# Getting stuck on heelside in powder



## 40below (Jan 17, 2020)

I'm an intermediate rider, but not much experience with powder

When riding in powder I sometimes find myself suddenly not able to get back to my toe side. Then I get stuck traversing and slowly falling on my butt.

I seem to recall this being a problem in general, but I don't experience it anywhere else but in POW now.

Is it from having too much weight on the back foot?

Or perhaps I need to counter-rotate to initiate the turns in powder? That did seem to help but felt counter-intuitive.

Thanks for any tips!


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## Manicmouse (Apr 7, 2014)

What board are you riding? Sounds like you are too much on your back foot, it could be because your board doesn't have enough float.


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## AC93 (May 1, 2020)

Maybe you have too much heel overhang.


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## 40below (Jan 17, 2020)

Manicmouse said:


> What board are you riding? Sounds like you are too much on your back foot, it could be because your board doesn't have enough float.


I encountered this yesterday on an old K2 Select 161W camber, and I weight 200lbs. But I've noticed this same problem with a nice, floaty, 162W rocker board (Skate Banana), so I suspect, as is typical, that the problem is in my technique.


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## Manicmouse (Apr 7, 2014)

I first experienced deep powder on a cambered freestyle board... It was horrific!! 😨

You could still be on your back foot too much regardless. A video of you riding in general would help.


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## AC93 (May 1, 2020)

40below said:


> I encountered this yesterday on an old K2 Select 161W camber, and I weight 200lbs. But I've noticed this same problem with a nice, floaty, 162W rocker board (Skate Banana), so I suspect, as is typical, that the problem is in my technique.


Try leaning back on your backfoot and focusing most of the power on the tail, when taking turns in powder and maybe set your bindings all they back on the inserts of the board.


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## F1EA (Oct 25, 2013)

40below said:


> I'm an intermediate rider, but not much experience with powder
> 
> When riding in powder I sometimes find myself suddenly not able to get back to my toe side. Then I get stuck traversing and slowly falling on my butt.
> 
> ...


You're probably not going fast enough and not powering all the way through the end of your turn with proper de-weighting at the end.

None of this is not very useful without a video. But in general, you want your knees properly bent in pow so you're able to absorb any chop, but also so that you can keep the board from sinking or catching.... same goes with speed. Speed (and the knees thing) is what will let you get the board from under you for each turn.


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## freshy (Nov 18, 2009)

I remember 2 things from long ago when this kinda thing happened to me. 

It's probably your form and being too weighted on your heelside, try bending your knees more and holding your arms out in front of you to counterbalance your self. When your going to transition back to toe side spring up and kind of unweight your self and use your upper body, mostly shoulders and arms to help bring your board around. All that in one fluid motion.

Or it's an equipment issue and your bindings are set back to far on your heelside edge. If the slots on your disks in your baseplate are running tip to tail instead of edge to egde it's probably the case.


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## 40below (Jan 17, 2020)

Great, thanks for all the tips, I suspect F1EA is right that I'm not powering all the way through the turn, I'll really focus on that. And unweighting is another good idea, thanks freshy.


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## wrathfuldeity (Oct 5, 2007)

Riding pow is a different skill set. Instead of riding on the nose...you ride from the tail. Thus you have to let your turns develop instead of developing/making them happen. Meaning you have to let the speed come so that you can transition to the next edge. The transition to the next edge is part speed, part more gently positioning your body and LINE CHOICE! With line choice, you want to look at the whole line and determine where you will have enough speed to make the turn, can you use the terrain to develop the speed and can you use the terrain to help bank your turn/transition. Line choice is key...if you don't pay attention to it...you can be sucking ballz doing the breast stroke or hiking in waist deep shiz.


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## WigMar (Mar 17, 2019)

Lots of good stuff already. I ride powder with fuller body motions. Maybe try exaggerating your movements a bit more as well.


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## wrathfuldeity (Oct 5, 2007)

Another thing, I kind of think that body positioning is more of a finesse thing of matching your body movement with the terrain. Sometimes you have to be aggressive like when on a tight steep chute doing billygoat jump turns verses low angle letting the board ride and float with subtle body movements. And other times you have to be like a gazelle in slow motion doing a bounce hop to unweight the board to switch edges and to maintain or get some speed going. You have to be more aware of your fore and aft movements, alignment and stacking and not over play them. Finesse your movements to the terrain...you got to work with it or it will school ya.


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## MrDavey2Shoes (Mar 5, 2018)

@wrathfuldeity droppin’ knowledge all over this thread


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## 40below (Jan 17, 2020)

Whoops, a bit long, but I'm stoked!

@wrathfuldeity Again, thanks for the tips, I think you are nailing it in that it's all about adjusting to conditions. I had read so much about the supposed "evils" of counter-rotating that I was stuck thinking there was one way to turn correctly (full body in line with the board all the way through the turn, riding your edge like when carving), but your comments made me think about going ahead and changing technique for the terrain.

Luckily, we've had some awesome POW days here in the NW so I've had a lot of practice since this post and it's going much better.

I am finding it helpful to keep my upper body neutral in POW and go ahead and counter-rotate a bit. Also, I'm finding it helps to still get some weight into that front foot for the turn, just need to find the balance to not dig the tip or edge into the snow (have done a few headers...luckily it was POW). Lastly, engaging that front knee and ankle to quickly start the turn and then immediately pressure them back to be ready to push the board to toe side.

Not sure if this makes sense, or if it's good technique, but that seems to be what is helping. Similar techniques are helping me get through bumps. I ride neutral with some counter-rotation so I can quickly switch from toe to heel, much like in this video: 



. But mixing in some edge riding to traverse a bump or two, then throw in full-upper-body unweighted turn over the bump. So, I'm guessing this switching things up might be what @wrathfuldeity is getting at?

Anyhow, thanks y'all for the great tips!


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