Originally Posted by Snowolf

Yeah, I love high speed carving when the snow is good. Nothing like fresh corduroy in the morning for some hard carving!. I think you may be onto something about the short crowded runs; pretty hard to open it up safely in that environment. Out here yo see a fair amount of it. I even saw a guy today fruit booting with an alpine carving board. Thing looked like it as at least a 200 Cm and narrow! They dude was getting on it too. Not my style, but he was impressive doing it....props....

Originally Posted by Snowolf

Hi!

Well lets start by clearing up a very common misconception. Actual carving is a different animal than making standard linked turns which are skidded turns (the tail scrapes in a wider arc than the nose and the track in the snow is more of a smear wheres a carve leaves a very thin line in the snow as if done with a knife).

So, you do fine initiating and maintaining a good heelside turn but are having some issues with the toeside? First, is your main challenge the turn initiation or is it in maintaining the turn once it begins?

Some general tips for good toeside turn initiation:

1) Get your weight up onto your front foot so you have good torsional flex.

2) Flex down low anytime you are about to initiate a turn.

3) Dip your front shoulder a little bit down toward the nose of your board. This will put your shoulders parallel to the snow and set you up in a good perpendicular position relative to the slope.

4) When you drop your front knee down to apply toe pressure onto the toe edge with the front foot, roll the knee in toward your rear foot just a bit. This creates rotational force as well as twist.

5) Roll your back knee out toward the tail of your board. This adds more rotational force.

6) Position for front shoulder slightly over the toe edge of your board. This also adds rotational force and it also allows you to pressure the toe edge with your front foot more efficiently.

7) Make sure you don`t have the "mystery date" That is holding the back hand out in front of you. Get that back hand over the tail of the board behind you.

Now, once you are beginning to turn, slowly extend your legs to push against the board. This helps set your edge and it increases the efficiency of the board`s sidecut to make for a more powerful, controlled turn. Along with this, slowly shift your body weight toward the rear. At the apex of the turn, you should be centered and at maximum extension.

For good turn completion, continue your aft shift and begin to slowly flex down low again. This action helps reduce chatter and edge washout at the bottom of the turn.

One big issue for many people with the toeside turn initiation if a fear of commitment. The rider often feels as if they are leaning down hill. This is a natural apprehension and one that goes away with experience. You learn to trust your board and your own abilities with experience. The biggest inhibitor to good turn initiation is leaning back and hesitation. Leaning back prevents your board from being able to engage the sidecut into the snow and start the turn and hesitation creates a sideslip that then must be checked before turn initiation.

At your convenience, provide some more details about what you fee and when with regard to executing your toeside turn and we can narrow things down and hopefully get you some drills to work on the help you with this....

Originally Posted by DRA6N

I did a lot of that this past weekend, though I found when transitioning from heel to toe and back it would get 'wobbly' until I leveled out and leaned downhill to add more pressure on the front foot.. I am having a hell of a time keeping enough pressure down and keep squatting down in my turns.

Originally Posted by DRA6N

...... Finally I am stationed in korea for a while and starting to get back into it full speed...

Originally Posted by MeanJoe

We got a couple guys out here at my local resort with 180+ alpine boards and aggressive forward stances. These guys just kill it and it makes me nostalgic for my early days snowboarding in the late 80s. I'm more mellow now, I enjoy opening it up when conditions and crowds are right but to go full-blown euro-carve style? Nah.

Originally Posted by DRA6N

I did a lot of that this past weekend, though I found when transitioning from heel to toe and back it would get 'wobbly' until I leveled out and leaned downhill to add more pressure on the front foot.. I am having a hell of a time keeping enough pressure down and keep squatting down in my turns.