# Duck stance question???



## Duck93 (Dec 15, 2017)

HEy all I’m new to the sport although I have extensive background in skateboarding and surfing. Mostly surfing. I bought my first snowboard and am setting up the binding and know 100% a duck stance is for me. I’m very duck footed but my question is can too much of a duck stance hurt your snowboarding progression? I’m definitly more than -15/15. leaning towards -30/30 as naturally my feet are really flayed out, at the very least I’m a -21/21. So will this stance hurt me at all or is it completely based on what feels comfortable? Cause I feel great in this stance and it’s the stance I used surfing and skateboarding [roughly] but if it’s going to hurt my progression I can get over the initial awkwardness of less of an angle.


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## ridinbend (Aug 2, 2012)

Veteran surfer here, I am a ducked out regular footed snowboarder and I roll 18/-18 on all boards despite conditions and boards. I always had a wide stance too on my surfboard. I rode a shortboard if that makes any difference. I would suggest getting on your skateboard and riding around to see what feels natural and then putting that on your snowboard. I don't think anyone is going to tell you your stance is going to prevent you from getting better. I would just go with what feels right. I moved from the beach to the mountains 8 years ago and had to figure out my stance. My front foot was always at 18 but my back foot started neutral and just went more and more duck until it matched my front foot. At some point though, you will begin to have less control. I try and keep an eye on different pros stance angles and most don't seem to exceed 21 degrees. Stance width will also play a part in how it feels. A narrow stance will make it easier to have really wide angles. I ride with a 23inch width stance, which is pretty wide, but that was always how I rode my surfboard. Next time you ride, take a tool with you and just make small adjustments. Too many adjustments on the hill and you won't know what really feels confortable as the muscles get tired. Enjoy shredding the longest wave you've ever ridden. I miss the ocean some days, but when you get a glassy 5 minute right with no one out in pow I forget all about 10 second beach break waves. Shaka


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## Hoffa (Mar 3, 2017)

Duck93 said:


> HEy all I’m new to the sport although I have extensive background in skateboarding and surfing. Mostly surfing. I bought my first snowboard and am setting up the binding and know 100% a duck stance is for me. I’m very duck footed but my question is can too much of a duck stance hurt your snowboarding progression? I’m definitly more than -15/15. leaning towards -30/30 as naturally my feet are really flayed out, at the very least I’m a -21/21. So will this stance hurt me at all or is it completely based on what feels comfortable? Cause I feel great in this stance and it’s the stance I used surfing and skateboarding [roughly] but if it’s going to hurt my progression I can get over the initial awkwardness of less of an angle.


Watch out for back knee pain. For me anyway, I can't even ride 15/15 for too long because of the pain. I'm at 15/9, which feels more stable than 15/15 and eliminates the knee pain.


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## Cane700 (Oct 29, 2012)

Duck stance will not in any way hinder your progression unless you aspire to do slalom boarding. Duck is perfect for freestyle and makes riding switch easier. Find an angle and stance width that works for your build. Everybody is different. When you set it up right you should feel super stable on the board and able to bend your knees and rotate your body freely. Try a few different angles and stance widths.


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## SGboarder (Jun 24, 2012)

Cane700 said:


> Duck stance will not in any way hinder your progression unless you aspire to do slalom boarding.


Or serious carving. Or deep powder. Or high-speed bombing. Or...


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## ridinbend (Aug 2, 2012)

SGboarder said:


> Or serious carving. Or deep powder. Or high-speed bombing. Or...


:rotfl::spam:


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## Cane700 (Oct 29, 2012)

SGboarder said:


> Or serious carving. Or deep powder. Or high-speed bombing. Or...


Serious carving, slalom, serious carving, slalom. Is Slalom not the most serious of carving? High speed bombing doesn't require your back foot to face forward and there are plenty of powder riders who do just fine with a back foot in the other direction. He's a beginner learning to ride. Duck stance will not hinder his learning in any way. When he gets better he can adjust his binding however he wants and will be fine. For the purposes of a beginning snowboarder, duck stance will not hinder him.


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## Fielding (Feb 15, 2015)

If your intention is to ride with your shoulders in line with your hips, knees, and the centerline of your board then duck won’t hurt you. If you were planning to ride in a more dynamic fashion, with your shoulders breaking off that line then I think true duck is a hindrance. Maybe consider flattening out that back foot some. Really depends on what kind of riding you want to do. I like to be able to bring more torso around more. That gives me better visibility and more range for moving my center of mass aroundnon the board. Perhaps if I was taller, skinnier, stronger, and more flexible I could achieve this stuff from duck.


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## chomps1211 (Mar 30, 2011)

Fielding said:


> If your intention is to ride with your shoulders in line with your hips, knees, and the centerline of your board then duck won’t hurt you. If you were planning to ride in a more dynamic fashion, with your shoulders breaking off that line then I think true duck is a hindrance....


Just curious,... why would that particular alignment of the shoulders be a hinderance? 

To my mind I would have thought having the shoulders more or less in line with the board gives you _equal_ ability to throw/move your mass in either direction. :dunno:

If that's not the case then I'm just curious to know why? :shrug: (...btw, No particular investment in either position being right/wrong. Just interested in learning.)


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## SGboarder (Jun 24, 2012)

Cane700 said:


> Serious carving, slalom, serious carving, slalom. Is Slalom not the most serious of carving? High speed bombing doesn't require your back foot to face forward and there are plenty of powder riders who do just fine with a back foot in the other direction. He's a beginner learning to ride. Duck stance will not hinder his learning in any way. When he gets better he can adjust his binding however he wants and will be fine. For the purposes of a beginning snowboarder, duck stance will not hinder him.


I'll let others debate whether slalom is the 'most serious' form of carving. Many freecarvers are gonna disagree pretty strongly with you on that one.
The rest is all misrepresenting what I wrote or wrong: Nowhere did I say that high speed bombing or powder requires the back foot forward. And of course it will hinder learning very directional riding - probably not enough to worry about but it makes a difference.

Nice strawman/trolling attempt though.


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## Fielding (Feb 15, 2015)

Shoulders in line with the board I feel makes backside edge control more difficult than it needs to be. If you're at -15, +15 for example, it's really easy to move your center of mass way off to the toeside. It's less easy to move it off to the heelside. There's less range and less ability to control it in a subtle way on the heelside because most people bend forward at the waist better than they bend backwards at the waist. Having your rear foot set negative and therefore your shoulders held back from coming around to allow you to face the front end of the board also limits your ability to see over your leading shoulder. So when you go from toeside to heelside you are turning into a big blindspot. If you have flatter back foot angle or even (gasp) a slightly positive back foot angle then you can get your shoulders to twist farther around to approaching perpendicular to the centerline of the board. That means you can turn your neck and see pretty much everything that you're turning into on a heelside. If you've got a great range of motion then I imagine you could do it from a duck stance. But I sure can't. With your shoulders freed up to come around, you can use some waist bending movements to help move your center of mass in pretty much every direction. Knee movements are still important but are different than the ones you have to make when riding duck. I'm basically describing an out-of fashion way to ride. It was not unusual 15 or 20 years ago. But now everybody is ducking and riding squared up. I think turn quality suffers as a result. If you're more park oriented or really like riding switch then I understand why you might want to ride duck stance. Ultimately, I'm less interested in riding switch and more interested in big turns, riding onto and off of natural features, and all mountain riding. No park, no aerial spins for this bro. 



chomps1211 said:


> Just curious,... why would that particular alignment of the shoulders be a hinderance?
> 
> To my mind I would have thought having the shoulders more or less in line with the board gives you _equal_ ability to throw/move your mass in either direction. :dunno:
> 
> If that's not the case then I'm just curious to know why? :shrug: (...btw, No particular investment in either position being right/wrong. Just interested in learning.)


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## Cane700 (Oct 29, 2012)

SGboarder said:


> Cane700 said:
> 
> 
> > Serious carving, slalom, serious carving, slalom. Is Slalom not the most serious of carving? High speed bombing doesn't require your back foot to face forward and there are plenty of powder riders who do just fine with a back foot in the other direction. He's a beginner learning to ride. Duck stance will not hinder his learning in any way. When he gets better he can adjust his binding however he wants and will be fine. For the purposes of a beginning snowboarder, duck stance will not hinder him.
> ...


OK. You seem very angry and Ive clearly walked onto your turf. You should consider responding to the OPs question then. I just came to the forum looking for some recommendations on an upcoming trip. Figured I'd pay forward and contribute a little. My advice is far from wrong. I'll say this once and you can have your forum back. Getting a new rider in a comfortable stance off the bat will help them progress in their learning to ride. If one wants to specialize in one of the more specific niches of snowboarding, they can make the adjustment once they're comfortable linking turns and going fast. The original poster clearly stated a preference for duck stance. That's his path of least resistance.


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## freshy (Nov 18, 2009)

I also ride duck 18/-13 for the simple reason it's comfortable. I couldn't care less if someone thinks my stance is ruining carving or snowboarding. I don't ride switch or go in the park either. I am clearly having way more fun on the hill than the guy who thinks his technique is scientifically proven to make him above others. 

Not only do I get knee problems if my rear foot is at a positive angle, I do not have the power in my legs to snap some slashes and my feeling of percision control is left a little numb.

It's just snowboarding, do what feels good.


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## Fielding (Feb 15, 2015)

Forreal shouldn’t be any hate over the subject of stance. It’s all about you. You gotta be you. Even if you can’t ride for shit. Just go with it.


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## ridinbend (Aug 2, 2012)

freshy said:


> I also ride duck 18/-13 for the simple reason it's comfortable. I couldn't care less if someone thinks my stance is ruining carving or snowboarding. I don't ride switch or go in the park either. I am clearly having way more fun on the hill than the guy who thinks his technique is scientifically proven to make him above others.
> 
> Not only do I get knee problems if my rear foot is at a positive angle, I do not have the power in my legs to snap some slashes and my feeling of percision control is left a little numb.
> 
> It's just snowboarding, do what feels good.


I could never imagine riding with a positive angle on my back foot, I've tried and my knee starts throbbing in minutes. 22 years of surfing has my back foot neutral to way ducked. I've tried riding everything from 0 to -24. I ended up feeling most neutral on my board with my stance at 18,-18.


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## Duck93 (Dec 15, 2017)

Wow thanks for all the replies! That’s what I was thinking though that it’s more geared to what’s comfortable. I’ll play around with my stance a little but I’m ducked for sure my surfing stance was crazy lol. Thanks again everyone!


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