DRA6N

I have been snowboarding a few seasons and then I stopped for about 3 years (due to geographical location and work) Finally I am stationed in korea for a while and starting to get back into it full speed...

well Ive been pretty decent at carving with my heel-side (im regular footed) and even at higher speeds.. But every time I try to switch over onto my toe-side edge I always get wobbly and end up eating it. I dont have much toe hangover (at least I dont think I do) I wear a size 11.5 boot and Im on a wide.. What am I missing? Just not dipping my knees into the mountain enough? It seems I get too scared when i try the toe portions of my S-curves...

this is killing me as once I get some speed up I always have to do a falling leaf and switch sides to curve back the other direction.. Its clear that I do this a lot as my heel side wax is pretty worn compared to toe side.. I leave the hill with a sharp toe edge too..

Efilnikufesin

My first instinct is to say you are riding backseat, and not centering your weight on the board. When riding hardpack, I feel like your front leg should burn a bit, if your back leg feels tired, you are backseating while riding.

Edit: also make sure you have your foot centered on the board with equal toe and heel overhang.

DRA6N

Ive been watching some stuff on youtube and they say to basically apply more weight on the front foot and almost steer with the back like the rudder of a ship.. I am gonna work on this a lot sunday

Bayoh

Your front foot's pressure is what will initiate the carve. Backseating takes away your front foot's pressure leading to the squirrely behavior you might be experiencing.

When making the transition from heel to toe, try to focus on keeping your body weight forward more through the turn. What happens often in a heel to toe carve is you naturally want to keep your body upright "up" the hill, but this leads to backseating. By keeping your body weight forward you're actually keeping yourself perpendicular to the hill and keeping even balance over your board.

As you're shifting weight across the board and onto your toe edge, let the pressure of your front foot initiate the carve and allow the sidecut of your board to carry you through the turn.

Oh and don't forget to keep your knees bent and loose.

Donutz

My first guess would be that you're trying to rotate your upper body to face downhill. Not a problem when you're on your heelside obviously, but as soon as you go toeside you'd be torquing your upper body around which will tend to turn your board downhill. Fight that for a few feet and I bet you faceplant.

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Illegitimi non carborundum

Mountain Days: 30

havin_a_ball

Overcompensation is a method often used to get over little hitches like this.

Here's a trick that might help

point your front arm in front of you where you want to go. By pointing your arm to your toeside, your body weight will shift enough to force your front toe down, if you are following the other advice above.

This (using your upper body to affect your foot pressure) is very bad technique and once you get the feeling of your toeside transition again you should focus on refining your turns and using proper pressure and weight distribution through your turn cycles.

If you are getting to your toes but the tail rotates too far and you end up catching your heel edge, make sure you are pressuring the back toe edge after the apex of your turn in order to maintain your turn degree.

The opposite issue was addressed above. Also, don't use your front foot as a pivot and swing the tail of your board, initiate your turns with the front of your board as described above.

Also, going slow and focusing on connecting turns might help.

Good luck!

Cane700

Carving seems like a lost art these days.

snowklinger

its not an art.

That's like calling the pedaling aspect of BMX exciting.

The OP is just a beginner.

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is it late october yet?

Cane700

Its not? Because I see few people who know how to do it and I am not talking about linking turns.

Cane700

You don't see much of it here in the midwest. Once it a while you see nice thin lines in the snow. Its could be the short crowded runs or the bad snow. Generally out here people are riding very short and flexy twins and Freestyle is the order of business. In the last 10 years or so I've only seen one person with both bindings angled hard forward. Hell, even I run a duck stance these days. Don't get me wrong I'll do pretty much every aspect of snowboarding... but once in a while there is something to be said about just carving perfect high speed turns down a mountain.