# Critique my riding ty!



## deagol (Mar 26, 2014)

you could try to set your edges and carve the turns instead of sliding over them. I am not an instructor, so am not great with telling people how to do this. Probably need to be more dynamic with body position. Others will chime in


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## Nocturnal7x (Mar 6, 2015)

deagol said:


> you could try to set your edges and carve the turns instead of sliding over them. I am not an instructor, so am not great with telling people how to do this. Probably need to be more dynamic with body position. Others will chime in


TY!

Yea, this is certainly an issue for me. Sometimes I feel like I'm doing this, usually on toes, don't think I did it much if at all in this vid though. 

I think its a speed thing, if I lock edges in I have trouble controlling speed, which is a problem because I don't bend my knees enough, you are right, not dynamic enough, to stiff. If I get speed I get bucked in the chop.

top speed in these runs according to trace was 20-21 mph.


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## deagol (Mar 26, 2014)

Nocturnal7x said:


> TY!
> 
> Yea, this is certainly an issue for me. Sometimes I feel like I'm doing this, usually on toes, don't think I did it much if at all in this vid though.
> 
> ...


For me, I just do what I do and it is near impossible for me to put it into words, but there are many people on here who have explained technique very thoroughly. Wrathfuldiety has a good video called the "Creepy Basement Video" that demonstrates a lot of the proper form and all. 

One thing I would say is bending of the knees, while good, is not enough, in and of itself. There is more to it, but it's hard to explain. I can carve turns being almost ridged when dorking around. It's copying and old trick that Steve Graham used to do in the '90's where he went ridged in the air. My only point with this is that there is more to setting and holding an edge than just flexing your knees. Sorry this isn't more helpful.


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## wrathfuldeity (Oct 5, 2007)

get more dynamic...up and down
and get on the nose more aggressively

as for speed and getting bucked...that is because ur riding too stiff legged...use your quads to absorb the chop .... which ehumm there wasn't really any chop in the vid

at 20 mph...you might not be going fast enough to set an edge...in that in the vid ur not really turning that much. yes you can set an edge at 20 mph...but it will need to be a tighter turn and getting more dyanmic to get the board on edge

Saw there was a few speed wobbles....to help prevent/elimate those...again more dynamic, setting the edge...imo the speed wobbles are because of being too flat/not on edge and not committing to the turn/edge and not moving fore/middle/aft in relation to the turn/carve phase.

feel 4u...some long, flat-assed, nondescript cow pasture you got there.


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## f00bar (Mar 6, 2014)

I always have a hard time on these videos determining whether holding the camera adds that little extra awkwardness to make for good critiquing. I know I totally feel weird poling it so never post stuff.

That said in this you definitely need to get those legs bent and get into it a bit more.


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## f00bar (Mar 6, 2014)

wrathfuldeity said:


> feel 4u...some long, flat-assed, nondescript cow pasture you got there.


Lol. Welcome to New England  I'm pretty sure that is Mount Snow and is the long winding easy way down from the top of the mountain that probably is a road to the top in non winter. Aptly named Long John.


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## Noreaster (Oct 7, 2012)

f00bar said:


> Lol. Welcome to New England  I'm pretty sure that is Mount Snow and is the long winding easy way down from the top of the mountain that probably is a road to the top in non winter. Aptly named Long John.


Much worse, it's Camelback.


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## f00bar (Mar 6, 2014)

Noreaster said:


> Much worse, it's Camelback.


Ah, never been there, Snow has the same bench things at the top for people who can't strap in >


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## Noreaster (Oct 7, 2012)

f00bar said:


> Ah, never been there, Snow has the same bench things at the top for people who can't strap in >


And also right now Snow has... well, some snow left.


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## f00bar (Mar 6, 2014)

Noreaster said:


> And also right now Snow has... well, some snow left.


Has that been confirmed? Snow is kind of in a weird spot this year. They didn't get much out of the 2 big noreasters and missed most clippers coming in from Canada.

Just kidding, they are still doing ok I'm sure. I think I have another 2 trips local before I have to make the exodus north to them to see. Snow is one of the places that will still blow fairly deep into the season. After this weekend everyone else will be done.


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## larrytbull (Oct 30, 2013)

f00bar said:


> Ah, never been there, Snow has the same bench things at the top for people who can't strap in >





Noreaster said:


> Much worse, it's Camelback.


yeah, I thought it looked like camelback, specially with people in the middle of a skinny run


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## Nocturnal7x (Mar 6, 2015)

wrathfuldeity said:


> get more dynamic...up and down
> and get on the nose more aggressively
> 
> as for speed and getting bucked...that is because ur riding too stiff legged...use your quads to absorb the chop .... which ehumm there wasn't really any chop in the vid
> ...


Ok, I kind of suspected this a bit, I'm going too slow. Max sustained speeds are around 15-17. Each day out I get faster, also this was the first day I did some of these blue runs, steepest runs I've been on. 

So I'll keep at it. On rare occasion when going a bit faster and I feel I have a good edge on the toes I don't notice the chop so much so I think you have a good point there. 

Thanks!


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## Nocturnal7x (Mar 6, 2015)

f00bar said:


> *Ah, never been there*, Snow has the same bench things at the top for people who can't strap in >


Its for the best.


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## larrytbull (Oct 30, 2013)

you might also try to make full use of the trail to get that edge down and make longer turns it is tough at cb since trail is really narrow, but it helps to get comfortable at higher speeds. nile mile isn't too bad, and also not to steep but plenty of time to set edges


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## deagol (Mar 26, 2014)

One more thought, and this is probably obvious, but practice without the Gopro stick for a while until you feel comfortable with the new technique. Practice over and over until you feel you can do the same motions while holding the stick, and once you can, then record it.

I tend to wonder sometimes when I see someone riding with these sticks if they change their riding style and possibly make them more stiff.


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## ItchEtrigR (Jan 1, 2012)

Your doing awesome man. Keep at it. Only thing i can contribute is the same Larrytbull added use the whole slope like your trying to get your board to head back uphill, that might help you get familiar with your edges a bit quicker.

Sent from my SM-N900 using Tapatalk


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## lbs123 (Jan 24, 2017)

You are doing pretty well. As others said you should try to develop better edge control and ride more on the edges. Also try to ride a bit more aggressive, not in terms of speed but quicker edge to edge, tighter turns.

To help with this try to add some freestyle flat ground tricks to the mix - ollies, 180s, tail/nose presses, noserolls, etc. These require quicker body movements, good edge control and when you are learning them they often put you off balance, so you learn to keep balance and control edge. Start slow with ollies to avoid injuries and progress to other stuff when you gain confidence. This will open a whole new world to you and you will have much more fun on groomers too


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## lab49232 (Sep 13, 2011)

Yup it's been said a bunch but great starting out form, the rest of the stuff can actually take (or at least feel like) a while to get down as it's both education and experience.

1: Knees, sometimes people get the "bend your knees more" statement a little confused. Bent knees are somewhat important but what is actually important is that your knees aren't static, you can ride with bent knee posture but that doesn't do anything if you lock them in place. Knees should be flexing and moving to absorb the variations in the snow, bouncing up and down with the terrain which will take away a lot of the unstable feeling you get with speed

2: Edging, you need to really drive the edges, push in to your board, you shouldn't be simply riding your snowboard, you should be DRIVING it. Probably the best thing you can learn here is to actually understand and TRUST your board. Your board will do what you tell it and will work as designed but it's hard at first to truly believe it and act on it, you feel like your board is going to fly out from underneath you, or you're going to get thrown around but you have to learn that if you do it right you're board will handle a lot. It takes experience. Once you start trusting it though you'll find setting edges a lot easier as it actually makes riding easier.

3: Moving your board, people tend to start thinking a lot about foot movement and that's what a lot of people talk about. To move your foot most people naturally start thinking about bending their ankle. This actually isn't really how you want to drive your edge in to the snow. Its a lot more weight transition and full lower leg movement, not ankles. For a toe edge you can try really pushing your shin in to the tongue of your boot as opposed to sort of trying to stand on your toes. If you lean in to it and weight the tongue of the boot and get your weight over the edge of the board you'll be amazed at how you can really feel the edge engage. Once you get that it will make figuring out how to really drive your heel edge in as well. 

I taught for years so I can tll you though you're actually doing pretty well so far, you've got the building blocks set which is important because it means you can still ride and have fun while you try and refine your riding.


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