Snowboarding Forum - Snowboard Enthusiast Forums banner

Does toe edge mean toes?

5K views 15 replies 5 participants last post by  deeppowder 
#1 ·
In snowboarding, we refer to our toe edge and heel edge all the time. I am sure we use our heels when we are on our heel edge. But when you are supposedly on your 'toe edge', are you really on your toes or in fact on the balls of your feet (the front part of the sole of the feet behind the toes)?

I think I have been using just the balls of my feet when I am on my 'toe edge'. At least there was once when I was scrambling to force a late brake, I thought I had to have used my toes in desperation. It hurt immediately and when I got home, I realized a painful hematoma had developed under one of my nail plates. I drained it and it was uneventful thereafter. But it got me into wondering if what we talk about toe edge pressure in snowboarding, actually mean the toes or rather the balls of our feet.
 
#11 ·
I am increasingly going to suspect that our toes are not the key area to exert pressure on when we are on our toe edges, even though we always could technically.

Look at the following youtube video that teaches on how to set up bindings by sierrasnowboard. Look at 1:30 through to 3:30. Doug recommends to adjust the toe ramp to about an inch behind the tip of the boot. He did not say how much that was, but you could roughly eyeball the distance between the toe ramp and the tip of the boot. Even though he was talking about Burton bindings, I think the same general principles apply across other brands.

Burton EST Bindings - How to Setup & Adjust - YouTube

Seriously I think I could pressure on my toes while I am on my toe edge, but I think the pressure contact points are actually more in the region of the balls of the feet in reality. Hence pressuring our toes while on toe edge may tire our toe flexors (digital muscles of our feet in anatomy) needlessly. I might be wrong after all.
 
#12 ·
good point snow wolf, I suppose when riding more aggressively you do get onto the toes. Good pics to prove the point! Do you think the blue toenails could be from the boots being a little too small and jamming against the end? or do you think that would happen regardless of boot size?
 
#14 ·
There is a thread on boot fitting and why do my feet hurt. They could be too small or too big. My big toes use to get jammed forward into the front of my ski boots if I leaned back or didn't flex my ankles. Do your toes hurt when you just wear your boot, do they hurt when you are riding a certain way? If you are sliding down heel edge perpendicular to the slope, either your body weight will be jamming your toes forward or your weight will be supported by your ankle strap and shin, which is much less painful.

When I tighten my boots , I make sure that my heel is pushed backward by pushing my shin into the tongue of my boots when I tighten my inner and outer boot. With my boots F20 I have to tighten the lower boot first, lock the laces then tighten the upper boot.

Also make sure your toenail is trimmed.
 
#13 · (Edited)
I find that it is both and the degree to which you transition from the balls of the feet onto the actual toes depends upon how aggressively you ride and the edge angle you maintain. Certainly, mellow cruising on green and blue terrain utilizing low edge angle skidded turns does not require the rider to use more than moderate pressure with balls of the feet. Riding aggressive black, double black and off piste technical steeps or any dynamic skidded turns as well as true carving will require the rider to employ higher edge angles and rolling from the balls of the feet onto the actual toes. I usually always have the blue toenail on both big toes as a result of my aggressive riding style. As you can see, the balls of my feet are not anywhere near touching the snow:
Good. Cause I am wondering if I should avoid pressuring my toes altogether. Most of the time I am not riding hard hence there's a good case that I should not be on the toes most of the time.

As I mentioned in the first post, I got a blue nail too. And actually not once. If it happens on the first day of a trip to a resort, it could severely limit how further hard I could ride or practice in the next few days. It basically ruins the trip. It's not just the physical color under the nail. It's very tender and the bleeding or bruise could spread beyond the area of the nail as well. It's certainly an ugly looking trauma.

As soon as I had the blue nail, I wondered if pressuring on the toes technically was a big mistake. If anyone uses their toes on their toe edges on a frequent basis, getting a blue nail is almost unavoidable. But even if professional coaches like you also get blue toes from riding hard, at least I should not be too hard criticizing myself either.

Thanks for the valuable pictures. I have no problem taking your word for it that you were using your toes in those carves. But seriously unlike deeppowder, I could not tell which part of the front of the feet you were using within the boots from those pictures. Again, I believe you that you were using your toes in those instances.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top