Carving: Ranges of movement
by Thomas Palka
April 2007
Feel like you hit a wall with carving? Carving in the "park and ride" style, where you get nice deep and fast carves, stand up in the transitions, then lower your body into the next turn? Still thinking about where you put your hands, wonder about counter-rotating, bending too much here or there? Hopefully this article will give you some ideas on things to try to improve your riding.
Those were the problems that I struggled with, and thanks to Lowell Hart, Joerg Egli, and the helpful folks on the BomberOnline forums, I feel that I improved my riding tremendously. I'd like to share some of the lessons I learned, in the hope that someone may find some of them useful.
DISCLAIMER: I am not an instructor nor do I play one on TV. There are many ways to carve and to have fun on a carving board -- here are some ideas and techniques that increased MY OWN confidence and fun.
I believe that there are many styles of ride, and don't believe that any style is better than others. There are techniques that work better than others depending on the terrain, on the snow, and on the equipment ridden. I tend to disagree with anyone who says "this is right" or "that is wrong". Personally I aspire to ride in a variety of styles and to be able to transition between them seamlessly. I have a long way to go!
Applying ankles and extension on a steeper slope
As you read about these various ideas, think about where your riding falls in the spectrum. For example, when considering ankle movement, do you ride with fairly stiff boots that are always locked? Or do you like riding in the unlocked mode and flex your ankles as part of the turn, getting a bigger range of motion?
The seven ranges of movement
It helped me to think of riding in terms of the range of my movement along four main axis, call them dimensions. Those are fore and aft, toeside and heelside (Europeans: frontside and backside), up and down, and rotation. Add the ranges of movement in the main joints used for carving: ankles, knees, and hips. Developing comfort in riding with with largest ranges of these movements will enable the rider to master many techniques and different styles, rather than staying in the rather static and locked park-and-ride carve.
Fore and aft
For most riding it would seem that the rider should be centered on the
board. I found that on heelsides I tend to my weight forward, to push
the nose into the turn. On my toesides I tend to relax a bit and move
slightly back of the center, especially at the end of the carve when
I'm freeing up the nose to initiate the next heelside. Experiment with
riding too much in the back, too much in the front, and see what your
range of comfort is.
Up and down
Some people like riding low, crouched over their boards and getting
their center of mass close to the edge. Others prefer to ride high,
standing up and enjoying the world. Riding in the medium position, where
ankles are flexed and knees are bent provides the most versatile position.
It allows the rider the space to bring the knees higher and to absorb
the impact, just as it provides the necessary cushioning when catching
some air. Riding low all the time is inviting the kneecap to go through
the jaw, and riding high leaves the back unprotected.
Riding in the middle position offers plenty of movement opportunity in both directions.
Some people try to get low by bending their knees, and are unable to flex the ankles due to very stiff boots. That causes the butt to stick further back, and the only way to ride the board centered is to bend in the waist. That position does not the freedom necessary to move through the vertical range of motion and is inefficient.
Toeside and heelside
It seems to me that many East Coast riders are all about staying right
over the edge to provided maximum edge hold. That is a good strategy
for hard and icy snow, but those of us fortunate to ride in other conditions
have more leeway. As long as the center of mass (COM) is low, the body
can be moved away from the edge and into the turn. Experiment, see how
far it's possible to lean into the turn. Note how getting lower makes
it possible to lean further.
Rotation
Rotation is a hot topic -- lots of opinions about why it's bad, why
it's good, etc. In my opinion, counter-rotation is bad -- the rider
moves the body one way to force the board to move in the opposite direction.
But, properly used, rotation allows the rider to move into the turn
first, forcing the board to follow. In some ways it makes riding a lot
simpler, as the properly executed rotation will transparently move the
center of mass over the correct edge. I like rotation.
Ankle flexion
After two years of riding in walk-mode I realized some inherent dangers
of doing so -- the boots are simply not designed to ride unlocked and
may break. Enter the Bomber BTS, a spring-based system that controls
the boot flexion and allows for largest ranges of movement.
The ankle is a small joint, and closest to the board. It is the most efficient (read: fastest) way to control the board, as a small movement in the ankle is immediately transmitted to the board. The more the rider relies on the joints further from the body, the bigger and harder he must make the movement. In my opinion using joints further-away is inefficient.
Knees
The knees act as the major shock absorbers. Many riders use the knees
as the way of controlling the board, due to riding in overly stiff boots.
They can be efficiently used to force different parts of the board during
the turn -- it's connected with the fore- and aft- movements.
Hips
Bending in the waist seems counter-productive until after the ankles
and knees have gone through their range of motion. Often riders bend
at the waist to touch the snow, as that provides some mental comfort
-- I believe that once the ankles are flexed and the knees bend, i.e.
the center of mass is low and close to the edge, the carve is so solid
that it doesn't really matter what the upper body is doing.
It is important to rotate the hips into the turns -- the main effect of rotating into the turns is bringing the hips in-line with the board. Riders who don't do it are often accused of "toilet-butt", often their heads and/or shoulders are rotated in the direction of the turn but the movement just didn't go low enough. With more experience, riders are able to rotate their hips without having to go through a big rotation in the upper body.
Exercises
These are a few of the exercises that I found useful. Find more at the
Bomber:
Carving Practice Drills.
