Burton151

When ever i try to ride flat base, my back end drifts and my edges catch. any tips on how to stop that wobble?

Mr. Polonia

riding flat based takes some time to perfect.

It is easier to flat base on park boards because they are
1- softer
2- more forgiving
3- the angle of the base edge is higher, therefore it doesnt catch the snow as much

But the thing u have to learn is to keep your shoulders and head constantly In Line with your board and pointing downhill.

wherever your shoulders twist, is where the rest of your body will follow in one quick motion.
first your head, then your shoulders, then your arms, waist and eventually your board, resulting in an edge catch.

Try it slow on greens and keep everything in line

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Grizz

KISS, you could just not ride flat based.

Why do you want to ride flat?

jpb3

Bend your knees. Seriously, bend your knees until you think your squatting enough and then bend them more.

If your properly aligned and bending at the knees you can pretty much point it anywhere and "flat base", the exception in when your going slow when traversing etc..

Mr. Polonia

when u ride flat based epecially on long green flats, then this will actually make u go faster, because more of the base is exposed where the wax will help you glide, and edge riding actually creates more friction.

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Burton151

Thanks guys going back to the mountain Thursday gonna work on it some more.

rasmasyean

Other than edge tuning your board to raise the base edge off the ground and detuning tip and tail, I found that putting more weight on the nose helps. In effect what this does is make you tail more "loose" or "flailing" rather "dig in" on imperfect wobbles. I mean, not to the point of doing a nose press, but maybe like 80-20 or something? You can try that and tell me if that works for you at what weighting.

Unless you have a park-like board or tune, it might still wobble a bit depending on the terrian so it's a matter of attaining "corrective" balance via practice so this doesn't freak you out and throw you off.

Grizz

With a very slight edge engagement you will eliminate all the problems of riding flat based and still have 99% of the speed.

Snowolf

First off, I will agree with Grizz. Except for limited situations, you really do not want to get in the habit of riding flat based for long distances. The age old debate about whether you get more glide on edge or flat based has been going on unsolved for years and will still be going on long after we are all worm food. I think this depends on the snow conditions and the condition on the board`s base. In we, sticky, spring snow, riding on edge gives much better glide than riding flat based. On ice, flat based seems to be the better choice. Cold dry snow can go either way depending on the wax condition. Regardless, flat based riding really requires more work that it is worth in my book.

But, to answer your questions specifically, lets break this down into borad performance concepts:

PIVOT:
For flat based riding this one is key. Since you don`t want to edge, you really can`t turn. The only way to keep your board straight and aligned with your trajectory is to pivot it. Unwanted pivot on a flat based board is a wicked edge catch waiting to happen. The idea here is to ride as if your are doing a 50/50 down a box. Keep hips, shoulders and head aligned with your trajectory and the board will follow. Rotate out of this state at all and the board will pivot.

TILT
Again, if you goal is to remain truly flat based, you don`t want any tilt of the board for that engages the edge and side cut, causing a drift or turn one way or the other. To prevent tilt, you must keep your body centered over your board without leaning over either edge.

PRESSURE:
Just like tilt, pressure will cause the edge to engage and create drift or turn. When you want to ride truly flat based, you need to ensure that your feet are sitting on your board totally neutral without any pressure differences on heels or toes.

TWIST
As with tilt and pressure, torsional twist, even slight, will change the shape of the board`s base and create turning forces. With enough twist, the edge will engage and create a turn. When riding flat based, you must keep your feet neutral and not allow any heel or toe pressure to twist the board.


While not specifically a board performance concept, let`s talk about how your weight is positioned on the board.

WEIGHT DISTRIBUTION
We all know that the heavy end of the board goes down the hill or across the flats first and fastest. If you do not have your weight shifted forward, the rear of the board is heavier and wants to pass the nose. It`s the same principle that causes a tractor trailer to jack knife on an icy highway when the brakes are applied hard. The trailer is heavier than the tractor ans whips around. Your board will react the same unless the front is always heavier than the tail.

As Grizz points out, if the rider maintains a very low edge angle, any possible speed loss (in a few conditions) is well worth it because the rider does not have to juggle all of these board performance issues. Another benefit is if your are on an edge, you really don`t have to ever worry about catching an edge.

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Grizz

Wolf, What I'm really getting at you've outlined very well above.

If the main reason to ride flat based is to keep up speed, wouldn't a pivot (skid) be the last thing you want to do for a direction change.

As we've talked about before, it is possible to have the nose flat based for speed and keep the tail slightly on edge through twist. I think in most conditions this allows you the best combination of control and speed while crossing the flats.