upper body position on steeper crud

On steeper crud, the tail of my board often gets caught in the snow during turn. To avoid this problem, I have learned to not turn (or turn less of) my upper body when turning (especially toe side) in order to make next turn quicker. Is this a correct technique?  I don’t think this is counter-rotation as the upper body does not move in during turn. Is this the similar to  “counter” in skiing?

Hellside,

It is the same principle as counter in skiing. If you have a twist in your body between upper and lower halves, then there is a natural unwinding force that will happen once you relax your muscles. For short radius turns, this helps bring the board back to you in the bottom half of the turns. If you turn your shoulders to the inside of the new turn to help start a turn, you won't have any unwinding force to help you finish the turn and you'll have that much farther to turn the shoulders back to help the next turn. On steeper more challenging snow, that extra time to turn the shoulders is going to eventually bite you. In easier conditions, you can get away with it.

I tell my students to turn with their feet, not with the shoulders (unless you're airborne).

Thanks Rusty!  Is it a dynamic turn if I make this type of turn on easy trail?

A dynamic turn is when your board gets out away from underneath the body. If you were to draw a line tracing the path of the board's edge through the snow and compare that to a line tracing the path of your belly button over the snow, they would be very different lines. For basic turns, the body never gets more than a foot away from over the top of the board and the 2 lines would have a similar shape.

It is common for dynamic turns to have sequential edge change and leg bend/extend movements instead of simultaneous movements. So instead of changing from toe to hell edge with both feet at the same time, the front foot changes first then the back foot. As the front of the board passes underneath the body, the front leg is bent and the board is flat on the snow. But the back leg is still long, sticking out away from the body and still on edge. As the front foot goes away from the body and the front leg extends, the front of the board starts going onto the new edge. When the back leg passes underneath the body, the back leg bends and the back of the board goes flat to the snow. As the back leg goes out away from the body, the front leg is coming back. If you see someone doing this, the common observation is that they are making "snaky turns".

Most beginning riders make "basic" turns by moving both feet from edge to edge and bending or extending both legs at the same time. It's possible to make dynamic turns on flatter terrain, but it is easier to learn them on slopes with more pitch. When you make dynamic short raidus turns, you don't do any steering with your feet. By controlling the edge angle of the board, getting very high edge angles and bending the board you get all of the directional change that you need.

Quote:

Originally Posted by therusty 

 

So instead of changing from toe to hell edge with both feet at the same time, the front foot changes first then the back foot

very funny!

Quote:

Originally Posted by therusty 

 

the common observation is that they are making "snaky turns".

 

This solves a mystery for me. I have only seen one rider did it. I'll describe it as tornado or dancing noodle. Now I know it is called "snaky turns"

We're all going to the terms "high intensity" and "low intensity" turns out here now.  No more "dynamic".    "Snaky turns"??????

DS,

We missed you at Rider Rally this year. It was interesting watching Lane (the AASI demo team coach) roll his eyes when Josh (another team member) was describing up and forward versus cross over/cross under/dyanmic/basic. Different divisions are introducing different terminology while Lane is trying to consolidate terminology between AASI and USSA/USASA. Ay yi yi!

That Rider Rally looked mighty tempting and nearby.  I need to get re-employed in biotech before I can start taking massive roadtrips again.

AASI-RM introduced new terms at the end of last season and started "somewhat enforcing" them this season.  They won't fail someone in an exam for using an "old" term - they agreed that would be dumb.  I hope this trend towards new terms doesn't continue.

I'm in kind of a good position right now.  We now have in-house training access to Scott Anfang over in Steamboat.  So, we can now crash in-house training clinics at Copper Mtn and Steamboat.   Tony Macri is over at Copper too.  I did some Cert 2 Exam prep training at Steamboat the other week.  I got to meet Bec Marbach too.  Nelson Wingard told me an absolutely hysterical story about tree skiing at Winter Park one day with Bob Barnes & crew.

Did you get a chance to check out Gregg Davis's new website?  He sent me the link the other week.  www.extremesideslipping.com

I saw the site. Sorry, did not think it to be that funny. I actually use riding holding the board as a clinic drill, although most victims give up at holding their toes. Most of the rest of the video I filed under Dave Letterman's stupid pet tricks (yawn). I guess that makes me an old fart. I rode with Scott on Monday at the rally.