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Damn I never realized all the different combinations of angles people use. I was thinking about starting off with +15/-15, so I'll start from there and adjust based on feel. Any of you guys with bad knees have any recommendations?
I’ve ridden 15/-15 for about 25 years, last year experimented with 18/-12. I’ll try full positives this year on my stiff board.
Just do what feels right for your knees. It may be less stance than how you are twisting your body.
As for toeside, you gotta learn that shit sooner or later. Make it sooner.
You might have had a bad experience with it that put you off, but if that’s the case, it gets easier.
As you snowboard, gently roll from your heels to your toes on the bottoms of your feet as you turn.
Do it gently at first, and as you go onto your toes, have the feeling of twisting your toes (in your boots) uphill.
When you start turning onto your heels, gently roll onto them and then twist your feet in your boots so that your toes point back downhill, and you do ‘C’ shaped turns.
Try to feel this more with the feet than with the upper body (although your head should be looking ahead through the turn)
Hope that helps.
Cheers for the tips. Currently at sugar bowl right now and this +15/-15 has felt super good so far, especially for my switch. My toeside has gotten totally better as well, but still having commitment issues on steeper terrain but I guess that comes with practice. Now my main problem is getting out of powder, I spend a good chunk of time getting stuck in powder and exert a lot of energy trying to get out
No problem. I’ve been instructing for about 18 seasons.
If you imagine your turn as a full “c” and break your turn up into quarters, people who are comfortable on one edge can change edges in the first quarter of the turn.
People on their uncomfortable side don’t usually change edges until the 2nd quarter. This leads to a bunch of problems: the turn can get bigger, you pick up speed, and you only really get on your new edge late in the turn.
Try doing turns where you go across the slope , do a full ‘c’, and end up coming back across. Try to change your edges as early as possible and ride the new edge thru the whole turn, esp on your weak (toe) side
As for powder, go fast and don’t stop