Advice on shredding steep slopes-

that reminds me when i went on ice and slid like all the way down, turn around to see the same thing happening to a buddy of mine

 

Here's some advise for getting better control over your turns on steeps, I'll break it down into different sections so its easier to follow, feel free to ask for clarification on anything, I've been coaching this stuff for 11 years now, hopefully I can help:

 

step 1: Body position: When riding on steep terrain, your body position is mega important. you need to keep everything aligned, meaning, you need to try and keep your shoulders square with your hips and knees, and keep your hands over your the nose and tail of your board. Getting out of alignment will affect your turn initiation and make turns really hard on steeps. One common thing people do is always keep their shoulders facing down the hill (counter-rotation), this is a natural thing your body wants to do, however it makes toe-side turns really tough on steeps because you are rotating your shoulders in the opposite direction as your hips/knees/feet/board. Keep everything rotating in the same direction, this will make your turns faster and smoother. The third thing you need to think about is keeping your knees bent and relaxed at ALL TIMES. Bent knees are good for 3 things, a) you can absorb the bumps better b) your centre of gravity is lower, therefore you are more stable c) you can control the angle at which the board is laying on the snow much better. Without having your knees bent and keeping your body over your board, your centre of gravity will be off and it will be very hard to stay on your feet.

 

step 2: rotation: As other people have mentioned, having your weight slightly on the front foot will help initiate your turns quickly. This is good on steeps. If you are feeling more adventurous, you can try to move your feet independantly from eachother. This will help your feet and board change direction and edges even faster and will allow you to get to the speed-check phase of the turn faster. For example, on a heel-side turn, as you are rotating your knees/hips to turn, keep your shoulders in-line and look where you are going. Now at the foot/board level, once you reach the last 2/3s of your turn you can start pulling your front foot up the hill and pushing your back foot down the hill. Doing this will put you in a position to initiate your next turn faster. The theory behind this technique is you are unweighting your front foot while still keeping the pressure on the back foot. During the edge change, you are now going to apply the pressure to the front foot (to do the turn) and unweight the back foot (to allow the back of the board to follow quicker). This stuff is way easier to show than explain! haha, anyways, visualizing kind of helps

 

step 3: edging: Edging is super important on steep terrain. The main thing where people go wrong is on their edging. There are 2 ways to apply your edge to the snow. One way is inclining your body (leaning your whole body) towards the slope. The other way is angulating (using the angles of your foot and ankle) the board in proportion to the slope. Both ways aren't bad, you need a mix of both in order to get effective edge hold on steep and icey terrain. You need about 20% inclination and 80% angulation. You need more angulation because angulating keeps your body over the board, allowing your centre of gravity to stay in a good spot. Inclining is easier, but it throws your centre of gravity off, resulting in you slamming on your butt (your feet slide out from under you - aka SUPER COMMON) The major key factor in angulation is keeping your knees super bent and relaxed. if you straighten your legs, the angle of your board will be so high your board will just slide out from underneath you. The reason is because your boots are already at a forward lean angle, if you straighten your legs, you will be standing on your heels and your toes and board will be at an angle upwards. Couple this and a steep slope, you won't be able to keep any effective edge grip. So bend those knees, use your ankles to create the angle your board needs to slow down, and keep your body over your board.

 

step 4: Pressure: On steeps, you need to slow down after each turn. This is done by pushing down on your feet (which are angulating) and putting pressure on the edge. When your are initiating your turn, you need to ease up on the pressure to allow your board to pivot. You can do this 2 ways. The easiest way is just to stand taller (but STILL KEEPING YOUR KNEES BENT - JUST LESS BENT) do your rotation, then push down and bend your knees more to slow down. The second way is like I was explaining in step 2, you can use your legs independantly keeping pressure on one leg while releasing the pressure on the other to speed up your turns. Both of these techniques require your legs to always be bent, it will burn your quads and calves, but we are boarders and we're tough as nails, so suck it up.

 

step 5: timing: Put steps 1 through 4 together and get a rhythm going. this will keep the turns consitent, strong and awsome looking! Use your first 2-3 turns to get a rhythm, then turn on the auto-pilot and curse your legs for burning! Play around with turn size and see how they affect the speed and control you have. Short quick turns should keep your speed fairly consistent, long wide turns will make you go faster as your board is pointing down the hill, and you'll need to put on the brakes a lot as you finish your turns.

 

Anyways, hope this helps, again, let me know if theres anything in there you want explained better or more in-depth. Good luck dude,

 

Backflipmasterdana