Buggs:
I understand completely what you mean, and realistically, I don't get too many chances to try the EC because I'm still working on too many basics. I'm still rooting out the evils of counter rotation and the desire to reach DOWN to the snow.
So I only get about 3-5 chances to try ECs a day when I'm riding - I rarely have myself in the right position to initiate a turn that demands such precision.
I've at various times foced myself through the "progression" of learning shown on the CERN website so that I start with regular turn, then carve, then flexion, then propulsion, and have done fairly well always toeside, only getting heelside last year, which I haven't gotten back this year, althouh I still suspect my setup is still making it difficult.
(Which is being change - just ordered a Donek - sorry J&P - My desire to have a carving board overcame my desire to wait for the EC boards to be produced.
)
That being said, I believe as a general rule that if you try to learn the really hard things, its easier to understand the easy things, so you can learn from the outsides (Beginner, and Expert) back to the insides (Itermediate) as well. Learning the "reasons why" come easier if you've tried to accomplish but failed the "extreme" because you can link the cause and effect better in the learning process. (That's IF you can handle the downside of failing at the extreme without hurting yourself, or worse yet, losing your train of thought! I can mostly do that.)
In terms of the EC, I have an observation too that might be interesting. As a former amatuer slalom water skiier, Ive noticed the similarity of Rilliet's turns to water ski slalom turns. In fact, the parallels are many although they may seem to be hard to believe at first.
When you engage in a good slalom turn, the boat is really not really pulling you through the turn, you accelerate yourself so that when you turn, you are going faster than the boat, then re-linking the power of the boat exactly at the end of your turn (In an absolutely perfect turn, you keep some of the pressure steady throughout the turn, to smoothen the re-linking with the boat.) If you fight against the boat throughout the turn, you are creating drag on the boat, reducing the overall speed and making it really hard on yourself phsyically (As opposed to gravity, a 350HP Mastercraft really can out pull your quads in an instant, no need for Gforces to add up...) So there's a feeling of weightlessness throughout the turn.
Now, at the point that the boat is no longer engaged, you lean (with a bit of rotation towards the force just like here), then push your legs out to control the arc and radius of the turn, then pull them in to relink up with the boat. The edging is almost identical too, you often enter the turns nearly perpendicular to the boat's direction (or more impotantly the direction of the force from the rope, all of which incidentally approximates the fall line and gravity). If you look at any picture of a really laid out water skiier in a slalom turn, you'll note that the hand with the rope is *almost* pointed straight over his/her head at the top of the turn. That's only accomplished by pushing your legs away from you to create the force against your own momentum to make the turn. (Hence the "swing" discussion in another thread here.)
There are several turns that are made by J (particularly his heelsides; P's heelsides look like he's attached to a jet engine
- which I haven't quite figured out yet) that have the look, like he's on a rubber band. That's what a well made slalom turn will look like. So I thought from the beginning that I'd be able to do these turns almost easier than the regular turns because I slalomed pretty well for about 8 years. 'Course making all that happen with totally different equipment, no boat to pull on with the hands to make up for problems, a downhill position, and gravity pulling the whole body rather than the boat more or less pulling only one direction makes the whole thing more difficult.
But sigh... I do understand that I don't belong carving with the big dogs yet and will go spend more time with the puppies. I'm still trying to make it to Stratton next week and look forward to meeting you if I can get up there.
Thanks for the thoughts.
To carve, or not to carve.... It's not a question.
(Kudos to Dan Yoja for getting them to me so quickly. He's great.) I've been softboot riding since I learned to ride until now. The cravings for the ECs that I got from from this site finally helped me make up my mind to go to hardboots. 
partially due to heel drag 
I've got size 13 (29.5cm) feet and always rode at about 27 degrees. Last season I started making heelside turns a bit better. I even believe I understand a little bit about the EC technique; I've felt the push/pull idea when experimenting with carving. Never having anyone tell me how to do it lead me to many wild experiments. (Most of course ending with a really cool flip or two). 
, but have a strange feeling it won't be that easy... 
so u got the UPS boots ! lucky you we cannot get them in france anymore...
) but when I tried, the results were... violent really. In one toe side turn, I started to lay down, pushed the board away, and managed to get it away from me with the board mostly facing down the fall line. Then, as I pulled it back in, the board rushed at me so fast that it went right past me, and I fell over backwards because I went to heel side edge with the board completely perpendicular to the fall line and then went sliding head first and upside down. Fun. I need more runs to make better EC turns, but family matters called.
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