# Help me improve my carving?



## keel_bright (Jan 13, 2013)

[removed]


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## Oldman (Mar 7, 2012)

Hey Keel

The first thing I would suggest you do is find, if possible, a wider trail to work on. The one you showed us is rather narrow to really put any board on edge and set a carve.

Your general technique is fine, but to really get a good feel for proper weight distribution on a heel side carve you need a wide enough trail to set the carve and sit on it for a while so you can play with your technique and find your "sweet spot"

There are a number of recent threads dealing with just this skill.

Be sure to check them out.

Cheers!


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## speedjason (May 2, 2013)

Need more knee bend and weight shifting. Notice at 1:10 when you bent your knees and went lower, the edge immediately started to engage?
Also, your turn initiation is not using the front foot but rather ruddering the back leg.
There is not fore-aft weighting on the edges.
Maybe a little bit of back seat riding.
The snow is a bit firm for my liking.


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## chomps1211 (Mar 30, 2011)

Agree /w @Oldman!

Watch any of the Ryan Knapton carving vids, most of his carving runs are done on very wide open slopes. 

Summa those trail sections you're on don't look any wider than a CAT track. 

As soon as you set an edge, you have to transition. Not the best terrain to rail a long drawn out Euro!!  

:hairy:









(._...also get lower!_) >


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## neni (Dec 24, 2012)

speedjason said:


> Need more knee bend and weight shifting. Notice at 1:10 when you bent your knees and went lower, the edge immediately started to engage?
> Also, your turn initiation is not using the front foot but rather ruddering the back leg.
> There is not fore-aft weighting on the edges.
> Maybe a little bit of back seat riding.
> The snow is a bit firm for my liking.


Agree with this, except the firm snow which seemed pretty perfect IMO . 

In addition, OP, you're on the right track. You do bend quite well at times with your knees; now it's a matter of timing and get the right weight shift. 

What I would like to see is less fwd bend of upper body. Fwd bent upper body while low in knees nullifies the effect of edge tilt through low knees. Practice on a wider slope to lean more into the wider longer carve, work on the lean without sticking your but out. Concentrate on those low knees WITH not that much fwd bend in the waist so you transfer more weight over the edge (i.e. do nit stick butt out that much) on heelside.


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## speedjason (May 2, 2013)

neni said:


> Agree with this, except the firm snow which seemed pretty perfect IMO .


Idk, I perfer a slush ish snow because I can dig edge in deeper.


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## F1EA (Oct 25, 2013)

Yes to what's been said.

Check this: 




Don't get hung up on "carving". You don't have to really really really carve all the time... 

There's a couple earlier sections higher up on the run you were at, where you can get longer turns and actually do some carving when it's not too crowded. But on this bottom portion, you would be mixing it up a bit more.


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## Rip154 (Sep 23, 2017)

That board needs a good waxing. Get more speed and try to stay on edge in longer turns so you get the right feeling. Just point it further down the hill. It's harder at low speed and flat terrain. You look like you will get it soon.


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## LALUNE (Feb 23, 2017)

neni said:


> Agree with this, except the *firm snow which seemed pretty perfect* IMO .
> 
> In addition, OP, you're on the right track. You do bend quite well at times with your knees; now it's a matter of timing and get the right weight shift.
> 
> What I would like to see is *less fwd bend of upper body*. Fwd bent upper body while low in knees nullifies the effect of edge tilt through low knees. Practice on a wider slope to lean more into the wider longer carve, work on the lean without sticking your but out. Concentrate on those low knees WITH not that much fwd bend in the waist so you transfer more weight over the edge (i.e. do nit stick butt out that much) on heelside.


Neni is just always spot on.

If I just want to carve, firm snow will be the best. I can go as fast as I want while leaving deep trenches, and if anything is wrong with my technique, I would slide instead of leaving a thin pencil line. Slushy conditions just give more margin of error for carving and have lower limits on how low you can go before washing out.

Hunching is not the way you want to "squat down" when snowboarding. Your knees are not effectively more bended over to absorb more chatter, at the same time, you always weight more on the heel side. Personally I found a useful trick to get the idea of the proper "squat" pose is to try flatbase striaight line a mildly bumpy run. This butt out squat will result in always turning towards your heel edge rather than staying on a straight line. 

Attached a pic of a better posture, but ideally your back should be more straight up while bending your knees.


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## flatlander1 (Jan 26, 2019)

The main thing that stands out is you need to increase your board angle on the snow. You are successfully rolling onto your edges, but barely. A more aggressive edge angle will give you more grip and a sharper turn radius, and you'll start to feel those g-forces building on your carves. shifting your weight forward to start a carve and back toward the end will help too.


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## RayC (Oct 3, 2018)

Bend your knees more, increase highback angle forward and Increase board angle! (Away from being parallel with slope!)


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## Aracan (Nov 24, 2017)

Apart from the problem of the narrow slope, I see pronounced counterrotation. Successful carving is not going to happen before you get rid of that, no matter how often you bend down to grab snow.


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## keel_bright (Jan 13, 2013)

Hey everyone, just wanted to say thanks!

I tried carving toeside more upright the other day and it was much better. For some reason in all these years riding I didn't put it together that it helps to be more upright. I guess I just thought that I wouldn't be able to produce enough centrifugal force if my body was upright rather than if I was extending through the quads while leaning in. Apparently it's the opposite.


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## DBusby (Feb 23, 2019)

WARNING IM AN INSTRUCTOR. Yeah your exactly right carving in a more upright position (on the toe edge) can be super effective. It's great also in free riding. One reason it's better is that it takes less time to get into the edge and you can apply pressure to the edge sooner as you don't need to lean over so far. The other reason is that the center of mass is more stable. You could draw a line from your head to your toe side and your center of mass should run through that line. 

One thing you can do to help that is take your back hand and turn your thumb down whilst putting it next to your back hip. Try it. Now try and lift it up to shoulder height while the thumb is still turned down. The muscles shouldn't be used to this movement. If you ride in this way with your back hand tucked in and thumb down you will be less tempted to reach for the snow and encouraged to push your hips forward to generate that power on your toe edge.


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## Aracan (Nov 24, 2017)

DBusby said:


> take your back hand and turn your thumb down [...] and lift it up to shoulder height while the thumb is still turned down [...] ride in this way with your back hand tucked in


Where exactly is his hand supposed to be? Near the hip? "Tucked in" somewhere? At shoulder height, i.e. arm stretched? 


DBusby said:


> Yeah your exactly right carving in a more upright position (on the toe edge) can be super effective.


I would love to see you prove that on a steep hill.


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## MrDavey2Shoes (Mar 5, 2018)

Aracan said:


> Where exactly is his hand supposed to be? Near the hip? "Tucked in" somewhere? At shoulder height, i.e. arm stretched?
> 
> I would love to see you prove that on a steep hill.



Step 1. Point thumb down
Step 2. Tuck thumb in bum
Step 3. ...
Step 4. Profit


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## MCrides (Feb 25, 2019)

What are the best tips for stacking weight over the edge of the board on your *heel* edge? It's so much easier on the toe edge since knees and ankles bend the way they do, but I find it tough to aggressively tilt the board onto the heel edge without letting my center of mass end up way back behind the edge -- I'm much more likely to wash out on my heel edge for that reason.

I've found that focusing on dropping my butt to my highbacks is a great mental cue that keeps me from sticking it out too far, but at a certain point I still have to bend at the waist to get the board far enough up on edge.

Also, this is my first post. Sup y'all.


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## Deacon (Mar 2, 2013)

Book a private lesson and tell them exactly what you want to work on. You'll get more out of that hour than 1000 internet posts and videos.


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## SigFig2000 (Feb 18, 2019)

A wider run will definitely make it easier to lock into a carve. One that is a little steeper might help too. You don't need as aggressive of an angle as quick as on a narrow, less steep run.

Another thing that might help is thinking of the transition between heal and toe edge as one that kind of 'bounces' (for lack of a better term). So think of being all the way over on your toes. Instead of leaning back to get to your heals, try unweighting by standing up slightly and then dropping down into a more aggressive carve. Do the same thing when transitioning back to your toes from your heels. This will also help make sure that you are keeping your knees bent. Another thing is it helps to think of some of that carving motion coming from your hips instead of leading into it with your upper body.

Hope this makes sense and helps you! Your carves are already looking pretty good though! :smile:


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## Aracan (Nov 24, 2017)

MCrides said:


> What are the best tips for stacking weight over the edge of the board on your *heel* edge?


+/+ angles.
Sorry, but that's the easiest way.


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## MrDavey2Shoes (Mar 5, 2018)

MCrides said:


> What are the best tips for stacking weight over the edge of the board on your *heel* edge? It's so much easier on the toe edge since knees and ankles bend the way they do, but I find it tough to aggressively tilt the board onto the heel edge without letting my center of mass end up way back behind the edge -- I'm much more likely to wash out on my heel edge for that reason.
> 
> I've found that focusing on dropping my butt to my highbacks is a great mental cue that keeps me from sticking it out too far, but at a certain point I still have to bend at the waist to get the board far enough up on edge.
> 
> Also, this is my first post. Sup y'all.



Sup bruh, speed and drop that booty low. 
Thing about going heelside, you need to actually commit the weight into the carve or you'll wash. At first its an odd feeling, but trust your edges. When you drop your weight make sure to keep your back at around 90 degrees. You should not actually be bending over as much as compensating to keep your back vertical. You don't want to bend over further because that actually unweights your heel edge. Think squat not hunch. I don't know if thats coming across as intended or not.


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## MCrides (Feb 25, 2019)

MrDavey2Shoes said:


> you need to actually commit the weight into the carve or you'll wash.


Yeah, I guess what I'm asking is *how* to commit more weight to the carve. I know it's possible to layout a heelside carve, but I can't seem to get enough weight stacked over the edge to get it to hold the way I can toeside.

Dropping the booty down instead of out has been helpful, as has making sure I transfer some weight to the back foot as the turn comes around. Just looking for some more "cues" to work on.


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## neni (Dec 24, 2012)

MCrides said:


> Yeah, I guess what I'm asking is *how* to commit more weight to the carve. I know it's possible to layout a heelside carve, but I can't seem to get enough weight stacked over the edge to get it to hold the way I can toeside.
> 
> Dropping the booty down instead of out has been helpful, as has making sure I transfer some weight to the back foot as the turn comes around. Just looking for some more "cues" to work on.


Set-up wise, consider increasing you stance, and increase leverage by adding highback lean and/or move binding to heel if width of board allows.

I divided the practicing into steps, using exaggerated arm help to start. Ur shoulder is the most important part, IMO, cos if shoulder has the right position, the rest of body follows, but as it's hard to concentrate on shoulder at first, thus the exaggerated use of the entire arm, or upper arm helps. 

Begin with practicing long drawn out carves at slow speed and grab your frontside edge with back hand, front elbow showing in the direction of the carve. Stay there and do a wide long turn while holding the grab longer and longer, butt more and more closer to snow. Weight is still stacked over/in middle of the board with these motions cos you need to reach the edge, but with this grab will force you to get low and develop a good feel for the balance on the tilted edge.

Once this works, balance is there, you can begin to shift the weight (i.e. butt) more to the back/lean into the turn, with less bend in hip than when doing the grab, and tilt board more and more. Hind hand/arm can help to balance, holding it over the board; not backwards to tail but over the board. Ur upper arms make a 90° angle (pic)









Once this works, too, you can reduce use of arms as balance helps and just use shoulders, turn them more into the carve to reach snow infront of you (imagine to turn front shoulder over tip of board; this helps to keep weight on front foot on back side of edge), and "push" board against the turn by reducing the bent in knees, reducing bend in hips, too. Centripertal force and edge grip will keep you in balance if speed, tilt and radius are aligned. First few (or dozens) times, you'll miss the right timepoint to begin the transition into frontside carve and sooner or later end the backside one on your butt, cos you push too long, but don't sweat it, it'll come with practice. 

It's easierst to practice on a wide groomer with soft snow, or freshly groomed firm snow, as this snow forgives slight weightdistribution errors. Slush is bad as edge slips; hardpack is harder as it doesn't forgive anything. Groomer needs to be wide as the radius while concentrated on stacking up and grabing edge can get huge . Make sure you check uphill that you don't get into the way of someone coming from behind as they may not expect that you do such an arch.


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## lbs123 (Jan 24, 2017)

MCrides said:


> Yeah, I guess what I'm asking is *how* to commit more weight to the carve. I know it's possible to layout a heelside carve, but I can't seem to get enough weight stacked over the edge to get it to hold the way I can toeside.
> 
> Dropping the booty down instead of out has been helpful, as has making sure I transfer some weight to the back foot as the turn comes around. Just looking for some more "cues" to work on.


I like Japanese carving videos. Check out this guy, his hips are 90 degrees to the board (more pressure on the edge), his back hand is in front of him, almost parallel with the front hand which lightly touches snow on the heel side carve. Personally, this helped me a lot.

https://youtu.be/O43Yuc544MA?t=115


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## MCrides (Feb 25, 2019)

lbs123 said:


> I like Japanese carving videos. Check out this guy, his hips are 90 degrees to the board (more pressure on the edge), his back hand is in front of him, almost parallel with the front hand which lightly touches snow on the heel side carve. Personally, this helped me a lot.



This is interesting because he's not really stacked vertically over the edge at all -- just leaned way out to the side. Feels to me like my edge would skid out if I did that. I'm more convinced now that my issue on the heel edge is with fore/aft weight shifting, and that the favorable mechanics of toe edge just let me get away with sloppy technique.


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## MCrides (Feb 25, 2019)

neni said:


> and develop a good feel for the balance on the tilted edge.


Neni, thanks for the reply. I don't think my issue on the heel edge is balance -- I can get the board tilted on it's edge and ride the carve out no problem. But when it gets to higher speeds or steeper runs where more pressure is being put on the edge, I'll often lose the edge hold and wash out. 

It's exclusively a problem on my heel edge, which made me think it was about weight stacked vertically over the edge. Does that make sense?


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## pow247 (Mar 27, 2018)

Do you have more snowboarding vids? I like watching you (that sounds creepy actually lol) Your riding just looks so smooth


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