Riding deep pow
As NAP suggested, I should make a new thread about this. I have problems riding deep pow (thigh to waist deep). My board currently is a Lib tech T.Rice C2 (reverse camber between the feet, camber under foot) 153 cm (I’m 5’5” 150lbs) with a 253mm waist width. I set my stance back 0.5 inch I think (not too sure, but I did set it back just a little). I don’t think my board is the problem
My main problem is turning in deep pow. I usually put more pressure on my back leg and I found it really hard to turn because I can’t initiate the turn with the front foot. I also tend to dig in the board (like in carving) I know I shouldn’t do that but it’s hard to make subtle movements when turning in pow. Should I keep the my weight more centered instead and just shift it back as needed? Or maybe not enough speed?
Hey there! I’m going to start by saying speed is your friend in deep snow! When you find yourself in deep pow you do want to be leaning back but more as a shift in weight placement. You don’t want to be way over top of your tail putting weight on the outside of your back foot. Just practice putting all your weight on your back foot right now without loosing to much alignment. Also when you are steering use your hips! I learned to turn by putting weight on my front foot and rotating my upper body in the desired direction. Now I find as a coached athlete I am being trained to steer with my hips, turning them in my desired direction and it works great! Just make sure you watch your body position! Try to maintain an alignment between your shoulders hips, knees and feet at all times and it should help you . I hope this helps!
Hey thanks for the advice man, will try it the next time we have powder ^^
I’ll throw a few points into the mix…
You need momentum. The board turns easily and smoothly when you carry momentum into the turn.
It’s not a matter of ‘leaning back’, but rather shifting your hips towards the tail of the board. When you shift your hips, you can put more pressure on your back foot without tilting your upper body.
You need to steer from your hips. Same principles of turning apply, just your pivot point is slightly shifted towards the tail.
If you are still struggling, stance setback can make a huge difference. Even a slightly narrower stance will help you (and reduce leg burn). The shorter the tail is (compared to the nose), the more the tail will sink and the nose will rise. The pivot point is shifted backwards and your turns will become quicker and your board will float better. Don’t be afraid to change your stance on deep powder days.
I see what you mean. I think I might have done more “leaning back” instead of shifting my hips towards the tail. I your point about momentum also hits the mark. I don’t think I’m carrying enough speed to generate momentum, which might be part of the reason why my board sinks when I turn. Thanks for the advice Jeremy, that helps a lot =)
Some great points Jeremy and Shane!
No worries skip. Let me know if it helps. 
It’s not a matter of ‘leaning back’, but rather shifting your hips towards the tail of the board. When you shift your hips, you can put more pressure on your back foot without tilting your upper body.
This is key. A lot of me friends are learning and this point is one I find myself stressing a lot. Rather than leaning back or pulling up with the front foot, think of bending your back leg and dropping your rear hip down and back.
Try to be smooth in your movements. You see all those pro’s riding slow and surfy? Do that 
Visualise it in your head and I promise it’ll help keep things smooth. Look and think one turn ahead - hard to do at first but when you get it, it’s the farking ‘matrix’ moment! Zeroes and ones man!
Another way to stay afloat is to ‘pump’ the pow. Small movements of ‘unweighting’ the board to pump yourself up to the surface or stop yourself from sinking. Use your whole body and try to flow through it (fark I sound like a hippie soul shredder!). This is me in Utah pow, about thigh deep. It’s light, but you can see I’m working the board and the snow to stay up. I’m the same height and a bit heavier than the original poster in this thread, on a 52 skate banana here:
One more thing - if the snow is deep, find some good, steep terrain. Intimidating at first, but the snow will help.
Thanks for the tips guys, really help shredding the pow on saturday. Got some slashes and face shots, puts a big smile on my face =)
And once you get back on packed snow, with all the applied theory and learning to ride pow (stance set forward again) wait until you see the improvement in your turns and ability to maintain speed and control your edges! It’s different riding but how it trains your body to turn a board correctly is sensational.
Yeap, all the tips here definitely help thanks guys. Today was one of the best if not the best pow days I’ve experienced here in whistler =)
Also another thing I learned is that I can’t shift my weight forward to initiate the turn like you would on normal snow conditions or else is rag-doll time haha