Track Your Progress and Spray Some Snow
Today we rode the chair up at 8.30am to foot or so of new snow. We threw buckets of spray on five quick runs. It is extremely rewarding to have a morning like the one we had today. No drills, no skills, no thinking, only riding. On an otherwise overcast and snowy day, the sun peeked briefly through the clouds for one empty run that we had totally to ourselves.
Days like these happen spontaneously, and yet there has been a great deal of learning that has occurred to prepare the way. One aspect of that learning has involved consideration of the tracks we leave in the snow as we ride down...
Every moment that you are skiing or riding thousands of snowflakes and crystals of ice are being displaced by your equipment (unless you are mid-air or sliding a rail.) This re-positioning of the snow that happens when we turn tells a great deal about what the ski or board has done and can give valuable, instant feedback on what the equipment is doing.
On days when the grooming is fresh or the coverage is thin, notice the tracks that you are leaving in the snow. (stop first, then look back!) Are you carving a platform through the snow, or smearing and spreading the snow with a skidded turn? How symmetrical are the turns? Are they evenly rounded or rough and uneven? Is your intention for each turn showing up in the tracks you are leaving in the snow? I get a lot of clues about subtle movements that my students are making by looking at their tracks, and at the way that the snow is being dispersed by their edges as they come down.
So take a look at your tracks and see what you see, but know that you are not going to learn all that you can while standing still looking back at what you just did. On that note, here is something you can practice that is a lot of fun and very useful to prepare you for the double blacks. Spray the snow downhill in front of you at the end of each turn. To do this well requires a precise blending of several skills. This is appropriate for high intermediate snowboarders who are comfortable and aggressive on blue terrain.
1. Rotation (pivot) Turn your board to finish the turn pointed across the hill (perpendicular to the fall line.)
2. Edging. Increase pressure on the edge quickly and evenly to push the snow ahead of you.
3. Body Position and Movements. Your lower body needs to be doing the turning, while your upper body stays steady with your lead shoulder pointing mostly down the hill. Looking down the hill so you can see the spray with you peripheral vision.
4. Weight distribution. Shift you weight to the back foot so that the spray is coming from under the back foot.
TROUBLESHOOTING?
The turn will be S shaped and relatively short. Many people have a tendency to elongate the S when they do shorter turns. If you are spraying snow off to the sides, you are not finishing the turn across the hill and need to hold onto each turn a bit longer. If your weight is mostly over the front foot, it will be very difficult to generate any spary at all, work on shifting your weight to the back foot at the end of the turn. If the board skids out from under you and you fall down, you are leaning up the hill too much, and need to stay more upright over the board as you finish the turn.
Posted On: February 19th, 2010 By: Dan Humphries
