Snowolf

Pointing with the hip simply means that you rotate your hips a little to initiate turns. If going toeside, you would shift your hips a little so that you point your leading hip toward the toe edge of the board. Squeezing the knees together is something I am not familiar with, but have also heard the term.....

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Nito

Hi Snowolf,

I squeeze my knees together to flex the board. For example, after I initiate my turn, if I want to reduce my turning radius I squeeze my knee to flex the board more.

BTW, my angles are 12/3 but some friends do this riding duck.

If this is a bad technique, please let us know.

Thanks - Nito

Snowolf

Oh I get it...on edge doing that would make for a deeper sidecut...makes sense. I am going to have to play with that today when I go ride. I don`t know if this is considered bad or not, but anything that aids in good board control and performance is generally good. Thanks for the explanation...I look forward to playing around with this in some high speed carves.

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SpAcEmAn SpLiFF

i have a habit of sticking out my hand when i turn toeside (like as if i was preparing to catch myself if i fall). sometimes, i lean enough that my fingers drag into the snow. i feel like one of these days, im probably gonna fall on my hand and its gonna hurt my fingers/wrist like a mofo.

is this bad form?

scottland

When I'm playing around with real sharp toeside turns, I drag my hand in the snow for fun =/ But i guess that's something different =p

apoc4lypse

agreed lol... its definitely fun if ur in powder especially...

TNT

Maybe bad form, but definitely bad from a safety standpoint, especially if on ice. As one who habitually sticks his hands out to break his fall, like the idiot he is, I must recommend against doing so if for the sake of balance/concern at falling. If it's all style and you're comfortable you won't fall, have at it, but just know that we you fall, you want to tuck those arms, or at least fall on the whole of the forearm, putting no torque on the wrist.
Trust me, I just fractured my wrist 3 weeks ago - I would take 100 body shots from the same fall if I could take back that mistake. I've still kept on snowboarding, but I'm very limited in what I am willing to do since a fall at this point could mean disaster. Knees and wrists are the big things to worry about in normal riding (if you wear a helmet of course).

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-TNT

SpAcEmAn SpLiFF

i actually have really bad wrists from riding too, but im pretty good now. ive been doin it for 6 or 7 years and ive gotten into a good habit of "rolling" into my falls, so i rarely try to catch my fall with my hands/wrists.

the funny thing is when i wasnt as good, id see all these people that were way better than me carving really hard and doing what i do, and i thought to myself "im never gonna do that, it could be so potentially dangerous for your wrists", and somehow i developed this habit by accident without even thinking about it. i always thought they just did it because it looked cool, but im definately not doing this for style

b_to_the_c

I have no idea if I have any bad habits, but I remember after my first season someone told me to stay on my front foot when initiating turns and that corrected a huge bad habit. I was also a whole lot less tired in my quads after a day of riding after learning that little gem. I've been snowboarding for almost 4 seasons now, and I do a decent job in some pretty advanced terrain, but I've never taken any kind of a formal lesson. Should I consider taking an advanced lesson some time just to see if I can improve my technique at all?

laz167

I wouldnt say its bad form, but actually last week my Gf and I spent the week in stratton and we decided to take lessons to eliminate bad habits or forms.My gf apperently had the habit of having her back hand flapping around, the instructor told her to place her back hand by her crotch (yeah like if you had to pee) and it seemed to work for her.