Stance Tips:
Posted by Jay_Guindon
Here's what I can tell you about stances, the amount of angle determines how pressure is distributed through your board. The width detrmines your balance and how fast you can spin. Width is pretty simple, wider gives more balance but creates a higher swing weight, narrower makes it easier to spin due to lower swing weight but lowers balance. Finding a good middle round is key unless you only ride rails, then you can just widen your stance way out. With too much binding angle you are causing a misalignment in your lower body. High angles are great for boardslides because it distributes pressure to the outside of your feet causing fewer hang ups, however heelside spins will be difficult due to the weight being distibuted solely to the heels which makes it hard to pop off the heels. Less angle however aligns your hip, knees, and shoulders for precise edge control and more pop as it distributes your weight over the balls of your feet even when on the heel edge. I currently ride 9, -9 which aligns my hips, knees and feet evenly on both sides of my body making switch riding easy, edging more stable and controlled, and pop easier. With these angles however my rail skills have to me precise as the edges are now more succeptible to catching. For this i usually put a two degree base bevel on my board and focus on landing as flat based as possible. Hope that helps.
Spinning Properly
Posted by Jay_Guindon
There's been a lot of discussion on here about spinning and I think the reason for that is that everyone is trying whatever without actually knowing the proper mechanics. There is no right and wrong in snowboarding but there is always an easier and better way to do it. A lot of people seem to have this problem where they do a portion of the spin on the jump or come off the lip really crooked, I used to be one of them, and this is cheating the spin and makes it way harder to hit the sweet spot of the landing. I will post the solution at the bottom of the spin steps. Here is how to spin all four ways.
To spin frontside from goofy:
- Approach the jump flat based from the right hand side.
- As you approach the lip make a toe side turn
- Just as you’re about to hit the lip roll onto your heel edge.
- As soon as you’re on your heel edge you should be at the lip and ready to spin.
- Turn your upper body to the right with enough force to carry you through the rotation.
- Suck your legs up and grab you board.
- As the rotation nears completion, let go of the grab and open up your body to slow the spin and prepare to land.
- Suck up the landing and focus on a point straight down the landing to ride away straight.
To spin backside from goofy:
- Approach the jump flat based from the left hand side.
- As you approach the lip make a heelside turn
- Just as you’re about to hit the lip roll onto your toe edge.
- As soon as you’re on your toe edge you should be at the lip and ready to spin.
- Turn your upper body to the left with enough force to carry you through the rotation.
- Suck your legs up and grab you board.
- As the rotation nears completion, let go of the grab and open up your body to slow the spin and prepare to land.
- Suck up the landing and focus on a point straight down the landing to ride away straight.
To spin backside from regular:
- Approach the jump flat based from the right hand side.
- As you approach the lip make a heelside turn
- Just as you’re about to hit the lip roll onto your toe edge.
- As soon as you’re on your toe edge you should be at the lip and ready to spin.
- Turn your upper body to the right with enough force to carry you through the rotation.
- Suck your legs up and grab you board.
- As the rotation nears completion, let go of the grab and open up your body to slow the spin and prepare to land.
- Suck up the landing and focus on a point straight down the landing to ride away straight.
To spin frontside from regular:
- Approach the jump flat based from the left hand side.
- As you approach the lip make a toeside turn
- Just as you’re about to hit the lip roll onto your heel edge.
- As soon as you’re on your heel edge you should be at the lip and ready to spin.
- Turn your upper body to the left with enough force to carry you through the rotation.
- Suck your legs up and grab you board.
- As the rotation nears completion, let go of the grab and open up your body to slow the spin and prepare to land.
- Suck up the landing and focus on a point straight down the landing to ride away straight.
If you make your set up turns properly you will come off the lip nice and straight. If you are coming off of the lip crooked or are doing a portion of your spin on the jump, it is because you are setting to your spinning edge too soon. Make sure that you are timing your turns so that you are turning on the opposite edge that you will spin from as you get close to the lip so that as soon as you roll to the edge you will spin off of you are at the lip and can begin your spin. A bigger spin uses the same mechanics done with more power or more amplitude.
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