# Duck (Ego vs. Rider)



## thetraveler (Feb 24, 2010)

Hi,

At home today I was messing around with my setup so I switched bindings angles from positive/neutral (+18,-9) to duck (+18,-9). When I strapped into the board it felt like I'd discovered hot f***ing water! With the old angles I found I was comfortably balanced only on the balls of my feet - the centre of gravity was more toward the toe edge and not directly over the board. As a side effect, I had no real feel of the whole of the heel edge side of the board. When I switched to duck it suddenly felt completely different. Standing over the board became so much easier and natural. I could feel the whole board with my feet (if that makes sense). I haven't tried to ride with the new stance (and that will have to wait until the winter) but it feels sooooooooooo good on the carpet ). 

So I am writing just to say try the duck stance and more importantly... 

*Look, read, listen and learn from the more experienced and better riders than yourself.*

For years I have been ignorant of advice, lessons, and books on the subject of snowboarding all the while thinking that spending a lot of time on the slopes will eventually make me a good rider. This ignorance was especially pronounced with what I considered to be "trivial" or small or basic advice such as: the natural stance, simple turns, 180's, etc. As a result of my ignorance, 10 years into my riding (first 9 years I was doing maybe 1 or 2 weeks a year), I am making adjustments to something as fundamental as my natural stance. If I had listened or looked to someone or somewhere for help maybe I would have sorted this out 9 or 10 years ago and maybe I would be a better rider today. So find some expert advice in a book or an instructor and preferably both and when you hear, overhear or read the words: "you should spend some time changing your setup until you feel comfortable AND balanced AND ready to make a move in every direction" then don't blow it off but spend real time trying to get all three of those right, even if that means that you're not using that time to ride fat powder with your buddies or hitting the park or whatever else it is that punches your stomach with that big slug of excitement. My advice is work slowly and intelligently - find out and understand what you are supposed to be doing, get those fundamentals right and build your skills step by step, not moving along until you know that shit backwards. Otherwise, you'll just end up feeling like a stupid tit over and over again...(like me)

Death to the ego...


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## 209Cali (Jan 11, 2010)

> from positive/neutral (+18,-9) to duck (+18,-9).


so what did you change?


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## Flick Montana (Jul 9, 2007)

I'm assuming it used to be +9. :dunno:

Either way, I love riding duck. I change it for big powder days when I'm set back, but every other time, I'm riding duck.


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## thetraveler (Feb 24, 2010)

209Cali said:


> so what did you change?


ah yes, i meant to write from (+18,0) to (+18,-9). a rather small step for mankind and a pretty big one for me


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## thetraveler (Feb 24, 2010)

Flick Montana said:


> I'm assuming it used to be +9. :dunno:
> 
> Either way, I love riding duck. I change it for big powder days when I'm set back, but every other time, I'm riding duck.



what do you change it to on big powder days?


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## vrecksler (Apr 18, 2010)

I have duck for about 90% of my riding just because it feels more natural and for the amount of switch riding I do, it's just plain better. But if I am jumping in a CAT or doing turns with 30+ cm of fresh, I go back to a 0 degree on the back foot and that seems to work for me (on a regular cambered board, I keep the duck when riding reverse camber). I still play around with the numbers here and there, same with my stance width, but right now I am liking +12 on the front and -9 on the back.

But I agree with the OP that people should be open to experimenting with their binding angles. Many of my friends have only ridden one set of angles; the ones that were set up for them at the shop. They carry their angle set up to each new board, without attempting something new or questioning the qualifications of the person who set it up originally.


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## Rufus (Nov 7, 2008)

I found that going to a duck stance (+15,-15) and a twin shaped board really helped my progression. I'm pretty ambidextrous and found that the duck stance and twin board made it easy to ride either regular or switch. For powder days I ride a Burton Malolo and with it's setback stance I have my bindings a little less duck, (+15,-9) but it still feels better than 0 degrees on the back foot.


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## Flick Montana (Jul 9, 2007)

thetraveler said:


> what do you change it to on big powder days?


Usually something like +20/+6 or whatever happens to feel comfortable. I'm not really set into one favorite angle.

My duck is usually +15/-15.


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## legallyillegal (Oct 6, 2008)

holy shit what an amazing discovery!


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## BurtonAvenger (Aug 14, 2007)

legallyillegal said:


> holy shit what an amazing discovery!


Now if we could only slice bread!


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## BliND KiNK (Feb 22, 2010)

-15/15 for me .. was thinking of going to like.. -10/10 just to see if I could get a skateboarding feeling but -15/15 is fine for what it is.. which was just my first guess at duck lol


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## Zee (Feb 21, 2008)

My preferred suck is Peking Duck... mmmm










I really like +18/-9... but will run +15/-15 in the park.


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## thetraveler (Feb 24, 2010)

legallyillegal said:


> holy shit what an amazing discovery!





BurtonAvenger said:


> Now if we could only slice bread!


I know, I know . I'm the latter day Christopher Columbus or Nikola Tesla. However, if you ride only 6 or 7 days a year, the last thing you feel like doing is spending time screwing around with your setup, getting used to it, changing it again, etc. Instead, you just want to enjoy every second you have on the mountain. I'm just saying it is worth screwing around with your setup and getting basic things right and putting a hold on all that fun you would be having even when your time is really limited...


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## fredericp64 (Jan 4, 2010)

He's got a point, it's just a wake up call for others who are too lazy to change their angles. 

I started at +15/0 , changed them to duck 2 weeks later. Night an day.


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## chimdogger (Feb 7, 2010)

Goofy duck ftw.


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## legallyillegal (Oct 6, 2008)

i prefer pigeon


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