Name Your Top 5 Performance Improvements to Your Riding

[Jim Callen]

1. I stopped focusing on technique and started focusing on having fun.

2. I started living for pow, not groom.

3. Aspen.

[Helmut Karvlow]

Yes...I did a search...ok only one, but let's try this:

Like it says: Name the top improvements that had a major improvement on your riding.

For me: not any any order,

1- New Deeluxe Suzuka Boots - you don't want to know how old my old pair were!
2- New Virus Board - uh, same as above on my old board
3- Additional lift on rear binding
4- Boot bias really made it come together

Uh, hey Crash, you forgot running into me and Shred when you were just starting out.
remember, you would go straight like a nut then expolde in a cloud of snow.

[Helmut Karvlow]

my top 5. Ridding with and talking to.
Billy Bordy
Billy Bordy
Billy Bordy
Billy Bordy
and last, Billy Bordy.

[Steve Prokopiw]

Hardboots
Hardboots with BTS springs
Hardboots on all kinds of boards on all kinds of terrain
Riding with skilled riders
Teaching other riders

oh,and my nosemounted camera :-)

[dingbat]

1. I stopped focusing on technique and started focusing on having fun.

Ding-ding-ding. Winner!

[DenverSteve]

1.) Buying new Sazuka's to replace my old Burton Reactors
2.) Buying my first Donek FC1 (used)
3.) Buying new Donek FC Olympic
4.) Meeting great people on BOL and riding behind great riders.
5.) Practice on the steeps and varied terrain.

[*Ace*]

1. Moving to CO for the season, 120 days on snow.
2. Skwal/skinny boards. Wide boards and low angles suck!
3. Riding off piste, trees, bumps.
4. Riding with/watching skilled riders.
5. Thermo liners. Happy feet!

[b0ardski]

+1
mold-able liners = happy feet

[Ian M]

1. Five days of carving lessons when I was about 12
2. Riding with great riders at SOS, ECES, SQS
3. Riding a metal Coiler built for my weight on hardpack
4. Adding flex back to my system - yellow TD3s, blue BTS on T700
5. Watching video of myself and others
6. FEELING THE FUN instead of thinking the technique!

To me, carving sounds like 'wheeeeeeeee!'

[davekempmeister]

1. consistently riding road bikes , a tierney board and swimming
2 having fun, letting it happen and taking a whole-body approach (not just quads and abs)
3. close eye on nutrition and maintaining the same anatomy year to year
4. riding in all conditions at every opportunity
5. good boards, bindings and boots

[John Gilmour]

1. Gilmour Bias (the simplest and most important power transmission through to the board- put your weight where it works)
2. Riding alone on the slopes including the lift so I had to think about what I just did on the lift instead of chit chatting.
3. Season passes and steep terrain.
4. Hurling myself at the snow and making sure my board is there to catch me.
5. Making other peoples poorly designed crap flexing decks work with good technique (ever wonder why I try to carve on a powder board?), so I can apply solid techniques to great gear.

Tryin' to look stylin' fo all dem bitches....(that actually don't exist in large numbers at any ski resorts.) but at least you can pretend so you ride harder and faster.

[*Ace*]

1. Gilmour Bias (the simplest and most important power transmission through to the board- put your weight where it works)
2. Riding alone on the slopes including the lift so I had to think about what I just did on the lift instead of chit chatting.
3. Season passes and steep terrain.
4. Hurling myself at the snow and making sure my board is there to catch me.
5. Making other peoples poorly designed crap flexing decks work with good technique (ever wonder why I try to carve on a powder board?), so I can apply solid techniques to great gear.

Tryin' to look stylin' fo all dem bitches....(that actually don't exist in large numbers at any ski resorts.) but at least you can pretend so you ride harder and faster.

So thats why you didn't show up any day at SES. Why try the new gear at the demo tent when you just hurl yourself at the snow on your crap flexing decks?


Or maybe you were being held captive in a cougar den??

[John Gilmour]

actually, first day of WCS I took two runs under the cloud 9 lift and felt my back was too sore for work.

Cougar Den... I hear they have good food.

[corey_dyck]

In order of discovery for me:
1. Lots and lots of reading about technique and watching videos. (No locals to learn from) Thanks to all the contributors on BOL!
2. Pushing my limits every day I ride. If I'm not crashing/sliding out then I'm coasting and need to try something new.
3. Properly-sized boots and thermo liners. Hey, my feet don't hurt any more!
4. Riding a few different boards with wildly different properties. The good habits tend to work on many different boards while the bad habits may only work on one.
5. Going to SES & NES and riding with/learning from awesome riders. A special thanks to Steve R., Darcy, and Shaun Cassidy (sp?) for their guidance and tips!

I find that the advancements come very frequently when getting started, then it gets harder and harder to make small steps. That's pretty much the same for everything you learn in life though!

[pokkis]

1. more than 1000 days on slope
2. constantly filming myself and others, and watching these films
3. adjusting Indy's very upright positions with looong soft spring to support long stance
4. Coilers, specially wide NSR's
5. Plates

[sic t 2]

"push-pull":
To me this technique is the secret to carving narrow, double-black steeps in soft boots (and when I mean soft boots I mean freestyle angles: 24/12 or less where you are really in that awkward "heal/toe" carving mode (and especially so on the healside ! ).
Now push-pull has nothing to do with dragging your body on the slope (which is just drag that is best avoided) but has to do with its ability to remove G-forces from the board at the most demanding part of the carve so the board won't skid out from under you. You see, by having your legs fully extended, and the board high on edge before its even pointed straight downhill, permits you to remove g-forces from the board when it hits its point of max loading (as it nears a perpendicular run to the true fall line) by allowing you to flex your fully extended knees (ie; you "pull" the boards towards you while giving it a slight upslope "point"). This takes a huge amount of g-forces off he board and allows it to carve a clean line under you. Remember, you can't "pull" g-forces of the board if you are already fully compressed. That is why you have to get your legs fully extended just before the board encounters its maximum g-forces, you go to be ready, to have something in reserve to "give back". Of course, once the carve attack is complete you get ready for the next attack by getting fully extended once again, ready to compress, ready to pull g-forces off the board in the next carve. And so it goes... back and forth, healside to toeside, until there is no more double black slope left... ahhh... too bad,, we are in the boring flats now.

of course you can then take these exact same double-black "push-pull" skills to the flatlands and have the ultimate fun with it.
all you need to do is preserve about 40 mph and make sure no one is behind you
but that's a post for another day ...

(( the other 4 performance improvements don't rate a mention here ))

[jtslalom]

1) Riding with my friends back in 1988-89 season
2) Learning to carve in soft boots prior to the 1990's
3) Burtons 1990 PJ
4) Hot Logical asym boards
5) Coaching a high school ski race team and hanging out with USSA ski racers and coaches

[Ian M]

7. Riding empty hills mid-week so I can really get in my groove. No spectators, less ego, more clarity

[keltacer]

Meeting a BOL member who told me my board setup was jacked up. Changes were noticed right away. Thanks Atom Ant!

[SunSurfer]

1/ Boots that fit my foot shape (HSPs, wide forefoot & slim heel), coupled with mouldable liners, insoles, and moving my Intec cable to the inside of my heel. Result: Comfortable, well supported feet. No pain!

2/ Finding a balanced stance, in particular on my front foot, with the correct combination of toe & heel lift and canting. What is right for me ( 3 deg toe lift, 6 deg heel lift, no canting), won't necessarily be right for you. Received very good advice about how to go about this via Erik Beckmann. Result: Easy to ride one footed off lifts etc and well balanced on the board generally.

Spending some time on the gentlest of Green slopes working on slowly carving all of every turn. How?
3/ Angulation: keeping my upper body erect, while my pelvis/legs follow the angle of the board.
It helped that I was trying to keep a video camera on the side of my helmet as stable and parallel to the horizon as possible.
I also imagined I was holding a tray in front of me with cups on and trying not to spill them. Result: Quiet upright upper body, with weight kept centred or slightly forward and no trailing arms.
4/ Concentrating on applying edge pressure with the outside/upper knee in the turn.
What do I mean? When I turn left, my right leg is on the outside of the turn, and when I turn right, my left knee is on the outside. When the board goes up onto its' edge, the outside knee also becomes the upper knee.
I concentrate on pushing the inside of the upper knee down towards the snow as I carve the turn. When I do this, the edge bites, the board carves a beautiful groove, and I don't fall. Heelside and toeside turns become equally clean carves. When I forget, I skid the turn or fall.

5/ Get a lower body position by bending my knees. This helps me to soak up both the bumps, but also the times that the edge slips away from me momentarily. It also helps me get the board even more up on its' edge.

For me, the key to making the transition to consistent clean carves was practicising 3 & 4 on a slope where I didn't have to worry about picking up too much speed, with plenty of run off room, so that I could think each turn through. Then practising until the angulation, balance & knee weighting became almost completely automatic.

SunSurfer

[darko714]

my top 5. Ridding with and talking to.
Billy Bordy
Billy Bordy
Billy Bordy
Billy Bordy
and last, Billy Bordy.

--------------------
Ha ha! Billy is on my list, too.


1. Jeorg Egli Pureboarding Clinic. Powerful new techniques that are fun to practice and have me on the verge of becoming a legit carver.
2. Mount Hood Summer Snowboard Camp - 7 days of bluebird riding in July! Bordy was my coach. His advice, and enthusiasm, were priceless. Cleaned up my stance . . . Keep your shoulders level with the slope!
3. Season Pass
4. A longer board. It won't help everyone, but I was riding a Donek 162 Axxis and had plateaued. Another hardbooter lent me his old F2 186 Speedster. It was stable as a jetliner at speed and gave me new confidence. I ordered a used Prior 183 WCRM the next week. Now,when I go back to the Donek, I ride it a lot better.
5. NASTAR racing. The handicaps may be suspicious, and the skiers ruts sketchy, but the times don't lie. 10 bucks to challenge yourself in the gates all afternoon is a bargain.

[Rob Stevens]

This is a really good topic. Yeah Barryj!

For me, the first thing was having the luck to start young. When you get to do something for a lifetime, it puts you on a fun sort of autopilot for most of what comes at you. Hairy **** notwithstanding, of course.
Being in real mountains with real snow would be next. If you can't start at 13, you can do this at anytime. As long as you're willing to take a big step back in other responsibilities pretty much everybody thinks are important, you're good.
The People. They were all awesome. Thanks!
Technically in Carving? That the back foot would be only slightly less angled than the front. I've been chasing an old hardboot, high-angle heelturn of mine in a low-angle freeride / freestyle stance since 1999, when I did my last day in hardboots. I'm starting to become discouraged and suspect it may not be possible.
Technically in Freeriding? No bindings!

There's so many good words in this thread. It's super entertaining and really worth reading from start to finish.

[pogokoenig]

1. My buddies, who brought me to snowboarding in 1993, were snowboard instructors and carving maniacs. I could learn it properly from scratch.
2. I started together with a friend and my brother. We had a kind of a competition from day 1 and it is still going on. (i was the slowest to learn but no need to say that I have outrun them for lightyears )
3. In 1997 passed two consecutive 8 days trainings for instructors - back then it was very alpine focussed. This has given me the theoretical background and the training to translate any situation on the terrain into snowboarding - regardless of styles and techniques.
4. in 1998 had a long weekend's training with a trainer for blind skiers. That was an eye opener - literally.
5. After alpine was deemed dead, getting in touch with great people through internet communities like FB, BOL and EC. This has very much opened up my riding after years of doing my "own" stuff. That was around 2005 and 2006.

[BobD]

Kevin Ryan's Illustrated Guide to Snowboarding would be on my list.

[inkaholic]

Kevin Ryan's Illustrated Guide to Snowboarding would be on my list.

I'll let Kevin know that his book made a top 5 performance improvement list. He will be really excited that it has helped. That is the whole reason for him writing/illustrating it.

Ink

[Ian M]

Kevin Ryan's Illustrated Guide to Snowboarding would be on my list.

This is the first time I've heard this book mentioned. Are there any other resources like this?

[BobD]

I'll let Kevin know that his book made a top 5 performance improvement list. He will be really excited that it has helped. That is the whole reason for him writing/illustrating it.

Ink

Do. It helped me really understand movement, but not just for snowboarding, but as a WW kayak Instructor Trainer (at the time) it opened up a new way to see movement.

[Erik J]

1 - Going to ECES. I was exposed to upper levels of riding, equipment and drinking that I'd never seen before.

2 - finding BOL. I've been on here since the old forum and have learned soooo much from this site

3 - moving out west. riding my hardboot setup anywhere and everywhere, on and off piste, made me a more rounded snowboarder

4 - moving back east and finding out that my west coast experience meant nothing on ice - east coast is where I was able to dial a lot of things in.

5 - always having a season pass, always being close to a ski lift. I go out for one run sometimes just for the hell of it.

[Donek]

1. Finding the one coach who stopped coaching for a day and just watched. Sean MacCarron Fixed my stance and allowed me to stop focusing on technique and just ride. The most important lesson I learned is that everyone is different and generic rules about stance have absolutely no place in snowboarding or carving.

2. Forcing myself to ride boards that were well outside my comfort zone.

3. Riding a plate.

[~tb]

2. Forcing myself to ride boards that were well outside my comfort zone.

Sean,

Does this mean we are pulling the 205 out of the closet at the ECES for you to ride next week? I think it is about time!