jjz

Using my weightlifting knowledge, i would say that you probably want to widen your stance. If you want to be technical about it, by widening your stance your making it so that your knees dont travel as far forward, not passing your toes.

When you knees travel over your toes, it increases torque on them.

Also, you may want to try riding with more of a "cowboy stance".

When doing squats, weightlifters try to avoid there knees buckling in, similiar to keeping your knees facing out when cowboy stance riding. Im not an instructor but im sure one of the guys can explain cowboy stance better than i so im gonna leave it to them.

0f0t

thanks for your input everyone i'm 16, the pain is usually in the front more towards the inside of my knees after i ride. They really hurt after sitting for long periods of time, i find it hard to stand up. After i get moving it generally goes away. Its usually just feels like its really sore. i don't usually stretch. I think thats it

BigmountainVMD

I'm gonna throw growing pains up there since you are only 5'3" and 16, but the cowboy stance mentioned above may have some effect. I would focus on how you are bending your knees. Think of a straight line going out from your heel to your toes on each foot. When you bend your knees, try to keep them following that line. I would widen your stance a bit, because 18 inches is pretty short. You wanna go at least a little bit wider than shoulder width. Just make sure when you bend your knees that they are not getting any closer together. Check out "medial collateral ligament or MCL" on google and see if any of that makes sense. This is a page on injuries but it is just a start --> http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/e...cle/001076.htm

I would guess that when you bend your knees, you are bringing your knees closer together, putting excess pressure on the outside of your knee, and stretching the MCL. I know this pic is weird, but if you imagine a line drawn from the hip to the knee, and another line from the heel to the toe, they are both pointing in the same direction, so no extra pressure or tension is put on any ligaments of the knee.



You don't want your stance nearly as wide as the guy in the pic, but the knees and toes pointing in the same direction is important. What I think you are doing is squeezing you knees together in a way (closer to the blue weight in the pic) which causes undo strain on the MCL.

Stretching is a big one and can really help. Quad, hamstring and calf stretches for sure. Also doing some hamstring exercises helps. You pretty much use your quads all day and your hamstrings very little, so if your quads start overpowering your hamstrings too much, you can get some pain (although I believe what you are experiencing is not caused by this, and is more of an MCL thing.)

Donutz

LOL, I'm 55 and I have the same symptoms. Pretty sure that doesn't mean that I have the knees of a 16 year old. Or if I do, I should return them

Check your stance as others have said. But in addition, do some ice-pack. If you have some swelling from abusing your knees, you can either take it easy for a week or two (which means no snowboarding -- screw that!) or you can reduce the swelling with a bit of cold therapy. Works for me.

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Soggysnow

Or bad patella tracking (like me) which is cause for concern but can be helped by a physio.

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I ride: NS Pandora 146 + Salomon Absolute premium Bindings
Stepchild PMS 149 + Nitro Eris Bindings
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Soggysnow

It could be a fat pad inpingement. It can get very painful inside/under kneecap, the knee on the medial (inside) side. It mimics the pain of a meniscus injury. You may find it gets swollen or spongy.
I actually have this and its a real pain, especially now I am riding more park. There is a way to tape it so that you lift the fat pad up so it doesn't get trapped/irritated.
Get a physio to do a few tests to see if it is this, or just a general tracking problem. It sounds like you need a little something to help.

__________________
I ride: NS Pandora 146 + Salomon Absolute premium Bindings
Stepchild PMS 149 + Nitro Eris Bindings
+15 -12