The Beginner's Guide to Carving

Gear for Beginners

Board: Get an all-mountain board: it will provide the easiest learning curve. You can learn to carve on it, and you can also go off-piste with your soft boot friends. It is highly recommended to get one of the better all-mountain boards like a Donek Incline, Coiler All-mountain, or Prior 4WD, because they all carve very well on groomers. They go for ~$500 new, but your best bet is to put a want-ad in the Bomber classifieds. You could also go with a cheaper production board like a used Burton Coil (~$175). You can select a long all-mountain board (for a production board, a 168-172 cm length is about right for a 170-190 lbs person): it will be easy enough for a beginner, yet you won't grow out of it as you become more advanced. If you decide you don't like carving in hard boots, you can still use the all-mountain board with stiffer soft boots and bindings. In addition to the all-mountain board, you can also go with some other options:

• Get a used slalom race board. For a production slalom race board, a 157 cm length is about right for a 170-180 lbs person. The shorter length slalom race board will let you turn easily at low speed, but also allow you to practice finding the balance point of a stiff board. However, you'll want to move up to a longer board pretty quickly.
• Get a freecarve board. They are longer and have a lot of stability, but with a small sidecut radius that makes them easier to turn. You can either take an easier intermediate step and go for a used shorter board (for a production board, 168 cm length is about right for a 170-180 lbs person), or splurge and go for the board you will use long term (for a production board, 173 cm length is about right for a 170-180 lbs person)
• Get a full-on GS race board that is damper. The Oxygen Proton is a good example: because it is so damp, it holds an edge very well and will compensate for less-than-perfect technique so that you can go up the learning curve faster.

Riding a combination of these boards will speed the learning curve. When you learn to control your speed and make tighter turns, you can add a long GS race board to your quiver. For a production GS race board, a 173+ cm length is about right for a 170-180 lbs person. When selecting a longer race board, you should demo at least one damp board and at least one lively board to find out which type you prefer. However, it is sometimes easier to learn new techniques on a damp board. Whatever you do, don't get an asym board.

Boots: A stiffer boot will actually make it easier to get the board on edge. It will also force you to use somewhat better technique early on, which can prevent bad habits. Go for either the Raichle AF600, Head Stratos Pro / S-LTD, the UPS RSV Mach, or the UPZ RSV Mach Superlight. Definitely go with a boot that has at least 4 buckles - it offers better adjustability and better response.

• When buying snowboard hard boots, do not order a size based on your street shoe size, or the boots will wind up being the wrong size. Instead, measure the mondo point of your foot, which is the distance in centimeters from the back of your heel to your longest toe (using the same measurement technique as the guy in the shoe store).
• Footbeds (also called insoles) are the inner soles that come inside boot liners. The cheap footbeds that come with new boots are useless. You should immediately throw them away so that you don't accidentally use them. You should replace them with either generic footbeds (10× better than what comes with the boots), or get custom footbeds molded at your local bootfitter (5× better than generic footbeds).
• Fully heat-moldable liners are highly recommended for any brand of boots: they are first heated in a convection oven, then they mold to your foot as they cool while in the boot.

Bindings: If you are < 180 lbs, you can begin with cheap plastic bindings like the Burton race plates (~$120 used). However, if you weigh > 180 lbs, or you intend to pursue carving seriously, you should upgrade to either Bomber or Catek step-in bindings. If you go with step-in bindings, make sure you buy boots that are step-in compatible.

Stance Setup

Binding angle

The binding angle is largely personal preference. However, there are some issues to bear in mind:

• The lower your binding angles, the more leverage you will have across the width of the board. When learning to carve, start with low binding angles - lower the binding angle of your back foot until the extreme ends of the toe and heel of your back boot (including any protruding binding hardware) are each flush with the edges of the board, as viewed from directly overhead. You may need to adjust the bias of the binding by shifting the toe and heel blocks fore/aft to center the boot relative the edges of the board. Then, adjust the angle of your front binding to be either the same or a little higher.
• A lot of carvers wind up using angles of 60º front and 60º rear, a coincidence that is often mistaken as conventional wisdom. Don't use 60º/60º: instead, start by using the lowest permissible angles for your boot/binding/board that also provides comfort. Then adjust from there as necessary.
• You might be able to achieve a more comfortable stance if the front foot has an angle 3-5º higher than the back foot. Some people ride with a difference of as much as 15º between front and back

Don't allow your boots to overhang the edges of the board, otherwise your toe or heel will drag in the snow, a situation known as "boot-out." Boot-out can cause you to lose pressure on the edge of the board and wash out. Some people cannot avoid overhang, in which case it is better to have more overhang on toe side, since you can generally respond quicker to any boot-out problems

Binding Cant/ lift

The cant/lift of bindings is partly a personal preference. For GS carving, most carvers use a binding setup where the front foot is canted inward and lifted at the toe, and where the back foot is canted inward and lifted at the heel. The following advice applies to GS carving:

• If you have no clue, start with zero cant/lift on the front binding (flat), and a combination of inward cant and heel lift on the back foot (3º cant/lift wedge on the TDs). Then if you need more, progress with this series of tweaks as follows:
  • Add toe lift up front
  • Add inward canting up front
  • Add heel lift and more inward canting on the rear

Stance width / setback

• Use your shoulder width
• Use the distance from the floor to the middle of your kneecap
• Take your pants inseam and multiply by (Phi × 3 / 8) = 0.607, which is taken from Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man.

Finding an Instructor

In general, there are two types of good carving instructors:

• Those who received no formal training or certification, and taught themselves to carve without the burdens of conventional wisdom.
• Those who are certified to teach snowboarding, and who then subsequently figured out which rules to break in order to carve well.

Which means you need the name of someone with a reputation, otherwise you are wasting money. Refer to the resorts page to see if there is an instructor listed at a resort near you.

If you decide to roll the dice with your local snowboard school, first ask if there is a designated carver who can teach on plates. If there are no designated carvers, ask for someone with racing experience who can teach on an alpine setup. In Canada, CASI level IV instructors are certified on plates. Get the earliest lesson of the day, which not only has the best grooming, but often comes with an "early bird" discount. (In the spring, you may have to wait until the bulletproof ice has thawed.)

Ideally, you want to find an instructor who carves exactly the way you want to carve. If you can't preview the instructor, there are a few approaches:

• The only sure way to make sure you are getting the right instruction is to immediately ask the instructor to demonstrate rail-to-rail carving on steep ice. If he can't, or won't, or never has, there is probably still time to get a refund.
• If you are looking for G-force style instruction, check to see if the instructor has boot overhang - if so, find a polite way to end the lesson and ask for a refund.
• Even if you are a racer looking to improve on the Speed style of carving, you will get better training from an instructor who has a good handle on the low-to-the-ground G-force style. If the instructor dismisses this style by saying "those guys have bad technique because they reach for the snow" it means the instructor is clueless about carving in general, since advanced carvers don't reach for the snow to skim their hands on the slope - they don't have to, because angulation, timing, and weight shift cause it to happen naturally.
• Ask the instructor how to get the board higher on edge quicker. If the instructor says, "Use the same technique, just commit," The instructor may be clueless. Techniques and drills that help with angulation are required.
• Ask the instructor how the technique should be changed in order to handle steep ice. If the instructor says, "Use the same technique, just commit," the instructor may be clueless. Steep ice calls for cross-through techniques.
• Ask the instructor how the technique should be changed for racing. If the instructor says, "Use the same technique: only the timing is different," the instructor may be clueless. Racing style dictates a more forward-facing chest to avoid over-rotation.

Skills

The Paradox

Carving involves paradoxes that trip up beginners, and one of the paradoxes has to do with angulation. Laid-over carving allows riders to get close to the snow, sometimes skimming both forearms during a carve. Beginners often attempt to achieve the same result by reaching for the snow and tipping their inside shoulder. But this move only results in an edge wash-out because you will lose angulation. In order to get your body close to the snow, you have to move it away from the snow. The correct method is to angulate your body away from the inside of the turn. The more you bend away from the snow, the higher you can put the board on edge, until the board is so high on edge that your body is close to the snow. If you focus on angulation (keeping your weight over the carving edge), then you will naturally achieve inclination (leaning your whole body close to the snow). When you see expert carvers laying it down, what you see is an optical illusion - it looks like they are leaning their body toward the snow to touch it with their hand, but in reality, they are pulling their body away from the snow so their hand does not touch it.

Skill Progression

Here is one possible skill series that beginners can follow.

1. First focus entirely on angulation, by keeping your shoulders parallel to the slope. As a drill, fully extend your inside arm so that it points straight up the slope: this motion will force your collarbone to tilt, keeping your shoulders parallel to the slope. Do not let your inside shoulder dip. You can also try the "chicken wing" pose, where you keep your inside hand at your chest, point your elbow to the inside of the turn, and raise your elbow so that it points up the slope. (If you start to fall, bring your elbow into your body to avoid shoulder dislocation)
2. Now, increase your angulation by bending your knees, getting a little lower, and tilting the snowboard higher on edge, while still keeping your shoulders parallel to the slope. Try to develop an accordion bend, by expanding the side of your body facing the inside of the turn and compressing the side of your body facing the outside of the turn. Don't lose your angulation near the end of the turn, and don't break at the waist.
3. While maintaining angulation, work on twisting your body into the turn so that you carve a more circular arc. To aid your body rotation and angulation, move your outside hand across the board, or try touching your outside hand to your front foot. Look slightly uphill, and face your body slightly uphill. Focus on pulling the board all the way to the end: don't let the board get ahead of you. The idea here is to get rid of counter rotation. This skill comes in two phases:

   First you work on your toe side turns. Without a good toe side turn, it's hard to enter a heel side turn with enough control to practice the technique. Over time, your toe side carves will become tighter and more controlled. Once you are able to master the toe side, you will have enough control to start practicing on heel side. After you improve on heel side, you get a feedback effect - your toe side turns will be even easier, which in turn improves your heel side. This is usually when carvers experience their first breakthrough.

4. While maintaining angulation and twist, focus on entering the turn with your weight forward, then shift your weight back as the turn progresses. You should start to feel a pop as you get some tail spring to help the board change edges.
5. While maintaining angulation, twist, and weight shift, focus on doing a cross-through: Instead of rising up and then flexing back down to change edges, stay low all the time and bring your body straight across the board.
6. While maintaining angulation, twist, weight shift, and cross-through movement, start entering each turn early, by performing the cross-through movement before you think you need to turn. Early turns will tighten up your carves and allow you to carve on your downhill edge at the very beginning of a turn. Think of pressuring the board up the slope at the beginning of the turn, while the board is perpendicular to the fall line.
7. While maintaining angulation, twist, weight shift, and early cross-through movement, work on adding a burst of angulation at the start of the turn (the beginning of a diving turn) to get your board higher on edge so that you carve a tighter radius on steeper slopes.

Other tips

• If you have not done other board sports and you need to determine whether you are regular (right facing) or goofy (left facing), do a slide test. In socks, sprint across the floor and slide. Whichever way you find yourself facing is the stance you should use.
• You can think of carving as an extreme version of regular freeriding - your carving style will take you in a direction beyond where your freeriding style left off. And by pushing yourself beyond your freeriding style, your freeriding skill will improve. The extra edge control will also be of use in the halfpipe.
• As a beginner, you can progress up the learning curve faster if you attend a carve camp.
• To click into your bindings on the slope, face downhill with your board perpendicular to the fall line and downhill from you. Then dig a shelf in the snow by banging your front heel on the slope, keeping your rear foot uphill of the board. Then slide the back of the board over the shelf and click into the rear binding.
• While the USASA is competitive, it has is a very supportive vibe, and beginners will feel welcomed. USASA uses real snowboard gates and stubbies, which are far more snowboard-friendly than skier flags. You can often meet other carvers and carving instructors at USASA events, and snag some free advice. As a beginner, stick to GS races, because they are closest to a carving style. Slalom style is purely cross-under, in which your torso follows a straight line down the slope while your legs flick from side to side around tight turns.

Heel side

While a perfect toe side carve feels great, a perfect heel side carve feels even better, but it's harder to pull off. To take up the sport of carving is to seek the perfect heel side turn.

A lot of carvers are plagued with edge hold problems on heel side, which can appear as two phenomena: wavy trenches or chatter.

If it feels like the tail of the board is oscillating back and forth, you are probably leaving wavy trenches. It happens because the nose and tail of the board are each trying to carve a different radius. There are two ways to fix this problem:

• Avoid twisting the board longitudinally. Try using more heel lift on the back foot.
• Don't maintain the same rigid static pressure during the turn. Instead, apply dynamic pressure using a few techniques:
  • Progressively shift your weight from forward to back throughout the turn
  • Progressively increase your angulation throughout the turn
  • Progressively twist your upper body towards the inside of the turn.
  • To allow the board to seek its most natural arc, try unlocking the lean adjusters on your boots.

If the entire board chatters or washes out, it means you are unbalanced, or the board is twisting. Some remedies:

• Keep your weight over the carving edge by angulating. See the section on Angulation for several tips, including moving your outer hand to the inside of the turn.
• Tilt the board higher on edge. A board tilted at a low angle is more likely to skid out. Strive to get early edge angle.
• A stiff setup on bumpy terrain is not a good combo.
• Your binding setup might need tweaking. Make sure that you are centered on the board, and that both legs are contributing an equal amount of pressure during a turn.
• Do not tense up your legs, otherwise the board will chatter. Bend your knees more and relax your muscles.
• If you twist the board, the nose will want to carve a different radius than the tail. Board twist can happen if you bend your knees aggressively, rotate your body into the turn, and don't have enough lift on the rear binding. In this situation your rear heel will try to lift up as your front toe pushes down, twisting the board.
• Chatter can be caused by too much pressure on the tail ... or too little:
  • Don't break forward at the waist, otherwise you will take pressure off the tail, causing it to skid out. To avoid breaking at the waist, try to tilt the board using your lower leg, with your knees and ankles.
  • You might be exerting pressure on the board too late in the carve. As you are finishing the turn and the board is about 15º from the finish, you need to be taking pressure off the board to start the next turn. If you are still pressuring the board beyond this point, it's going to skid. Shift the time interval of pressure toward the early part of the turn. This problem can occur if the board doesn't get tilted high on edge soon enough at the beginning of the carve - as a result, the rider over-pressures the board during the later half of the carve trying to get it higher on edge.

Safety

Rule #8

It is easy to T-bone skiers/boarders who are overtaking you, since carvers make wide, open turns, travel perpendicular to the fall line at high speed on edge changes, and go slower than most skiers in the direction of the fall line. Skiers are not used to other people carving wide turns, so they don't look out for it. As a result, carvers must take an additional level of care, and follow rule #8:

If you are carving consistent half-circles, it means your board is pointed downhill 99% of the time, and it's the skier's responsibility to watch out for you, even if you are carving large-radius turns that consume the entire run. But when traversing between carves or deviating from a consistent pattern, skiers cannot be expected to navigate around you, so you need to be aware of people who are behind you:

• If you are using a highly rotated style of carving, you should be able to look slightly uphill on toe side turns to increase your field of view, and you might want to take a peek every 3rd turn or so.
• If you can't monitor who is coming from behind, you should consider stopping every few turns.
• Use goggles that give you a wide field of view.
• You need to be able to hear the sound of people encroaching upon you from behind, so it's not a good idea to listen to music while you carve. Some helmets with soft ear flaps allow you to hear much better than others.
• If you carve in family ski zone, look over your shoulder on every turn. 98% of the time you won't hit anyone. And that is exactly the problem.
• Be extra cautious when you are tailed by little kids - they often bomb down the hill without paying attention to where they are going, and when they hit you, people will automatically assume that it's your fault.
• Be able to recognize the visual pattern of high-end ski racing apparel, with the characteristic reinforced areas on the shoulder and shin. If you peek uphill and spot one, it will try to pass you on the very next turn.

If you get hit from behind, ask yourself two questions:

• Was your board perpendicular to the fall line when you got hit?
• Did you not yet transition into the next turn when you got hit?

If you answer yes to both questions, you were probably traversing between turns. During a season of carving, you have to accept the likely possibility of getting hit from behind. At the very least, you can expect a few close calls.

How to own a run

Before carving a series of turns down a run, follow these guidelines:

1. First wait until there are no uphill skiers bombing down the hill.
2. Enter the run and carve your first turn.
3. Look over your shoulder as you finish the first turn to make sure there are still no uphill skiers bombing down the hill.

You now own the run. As long as you carve consistent turns without traversing the slope, you have provided more than enough fair warning, because any skiers approaching you from behind will:

1. Have plenty of time to see you carving, even if the skier pays attention to a very narrow field of view.
2. See that you are carving at high speed.
3. See at least two turns of your trench, and realize that you are carving wide, consistent turns.
4. Be able to predict your line.

Therefore, if a skier still manages to slam into you from behind and cause you to break a tib/fib, you can rest easy, knowing it was not your fault.

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