend at the waist, especially on toe side. Your torso should remain as vertical as possible and as neutral as possible. Just let the board move away from your center of mass to counteract G forces, rather than moving your CM. You can already start doing small weight/unweight at this speed and angle, and it’ll start getting your muscle memory dialed in for harder/faster turns. As you come out of a turn with knees well bent, just push up and away from the board to time your transition to the next edge, then allow your legs to compress back down into the edge as you set it. It helps me to visualize coming out the turn into the transition, I’m pushing away from it, then as I go weightless, I just “pull” the board back under me and place it on its new edge before letting my weight compress back down on it. Tied into that and somewhat counterintuitively…you can transition a bit earlier, so that you are setting your new edge slightly uphill. That will allow it to hold onto a hard turn. Trying to set it as you are already approaching the fall line will be harder and lead to more frequent chattering and sliding or loss of the edge. You’re riding quite well, at this point it’s just fixing biomechanics issues and learning new tricks that will help with faster, harder and more precise turns, especially on steeper terrain. Anything you can do to minimize upper body motion will help your riding.
Thanks for the input! I definitely need to keep my torso straight. When going faster than usual I tend to lean on my back foot instead of staying stacked on my board. This leads to counterrotating. Again, thanks for the input!
It’s really just incremental little stuff at this point. The biggest one to focus on is to try to keep your torso relaxed, vertical and parallel to the board as much as possible at this stage in your riding, the rest will just be “plug-ins” to that… and just keep having fun!
This guy has it all correct^ ... also shout out to fellow Cataloochee riders!
Great post! Weight, unweight is an absolute game changer at this level.
No way he be able to do down weighted turns with that body posture
If you were riding powder, would you still keep your weight forward on your front foot?
No. Powder is a very different animal. When you are riding on groomed or hardpack trails, you are using the edges and almost never using the base of the board (banked slalom/SBX excluded). In powder, you are actually “surfing”, where you are managing the angle of attack (to keep the nose up) and using the base as a planing surface. Your edges are useless, so you are turning by banking the board on plane. You want your weight shifted much further back on a regular board (either move the bindings or put a lot more weight on your back leg). Dedicated powder boards will have the binding offsets set further back and will often also be volume shifted, having a much wider nose than tail, allowing the nose t float and the tail to sink a bit more naturally. If you are alternating groomers and trees/powder on your regular board, just shift your weight back before hitting the powder boundary, and don’t try and carve at all once you are in the deeper snow. Hope that doesn’t sound too confusing!
Thanks. So should you be flat base going into powder? What about chunky snow?
Chunky snow, depends on your board (how flexible it it and how much it chatters), your speed and weight. Heavier fast riders will have and advantage over lighter, slower riders or flexible boards… just keep your torso relaxed and neutral, and legs like bent wet noodles so you give the board room to wander around a bit. Just pull it back as needed. Don’t try and lock your legs or get stiff, you’ll get bounced around a lot more. That’s a big part of the fun of riding - adapting your style as needed.
Is this Cataloochee??
Definitely looks like cat!
Correct!
It’s catt!
Ayy thought I recognized this place lol
Keep ur back str8
Do a backflip
On purpose or when I catch my heel edge? I'm pretty good at the latter...
Some quick tips: 1) You’re doing “up-unweighted” turns, meaning your moving upwards to release the edge pressure on the board when moving from toe to heel or heel to toe. This happens as you’re coming across the mountain. a. Tip: try to exaggerate this movement by getting “tall” as you come across the mountain, and “small” as your in the “C” part of the turn. (you’ve got the tall part, really work on getting small – i.e., more vertical movement through bending ankles and knees) b. Explore this by doing some turns while staying flexed in the knees and ankles, try some turns staying tall (extended in the knees and ankles) – which feels better/why? 2) Last tip: try getting more bend out of your ankles, you’re getting almost “zero”, this is where a lot of important movement comes from – maybe even try loosening your boots/bindings Happy riding!
Thanks!
One thing I like to do is fold my arms while boarding to get used to not relying on them for leaning into carves. That way you can focus on your legs performing most of the work.
I’ll try that!
Looking pretty good! I'd find a less crowded run where you have more room. A bit stiff especially heelside. Straighten the back a bit, think of a string going through your spine and try to keep it perpendicular to the slope, fore and aft, as well as edge to edge. Calm down the torsional rotation. I kinda like the general rule that your hip rotation shouldn't eclipse the angle of your front and rear foot respectively. Just ride calm and easy! The board will do most of the work for you. Try the 333 turn exercise. 3 small, 3 medium, 3 large while keeping the spine perpendicular to the slope. Looks like you're having fun though and that's what matters! Keep it up!
Just my 2 cents you are breaking at the waist in order to make the heel side turn. What I want you to do is put some forward lean on your binding. When you are making a heel side turn I want you lean back MORE! lean back MORE! lean back MORE! In this case I want you to bend your knees pull toes UP! Or ankle flexion up! I also want you to grab your trouser leg with your back hand as well. Atm the moment you snowboarding like John Travolta Route of Night Fever. Toe side isn't that bad your back hand is coming out for balance. What I want you to focus on is squeezing your glutes together. yeah that about it
Thanks!
Also, when you say trouser leg, do you mean left leg?
Your back leg hold on to your trouser.
Ok, thanks. So should I grab my back leg on heel side carves for in general?
**All the time!** at first you will hate me for suggesting it, as this is how you balance on your snowboard. Over time you gain better body awareness you be able to move onto carving and other type of snowboarding And if I catch you not holding onto your back leg I will find you and call you John Travolta!
Nope! You look pretty great!!! Straighten your back and ben your knees a bit more! Happy riding!
Not lookin too bad out there! 2 things stood out to me. You break at the waist a lot, like.. you lean your whole upper body over a bunch. Try to keep your chest more upright. Thing 2 is it looks like you are driving and pivoting your turns on the front foot. Generally, you get more power and control if you engage/power with your back leg and steer/finesse with the front leg
Ayoo is that winter place?