Technique

Prologue

Carving Instruction

More than any other sport, there is a total lack of consensus as to what constitutes proper carving technique. Different instructors teach radically different styles. If you posed a question to a group of three carving instructors, you would probably get four different answers. In particular, the biggest discrepancy seems to be where your torso should face:

• Instructors who race but don't carve often teach these styles:
  • Torso facing down the fall line (Maximum downhill twist).
  • Torso facing the direction of the bindings
  • Torso facing a direction between the bindings and the long axis of the board
• Instructors who carve but don't race often teach these styles:
  • Torso facing the direction of the long axis of the board
  • Torso facing as much as 30º ahead of the long axis of the board (Maximum uphill twist).

Carving styles seem to fall into a spectrum that spans two extremes:

• Styles that transform the energy of the board into speed. They tend to have a higher center of mass and use a more open stance (knees separated, facing more toward bindings). These styles do not tilt the board high on edge, so you don't have to worry as much about boot-out. They are more stable, and absorb bumps well on varied terrain. They are generally used for carving somewhat less than a complete half-circle on each turn. Because the energy of the board goes into speed, these carving styles are used for getting the fastest time out of a race course.
• Styles that transform the energy of the board into G-force. They tend to have a lower center of mass and use a more closed stance (knees together, facing more toward the nose). These styles tilt the board high on edge, so you have to worry about boot-out. They are less stable, and cannot absorb bumps well on varied terrain. These styles are used for carving complete half circles, allowing you to experience up to about 3 Gs of centripetal force. Because most of the energy of the board goes into G-force rather than speed, you can progress down the fall line slowly and in control, even on a steep hill.

Independent of those two styles, there seem to be two primary techniques:

• Bomber-style, or angulated style, which emphasizes angulation. It causes the center of mass to be balanced over the edge of the board
• Push-pull style, which emphasizes inclination. Riders push or pull against the board to equalize the lateral forces.

It's best to learn from several instructors and pick and choose techniques to see what works best for you. Getting good instruction is vital: it's worth spending more money on instruction than on gear when you are first learning. In addition, it's important to find an instructor who can help tweak your stance setup so that you won't be fighting your equipment while you are trying to learn, which means the instructor should also be knowledgeable about carving gear adjustment, as well as bootfitting.

Unfortunately, it's hard to find instructors who can effectively teach carving. That's because an instructor who tries to teach carving based on conventional snowboard fundamentals will likely steer you in the wrong direction, and set you back skill-wise. In addition, the carving style used for race training may not provide the right learning curve for the type of carving that you are look to do.

A lot of carvers aspire to the G-force style because it feels like riding a roller coaster. However, the instructional aspect of the G-force style is complicated by a monkey wrench known as the bumblebee effect. If you were to describe the G-force style to an instructor fresh out of snowboard instructor school, the instructor would explain to you why this style couldn't possibly work, and how it would result in skidding out on every turn, even on the best terrain and conditions. Yet some of the best carvers can go rail-to-rail, in perfect half circles, down steep ice using exactly this technique. A few years ago, scientists finally figured out why the bumblebee is able to fly, despite having aerodynamics that seem to make it impossible. Perhaps the same thing will eventually happen with the G-force style of carving. Also because of this phenomenon, instructors with the best insights have invariably gone through a phase where they have completely revised their notion of what constitutes proper carving technique. 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. (like Doug Dryer)
• Those who are certified to teach snowboarding, and who then subsequently figured out which rules to break in order to carve well. (like Flo Jayme)

Which means you need the name of someone with a reputation, otherwise you are wasting money. Check out lesson summaries from these instructors:

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. Canadian 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. It's OK to touch the snow, as long as you don't reach for it, and as long as you don't place any weight on that hand.
• 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.

If you find an instructor with a clue, you should work on the cross-through technique for carving the steeps and ice, because you can use it anywhere on the hill.

Inside vs. Outside

When talking about what your body does in a carve, always use "Inside" to refer to the direction toward the hill, to the inside the turn. Use "Outside" to refer to the direction away from the hill, toward the outside of the turn. It's too confusing to talk about uphill / downhill or right / left.

Techniques

Contortion

Carving is a form of human origami. Some of the G-force carving styles require extreme body contortion, and part of the process of learning involves teaching yourself to become more angulated than you thought possible, to bend your knees more than you thought possible, and to twist your body more than you thought possible. If you were born with elastic double joints, you have the advantage. Because the body positions are so extreme, it often takes a few runs at the beginning of each day to recall all of the muscle memory. Even advanced carvers start the first run of the day looking useless, and then progressively recall the right body positions over the course of the next 2-3 runs until the muscle memory fully returns. Even if you are experienced, you will probably tip over on the first run of the season. Many carvers require up to 6 days of riding before returning to the skill level they had at the end of the previous season. When you are a beginner, it might take you half a day to recall the right body movements after a week of not carving. This warm-up period can be disconcerting, because by the time you have recalled your technique, the slope will be chopped up.

Angulation

Angulation involves keeping your center of gravity over the carving edge while you crank the board high on edge. Angulate your body by compressing the outside part of your body linkage and expanding the inside part of your body linkage like an accordion. To achieve balance, your bones should be stacked over the carving edge. If you lose angulation for even an instant, either at the beginning, middle, or end of the carve, you will likely wash out. A few tips and drills assist with angulation:

• Imagine a line going through your shoulders, then keep that line parallel to the slope at all times. As you crank the board higher on edge, you will have to raise your inside arm to the point where your collar bone starts to tilt up to become parallel to the slope. Normally, when your arm sticks straight out perpendicular from your torso, the collar bone does not move - it is only when you raise your arm further than perpendicular that the collar bone starts to tilt. A few drills help out here:
  • Hold a break-away bamboo pole across your chest at shoulder height, just under your neck, with both hands near its center. To prevent a thumb injury, don't wrap your thumb around the pole - keep it on top. Now point your elbows outward, aligned with the pole. Keep the pole, and the line connecting your elbows and shoulders, parallel to the slope at all times. If you fall, pull your elbows into your body to prevent shoulder dislocation.
  • As a drill, try fully extending your inside arm and point parallel to the slope. Near the end of a turn, you should be pointing straight up the slope. It looks weird, so instead, you can do the chicken wing: keep your inside hand just in front of your chest, and point your inside elbow up the slope. Feel your collar bone tilt. The analogy here is to "spread your wings and fly."
• Your outer hand can add leverage to help with angulation:
  • Drive your outer hand across the board with your body.
  • Touch your outer hand to your back knee, then your front knee, then the outside edge of your board (at your front foot).
• Try to touch the bottom of your outside rib cage to the top of your outside hip: Think of cracking a walnut with your hip.
• With your FRS radio turned up, have someone watch as you carve and go "Bzzzzzzzt!" into the radio whenever you lose angulation. There's nothing like positive reinforcement.
• It's easier to get more angulation, especially on heel side, if you drop your back knee toward the slope, behind your front knee.
• Don't lean into the turn with your torso - instead, achieve "lean" by start the turn with your hips first, by moving them across the board towards the inside of the turn as you begin the turn.
• In order to properly angulate, you need to keep your butt over the carving edge - don't let it stick out to the inside of the turn ("sitting on the toilet"). On heel side, think about rotating your torso to be aligned with the long axis of the board.
• Do not let your inside shoulder dip, no matter how tired you get. If you find yourself dipping your inside shoulder later in the day, there is no use continuing to carve.
• When you skid out, immediately check to see if you have enough angulation - you probably won't.

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 so their hand touches it, but in reality, they are pulling their body away from the snow so their hand does not touch it.

Another way to describe the approach is by using the terms "cantilevered angulation" or "progressive angulation," where the angulation, and the edge angle of the board, feed off of each other in a continuous cycle. More angulation results in more board tilt, which allows more angulation, in a symbiotic, yin/yang sort of way.

Counter Rotation

When carving GS turns, you should lead the turn with your body: First your body turns, starting with your hips, then the board follows. As you progress through the turn, don't stop turning your upper body: continue to lead the board with your hips and shoulders until the next edge change. Letting the board get ahead of your body at any point in time is called counter rotation, and there are three scenarios:

1. Counter rotation with opposing upper body: It involves abruptly twisting your upper torso in one direction to get the board to turn in the opposite direction by using conservation of momentum. Newbie softbooters sometimes use this technique, often without bending their knees. After this type of turn, the board is pointing in one direction and you are facing the opposite direction, which affords zero control and no chance of carving. You can also max out your twist, run out of rotational angle, and fail to turn the board as much as you want. Because this technique maintains constant rotational momentum throughout the turn, it is the fastest way to turn the board, and in fact you can spin the board in place. The only times you should use this technique are when you need to take quick emergency countermeasures, or when you are gliding on the flats at low speed and need to make a quick 90º turn into the lift line. You can also use counter-rotation to weave your way through a crowd on the flats before a lift line by swinging your arms around: this method is called "Counter-rotation kung-fu"
2. Counter rotation with quiet upper body: This technique is the cross-under slalom racing style. Your body faces down the fall line while the board makes quick transitions back and forth underneath you. It is not effective for GS carving. However, this type of counter rotation is required for slalom racing, riding moguls, or going through the trees.
3. Counter rotation at the finish: Your body leads the board at the beginning of a GS turn but then lets the board catch up to it at the end of the turn. Counter rotation at the finish causes you to carve less efficient trenches that will deviate from a perfect circle.

When carving GS turns, avoid counter rotation by bringing your outside hand toward the inside of the turn, twisting your body to the inside of the turn, and looking uphill toward the inside of the turn. Then keep leading the board all the way to the edge change. CERN has a web page on the evils of counter-rotation.

The technique used by the ExtremeCarving people requires riders to completely eliminate counter rotation.

Look up to hookup

In addition to getting rid of counter rotation, some carving styles require over rotation, which involves twisting your body aggressively into the slope in order to carve perfect half-circles. For this style, you can visualize carving a figure-8: Even though the board will not point uphill, you can visualize bringing the board uphill by over-rotating (for each hump of the figure-8). By ending the turn with your torso twisting uphill, you can generate the windup that you need to dive into the next turn, and you can use this extra energy to crank the board higher on edge.

Avoid petting the dog - don't let your outer hand lag behind you. Instead, bring your outside hand across the board as you transition into the turn to provide more twist. Ideally, you want to carve the turn with both forearms parallel. This style also requires that you look uphill, at the point where your board would go if it were to follow the path of a circle back up the hill - but it won't because you change edges before then. In this style, you don't look where your board is going to go; you look where your board would go but won't. If you aim for the over rotated method, you know you are doing it right because it will feel more efficient, and you will be able to carve a perfect half-circle instead of an ellipse - check your trench from the chairlift to verify. A side benefit of the over-rotated style is that you can take a look to see if someone is about to run into you. However, this style requires that you tilt the board high on edge - if the board edge is too low, you are likely to skid out on heel side.

Weight shift

Right after an edge change, you need to enter a carve with your weight toward the front of the board, and shift your weight back as you progress through the carve. This method is often called "feeding the dollar bill." Do not start a carve in the middle or back seat. Use your legs to get your weight forward - don't do it by breaking at the waist and bending over too far, or you will bury the nose and go over the handlebars. When carving fast turns on the steeps, you may not have time to do the weight shift. In this case, you don't have to actually shift your weight - it is sufficient to merely think about shifting your weight to get a small bit of extra edge hold. You know you are doing the weight shift correctly if you get a lot of tail spring from the board without trying for it.

Getting edge sooner

When carving on the steeps, it is critical to tilt the board high on edge early in the turn so that you can control your speed. One method is to use a diving turn. While the board is perpendicular to the fall line at the transition, crank the board to its highest angle using your knees and hip. This movement should happen in less than 1/4 of a second. After that 1/4 second window has elapsed, you won't be able to effectively squeeze much more angle out of the board during the rest of the turn. With this technique, on heel side, you will be going into the turn blind, since you won't be able to see where you are going while the board is perpendicular to the fall line. It is essential that you learn to trust your board to catch you coming out of the turn. There are a couple of tips to get high edge early:

• For both heel side and toe side, you can also throw your hip to the inside of the turn to touch the snow with your hip early. All the motion happens in your hips, not your upper body - visualize closing a door with your hip, while still balancing a tray of food with your hands. You will need to couple this movement with high angulation, or you will tip over.
• On toe side, drive your back knee to the inside of the turn, toward the slope.
• On heel side, it's more difficult to get early edge angle. Your back knee should drop toward the carving edge quickly, and this move is assisted if your torso turns to the inside of the turn, and your butt stays over the carving edge. One way to get higher on edge is to flex your ankles more by trying to lift the toes on your front foot as you enter a turn, and then try to lift the toes on your back foot as you leave a turn. This move also helps you get forward on the board early in the turn, and shift to the rear of the board later in the turn.

By tilting the board high on edge, you should be able to get the board to carve a turn radius that is much tighter than the sidecut radius of the board. What this means is that you can power a large sidecut radius board into a smaller radius on the snow. When you crank the board high on edge, it's going to generate centripetal force that counteracts the force of gravity, which will slow you down, so this high edge angle technique works best on steeper slopes. If you try it on the flats, you will come to a complete stop.

Edge transitions

There are a few ways to change edges:

• Cross-over: Your board stays where it is and your body travels up and over the board in an arc. In this style, you bring your torso up (placing weight on the board as you move up) and then you sink back down to begin the next carve (unweighting the board as you sink). This technique is easier and more natural to learn, but it does not work well on steeps because it takes too long to change edges.
• Cross-under: Your torso stays where it is and your lower body swings back and forth underneath you to change edges. In this style, you bring your legs in (unweighting), then you hop to a new edge for the next turn (placing weight on the board as you enter the next carve). You can change edges quicker than in the cross-over style, however you don't hold edge pressure for as long. [Cross-under and cross-over terminology was used for a long time in skier ETS (Examiner Training Squad) certification.]
• Cross-through: A good technique for ice and steeps, which is a combination of cross-over and cross-under. It consists of bringing your center of gravity straight across the board and downhill by partially unweighting before an edge change, while your knees roll to the next edge. Instead of rising up and then sinking, like in the cross-over, you stay low the entire time. In fact, your body starts out low and gets even lower when your center of gravity passes over the board. The term cross-through was originally coined by Tom Reynolds, a ski coach at UMaine Farmington. Erik Beckman later applied the term to snowboarding in his 1994 self-published book.

If you are a beginner, you can start off with the cross-over technique, then work you way to the cross-through style, with a bit of cross-under on crowded days.

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.
• Your carving ability will be limited by your weakest side: toe side or heel side. Carvers are usually less skilled on heel side. A poor heel side has a bad cumulative effect:
  • Turns are not tight enough, causing excessive speed.
  • The excessive speed causes the toe side turns to be more difficult.
  • Carvers wind up trying to check their speed on toe side, which limits the effectiveness of the toe side turn, making the next heel side turn completely fall apart.
• Therefore, it is critical to develop your heel side turn: If you improve your heel side by a factor of two, your toe side turns will also improve dramatically, and your overall carving will improve by a factor of 4.
• A lot of carvers start down a run and drop into their first carved turn on toe side, because it is easier than on heel side. However, if you are not oriented to start with a toe side carve, you will wind up wasting a turn to get the board around to toe side. It is important to learn how to drop into your first carved turn on heel side to avoid wasting vertical. In fact, you may want to only start your first carved turns on heel side, to force you to practice it. To start a carve on heel side, you will need a lot of angulation, and you will need to build up speed using weight shift: visualize moving your hips down the hill, out from under your torso.

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.

Use the Force

Visualization is important. Spend a minute at the top of the slope visualizing what you are going to do. Plus, you have to wait at the top anyway until the family of floundering, skittish, novice skiers finishes the run. Some people use a carving style that only works on perfect snow, and other people radically change their style depending on the snow conditions. Everyone seems to have a totally different technique, and your skill will get better after you watch and hang out with other good carvers, since the skill set seems to transfer by osmosis.

Beginner 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 for beginners:

• 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.

Advanced Carving

Riding bumps and Moguls

For moguls, you can use the same cross-under technique used by skiers. Keep your torso facing down the fall line with your arms posed like you are holding a tray of cookies while the board zips back and forth under you. Keep your upper body quiet so you don't drop the cookies. Use your front foot to make the tip of the board follow a zipper path between the moguls, and swing your back foot side to side, setting the edge on the side of a mogul and then pushing off with the tail to bleed off speed. Keep your center of gravity low and maximize your leg extension. Try to keep the board out of the gully between moguls: try to set the edge on each mogul a foot or so above the valley. In addition, you can tweak your setup for moguls:

• Use an all-mountain board or a BX board that is wide with a rounded tail.
• Use lower binding angles for quicker response and leverage.
• Use less setback: it will make the board more responsive.
• Unlock the lean on your boots for more shock absorption.

Carving the Steeps or ice

Use the cross-through technique: it will

• Keep your center of gravity low throughout the entire turn.
• Make edge changes quicker.
• Give you more nimble control when setting the edge

If you go into panic mode, your sphincteral reaction will be to stand up, which is the wrong thing to do, since you lose angulation and board angle. Train yourself to get lower on the board when you panic. Think of fighting back against the slope by cutting into it with more angulation and a deeper knee bend. Think about slicing into the slope by dynamically flexing the board, and by shifting your weight from front to back. Staying low requires a lot more leg power, but do not let yourself stand up, no matter how tired you get. If you find yourself frequently standing up later in the day, bag it and head to the bar. Other tips:

• In addition to using cross-through, try to start that cross-through motion well in advance, before you have finished the current turn. In the angulated style of carving, most of the pressure gets applied to the edge during the second half of the turn, as the board is about to turn perpendicular to the fall line. Rather than letting this pressure build up, causing the board to skid out, begin the cross-through early, sucking your boots toward your body, and crossing your body over your board, to ease the pressure off the edge.
• Before hitting the steeps, it is beneficial to practice getting tail spring out of the end of your turns, since it is much easier to enter the next turn if you finish the current turn will a nice clean pop.
• Starting a carve on the steeps can be tricky. You initially won't be going fast enough to balance with the proper board angle for the slope, but that means that you can accelerate too quickly and develop too much speed on the first turn before you can drop into the proper rhythm. To start, pick up speed and gradually sit into the carve position over the course of the first turn, then lock in the right position on the second turn.
• Don't go into panic mode and lean back at the beginning of the turn. It'll go downhill from there.
• On steeps it is more important to shift your weight forward at the beginning of the turn, but it's more difficult because everything is going fast. To help out, you can go with a flat cant on the front foot or reduce the setback.
• Relax your muscles - don't let your sphincter take control. If you tense up your legs, you will chatter the board and skid out. It's all mind over sphincter.
• Angulate to keep your weight over the carving edge. You can't angulate too much.
• You have to keep up with gravity, which means that on the steeps you must transition into your turns by diving into them. If you enter turns slower than gravity wants you to, you will never be able to properly complete a turn. Think of first moving your body down the hill, then pulling your board with you.
• To bleed off speed on the steeps, it is essential to crank your board as high on edge as possible at the beginning of the turn. The small joints on the lower part of the body are best for this, since they have less mass, are close to the board, and can move quickly. Try the body-whip drill: your lower body quickly and abruptly tilts the board on edge using your knees/lower leg/ankle, then the upper body follows like the end of a whip. As your lower body cranks the board up on edge, you need to maintain balance and angulation, and to do that you can tilt your upper boy to the outside of the turn to achieve angulation. This move can be used as a wind-up, which can be released (the follow-through of the whip) by moving the upper body to the inside of the turn after the board tilt has been achieved.
• In order to sustain a series of carves down the steeps with balance and control, you need to set a rather precise rhythm from one turn to the next. Part of learning the steeps involves maintaining this rhythm, and mastering the steeps involves being able to quickly recover from a skid and regain the rhythm quickly.

Tricks

While carving, some tricks are possible:

• Carving up the side of a bank provides a very cool G-force experience. However, in order to make it work, your board should be exactly perpendicular to the bank when you start to carve up the side.
• Tricks at edge changes are possible, especially when carving up the side of a bank (Nose rolls, 180s, 360s, etc.)
• Riding fakie on a race board is easier than you think, and it really feels backwards. It also kicks up a lot of snow.
• The PureBoarding movie Beyond the Limits shows a few tricks and switch riding.
• A few of the non-extreme grabs are possible (Method, Indy, etc)
• Damien Sanders was renowned for this ability to do tricks in Koflach boots, including his patented Iguana Air (rear hand grabs toe-edge near the tail)

Eurocarving

Eurocarve turns (also called Vitelli turns or V-turns, named after Serge Vitelli) involve a quick extension of the whole body in the middle of a carve. Eurocarving typically requires perfect timing and hero snow, and doesn't work well on the steeps. It also helps to have a long, stable, narrow board, and be able to get the board high on edge as soon as possible. However, it's difficult to link a series of Vitelli turns in quick succession, and the early eurocarving pioneers (Serge Vitelli, Peter Bauer, and Jean Nerva) usually performed Vitelli turns on toe side, without linking consecutive turns. Get your cross-through technique nailed, then try Eurocarving.

PureBoarding style

The PureBoarding style uses a surf stance, with binding angles of around 55°/20° on a wide board. The stance has a few advantages:

• It allows a more comfortable upright stance.
• The movements of the knees along the heel-toe direction are more efficient and take less effort.
• Toe side turns are easier, because you get more leverage and it's easy to drop your knees straight down into the turn
• It's easier to compress low onto the board without exerting twisting pressure on your knees.
• It allows for a more rotated style.

ExtremeCarving

ExtremeCarving is a version of the Push-Pull technique taken to the extreme, on steep groomed hardpack. See an in-depth discussion in the ExtremeCarving chapter.

Pitch and Terrain

As you get better, you will get slower. That's because you will be able to control your speed by getting the board high on edge and making tighter turns, which generates centripetal force that counteracts gravity and slows you down - think of it as "engine braking". Beginners often accelerate beyond their control because they can't make tight, high-angled turns. As you get slower, you will need to advance to steeper terrain in order to maintain the speed necessary to carve. Be aware that as you get better and slower, people are more likely to run into you from behind because you will be traveling down the fall line more slowly. Facts about terrain:

• Overall, the surface conditions have a huge impact on your carving performance. The difficulty of carving a slope depends more on the surface texture/grip of the terrain than on the pitch.
• Good surface terrain can come at unlikely times. Some of the best carving can be had on the last day a resort is open.
• Sharp edges help on ice, but your technique is a larger factor for edge hold.
• Carvers often seek out the handful of runs at a resort that are best for carving and stick to just those: when carving, it's not the variations in the terrain that provides the variety, it's your carving technique, and you may find yourself riding a single run for the entire day. In fact, a resort only needs to have one really good carving run to qualify as a "good carving resort."

Double-arm Carving and the flight model

Most carvers aspire to double-arm carving, which happens when you are leaned over so much that both of your forearms are skimming the snow on toe side and heel side. It can be achieved two ways:

• Using a fully extended style like the ExtremeCarving technique.
• Using a highly compact, ultra-angulated, over-rotated carving style, like Doug Dryer's Ultimate Carving. In this case, you need to completely eliminate yaw (side-to-side motion) from your technique. Instead, limit your motion to roll (tilting the board high on edge using angulation), and pitch (pulling the nose of the board by twisting your body uphill to the inside of the turn). The roll motion comes first, and consists of quickly tilting the board maximally on edge to get both forearms in the snow. This move happens before you enter each turn, while the board is still perpendicular to the fall line, and requires a low center of gravity. Then, arc the board across the snow using pitch by twisting your torso uphill. Think of a fighter jet rolling and then peeling out of a formation, without using any rudder yaw.

More tips

Skier conversion

Of all the folks on the hill who are captivated by a carver railing turns, ski racers are the ones most genuinely interested in trying it out. That's because they aren't scared of hard boots, and they have already tasted carving to a certain extent on skis in a race course. These folks generally "carve" more than softbooters. It's also quite easy for ski racers to pick up snowboard carving, especially when coached by someone who can explain snowboard carving in skier language.

Carving Sessions

You can improve your technique by attending one of the many carving sessions that are organized throughout the year.

Other tips

• Watching yourself on videotape is enormously helpful, if not humbling. When you view yourself on video, you never, never look as good as you think you are, and you'll spot all sorts of problems. Which is why you might want to consider a carve camp that offers video analysis.
• Carving is like being in orbit: you are always falling.
• You may get into a rut (figuratively speaking), and find yourself unable to carve without tipping over or skidding out. In this scenario do the following drill: Do not allow your board to turn downhill until you are maximally angulated. Traverse across the slope, and increase your angulation more and more as you traverse, and let the board turn downhill only when you have maxed out on the angulation.
• It's usually easier to learn new skills on a damp board than on a lively board.
• When switching over from soft boots to hard boots, you can ease the transition by gradually increasing the binding angles on your soft boots a few degrees at a time, then make the switch to hard boots using the same angle, then gradually increase the binding angles on the hard setup.
• When you move to a longer board, it will go faster, but at the same time it will have more carving inertia. Which means you have to simultaneously think faster, and smooth out all of your movements by a notch.
• Your technique will improve if you practice on different types/brands of carving gear. Some people on the regional carving web sites hoard a ridiculous amount of carving gear, so ask to borrow some. In general:
  • Stiffer equipment forces you to ride with better technique, and may speed the learning curve.
  • Longer boards sometimes mast bad habits. Try a shorter board, and practice keeping your weight centered.
  • Try wider boards, and lower your boot angles; it will give you more stability, and will allow you to practice different techniques.
  • Try both the G-force style and the speed style: elements of each can help either.
• The CERN club has a description of French style (torso facing down the fall line) and Swiss style (torso facing the direction of the long axis of the board). However, the cross-over, cross-under, cross-through techniques are better models upon which to develop a carving style. The CERN site also has an online snowboard tutor.
• You need to bend your knees more than you think. More advanced, compact carving styles require your butt to be about 3 inches above your back foot, which means you should almost be sitting on your back foot. This stance puts a lot of strain on your quads. Bring ibuprofen. Practice at home in the living room while watching TV: Get used to how low you need to be. Because of the geometry of a carving stance, you will think you are bending your knees, even when you are not. There are two ways to check:
  • When you carve, put your hands on your thighs: If your thighs don't seem parallel to the slope, you are not bending enough.
  • Look at yourself on videotape.
• Carving is like lifting weights, since it takes a lot of leg muscle power during the middle of each carve. For many carving styles, you may not have the muscle power to carve the entire length of a long run without stopping. As your legs get tired, your technique will go downhill - fast. After around noon, your legs will lose steam and the terrain will get chopped up: consider switching to freeride mode for the afternoon, or make use of a half-day AM lift ticket. Even on all-mountain boards, the experience is not always fun after the terrain is chopped up. In spring conditions, moguls are created quickly. However, as your technique improves, you will be able to continue carving later in the day.
• Carving has another similarity to weight lifting: because the strength and concentration needed, people sometimes forget to breathe during a series of turns. Remember to breathe.
• The edge control skills you learn from carving will come in handy for the halfpipe.
• Occasionally check your trenches for signs of boot-out, and increase your binding angles if necessary. Boot-out may not affect you on softer snow, but on hardpack, it can cause you to skid.
• Confidence is a huge element in carving. Therefore, it's a bad idea to carve in low visibility conditions or on a board that is outside of your skill range. It's also not a great idea to carve when the cover is thin with exposed rocks - your technique might suffer if you are not confident about where to set your edge. Steeps are 50% mental. If you carve while someone is videotaping you, your skill level drops by 30%. Unfortunately, carving attracts attention, so you are always being watched.
• Speaking of confidence, what's really impressive are the carvers who appear in photos taken during the middle of a really deep carve, who also seem to be completely relaxed, smiling at the camera, and just chilling out as if they don't have a care in the world. Damn them!
• The unfortunate thing about carving is that when you are learning, you are guaranteed to look really stupid when you lose an edge, because you will either tip over or wind up plowing snow in an exhibition sort of way. Constant humiliation goes with the learning curve. Also, skating your way off the lift in a hard setup is not quite trivial.
• As far as carving technique, don't believe anything you read on the internet.

A call for versatility

In 2002, Transworld Snowboarding asked Craig Kelly "What do you respect about other riders?" He responded by saying "I really like seeing riders who can carve turns and also pull big tricks and big moves."

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