megladan

because in powder you arent riding up an icy vert wall...

neosuke

heel edge is not difficult at all - I think I feel the lean facilitates better transfer from edge to edge. Though like you said, it may strain your leg muscles becuase you're constantly in such a form.

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"Aren't you afraid I might break the board?"
"Nah, don't worry. You won't break the board, the board will break you."

Rome Graft '08 - 151
Rome 390s '08 Black/Neon Green
Burton Motos

Mirax H

Yup, forward lean has helped me tremendously as a beginner. The first day I started with no lean...then I started messing with it and the more I leaned, the better I rode. I am finally at a point though that I am backing off my lean a little as I think it is making me squat too much and hurting my knees as I ride so I have lessened it some. It's all about finding that perfect balance of everything

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Snowolf

Forward lean is a funny thing. It`s original intent was to improve heelside effectiveness, but what has happened is along with that, it has helped riders maintain a correct stance which helps with their toeside as well. I like to maintain a couple of clicks of forward lean on my Rome bindings. Some bindings have a lot of foward lean built into them naturally while others such as the Rome 390`s are more neutral.

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tboooe

Interesting comments snowolf. I found that by increasing my forward lean, my heelside turns are not as easy (not sure if this is what you mean by effectiveness). For me this is ok since I tend to oversteer on heelside anyway so the extra effort required to initiate and maintain my heelside turn has helped me a great deal. I think the biggest improvement to my riding has been having the correct stance. In comparison to how my stance is now, I was practically standing straight up before. Now I feel much more confident knowing I wont catch an edge while going straight which allows me to concentrate on my carving. Its amazing what some confidence will do.