My Bowlrider went on its maiden voyage yesterday and it was my first time out this year.
Let's just say I was struggling big time, just to make normal turns.
The fact that I'm out of shape aside, I had a huge challenge initiating heelside turns without putting LOTS of weight onto my front foot, but that left me feeling really unbalanced.
Setup: each of my bindings are one insert hole to toward nose and tail respectively.
F+33, B+18.
I've always ridden in duck so this was new for me. I set up this way to limit overhang and to get me into hip forward position more easily.
Surprisingly felt pretty comfortable. Knees and everything feel pretty good today.
But my balance was WAY off and it seemed like I needed to put a disproportionate amount of weight into my front foot to initiate turns, especially on heelside.
On toeside i learned near the end of my session my toeside turns improved a bit by simply leaning into the shins of my boots in the same direction as my front foot.
Heelside was a totally different story though. Muscle memory had me in the poo stance, constantly trying to remind myself "hips forward", "stack my weight" but it was a huge struggle and fell hard on my ass trying to initiate one of my turns.
Can anyone relate?
I read somewhere that if I'm going to change anything with my setup, I should only change one thing at a time, and to make it a small change.
I was thinking: move bindings one insert hole toward nose? Should that help with heel edge initiation and feeling more balanced on heelside? I wasn't paying much attention to forward lean but maybe that's something to look at too.
My goal for the day was to do the tray drill on both sides, but I'm not there yet, let alone any carving.
What do you suggest?
Hi Carveaddict75,
For what it's worth I also went riding yesterday for the first time on my bowlrider and it was not a pleasant day out. I had my normal stance. This was the first opening of our hill and there was only one run open so... everyone on the same run created moguls and pure ice in many spots in the middle of the run. I also had difficulty on my heel side. I would say not to worry about it. The same thing happened last year. I'm sure when the hills open up and a bit more natural snow all should come back. Don't use that first run of the year make you change all your settings. Mine were the same as last year and I still struggled like crazy. Once you get back on a real groomed slope it should fall back into place. If I can get corduroy maybe next week I will go back out with the Bowlrider and if it works out then I will wip out the C4 for its first run. Keep me updated on how it all works out.
Cheers!
I like 24/12, and haven't went more than 27/15. Even at that angle I lost a lot of ankle steering and the turn initiation was more about hip-weighting.
Are your highbacks rotated for leverage?
Big White, BC, Canada
Are your highbacks rotated for leverage?
hey @board-doctor i got the Flow NX2s so that's not possible 😒
@carveaddict75 Yeah, I'm with @board-doctor, back off those angles a bit. 27/12 maybe?
It's possible your weight shifting isn't feeling right because your stance is too wide. With your front foot 2cm forward and your rear foot 2cm back you're 4cm wider than the reference stance on that board.
What is the stance width now? How tall are you? Long legs or long torso or average?
Are you riding NX2s? Pay attention to which way the little triangles point, these are offset discs and cannot be set to dead centre.
For reference, I'm 5'10" with long limbs and I'm at 55 or 56cm stance width.
I'm just slaying...
Hi Carveaddict75,
For what it's worth I also went riding yesterday for the first time on my bowlrider and it was not a pleasant day out. I had my normal stance. This was the first opening of our hill and there was only one run open so... everyone on the same run created moguls and pure ice in many spots in the middle of the run.
hey @flyguy come to think of it, conditions at Whistler were far from ideal yesterday, mix of man-made, hard flat areas and really inconsistent.
But I'm determined to put in time and reps. Hopefully by the time I go to Montucky I'm not the biggest goofball on the hill haha
That's a good point, when you go posi you move your heels apart and biomechanically that's like having a larger stance.
Nidecker has a good video on stances. They say your Natural Stance is the height to the centre of your knee cap. Some people do use that for carving. I'm 172cm tall, with a NS=49cm. I usually ride a 53-54cm stance width (often 22"-2cm).
In that table it looks like the stance widths are really changing, but when you account for the angles it's not so extreme.
Big White, BC, Canada
@wild-cherry
You point on the stance width and angles makes sense..perhaps I"m too wide, especially based on my angles.
Tape measure from floor to top of patella is ~23"
I'm 6'4", not sure if that means I'm 'long torso'? Definitely feels like high COM though so in most sports i like to have a good bend in the knees and try to stay low for stability (I actually find this really difficult in the stiff Ride Insanos)
Yes I'm on NX2s and have the triangles pointing toeside on each binding...i played around a lot and found that this got me pretty close to my boots being centred on both bindings on the board.
I've got Ride Insano Size 12 boots.
Hey Guys! I just saw a short segment of James labelled Montuckey 2026. On the clip we can see you tightening a strap around your leg and the highback of your binding. Do you do that on both feet or just the front foot. Very interesting, I never noticed that before.
On the clip we can see you tightening a strap around your leg and the highback of your binding. Do you do that on both feet or just the front foot. Very interesting, I never noticed tha
Hahaha... That was the "Day 1" Short. I don't always do it, my front ankle was a bit sore last week. I wanted some extra support.
The thing is, you can only do this on a rear entry binding. Once it's locked upright it'll hold there. On standard heelcup bindings nothing stops the highback from folding forward so there's not as much extra support from the third strap, especially not on toeside.
I like it though. I might fix an old ankle strap there later, but even the Velcro strap does a lot on its own.
I'm just slaying...
changed things up today. F+27(ish), B+9ish
also added 75% forward lean on both bindings
huge difference. Also moved my back binding into the centre of the insert pack (front binding is one position forward of centre of insert pack)
Not consistently carving yet but was making consistent turns on both sides.
heelside was better today but again I noticed i need to basically throw my entire body weight forward on the board (toward nose, felt like 80% weight, not 60% like everyone describes) to get the best turns, but it was pretty exhausting and seemed like i needed to be overly aggressive with my movements to make the board turn.
should I try same stance width as today but move each binding forward one more insert?
Also for heelside carves I'm wondering if you simply have to 'trust it', try to find your edge and balance and try to be patient? Seems like I'm having pulses of energy/weighting down on the board to try and get a sharper turn but I'm washing out at several points in the turn.
If you get some video James will surely be more help than my guestimates...
But if you're washing out you might still be hangin' the butt out (and getting too much weight to the inside of the turn) instead of tucking it back toward the tail. If you get your belt buckle around to the nose, you should be able to drop the hip in more sideways to initiate the turn... and then stay stacked over the edge better.
I don't think you want to move more forward of the sidecut. I actually ride with my front binding 2 cm back from reference.
Big White, BC, Canada
