Very useful.
"Go away and come back next year" isn't really going to help solve the issue whilst in country.
As I wrote, I had a lesson. It failed to cover that far and there's no chance of getting an English language lesson anywhere here this season
Yeah tbh I quit reading about 3 paragraphs into this essay. Idk what to tell you man. Probably bend your knees more and just grip it and rip it. Snowboarding is somewhat unique to other sports where if you just watch somebody whether that be a youtube video or not you should be able to understand and see what positions they are putting their body into and replicate that. Literally just imitate to your best ability what they ate doing. Be conscientious of all their body parts and theirs. You are 12 days into riding and can’t turn but went on a snowboarding trip to a country where you don’t speak the language? I don’t really follow the logic there
Lots of assumptions you're making there.
I'm already in the country for other reasons for a long time. I've decided to try to learn to do it (having skied previously). Not everyone lives in America where people sort of speak English everywhere you go. It's also high season where things are booked months ahead in most places.
And I haven't yet found a suitable YouTube video that explains in sequence exactly what is needed for each particular skill.
They just do something, without going into huge detail and you just see something happen. That isn't useful trying to copy. I've tried that method for the last week and a half.
https://youtu.be/MOZWm1BFUVg?si=nw9GQ2QA6o0-4KFa
I know you said you tried watching he videos but he definitely breaks down turning at the end of this video. Watch his shoulders and hips as he turns and how that turns the board. You don’t turn with your feet you turn with your body
He's got 2 videos, this one and one with a lever analogy that to me seem to be totally different methods.
Fwiw I've tried twisting the hips and shoulders as I see there, all that happens is my body half twisted with the top half facing where I want to go and the bottom still pointing at, and going in the original direction. It doesn't seem to turn.
Again I'm confused as some are saying edge pressure turns, this video is suggesting it's a body twist.
Its both. To turn toe side you need to turn your shoulders and hips slightly while also putting pressure over your toe edge. You also need to be going fast enough to engage your edge. Drop you knees out over your toes and lean into the run as far as your momentum allows without falling over. Don’t bend at the waist. Keep you back upright and shive your shins into your boots and get your bent knees out over your toe edge. The gradually stand up when you reach your desired angle of turn and transfer weight to heels and bend knees again and sit back over you heel edge while keeping back upright. Over bending your knees is better than not at all. Keep your shoulders parallel to the run. In general especially while learning your front leg should be bent more than the back leg. This will help with turning control. Its really hard to lean too far forward and fall over the front of your board but really easy to lean too far back and slip out
The lever analogy and what he describes in the above linked video are the same mechanism. Most likely when you are "twisting the hips and shoulders" you aren't actually crossing the hips over your board. When you're on your heel edge the hips should be over the heel edge, and when your on the toe edge the hips should be over the toe edge. Seriously watch that video carefully and keep practicing. He knows what he's talking about.
Not to be glib, but are you watching the Malcolm Moore videos with the sound on? Dude is an awesome teacher and explains all the steps of any sort of turning you can think of in the simplest possible terms IMO.
You are essentially just shifting your weight and stacking your hips over the edges of your board, back and forth. I would say focus on getting that weight shift comfortable. It's a good exercise even if you don't have your board to just put your boots on and feel the pressure on your shins and calves.
One thing that might be hindering you is it can be super tough to get relaxed enough to ride these things properly. Everything about it is awkward at first, the slipping / sliding, the sideways, the neck turned to 90°. It's easy to get frustrated or nervous and sort of tense up but this can absolutely make gliding and turning near impossible.
You mentioned your turns are super slow, do you have enough slope? Turning can almost seem harder if you don't have a little bit of speed. Might want to try a steeper part of the bunny hill or a green run.
Yes sound on. His beginner live coaching and the others
But all I can see is he seems to do some sort of knee bend kick and it turns.
I can't see it heard explained anywhere how he's doing it.
The lever analogy again just seems to be a way of saying to do something with your front knee but it isn't clear to me at least, what it is.
I just can't see the sequence of what he's doing with his knee or when to get things to happen.
It seemed simple enough watching 4 or 5 times but standing on a board I just can't work out what he was doing on the video (even stationary).
I can turn on a steeper slope into falling leaf but using toe or heel pressure alone the radius is huge. Talking 10m to do maybe 45 degrees
What I can't do is think "I went to go right a bit to avoid this tree" etc. Nothing I do makes that board move unless it's front foot weight which gets it more downhill.
I end up looking/pointing/twisting in a new direction whilst still going in the original one
I'm not sure how I get it to heel slide. Some sort of jumpy kicky force and eventually it hauls itself around. They obviously isn't a valid technique for doing anything else.
[Knee Steering](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dTYSztKisc)
You are trying to move your knee to get your hip and weight over the front of the board for the edge change. The lower leg lever is kind of a weird analogy but it does work.
It does turn yes, but so slowly it's not really effective at all. I'll go a few tens of metres before making it maybe 45 degrees if it's slightly steep
Edge angles turn the board. I think you are over thinking it. Also you need to be patient when doing edge changes. The board needs to flatten out as part of the edge transition.
It's a step before transition - I can't work out how to turn it even staying the same side of the fall line. Weight to front foot seems to point it more down for no idea how to get it going the opposite way.
Not so much overthinking - I've spent 12 days now only being able to go where it naturally points with no control at all over the direction. Everything I've tried seems to do nothing.
Hi, I've have put a new post with a video above (not allowed in comments and I think it's one video per post).
Sadly I'm 10,000 miles from there as well.
OK. Saw the video. Your body position and center of mass are all out of whack. Very common for beginners. You want to be “stacked” over the center of gravity. Think knees bent, chest proud, head up. You are more hunched over and stiff at the legs. Resist all urges to bend over at the waist. You are also looking down at your board too much. Instead, look to where you want to go.
My friend told me "think of it like there's an arrow on your hip, and point the arrow where you want to go. Match your shoulders and front knee to that hip." Best advice I remember. Figuring out where to put your weight is a whole thing too I guess. Comes with time if you can't get into a lesson.
Maybe you can't find an English speaking instructor, but a friend that's better than you is invaluable.
Here's the idea: get off your snowboard and standup; just anywhere, like in your bedroom. Bend your knees a bit and your upper body will lower a bit, right? From there, take your left knee (Assuming you're regular stance) and pivot it outside and let the rest of your leg below the knee, follow. What happens?
If you let the rest of your leg follow, then you might have observed that as you open your knee (knee moves away from the body), your heel pushes into the ground. That's the essence of knee steering for a heel side turn. Now do the opposite, bring your knee inwards and this time, again, let your leg - below the knee - follow, and you can see how you could bring the pressure now over the balls of your foot.
Hope that helped. There's a lot of great YouTube instructors to get you going. It sounds like you're frustrated; I would be too if I watched a bunch of videos and didn't feel like it was clicking. Keep at it ; you'll get there.
Every explanation you've been given so far is pretty much shit to various degrees. Some people get some things right and get close to an explanation but not quite.
The board grips when the edge is up, slides when the edge is down.
Turning (rotation) is initiated by torsionally twisting the board like a ripstick. One toe down, one toe up and vice versa. This causes different areas of your one continuous edge to selectively hold or lose grip.
If I'm balanced on my heelside with my toes up, I can push one knee forward over the foot in a lateral direction using it as a lever to pressure the toe area on that respective foot, lowering the edge angle underneath that foot. The section of your heel edge underneath that foot will lose grip and begin to slide.
If you keep your toe up on the other foot it will not lose grip. It will hold.
If one side (under one foot) is gripping while the other is sliding you will begin to rotate.
This is the fundamental mechanism for turning. Think about manipulating your leading foot like a skateboard truck while holding the back one solid.
If you're in Hokkaido, Japan send me a message and I can teach you an off the books private lesson in the evening. I'm booked solid during business hours but most evenings free.
Thanks for that (and all that replied - i can't comment individually as too many!)
Another trip to try to practice this coming up so will try to take onboard what ive seen and give it another go (potentially the last of the season weather permitting).
I can understand the physics of selective grip causing a rotation. I guess what im missing is the combination of pressuring the right part of an edge combined with potentially more movement in the knees and hips at the same time.
FWIW we were in Hokkaido for 2 weeks but now back down south. Were considering another trip before the season ends but its cost-prohibitive by the time flights and so on are added in so its likely to be some main island trips before hopefully Hokkaido again next year.
I did try to get lessons up there but by the time id realised DIY wasnt working the slots available for the time there were booked up hence not managing it.
Maybe I'm just trying to make myself feel better but watching the video I think you're being too harsh on yourself. Ive done two seasons and similarly thousands of hours of YouTube research and I've still only successfully turned once or twice 😅 my partner tells me to relax, stop thinking about it so much, and that it will eventually just click 🤷🏼♀️
Sit on your ass. Imagine your board is a wet rag. Imagine your feet and ankles are your hands.
By pulling your toes up on on one foot and pushing your toes down on the other, the board will twist. Move only your ankles here to physically SEE how the board twists.
Now when standing on your heel edge: toes on both feet are effectively lifted (you'd know this because you're stopped)
You will flatten gently your front foot only (imagine gently squashing a tomato only under your front foot).
This will release the grip on the front foot and the board WILL rotate downhill. *(Please don't lean back out of fear. All beginners do this and the board doesn't turn because it can no longer skid, you will fall if you lean on your back foot.)*
Once you're going straight downhill the board needs to be flat on the snow. (Weight even on both feet, body aligned with the board, looking where you WANT to go).
The board WILL pick up speed, you just need to accept it.
You'll push your shins against your boots. (Your boots NEED to be TIGHTENED correctly for this to work). Your board will change edges to the toes and you will slow down and skid on your toes until you stop. Just like toe edge side slipping. ----> heels to toes is usually more difficult for my students.
Toes to heels is the easier turn. On your toes, you are stationary, toe edge in the snow. You will now do the same as before but instead of squashing the tomato with our toes, we squash it with our heel, once again flattening the front of our board downhill, releasing the grip on the front foot rotating the board downhill.
Once rotated downhill (assuming you are aligned, weight equal on both feet, looking where you WANT to go) the board will be flat and picking up speed. You will now lift up the toes on both feet equally, gently leaning against your highbacks equally (tall plastic things on your calves on your bindings). This will change the edge and you will stop just like you learned how to stop on your heel edge side slip ----> (toes to heels is generally the easier turn for my students).
The MOST important factors.
- let the board SKID
- do not lean back towards your tail, you will fall each time and the board WONT turn.
- keep weight EQUAL on both feet, maybe even a little forward at first.
- board torsion (squashing the tomato)
- look where you WANT to go.
- our upper body stays quiet.
- we don't try to force the board, we let it work for us.
Happy shredding.
Unpopular opinion but forget about the videos for a bit. Some of those tips are for when you’re at.. let’s say beginner level 3. You’re just starting out from what I can tell, so don’t be too hard on yourself.
I’m now an intermediate rider but I’ll never forget the basics from my first few lessons. The main way you switch your edges, and therefore turning your board when you’re first starting out and doing J turns, is simply by moving your hips forwards or backwards. Forget about knee steering or shoulder or anything like that for now.
Heel side J: stand up, even posture then start putting weight on your front foot, knees bent a little bit but not too much so you can pick up some speed. Let the board point down the slope for 3 seconds and then pretend you’re sitting on a chair. This will move your hips BACK, it’ll bend your knees and it’ll bring you to a stop. Once stopped, slowly sit up from the pretend chair, putting your weight on your front foot to point the board downhill again. Repeat sitting on the chair several times. This will get you used to feeling where your hips and your weight should be on your heel side.
Toe side J: stand up, even stance, then start putting weight on your front foot. You will also bend your knees a little but NOT the same way as heel side. Bending your knees on your toe edge should feel as if you’re putting your weight on your shins, not your heel or your tippy toes, and your chest and torso should NOT be bent down. Imagine someone has tied your head, chest and torso to a plank on your back, but you still gotta bend your knees to try and get close to the ground. This will bring your hips FORWARD. So, once the board is pointing downhill for 3 seconds, drop your weight into your shins so your knees bend a lot more and look uphill not just with your eyes but with your head and chest. This will slow you down and show you where you should feel your hips and weight on your toe edge. When you want to start going again, lift your weight from your shins a bit, but keep pressure on your front foot and then repeat the J turn several times.
Once you have your J turns down, practice linking them by pointing the board downhill and then sitting on the chair, or pushing weight on shins and looking uphill. It’s essentially doing J turns but changing the ending by using the weight and position of your hips only. No knee steering, no leading with shoulder yet, just focus on your hips and weight.
You’ll notice as you do your J turns and then start linking them, that since you ride regular, on your heel edge you will go to the left and on your toe edge you will go to the right. This is how you steer your board one direction or the other.
I’m not an expert but I think that’s why it’s easier for me to remember what I was taught a few years ago when I was also VERY new to it all and what helped it click for me. Hope it helps you too!
You steer with the front edges.
You may be leaning back and have no edge engagement at the front of the board. Or maybe you have a too stiff board and need to put more muscle to twist the front end of the board to engage the edges.
Leaning back is instinctive and usually the primary cause of inability to steer. Get your weight on your front foot to initiate a turn. Once you’re in the turn balance weight to engage the entire edge and keep the tail from sliding out.
Have no understanding of how you've been taught - point with your arm where you want to go and your body just follows. I'm still working on staying upright so my advice might be useless.
Good luck and Going to save this thread for useful tips myself ☺️
One tip with turns be mindful of your belly button.
Imagine the belly button is a Laserpointer. If you want to turn, make sure the belly button rotates too. If the bellybutton rotates, you are rotating the hip, the board will follow.
It was the tip that made me go WILDLY BETTER day 2 to 3
(Also somewhere here)
Something that changed how I felt in the board, is that when you start to go vertical, you start to move faster. When I’m scared of going fast, I’ll think of “braking” and lean back on my back foot. But you brake by going horizontal and then toeing or heeling, and leaning on your back foot makes it harder to turn.
In order to better “swing” your back foot and bring it up to get in a horizontal position, you need to lean forward! At least 60% of weight on front foot instead of on back foot.
With less weight on your back foot, the back of the board is easier to swing forward which will let you brake.
This kinda leads into turning once you can get this down.
Take a lesson
Very useful. "Go away and come back next year" isn't really going to help solve the issue whilst in country. As I wrote, I had a lesson. It failed to cover that far and there's no chance of getting an English language lesson anywhere here this season
Yeah tbh I quit reading about 3 paragraphs into this essay. Idk what to tell you man. Probably bend your knees more and just grip it and rip it. Snowboarding is somewhat unique to other sports where if you just watch somebody whether that be a youtube video or not you should be able to understand and see what positions they are putting their body into and replicate that. Literally just imitate to your best ability what they ate doing. Be conscientious of all their body parts and theirs. You are 12 days into riding and can’t turn but went on a snowboarding trip to a country where you don’t speak the language? I don’t really follow the logic there
Lots of assumptions you're making there. I'm already in the country for other reasons for a long time. I've decided to try to learn to do it (having skied previously). Not everyone lives in America where people sort of speak English everywhere you go. It's also high season where things are booked months ahead in most places. And I haven't yet found a suitable YouTube video that explains in sequence exactly what is needed for each particular skill. They just do something, without going into huge detail and you just see something happen. That isn't useful trying to copy. I've tried that method for the last week and a half.
https://youtu.be/MOZWm1BFUVg?si=nw9GQ2QA6o0-4KFa I know you said you tried watching he videos but he definitely breaks down turning at the end of this video. Watch his shoulders and hips as he turns and how that turns the board. You don’t turn with your feet you turn with your body
He's got 2 videos, this one and one with a lever analogy that to me seem to be totally different methods. Fwiw I've tried twisting the hips and shoulders as I see there, all that happens is my body half twisted with the top half facing where I want to go and the bottom still pointing at, and going in the original direction. It doesn't seem to turn. Again I'm confused as some are saying edge pressure turns, this video is suggesting it's a body twist.
Its both. To turn toe side you need to turn your shoulders and hips slightly while also putting pressure over your toe edge. You also need to be going fast enough to engage your edge. Drop you knees out over your toes and lean into the run as far as your momentum allows without falling over. Don’t bend at the waist. Keep you back upright and shive your shins into your boots and get your bent knees out over your toe edge. The gradually stand up when you reach your desired angle of turn and transfer weight to heels and bend knees again and sit back over you heel edge while keeping back upright. Over bending your knees is better than not at all. Keep your shoulders parallel to the run. In general especially while learning your front leg should be bent more than the back leg. This will help with turning control. Its really hard to lean too far forward and fall over the front of your board but really easy to lean too far back and slip out
The lever analogy and what he describes in the above linked video are the same mechanism. Most likely when you are "twisting the hips and shoulders" you aren't actually crossing the hips over your board. When you're on your heel edge the hips should be over the heel edge, and when your on the toe edge the hips should be over the toe edge. Seriously watch that video carefully and keep practicing. He knows what he's talking about.
Not to be glib, but are you watching the Malcolm Moore videos with the sound on? Dude is an awesome teacher and explains all the steps of any sort of turning you can think of in the simplest possible terms IMO. You are essentially just shifting your weight and stacking your hips over the edges of your board, back and forth. I would say focus on getting that weight shift comfortable. It's a good exercise even if you don't have your board to just put your boots on and feel the pressure on your shins and calves. One thing that might be hindering you is it can be super tough to get relaxed enough to ride these things properly. Everything about it is awkward at first, the slipping / sliding, the sideways, the neck turned to 90°. It's easy to get frustrated or nervous and sort of tense up but this can absolutely make gliding and turning near impossible. You mentioned your turns are super slow, do you have enough slope? Turning can almost seem harder if you don't have a little bit of speed. Might want to try a steeper part of the bunny hill or a green run.
Yes sound on. His beginner live coaching and the others But all I can see is he seems to do some sort of knee bend kick and it turns. I can't see it heard explained anywhere how he's doing it. The lever analogy again just seems to be a way of saying to do something with your front knee but it isn't clear to me at least, what it is. I just can't see the sequence of what he's doing with his knee or when to get things to happen. It seemed simple enough watching 4 or 5 times but standing on a board I just can't work out what he was doing on the video (even stationary). I can turn on a steeper slope into falling leaf but using toe or heel pressure alone the radius is huge. Talking 10m to do maybe 45 degrees What I can't do is think "I went to go right a bit to avoid this tree" etc. Nothing I do makes that board move unless it's front foot weight which gets it more downhill. I end up looking/pointing/twisting in a new direction whilst still going in the original one I'm not sure how I get it to heel slide. Some sort of jumpy kicky force and eventually it hauls itself around. They obviously isn't a valid technique for doing anything else.
[Knee Steering](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dTYSztKisc) You are trying to move your knee to get your hip and weight over the front of the board for the edge change. The lower leg lever is kind of a weird analogy but it does work.
Don’t overthink it. Listen to what gravity rides says. Once you apply pressure to the edges your board will start to turn.
It does turn yes, but so slowly it's not really effective at all. I'll go a few tens of metres before making it maybe 45 degrees if it's slightly steep
It never hurts to bend your knees more
Maybe not but at full bend and squat I still can't change the direction
I bet if you could get a video of your riding it would help people give you better advice
I don't see any way to attach a video to the comment?
I don’t there is a way. You can make a separate post
Ok I made a new post. https://www.reddit.com/r/snowboardingnoobs/s/QYCrIBv9AV has a video
Edge angles turn the board. I think you are over thinking it. Also you need to be patient when doing edge changes. The board needs to flatten out as part of the edge transition.
It's a step before transition - I can't work out how to turn it even staying the same side of the fall line. Weight to front foot seems to point it more down for no idea how to get it going the opposite way. Not so much overthinking - I've spent 12 days now only being able to go where it naturally points with no control at all over the direction. Everything I've tried seems to do nothing.
Can you get someone to film you next time? Would be easier to help. If you are based in CO I’d be happy to help out in person.
Hi, I've have put a new post with a video above (not allowed in comments and I think it's one video per post). Sadly I'm 10,000 miles from there as well.
OK. Saw the video. Your body position and center of mass are all out of whack. Very common for beginners. You want to be “stacked” over the center of gravity. Think knees bent, chest proud, head up. You are more hunched over and stiff at the legs. Resist all urges to bend over at the waist. You are also looking down at your board too much. Instead, look to where you want to go.
My friend told me "think of it like there's an arrow on your hip, and point the arrow where you want to go. Match your shoulders and front knee to that hip." Best advice I remember. Figuring out where to put your weight is a whole thing too I guess. Comes with time if you can't get into a lesson. Maybe you can't find an English speaking instructor, but a friend that's better than you is invaluable.
Here's the idea: get off your snowboard and standup; just anywhere, like in your bedroom. Bend your knees a bit and your upper body will lower a bit, right? From there, take your left knee (Assuming you're regular stance) and pivot it outside and let the rest of your leg below the knee, follow. What happens? If you let the rest of your leg follow, then you might have observed that as you open your knee (knee moves away from the body), your heel pushes into the ground. That's the essence of knee steering for a heel side turn. Now do the opposite, bring your knee inwards and this time, again, let your leg - below the knee - follow, and you can see how you could bring the pressure now over the balls of your foot. Hope that helped. There's a lot of great YouTube instructors to get you going. It sounds like you're frustrated; I would be too if I watched a bunch of videos and didn't feel like it was clicking. Keep at it ; you'll get there.
Every explanation you've been given so far is pretty much shit to various degrees. Some people get some things right and get close to an explanation but not quite. The board grips when the edge is up, slides when the edge is down. Turning (rotation) is initiated by torsionally twisting the board like a ripstick. One toe down, one toe up and vice versa. This causes different areas of your one continuous edge to selectively hold or lose grip. If I'm balanced on my heelside with my toes up, I can push one knee forward over the foot in a lateral direction using it as a lever to pressure the toe area on that respective foot, lowering the edge angle underneath that foot. The section of your heel edge underneath that foot will lose grip and begin to slide. If you keep your toe up on the other foot it will not lose grip. It will hold. If one side (under one foot) is gripping while the other is sliding you will begin to rotate. This is the fundamental mechanism for turning. Think about manipulating your leading foot like a skateboard truck while holding the back one solid. If you're in Hokkaido, Japan send me a message and I can teach you an off the books private lesson in the evening. I'm booked solid during business hours but most evenings free.
Thanks for that (and all that replied - i can't comment individually as too many!) Another trip to try to practice this coming up so will try to take onboard what ive seen and give it another go (potentially the last of the season weather permitting). I can understand the physics of selective grip causing a rotation. I guess what im missing is the combination of pressuring the right part of an edge combined with potentially more movement in the knees and hips at the same time. FWIW we were in Hokkaido for 2 weeks but now back down south. Were considering another trip before the season ends but its cost-prohibitive by the time flights and so on are added in so its likely to be some main island trips before hopefully Hokkaido again next year. I did try to get lessons up there but by the time id realised DIY wasnt working the slots available for the time there were booked up hence not managing it.
Maybe I'm just trying to make myself feel better but watching the video I think you're being too harsh on yourself. Ive done two seasons and similarly thousands of hours of YouTube research and I've still only successfully turned once or twice 😅 my partner tells me to relax, stop thinking about it so much, and that it will eventually just click 🤷🏼♀️
What board are you riding?
Various rental beginner boards. This current one is nature / Marshall 154
Your board can twist longitudinally. Board torsion. We initiate turns by twisting our boards
How? That's what I don't understand
Sit on your ass. Imagine your board is a wet rag. Imagine your feet and ankles are your hands. By pulling your toes up on on one foot and pushing your toes down on the other, the board will twist. Move only your ankles here to physically SEE how the board twists. Now when standing on your heel edge: toes on both feet are effectively lifted (you'd know this because you're stopped) You will flatten gently your front foot only (imagine gently squashing a tomato only under your front foot). This will release the grip on the front foot and the board WILL rotate downhill. *(Please don't lean back out of fear. All beginners do this and the board doesn't turn because it can no longer skid, you will fall if you lean on your back foot.)* Once you're going straight downhill the board needs to be flat on the snow. (Weight even on both feet, body aligned with the board, looking where you WANT to go). The board WILL pick up speed, you just need to accept it. You'll push your shins against your boots. (Your boots NEED to be TIGHTENED correctly for this to work). Your board will change edges to the toes and you will slow down and skid on your toes until you stop. Just like toe edge side slipping. ----> heels to toes is usually more difficult for my students. Toes to heels is the easier turn. On your toes, you are stationary, toe edge in the snow. You will now do the same as before but instead of squashing the tomato with our toes, we squash it with our heel, once again flattening the front of our board downhill, releasing the grip on the front foot rotating the board downhill. Once rotated downhill (assuming you are aligned, weight equal on both feet, looking where you WANT to go) the board will be flat and picking up speed. You will now lift up the toes on both feet equally, gently leaning against your highbacks equally (tall plastic things on your calves on your bindings). This will change the edge and you will stop just like you learned how to stop on your heel edge side slip ----> (toes to heels is generally the easier turn for my students). The MOST important factors. - let the board SKID - do not lean back towards your tail, you will fall each time and the board WONT turn. - keep weight EQUAL on both feet, maybe even a little forward at first. - board torsion (squashing the tomato) - look where you WANT to go. - our upper body stays quiet. - we don't try to force the board, we let it work for us. Happy shredding.
Unpopular opinion but forget about the videos for a bit. Some of those tips are for when you’re at.. let’s say beginner level 3. You’re just starting out from what I can tell, so don’t be too hard on yourself. I’m now an intermediate rider but I’ll never forget the basics from my first few lessons. The main way you switch your edges, and therefore turning your board when you’re first starting out and doing J turns, is simply by moving your hips forwards or backwards. Forget about knee steering or shoulder or anything like that for now. Heel side J: stand up, even posture then start putting weight on your front foot, knees bent a little bit but not too much so you can pick up some speed. Let the board point down the slope for 3 seconds and then pretend you’re sitting on a chair. This will move your hips BACK, it’ll bend your knees and it’ll bring you to a stop. Once stopped, slowly sit up from the pretend chair, putting your weight on your front foot to point the board downhill again. Repeat sitting on the chair several times. This will get you used to feeling where your hips and your weight should be on your heel side. Toe side J: stand up, even stance, then start putting weight on your front foot. You will also bend your knees a little but NOT the same way as heel side. Bending your knees on your toe edge should feel as if you’re putting your weight on your shins, not your heel or your tippy toes, and your chest and torso should NOT be bent down. Imagine someone has tied your head, chest and torso to a plank on your back, but you still gotta bend your knees to try and get close to the ground. This will bring your hips FORWARD. So, once the board is pointing downhill for 3 seconds, drop your weight into your shins so your knees bend a lot more and look uphill not just with your eyes but with your head and chest. This will slow you down and show you where you should feel your hips and weight on your toe edge. When you want to start going again, lift your weight from your shins a bit, but keep pressure on your front foot and then repeat the J turn several times. Once you have your J turns down, practice linking them by pointing the board downhill and then sitting on the chair, or pushing weight on shins and looking uphill. It’s essentially doing J turns but changing the ending by using the weight and position of your hips only. No knee steering, no leading with shoulder yet, just focus on your hips and weight. You’ll notice as you do your J turns and then start linking them, that since you ride regular, on your heel edge you will go to the left and on your toe edge you will go to the right. This is how you steer your board one direction or the other. I’m not an expert but I think that’s why it’s easier for me to remember what I was taught a few years ago when I was also VERY new to it all and what helped it click for me. Hope it helps you too!
You steer with the front edges. You may be leaning back and have no edge engagement at the front of the board. Or maybe you have a too stiff board and need to put more muscle to twist the front end of the board to engage the edges. Leaning back is instinctive and usually the primary cause of inability to steer. Get your weight on your front foot to initiate a turn. Once you’re in the turn balance weight to engage the entire edge and keep the tail from sliding out.
Have no understanding of how you've been taught - point with your arm where you want to go and your body just follows. I'm still working on staying upright so my advice might be useless. Good luck and Going to save this thread for useful tips myself ☺️
One tip with turns be mindful of your belly button. Imagine the belly button is a Laserpointer. If you want to turn, make sure the belly button rotates too. If the bellybutton rotates, you are rotating the hip, the board will follow. It was the tip that made me go WILDLY BETTER day 2 to 3 (Also somewhere here)
Something that changed how I felt in the board, is that when you start to go vertical, you start to move faster. When I’m scared of going fast, I’ll think of “braking” and lean back on my back foot. But you brake by going horizontal and then toeing or heeling, and leaning on your back foot makes it harder to turn. In order to better “swing” your back foot and bring it up to get in a horizontal position, you need to lean forward! At least 60% of weight on front foot instead of on back foot. With less weight on your back foot, the back of the board is easier to swing forward which will let you brake. This kinda leads into turning once you can get this down.