Perform a Carve on a Snowboard

An in depth guide to doing a turn while riding a snowboard. As you improve, you will learn to control the edge so that the snowboard cuts a thin groove in the snow, instead of a skidded path, and then it will be a carve.

Steps

  1. Start on a hill with a moderate slope.
  2. Move down the hill.
  3. Adjust your weight so that you are resting on either your toes or on your heels. There's no need to lean. Be a part of the board. You will fall if you lean. Instead, tilt your lower body in the direction you should go and balance yourself with your upper body.
  4. Turn. Only do as deep a turn as you can for the slope. You'll be able to turn deeper as you develop better balance.
  5. Practice turning first with just your front foot in on fairly flat terrain (e.g. the bunny hill) before you put in your back foot. This will help you get used to controlling the board with your front foot.
  6. Turn with both feet in. To turn with both feet in, start your turns with your front foot, then let your back foot follow. This means you go onto either your toes or heels with your front foot first, and then as you get into your turn, you do the same with your back foot. This will twist the board to make the turn smoother.
  7. Link to your next turn, flatten out your front foot, but leave your back foot on its edge. This will get you headed out straight again.
  8. Start doing your turn. Once you are mostly straight, start doing your other turn.
  9. Make deeper and sharper turns by going down lower on your toes or heels.
  10. Keep turning all the way down the slope to control your speed.



Tips

  • Do not look at the ground. This will make you bend at your waist.
  • Make sure not to bend too much at your waist or hunch over. This will make you lose your balance almost every time you try to turn sharply at all. Your waist should be completely straight for a toe side turn, centered for going straight, and only slightly bent for the heel side turn.
  • To do a smoother transition to a toe side turn from a heel side turn, drop your front knee down and inward. This will twist the board to get you to your toe side edge smoother.
  • Keep your weight centered on your board. Most people tend to put too much weight on their back foot. This causes them to slide out on their turns. Remember, when snowboarding, you steer with your front foot. If it's not touching the snow very much, you can't steer very well. It's ok to put a little more weight on your front foot; it can sometimes help send you through your turn. More weight on your back foot however is often bad. Some advanced techniques put weight on the back foot occasionally, but if you do not properly hold an edge with too much weight on the back foot, you'll spin around.
  • Think of your feet as two pedals. Your lead foot is like the gas, you use it first to initiate the turn. The other foot follows and is like your brake, the more you engage the following foot (the deeper you dig into the slope) the more it will slow you down. Engaging the following foot also finishes the turn smoothly.
  • Keep your knees bent. You do a toe side turn by pushing your knees down, and you do a heel side turn by lifting your toes while keeping your knees bent. If you lock up your knees, you won't be able to turn at all for a toe side turn, and you'll lose your balance on your heel side turn. Also, your knees absorb any bumps you'll hit.
  • Let the board do what it's going to do. When you snowboard, all you do is twist and tilt the board to ease it into the proper position. You'll make much smoother turns if you stay loose, guide the board along, and let the board glide through the snow. Don't force the board through a turn. If you hold the edge properly, it'll turn for you.
  • When you go switch, you'll have to re-teach yourself how to turn. Remember, you're turning with your front foot, which is now your other foot.
  • To do a heel side turn properly, keep your knees bent and rock back onto your heels. To do this, you need to sit back a little, almost like you're sitting into a chair, and keep your shoulders right where they are. It's just like squatting, but you don't bend at your waist so much, and you balance yourself on your heels.
  • Keep your shoulders in line with the board. You do not need to move your shoulders at all to turn. Instead, it's all in your lower body from your hips to your knees. If you open your shoulders, you'll lock up and have a hard time linking turns.
  • When making a heelside turn, do not stick your butt out behind you. Instead, your waist and back should look like you are sitting in a chair.
  • A wider stance can help you get more power over your board to twist it easier and make your turns smoother.
  • The proper stance for a toe side turn is with your knees bent, your waist straight, and your shoulders back. This lets you send your knees down far and balance out yourself with your upper body to do the deepest turn possible.
  • A more duck stance (wider angle, the same angle on both feet) will reduce drag from your feet when you do a deep turn and make it easier to go switch.
  • To do a smoother transition to a heel side turn from a toe side turn, push your front knee outward. This will twist the board to get you to your heel side edge smoother.
  • Do not push with your back foot or try to pivot your board. Snowboards do not have wheels, so they can move in any direction. Therefore, this will not make you turn. It will just make you slide sideways. What will make you turn is getting up on your edge.

Warnings

  • Practice makes perfect. Even something as "simple" as your basic turn will take a lot of practice to get good.
  • Do not attempt to snowboard over non frozen water or big rocks.
  • When learning to turn, make sure to always be on the edge of your board that is going uphill. If you go on the other edge, your board will slide downhill and cut under the snow, which will flip you over. If you're on the uphill edge, when the board slides downhill, the snow will safely go under the board. If you have enough speed to send you through the turn, you can switch to your downhill edge front foot first, then back foot and turn on it quickly. Do not attempt this though until you have enough control over your board to be able to hold the edge and to know when you have enough speed to make the turn.
  • Don't attempt to learn how to snowboard on your own. Take a lesson or learn from someone who is trained to teach. Almost everyone who teaches themselves or learns from a friend does not learn how to snowboard correctly. A simple scan of a mountain to see how many people ride with their shoulders open or push with their back feet to turn should be enough to convince someone of this.
  • Inverted Aerials are not recommended.

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