# 1st Try Carving. Not terrible, but....



## chomps1211 (Mar 30, 2011)

Since I had the local pretty much all to myself last night I thought I'd see if I could manage laying down anything that reasonably resembled a "_real_" carve. I don't think I did too bad for a first attempt, but I noticed something coming out of my toe side turns that felt more than a little sketchy.

I was riding my 157 NS Proto CT (regular rider.) on a fairly mellow section of what passes for a blue run here. Had decent speed but nothing approaching Mach!

As I am coming out of the toe side carve, getting upright again with board flat ready to transition to heel side. It felt like the toe side edge on the tail of the board, rear foot, was either trying to catch, or still somewhat engaged. 

At this point in the turn I was probably somewhere between 30-45- or 50 degrees angled across the fall line, toe side still mostly upslope. (...not sure if that has anything to do with the issue. :dunno: ) This happened at least 3-5 times during those transitions from toe to heel and it felt like I could have eaten shit from any one of them. 

Is it likely that I've still got too much weight to the rear of the board at this part of the transition? I understood that to produce a good carve, you do need to weight the rear of the board's edge at some point throughout the arc of the turn. Maybe I'm staying there too late?



btw,.. looking down on my lines from the lift, It looked like I had some really nice thin edged tracks, and at the transitions, there was about an 18-24 inch gap in the track where the board was flat & the line jumped from toe to heel edge & vice versa!


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## LuckyRVA (Jan 18, 2011)

Is your stance centered on the board? I noticed a similar characteristic when riding my NS Premier on groomers with a set-back stance.


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## wrathfuldeity (Oct 5, 2007)

I had a similar problem when demoing a bpro...the tail would not release quite right...so I schooched the rear binding just a tad aft and it fixed it. Otherwise I'd say just get on the nose a tad quicker


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## chomps1211 (Mar 30, 2011)

LuckyRVA said:


> Is your stance centered on the board? I noticed a similar characteristic when riding my NS Premier on groomers with a set-back stance.


Yes,.. Proto CT is a true twin and I have a fairly wide, 24+ in. centered stance.
It has a CRC camber profile. Maybe that has something to do with it?


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## wrathfuldeity (Oct 5, 2007)

chomps1211 said:


> Yes,.. Proto CT is a true twin and I have a fairly wide, 24+ in. centered stance.
> It has a CRC camber profile. Maybe that has something to do with it?


with my c2btx carving is more sloppy and I got to really move fast and get in the front seat verses my cambered twin.


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## LuckyRVA (Jan 18, 2011)

chomps1211 said:


> Yes,.. Proto CT is a true twin and I have a fairly wide, 24+ in. centered stance.
> It has a CRC camber profile. Maybe that has something to do with it?


Not sure if it has anything to do with the CRC profile as I only noticed it when I had some serious set-back. Sounds like you may need to keep more weight on your front foot when coming out of the turn.


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## speedjason (May 2, 2013)

shift more weight to front foot and keep those edges up.


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## chomps1211 (Mar 30, 2011)

wrathfuldeity said:


> I had a similar problem when demoing a bpro...the tail would not release quite right...so I schooched the rear binding just a tad aft and it fixed it. Otherwise I'd say just get on the nose a tad quicker


That is the _perfect_ description of the issue,.. It didn't feel like the tail edge "released" right! Thanks. 



wrathfuldeity said:


> with my c2btx carving is more sloppy and I got to really move fast and get in the front seat verses my cambered twin.


I didn't think about this possibility until after posting and re-reading it. I suppose the rocker between the inserts causes a bit of a wobble during the transition? Maybe keeping/letting that rear edge stay or re-engage contact when flattening out, especially if my weight distribution isn't spot on perfect?

It did feel a bit like it released and then briefly re-engaged before I was fully committed to the nose & heel side edge of the turn transition . That's why it felt so sketchy to me. It surprised me and I panicked a little! Thought I was gonna go down _hard_! LOL!


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## Donutz (May 12, 2010)

You might also be applying a bit of torsion to the board as well. Front foot is going heelside, back foot is still pressing toeside.


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## Eat Sleep Shred (Oct 1, 2013)

My home mountain got super tracked out for a few days and groomers were the best part of the mountain so I spent a whole day learning to carve with an instructor. I can't say I know too much more than you but if I ever had trouble getting out of a turn putting my weight toward my back foot coming out of a turn as I extended helped. A clean exit should help you get on the your heelside edge better, but its hard to say for sure. I don't think I've ever hard problems with my tail catching unless the snow was sticky.


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## stan_darsh (Mar 10, 2013)

Donutz said:


> You might also be applying a bit of torsion to the board as well. Front foot is going heelside, back foot is still pressing toeside.


probably this, as well as not getting on the nose fast enough. when i was riding a mirrored 15º stance, i kinda had this happen on my SL. i noticed that i was putting too much pressure on my toes toward the back of the board, making that edge still contact the snow even once i started to weight my front foot and twist heelside. since i switched to a mirrored 18º stance, it's eliminated that desire to have my foot go there and is smooth as butter! 

also - it's kind of hard to throw your weight up front onto your heel side if your shoulders aren't in line with your board too. make sure that you're not turning slightly to the right towards your rear foot in order to lock that toe edge in. it takes a bit of faith that your front heel edge is going to engage when you switch sides...

really, i think the only answer is to get out there and do it more! if you're conscious enough to see this problem, you're already on the right path to fixing it.


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## chomps1211 (Mar 30, 2011)

Thanks for all the input. In the past whenever I tried to lock in a full on carve, it seemed I would always wind up "scarving" it out right at/near the end of the turn. As a result, my lines always had that feathered swoop in them at the transition. Reading other carving threads here, I figured I was not committing enough weight to my rear foot while _in_ the arc of my turns. 

This time, I was pleasantly surprised by how much body lean I was able to get when locking into each turn. Mind you, I'm not laying down and shaving my beard on the groomers, but I definitely had some real angle going and no feathery "swoosh" to the tail end of most of the lines either! 

I'll keep on it. Thanks.


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