Need help on big moguls!!!

shredpow13 - 12 January 2012 07:22 PM

@Andy Aitken: I try to absorb the bumps but sometimes after hitting a big mogul, my board kind of flies a little which prevents me from turning quick enough.

Okay so what’s happening is your ollie-ing off the bumps. Your lifting the front foot but not absorbing it with the back foot (back leg is too rigid), this has a slight ollie effect.
So to get this technique down, ride through the moguls and try and keep your head at the same height the whole way through. If you watch a video of olympic mogul skiers or really good boarders in moguls you will notice their upper body never moves up and down, but their board and lower body moves up and down over the bumps.

This will definitely help u stay in contact with the snow.
Again, do this across the hill and slowly to give yourself time to do it smoothly and get a feel for it.
Have fun man

Sorry I’ve been late to this thread.  Firstly riding big moguls is one of the hardest challenges on a snowboard.  You have to have all your skills pretty well dialed if it’s going to work out well.  So don’t be annoyed if it goes awry and awry often (that’s what i tell myself anyways).  However if you’re ever unsure what area to work on in your riding, going for a hard mogul run will definately give you a few ideas.

On a more technical note:  There is little new for me to add which hasn’t been said by the other instructors and coaches that have posted on this thread.  The two things I think about the most are steering the board quickly but progressively through the turns and keeping the board pressured onto the snow for the maximum amount of time I can. 

The first of these skills steering has been well covered already in this thread by rider26.  Mr Aitkin also mentioned the independent leg movements that will help you keep your board on the snow.  A lot has been said about absorbing the bumps with your legs which is the same as saying absorbing the pressure exerted on your board by the bumps.  This is an essential skill while riding bumps but your legs can also be used to create pressure by extending your knee and ankle joints at the top part of the turn to create pressure.  This type of riding (down unweighted, dynamic, extention-retraction, whatever you like to call it) will enable you to make higher performance turns and ride harder terrain like bumps.

Best of luck shredpow13 and thanks for posting an interesting topic.

Thanks again guys for the great tips! Sorry for the late reply as I have been busy with work lately but will hit the slopes this weekend and give it a try!

This is a stupid question - when steering (for goofy), you “twist” your knees to your right during a heel side turn. Do you twist to the left during a toe side turn? Thanks!

Umm yes, kinda, ooo tough question.
I guess you could say that’s true but it’s 2 different movements.
When a good (goofy) rider begins to drive through a turn on their heel edge you’ll notice their knees are twisted right and towards the nose of the board. People say “do the opposite for toeside” but it’s not that simple.
If you did the same for toeside, you would turn your knees a long way left and towards the tail.
* You don’t start an aggressive turn with all your weight over your tail, no way, not unless your riding powder or something like that.

So with all that jargon said, all you really need to know is…

Imagine you’re riding at night, pitch black, and you have a flashlights attached to your knees. Point the flashlights ahead of you in the turn so you can see where you’re going. It’s that simple.

That will turn your knees where they need to be for pretty much all kinds of turning. And then you can move your body weight forward and back through the turns to suit the kind of turn you want to do.

Now go forth and shred

I think I improved my heel side using steering and individual leg extension-retraction. Although I need to work on my back foot on absorbing more of the bumps. But the steering definitely helped a lot!

On the other hand, switching from heel to toe side isn’t quick enough (I also think I’m not yet really steering on the toe side). Since I’m still mostly using my upper body to get to the toe side, my turns are rather wide.

Thanks for the awesome tips - got some significant progression this weekend :D

That’s great to hear, shredpow13. Stoked you made significant progression.

Try to think about what your front hip and knee is doing when you want to do a toeside turn. Really drive your hip and knee into the direction of the turn. As you get more confortable, you can steer using your feet.

Nice one shredpow   We love a bit of progress!
And remember, this stuff we’re telling you about works for all kinds of riding. So you can always go back to a nice open blue or black run and practice tight turns without having to worry about the bumps. And then go back to the moguls when you have improved the technique.

Andy, I liked your analogy about riding at night I think i’ll be stealing that one!

Rode some big bumps today, bag of poo!  Ah well some days you win some days you don’t.  One day this won’t be true, that’s the goal I guess.

Thanks Aidy. I’d like to say I created it. I do like making up metaphors but I stole this one off an instructor trainer to use in my level 2s. So feel free to steal it again lol

There is a lot of good yeas here.

I’d like to comment as well.

As for keeping an eye ahead of you, this will come in time and your timing will improve. When I was learning to ride bumps, I was given the comparison of riding gates (gates are the flags you’d go between in a slalom course). You always read at least 2 gates ahead of you. I’d say the same for bumps. you should start at the top staring down and plan where your line will be this could always change, and at times immediately after you start. Definitely plan your first 2 or more turns. Always scan the terrain ahead and then focus on the bum and turn in front of you. then you look up make sure the next turn is what you expected it to look like, and then scan forward to the next couple… then return focus to the one you are on.
Peripheral vision helps here too. again, with practice your thinking will get quicker..

Of course the more mellow the terrain and the nicer the snow quality the easier it will be.

I learned a lot from a run that had a bumped area on the side. You could easily ride the groomed area and go into the bumps, and back out easily. This was nice as I’d enter the bumps, make 3 or 4 turns and then get back on the groomed area. then back in the bumps for a few turns, and then back onto the groomed area. a nice transition.

Bumps are fun, and I see so many riders running away from the bumps. it is a great place that you can develop a serious combination of skill sets.

Once you begin to think you’ve got a couple nice runs in the bumps… then go switch…. seriously.

Oh, I’d say to focus on keeping your board in contact with the snow. I read of how you were popping up a bit… always have a constant strong downward pressure on the board…. sure you get this by simply standing on it, but with even more energy and intensity… there are directions in other responses on how to do this.

I’d also suggest the value of this technique…at the earlier parts of the turn, have more pressure pushing the board DWON to the snow… and near the end of the tun, focus those pressures from the back foot downward. but still keeping the board in full contacts with the snow… this will feel rhythmic once you get it!!

Thanks for the tips snowslider! Sorry for the late reply as I have been quite swamped with work stuff…

“always have a constant strong downward pressure on the board…. sure you get this by simply standing on it, but with even more energy and intensity… there are directions in other responses on how to do this.”

Can you elaborate more on this? Is this as aidy said “This is an essential skill while riding bumps but your legs can also be used to create pressure by extending your knee and ankle joints at the top part of the turn to create pressure. This type of riding (down unweighted, dynamic, extention-retraction, whatever you like to call it) will enable you to make higher performance turns and ride harder terrain like bumps.”?

Thanks!!

Yes, when I mentioned that some thoughts on pressure were commented on in other posts, I was referring exactly to Aidy’s comments.

If I can bring out the “big” words here…
When you move your body, as Aidy mentioned. extending your knees and ankle joints (think mostly of just your knees at first if it is easier) you begin to stand up. when you get taller in this way you are either WEIGHTING (applying weight to the board) or you are UNWEIGHTING. You want to be standing up in a manner that would be APPLYING pressure downward to the board…
Now in that pressure going straight down to the base, or to the edge… or better yet. to the edge along the FRONT of the board, or along the edge toward the BACK of the board…. These are all things to consider and begin to make yourself conscious of…

I think of my edges as having 3 parts. the nose’s edge, which goes from the tip to either my heel or toe (depends on heel edge or toe edge, right?) Then the center of the edge, between my toes, or heels… and then the tail’s edge, from my back foot to the tip of the tail. Each area I consciously apply pressure to at different times in different turns…

Of course I don’t always ride with this much consciousness… in fact I seldom do. but when I’m trying something new, or in an area that is different, esp when terrain changes… ice or bumps or inconsistent snow. I become conscious of it rather quickly….

So, YES!!! constantly a strong downward pressure on the board. an essential skill.

Perhaps Aidy can add some thoughts here too. I’d like to hear them myself.

snowslider, thanks for the clarification and detail!

Another source of concern is that given my beginner skills I might put too much inclination when riding on moguls so that its much more difficult for me to absorb the bumps (with the individual leg ext). The reason for the inclination is that sometimes I don’t turn fast enough (though I have improved my steering and indiv. leg ext using the tips on this thread - so don’t give up on me yet !!!), so I somewhat unconsciously “carve” during the turn and fall when there is a big bump ahead.

I’m going to try applying more weight to the edges during the turns (maybe with less inclination at this beginner stage?) and put pressure on different parts of the edge, along with steering. Thanks for the awesome tips and I’ll give it a try this weekend and ill let you know how it goes!

Thanks a bunch!

So a few thoughts that I hope are helpful. 

Firstly if you’re trying to add something new to your riding then you should be either keeping the terrain constant or prefereable making it easier.  I usually go for something like steep blue groomed terrain and once I feel i’ve got the movements dialed on that then I gradually step up the difficulty of the terrain.

Steering: For me this is the key skill for high level riding.  Especially independent leg steering.  It does combine other skills like having a balanced mobile stance and soft active legs for pressure management.

Essentially you’re trying to steer the front of the board at the top part of the turn by twisting the joints of the front leg, knee+ankle (foot) as your turn progresses start to steer the back leg to direct the board back underneath you.  To get the feeling of the body position you should be in when steering your feet independently stand with your board on on flat ground and push both of your feet backwards so your weight is mostly through your front foot, then push your feet forward so your weight is directed through your back foot. 

It’s kinda hard to explain in words but pretty easy to show on snow.  So if you get the chance to ride with someone who can show you independent leg steering then do it it’ll take your riding up a level in terms of making it feel dynamic and involved and also in effectivness.

Hope some of that made some sense….