# Blowing out on heelside.



## BigAL (Feb 19, 2013)

I'm hoping my equally obsessed snowboarding comrades can help me fix this issue. For some reason when I start high speed carve on my heel side, my board begins to bounce and skid and I just slide out (with my as on the ground). Is it my board, the snow, or do I just suck at carving. BTW I never have any issues on toe side.


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## JetMac (Feb 10, 2013)

Try spreading your knees apart, it will move your contact points further apart and increase grip.


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## Lamps (Sep 3, 2011)

I have this problem sometimes too. 

I find that if I add a little pressure on my back heel this often corrects the problem. One can overdo it in terms of getting out of the back seat and overweighting your front foot, which for me results in chatter. 

Of course taking a faster line will also reduce chatter by decreasing the pressure on the edge.

Lastly, if your turns are asymmetric you may be using your heel side to scrub speed more than toe side.


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## ETM (Aug 11, 2009)

I had the same problem and snowolf told me to lean forward to start the turn, be centre as you reach the apex and then lean back for the last part of the turn. This solved all my heel side washout problems.

Also a board with a nice stiff camber section behind your back foot will allow you to really lock in your carve.


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## NWBoarder (Jan 10, 2010)

This is pretty common. Without any pics or video, it's tough to say for sure. But, it's likely that you are not bending the knees and getting low enough. You really want to be squatted into your heelside turns. The lower the better. I'm sure someone else will come give a more technical description, but this should get you started in the right direction.

EDIT: None of the above replies were here when I began this post this, but I'm leaving it anyway.


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## BigAL (Feb 19, 2013)

I wish I had my old nidecker (stiffness of 8) but I wanted to learn more freestyle moves so I have a very flexible board but I'd rather have that than nothing.


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## BigAL (Feb 19, 2013)

I should have a video ready by the 23rd, if I'm lucky maybe it will gives some clues to what I'm doing wrong.


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## Lamps (Sep 3, 2011)

NWBoarder said:


> This is pretty common. Without any pics or video, it's tough to say for sure. But, it's likely that you are not bending the knees and getting low enough. You really want to be squatted into your heelside turns. The lower the better. I'm sure someone else will come give a more technical description, but this should get you started in the right direction.
> 
> EDIT: None of the above replies were here when I began this post this, but I'm leaving it anyway.


I forgot to say in my post be sure you are benign your knees, this is probably the most common cause.


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## Donutz (May 12, 2010)

I think everyone's summarized it pretty well.

1- People have a tendency to do more of a skip-stop than a turn on heelside. Check if your turns are not symmetrical in each direction
2- You start off the turn weighted on your front foot, but you shift your weight back as you go through the turn. Otherwise your tail washes out.
3- It's far easier to go high up on your edge toeside than heelside. You may not be edging as hard on heelside as you think.

I've had all of these issues to a greater or lesser extent. The good news is once you realize what you're doing, it's fairly straightforward to fix.


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## timmytard (Mar 19, 2009)

Do you already know how to snowboard there, BigAl?

I do, & when I get on a new/different board & suddenly some aspect of it isn't working, I know it's not me or something I'm doing:huh:
It's the gear.

What size are your boots, bindings & are you on a Wide?

I would 1st try more forward lean on your back legs binding, & maybe on your front one too

&/or/as well as

Moving your back & possibly both bindings closer to your toe side edge.

It's always the gear:thumbsup:


TT


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## poutanen (Dec 22, 2011)

BigAL said:


> I'm hoping my equally obsessed snowboarding comrades can help me fix this issue. For some reason when I start high speed carve on my heel side, my board begins to bounce and skid and I just slide out (with my as on the ground). Is it my board, the snow, or do I just suck at carving. BTW I never have any issues on toe side.


I had this issue early this year. Got onto a new board that let me REALLY carve hard on my toe side, but I was getting chatter and washing out on my heelside. Here's what worked for me.

1) First and foremost, I had to really exaggerate bending my knees. If you think you've bent them enough, bend them more. I can't stress enough how having your knees as close to 90 degrees as you can get will reduce the chatter. In reality you'll probably get the inside angle to about 120 degrees or so which is great, much better than the nearly straight legs most people ride at!

2) Slow down. I dialed it back just a bit to a still quick pace, dialed everything in without chatter, and then upped the pace again.

3) Keep the weight over the front, you'll naturally move towards the back anyway near the end of the turn, so just focus on putting a lot of pressure on your front leg to really set the edge for the turn.

If you can have somebody tape you or take pics, just looking at them yourself can even help correct a lot!

Sorry to keep posting this pic but here the inside angle is probably about 135 deg or so, and this was after I started working on correcting the chatter. Bend those knees!


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