Surf-skating similarities to EC?

[christian61]

Hi Iceripper,
I know the video you posted, and I have tried some of the other pumping techniques shown in it.
Personally, however, I prefer the rotational style, for two reasons:
1. In my opinion it is the most fluid and elegant.
2. It helps me improve my extremecarving skills - isn't this what we all want, after all?

[user]

@christian: moving Surfskates with rotation works best, because it's made for it.

If you want to go for long distances or higher speed there are better setups (that even work using rotation).

[christian61]

@user: It's nice you agree, user.

To close this topic, I'd like to quote Patrice's contribution from above:

You got the point, Slayer. Our Swoard-EC technique is inspired from surfing (as we write it everywhere since day one), and also from skateboarding. This is related to the fact that the first Swiss Snowboard School was founded by guys who had understood all the benefits of this technique. One of them, Antoine Massy, was a skateboard champion if I remember well. In addition to rotation (hips and shoulders), you can add movement of the legs and good timing for fluidity (named "push-pull" by Jacques). Of course you can change the timing for playing: with "pull-push" (opposite of "push-pull"), you can jump in the transitions (see this movement in some Opus videos).

As I say to all my EC students:
"What works perfectly on water works perfectly on snow too."
The problem of snowboarding is that the feet are bound to the board, so people are "cheating" or falling in the trap of just using the edges of the boards, they lean the body left and right, no rotation (chest facing the tip of the board all the time), and let the board shape do the job. I see this even on experienced snowboarders who claim they make EC (c.f. our original definition here). This is rather skwal technique, which is different (another way of carving).
On water, if you make no rotation or just try to use the sides of the board, you fall.
In the moguls, or even in deep powder, the basics of Swoard-EC, as well as surfing/skateboarding (rotation of the upper part of the body and "push-pull"), are working great too because you are in harmony with the board: you lead it, you are not a passenger. Of course, the gear plays here a very important rule, that's why we are using our own products: modified hardboots (hard but not stiff!), modified flat bindings and different snowboards (not made for "banana" turns, but for closed for turns). Well, you know the whole concept, don't you?

Thank you for the good links!

Patrice Fivat