@lukejuras can you show those falls in slow motion?  I can't slow down the video in this format.  I suspect boot out in that chopped up snow but it all happens so fast.  There are also issues with your heelside body position, harder to analyze with selfie footage.

@wild-cherry I could reduce speed to 25% with the video player in Chrome, three vertical dots in the lower right to change playback speed. I don't think either of these are due to boot out looking at the tracks in the snow.

@lukejuras To me on the first fall (at 36 seconds) it looks like the following:

1. You get a bit bucked around by the mini mogul when you ride up on it causing you to get a bit out of position,
2. On the other side of the mini mogul (going "down" from it) the tail of your board slips out
3. The board grips up again quickly because the snow is so soft, but now it has rotated so it's not in your direction of travel anymore
4. You're not ready for that type of force being already out of balance so you lose your balance even more
5. The board to simply skid out.

The second one at about 1 minute is also partially due to lumpy snow.

1. You can see the board torsionally twist as you're riding "down" one of those mini moguls
2. This causes the board to take a wider turn than you are leaning in for because the angle of the nose flattens relative to the snow. You can see this as a clearly very wiggly line in the snow.
3. This puts you in a position with straight legs and an almost 90° bend in your hip relative to your thighs, putting your center of gravity too far inside of the turn so you fall and skid out.

The second one could probably be helped with a more torsionally stiff board maybe maybe maybe? As far as body position and whatnot, I'm not a good enough rider to comment on that so I'll leave it to the experts. Don't listen to me too much

I don't think I've ever seen someone carve that well in jeans! 🤣 

The first one looks like it could've been boot drag, as your weight lurches forward.

On the second one you had great body angulation, but bending your knees and ankles a bit more would bring your centre of mass closer to the edge & stack your weight a bit better (may need to go slower though).  It's certainly easier to absorb bumps and feather the edge pressure on your toes... on your heels you're loosing edge angle with the bumps and wobbling off trajectory.  How's your dorsiflexion?

But I'm sure the board is limiting as well.  Burton's tend to be softer through the middle with fairly stiff tips.  If the nose doesn't plow through the chop, it's going to twist the middle (similar to ankle steering).

(I see Felix had very similar thoughts on the second one)

@superfelix Thanks! I included the earlier turns because I'm also getting bucked around at 0:03 and 0:17 and 0:23, but for some reason I'm able to balance through those. It may be that I'm on a mellower slope and don't mind picking up speed, but at 0:36 I'm on a steeper face so I'm trying to angulate the board more for tighter turns (speed control). I wonder if that's where the problem starts:

 where my center of gravity is just too far inside the turn. I also have this issue on nicer days with fewer bumps. I'll get a nice toeside in, then I fall on my butt on my transition to heelside.

I can see what you're saying about the nose grabbing/changing direction and the rest of my body isn't ready to go with it.

I think where I'm really struggling is this: I want more angle on the board, I want the tighter carve, and I'm using my balance/weight to get the board up on edge (along with my knees/feet). But because I'm leaned over more, there's less margin of error before I fall over. Do I fix this by just getting better at balancing, or find another way to readjust my body position?

@lukejuras I think you should listen to Mr Doctor and bend your knees more because it will bring your center of mass closer to the edge of the board so you have more wiggle room to adjust. 

Also. Since both of these falls were coming down from a mini mogul that means that’s actually where the slope is at its steepest since you get slope steepness + mogul steepness and that contributes to you skidding out a little? I remember vaguely some tip about mogul skiing to avoid doing anything like steering or pivoting on the backside of the moguls because that’s the steepest place on the entire mountain so everything becomes much more difficult right there. 

Ill slo-mo my way through the other turns where you get bucked around when I get back to my laptop and see if I can see what happens even if can say why… 

In all of the turns at 3, 17 and 23 seconds you have enough bend in your knees to absorb the bumps. You never get anywhere near as straight legged as you do in your second fall.

These bumps also look smaller and softer, so they result in much less torsional twist of the board compared to at the second fall as the board slices through these a bit more. Compared to the first fall the backside of the bumps are less steep so you don't get that slideout that I think is what sets you up for the first fall. 

Watching it again and scrolling through... there's definitely some boot-out that's starting the chaos.

Your toes drag a bit, but in general it'll be the back toe and at that point the weight will already back on board.  But when the front heel drags before you've shifted your weight back, it'll bring your weight even more forward (when it should be shifting back).

If you flexed your knees some more (getting your rear knee over your toes) you might not slide out as much and be able to save it... but those aren't great conditions and the Burton heel cups are CHUNKY!

This is when boot underhang rides really nice.

With the soft and less than smooth snow, it's not surprising you had a few falls.  My deux centimes- That much difference between front foot angle and rear foot angle makes it more likely to push the board away on heel side turns, creating too much pressure, causing blowouts.  It looks like heel drag as well, exacerbated buy the loose snow.  Finally, and I haven't ridden one in a few seasons, but the Custom X is an awesome all-mountain board that can do everything pretty well, but compared to dedicated soft boot carving boards, it falls behind.  You are definitely putting the wood to it- I think the board is doing the best it can.   

Posted by: @deuxdiesel

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You are definitely putting the wood to it- I think the board is doing the best it can.   

Probably true

Posted by: @lukejuras

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I think where I'm really struggling is this: I want more angle on the board, I want the tighter carve, and I'm using my balance/weight to get the board up on edge (along with my knees/feet). But because I'm leaned over more, there's less margin of error before I fall over. Do I fix this by just getting better at balancing, or find another way to readjust my body position?

@lukejuras This is exactly the same issue I noticed I had last season too.  I was riding mostly mild duck.  Curious if you got it sorted out and what you did to fix it.  

Oddly enough I was on a Custom X 162W too

Posted by: @lukejuras

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I think where I'm really struggling is this: I want more angle on the board, I want the tighter carve,

I struggle with this on my Hometown Hero as well.  I want to turn sharper, so I increase edge angle, but it just doesn’t happen… and sometimes I’ll loose grip, especially if the chunky heelcup drags.  I need to ride it more down the fall line or I just get frustrated with the turning performance.  The Hometown is sort of the freeride version of the Custom X.  It’s a fun board, it pops, great in the trees, but it’s just not a turny board.  Although it’s a directional shape, it actually has a twin flex like yours.  I think that nose was designed to land on it switch, rather than carve a turn.  

That is to say, I definitely think there’s some limitations to your gear.

I had a Burton Dumptuck as well, the turn-in performance was certainly better with its directional flex, but it was absolutely brutal when you got your weight back on the tail. 

I do like the squeeze box tech and the board feel under an EST binding… but they’re just not made to carve.  Sidecuts are short so they feel nimble when the edge is engaged, but then you can’t really do much from there.

Twin (flex) boards can carve… I rode a K2 JuJu for a long time, then a Rossignol Krypto, Academy Masters, and now a K2 Instrument.  All of these carved better than some of the directional boards that I’ve had.  The Burton Hometown just doesn’t want to flex the nose and turn.  I imagine the Customer X is similar.  Some people will say it carves well, but I can’t help but think they might just be riding the sidecut and not manipulating their turn shape at all.

@carveaddict75 I still haven't mastered it by any means, but I did figure out that it happens a lot less often when I lean more towards the front of my board and not into the center of the turn, if that makes any sense. I've got another video from a month later here:

with a couple good turns. Looking at my fall from earlier, I can see a small difference, like I'm leaning into it the wrong way. When I'm initiating the turn and dropping my weight down and getting the board on edge, it's like I'm trying to turn sharper by leaning my body more into the turn and too far past the heel edge, but that just ends up blowing out the edge as the rest of the board tries to keep up. (Maybe you could say there's a 15 degree angle into which I'm leaning compared to the direction of the board.) 

When I'm thinking more about leaning forward, more over the board (maybe centered over the heel edge?) it seems like it just locks in there.

Posted by: @lukejuras

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...happens a lot less often when I lean more towards the front of my board and not into the center of the turn, if that makes any sense.

I understand that to mean you're 'hinging' the waist more toward the front of the board which I understand to be the proper technique.

Last season I found I had all types of heel chatter (mild duck), bad balance and terribly wide turns as that's how I was taught (i.e. sit into a chair/squat position).  This year I'm going posi posi and trying to get the 'hip forward' position as James always talks about!  

If I understand James' videos correctly, we're supposed to hinge toward the front of the board, but there's also a rotational element (hips) as well as fore-aft weighting at different times during the turn.  

This season I plan to start with the J-drill holding the tray), build up the muscle memory and ease into linking carved turns.  Pretty sure my heel side will need the most work!