Carving Styles

Wild Cherry · 2025-09-21T20:49:56Z

A big Thank You to @neversnowbored for bringing my attention to the "Retraction Turn" and the hip placement differences across carving styles... Let's consolidate the style discussions here please. So this morning I came across this reel and some things finally clicked for me: So I see now how the "extreme" stance angles enable this hip and back knee position as @neversnowbored has been describing. Notice how LakeTahoeCarver's back knee is pointed towards his nose, but notice also how his hips are over his back foot and his shoulders are over his front foot. This is (to my mind) a massive exaggeration of the "bowing" motion I use when I need extra grip. The front leg is mostly straight but the hips are back. (With full recognition that there are many different "Asian Styles" of carving, for simplicity let's refer to this as "Asian Style" for now and until we start distinguishing JBSA and SAJ for example.) Now compare this with Jasey's heelside initiation position: Still a straight front leg but far less bowing (more upright upper body). Jasey keeps his centre of mass over the front of the board by moving the hip towards the nose. This is what I'm trying to point out. Both riders have their COM near the nose but their hips are in wildly different positions. (But actually Jasey's COM is much further forward than LakeTahoeCarver's, who is bringing his COM somewhat forward with his upper body by bowing at the hips.) Jasey is demostrating classic "Race Style" freecarving. Jasey was showing me this "hip forward" motion when he was here in January and then I saw another ex-racer teaching the same movement at MCC in February. Hip slides towards the nose on heelside initiation with the front leg mostly straight. I did a few laps trying Jasey's technique and it was interesting and informative, but it's not my preferred positioning for freecarving. My own technique might be viewed as a combination of these two styles, ending up somewhere in the middle. So my COM is in about the same place as Jasey's (over the front foot), my hips are more forward than LakeTahoeCarver (LTC) but I also have a bit of the bowing motion in my hips than Jasey, but far less than LTC. My back knee is somewhere in between LTC's, which is pointing at the nose, and Jasey's which is pointing over the toe edge. My shoulders are also between these two others. Jasey likes to leave his shoulders open so he can adapt quickly to imperfections in the surface and initiate the toeside very quickly too. So his hips are facing forward but his upper body is counter-rotated. LTC has his shoulders rotated into the turn far more. I like to bring the shoulders into the turn and get both hands on the snow when I'm able, but this is the steepest groomed run in Revelstoke and I naturally left a bit of room for error here, without even realizing it in the moment. I developed my technique over many years, mostly by feel, and without the benefit of the troves of video available today. We can call this "Pencil Line" or "Canadian Style", whatever. My biggest influence in my formative years was probably @dredman and the North American hardbooters, though I wanted to achieve a near-perfect track without exaggerating any of the motions (like bending in the knees or bowing over the nose), so as to make it look easy and natural, letting the board do the work. @dredman was an inspiration, so consistent and so confident, but to me he was bending in the lower body more than I wanted to. I would bend low when I needed to for grip, imitating his style, but I tried to remain tall when it was possible, without breaking at the knees or hips. This, to me, remains the ultimate carving aesthetic: perfect track on the steepest runs with minimal body movements and minimal energy expenditure. I think maybe that aesthetic crossed over from rock climbing, where efficiency is always stylish, and making it look easy is the hardest part! Anyway, that's all the time I have for today... I want to create a long-form YouTube video this season that delineates and demonstrates some different carving styles. Consider this a first draft. Feedback is very welcome!

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Carving Technique

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emilecantin

(@emilecantin)

Trusted Member Member

Joined: 2 years ago

Posts: 68

16/10/2025 6:53 am

I've seen that "Swoard" style in-person a couple times, the heelside turns are very distinctive. Looks effortless!

"Shut up Tyler"

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Lake M Carver

(@lake-m-carver)

Trusted Member Member

Joined: 2 years ago

Posts: 37

16/10/2025 9:10 am

I saw some carving and I saw some other stuff I wouldn't really call carving lol There is a big difference between doing a laid-out carve that ends up dragging your armpit versus just lying down and sliding on your body with no pressure on your edge...

The second isn't very impressive and seems to be quite dangerous. Its style, though, it's subjective.

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