Question for instructors
You know how everyone says you should use more pressure at the front foot than gradually shift your weight to the back when carving. Some even say, you should see your front leg more bent than your back leg at the start. But the more I watch video of pros riding, the more I see that a lot of them have their front leg straighter than the back shouldn’t which make pressuring the front foot harder? I know it’s a trivial question that probably doesn’t matter. Here is 1 clip I can find on top of my head. I’ve seen a couple more but can’t remember what videos are. I guess my question is what’s your opinion?
Nico, 5:24 - 5:30 (but watch the entire vid it’s awesome)
Here’s another one, Danny Davis. starts at 1:48. But here you can see he lost his edge and almost hit a tree.
The first thing that comes to mind is the terrain definitely plays a factor. In both of those clips, the terrain is close to flat. If you put too much pressure on your front foot, you’re going to dig in too hard. If you want to carve aggressively on mellow terrain, it makes sense to put more pressure on the edge where it can actually take it without digging into the snow, i.e., back foot. On steeper terrain, you need to get your weight on the front foot.
It’s also really important to feel what’s going on under your feet. As you get better, you will be able to judge the pressure control more effectively. Always try to feel what’s going on with your board and the feel under your feet; how aggressively you can push it at varying speeds and varying terrain. You will have to make adjustments at different speeds and terrain (steepness).
Regardless, in my opinion the initial initiation and drive needs to come from your front foot/leg. Sometimes you can back it off, sometimes you should to drive it hard; that’s where the experience/judgement comes into it.
No, it’s not a trivial question at all Skip.
Moving Fore & Aft (front foot to back foot) is a heavy skill to learn. It’s easy to force the movement but difficult to actually use it to IMPROVE your riding rather than just making the motion.
Everyone “knows” you should start the turn on your front foot and end on the back foot. But just doing this well in a short turn is enough to pass one section of the riding for your Instructor level 2s.
Doing this in a carve?! It’s higher level than people make out (Level 3 instructor exam kinda high). I see almost no one on the hill the can do this (I failed my level 3’s because of it).
I want to be honest and say I am still training to teach my body how to do this and I don’t want to give advice on something I can’t demo myself perfectly. By the end of this season I hope to have it down as I take on my level 3’s again. So I’ll post more about it then.
Until then, I can tell you this. In the Nico video, his turns are open. So he’s already past the point where he should be on the front. If he closed his turns the next turn could start on the front, but instead they are open so he starts from the center and moves back to his back foot straight away.
Hope that helps. Like I said I will post more when I feel I truly understand it and can demo it perfectly.
For those who don’t know what I mean by open and closed turns.
S - Closed Turn
(
) - Open Turn
Thanks Jeremy and Andy. I think I get what you’re trying to say with the open vs closed turn. In my mind open turns on mellow terrain like Jeremy said, you tend to start and finish your turn quicker therefore shifting the weight from center makes more sense.
I feel like I’m the only guy that really geeks out on turning and carving hahah. I always feel there are very few people who can rail a turn on hardpack or in pow that can make it look good (i.e. Terje and Blauvelt).
You should move to Japan Skip. They have “Beautiful Turn” Competitions hahaha.
It’s basically an Instructor Off but open to all people.
Actually here in Canada i just learned we have Technical Championships that are the same thing. I want to give that a try in a few years.
People don’t realise how god damn good it can feel to rip a full run of perfect carve turns. My buddy and I got first lifts the other day and just carved the entire mountain top to bottom before going to the park. It was a beautiful thing.
Hahaha I would prolly lose that comp, my turns suck. I concur, carving down fresh corduroy is the best.
People don’t realise how god damn good it can feel to rip a full run of perfect carve turns. My buddy and I got first lifts the other day and just carved the entire mountain top to bottom before going to the park. It was a beautiful thing.
The best way to start the day. Man, I miss that.
Carving is the bomb! First few runs of the day on fresh groomers OMG! Just thinking about and I need clean underwear.
that hat is very scumbag steve spaz!!
You know what! I have that jacket also 