# Anyone else not really ride on their HEEL EDGE??



## KahWhyC (Nov 10, 2010)

I ride on my heel edge cause I'm scared to eat snow on my toe edge.


----------



## sook (Oct 25, 2009)

I don't see how you can avoid riding on your heel edge. Sure, people might feel more comfortable on their toes vs heels, but you can't efficently make it down the mountain mainly on one edge.

When you say that you turn hardcore left, are you turning left and overturning back up the hill or is it that you can't ride your heel edge in a straight line without veering left?


----------



## GSXRBry (Nov 8, 2010)

I ride reg too and im comfortable on both but if I HAD to pick one, heel is my favorite edge because my legs get sore if im on my toes for too long.


----------



## loren646 (Dec 9, 2009)

sook said:


> I don't see how you can avoid riding on your heel edge. Sure, people might feel more comfortable on their toes vs heels, but you can't efficently make it down the mountain mainly on one edge.
> 
> When you say that you turn hardcore left, are you turning left and overturning back up the hill or is it that you can't ride your heel edge in a straight line without veering left?


I can ride on my heel edge fine but I can't ride down the mountain in a straight line like the way i bullet down the mountain on my toe edge but i veer way left on my heels.


----------



## sook (Oct 25, 2009)

loren646 said:


> I can ride on my heel edge fine but I can't ride down the mountain in a straight line like the way i bullet down the mountain on my toe edge but i veer way left on my heels.


I'm sure snowolf or others will have a better idea, but to me it sounds like you might be engaging too much of your heelside edge causing it to turn along the sidecut. If your goal is to go straighter, try to avoid carving so hard on that heel edge. Just a guess.


----------



## gjsnowboarder (Sep 1, 2009)

loren646 said:


> I can ride on my heel edge fine but I can't ride down the mountain in a straight line like the way i bullet down the mountain on my toe edge but i veer way left on my heels.


ah....This most likely has to do with how your body is a aligned. I'm willing to bet that when on your toes you tend to have your body open(facing down the hill) and then lean or put your weight on your toes. In other words your lead shoulder and hip point toward your heelside while your lowerbody is pressing towards your heelside causing a cross out of direction which lets you ride straight. 

On you heel side you probably try to stay open to down the hill but this causes you to have your lead shoulder and hip turned toward your heel side while you are also pressuring the heelside of your snowboard give you both rotation and tilt of the snowboard toward the heelside. 

When we ride the snowboard straight we typically want to ride in what is called the reference alignments or laymans turn three ways to stand correctly on our boards. 1.) shoulder hips and knees perpindicular to our front foot (i.e. your shoulder hips and knees will be parallel to your board/lead shoulder/hip/knee over nose, back shoulder/hip/knee over tail). 2.) s/h/k parallel to what you are riding on.(easy way to tell is to make a "T" with your arms. on a sloped hill riding straight your back hand should be higher then your frount hand). 3.) Your weight between your feet and over the working edge. (i.e. working edge = side of board you are riding on heel/toeside)


To actually ride straight down the hill it is about having a flatboard and making minor heel/toeside adjustments to stay straight in the direction we want to go. WE have to pay attention to the falline since the dierection of the run may dictate edging into or away from it.
Start out on a green run so that you don't build up to much speed to practice before taking it out in your regular riding. try to make sure that both your hip and shoulder are pointed straight down the hill, turn only your head to look straight down the hill(i.e. chin over shoulder) Next start out trying to ride a flat board. If you go straight down in the fall line you are aligned right. if you turn toward one way or another most likely you are not. Then try another straight glide letting your ankles relax. Slowly shift your weight on to your toes or heels. Next do this again but practice using your your toes or heels to press using ankle movement up or down to press your snowboard into the snow. Think pressing while doing this rather then lifting. This will keep your edge angle low to the snow which will equal better results.


----------



## Shocktroop531 (Aug 3, 2010)

to me, one of the most important things you can do as you start out snowboarding is to ride until you feel equally comfortable on your toe and heel edge. This is mandatory to learn before you can really improve and take your riding to the next level. whether that be big mountain freeride or park freestyle.


----------



## kysnowboarder (Oct 28, 2009)

gjsnowboarder said:


> ah....This most likely has to do with how your body is a aligned. I'm willing to bet that when on your toes you tend to have your body open(facing down the hill) and then lean or put your weight on your toes. In other words your lead shoulder and hip point toward your heelside while your lowerbody is pressing towards your heelside causing a cross out of direction which lets you ride straight.
> 
> On you heel side you probably try to stay open to down the hill but this causes you to have your lead shoulder and hip turned toward your heel side while you are also pressuring the heelside of your snowboard give you both rotation and tilt of the snowboard toward the heelside.
> 
> When we ride the snowboard straight we typically want to ride in what is called the reference alignments or laymans turn three ways to stand correctly on our boards. 1.) shoulder hips and knees perpindicular to our front foot (i.e. your shoulder hips and knees will be parallel to your board/lead shoulder/hip/knee over nose, back shoulder/hip/knee over tail). 2.) s/h/k parallel to what you are riding on.(easy way to tell is to make a "T" with your arms. on a sloped hill riding straight your back hand should be higher then your frount hand). 3.) Your weight between your feet and over the working edge. (i.e. working edge = side of board you are riding on heel/toeside)


So on 1 you are leaning forward, front leg more bent than back leg? If your shoulders and knees are parallel to board, wouldn't they be parallel with the terrain like in number two? I am not trying to argue just trying to distinguish the difference between points one and two.

Seems like I start out having the same problem every year...I switch from toe to hill fine but when I go to switch from hill to toe I fill like I am doing more with my rear leg...this problem seems to go away after about the third time out, but I don't understand why it a problem in the beginning every year. That why I was some what interested in this thread.


----------



## gjsnowboarder (Sep 1, 2009)

kysnowboarder said:


> So on 1 you are leaning forward, front leg more bent than back leg? If your shoulders and knees are parallel to board, wouldn't they be parallel with the terrain like in number two? I am not trying to argue just trying to distinguish the difference between points one and two.
> 
> Seems like I start out having the same problem every year...I switch from toe to hill fine but when I go to switch from hill to toe I fill like I am doing more with my rear leg...this problem seems to go away after about the third time out, but I don't understand why it a problem in the beginning every year. That why I was some what interested in this thread.


1.) is about how you are lined up side ways to your front foot. The lenth of you front foot is the top of a T and your knees/hips/shoulders are the stem of the T. Depending on the angle of your front foot your body will be pointed between the nose and heelside of the board. For teaching purposes it is easier to imagine being able to squat down and grab your nose and tail of your board with your hands. It really isn't about knee bend more or less between feet. Another way to0 think about it is if your board was a box your body would stay within the box(typically).

#2 is about knee bend typically. Think about having 4 checker boards. bottom layer is your board flat on the snow. The next three levels are your knees, hips, and shoulders. They should all be parallel. If in my example your lead hand is higher then your backhand when making the T it indicates that your front leg is straighter then your back leg which mean you have more weight on the back leg which effect the third reference alignment. 

The problem you're having is that because your out of the reference alignment and on your back foot you are only steering with the back of the board. It is like trying to turn a car with your front wheels of the ground. One trick to try is to pretend that you are patting a midget on the head when turning toward your toeside, Then when you turn toward your heel you backhand him. Just remember he is short and you have to bend the front knee more to get to his level :cheeky4:.

One thing to remember is the above alignments are that you don't stay in them at all times. But you usually start or end in it. 

P.S. Trust that your board will turn when you start the turn movement with your front foot. also remember to look across the hill and almost back up it so that you complete the turn and don't stop your rotation and it will come back quickly. If you need more just let me know.


----------



## AlexS (Feb 12, 2010)

I'm regular..I have no prefference on carves(I feel fine both toe and heel), but for stops i stop much more comfortable stopping on my heel edge, though i really do feel fine on both.


----------

