tboooe

I am having a lot of trouble with my heel side turns. On my toe side, when I do it right, the board carves along a nice arc. But on my heel side, when ever I initiate a turn my board instantly orientates itself approx 30 degrees to the left of what direction of travel the board was traveling in. This of course causes the board to just skid for some time before the edge can catch and turn the board. I have tried using just my front foot and booth feet to initiate the turn but the results are the same. No what matter what I do, no matter how fast I am going my heel side turns always end up as a skid then the board tracks along an angled straight line. What am I doing wrong to cause the rear of the board to whip around like that? On my toe side, I can feel the rear of the board tracking nicely behind the front of the board as I carve. I cant seem to do the same on the heel side. Its like the board is trying to go perpendicular to the direction of travel to stop quickly.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. This is getting really frustrating. I am finally getting some consistency carving on the toe side but my heel side makes me look a beginner trying to scrub speed, scrapping down the hill!

Sethsticle

I had the same problem when I first started learning, and I fixed it by simply raising my initiating toe up a little bit. It flexes the board a little bit and the front edge catches a little more. It doesnt take much to start turning, it takes a lot more effort to control your turn. Hope that helps!

Snowolf

This very specific problem is super hard to diagnose without seeing you ride and doing an movement analisys, but a couple of things come to mind that you can look into. First, do you have a lot of foward lean on your highbacks? Forward lean is great and really helps with heelside turns, but it can be overdone. Also, take note of what your upper body is doing. This probelm can be caused by over rotation of the upper body. Also check to see if by any chance you are bringing your rear hand out in front of you as your go into this turn. This can cause you to over rotate also. Lastly, check to see if you are leaning your entire body over that heel edge. This is a common problem also, Bend the ankles and kness more and keep the upper body erect and over your board.

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FryS@uce

sounds like board flex problems to me. i'd try making sure I was lifting my front toe first and then the rear following. I have the same skidding problem if I move both feet at the same time. There should be a rhythm to the movement that is really smooth, almost feels like the leading heel edge guides the rear edge along in it's wake. You know you have it right if it feels solid and kinda calm

tboooe

thanks snowolf and frys@uce. I think you guys are right. I was looking at some video my wife took of me snowboarding recently and I noticed that right before I initiate a heelside turn, I squat down in a sitting like position without bending forward at the waist. What this does is put pressure on both my heels at the same time. This in itself is not bad but the situation is made worse because after squatting I then lift my toe to intiate the turn which of course is already initiated when I started the squat. Of course all of this action leads to over steer. I dont have this issue on my toe side because my body is pretty stable when I turn. I only arc my back after the turn is initiated to try and keep more weight over the edge. So I will need to concentrate on first lifting my front toe or using both my feet NOt both when initiating a heel side turn. I think ideally I would prefer to just my front foot. Once the turn is initiated I can then squat but I need to make sure I bend forward at the waist to keep my weight over the edge.

I am not sure I can remember this next season but perhaps the summer break will allow me to shed this bad habit and start out fresh next season. Thanks again!