Difficulties in backside

[István]

Hi Nils,

I just can't stop watching the videos day after day, again and again (even though I'm spending most of my time in my office in the bank) and I have noticed something that I would like to ask you about.

I am quite happy with my frontside, it is not too far from what Patrice and Jacques are doing on the videos, but I think that in my backside I'm a bit more like in a sitting position, so my butt and one palm (or both if I want) is touching the snow, but my upper body (I think because of the sitting position) is not touching the ground, as Patrice's in 'Stoked'.

This guy must be very flexible, because I can not lengthen my arm that straight, not even sitting in an armchair, not to mention during carving

Getting back on track, I've read some piece of advice on your site, about straightening the body more, avoiding sitting position, which I will try to follow, even though on the slopes I feel that a more straight body position results in a worse shock absorbing ability (I mean the smaller bumps on the slopes). I'll try it within the next weeks at one of the glaciers in Austria. If it does not turn out right, I'll send some postcards from the hospital

BUT: I have also realised that in the other two videos (Extremecarving from 2000 and Extremedreamer from 2002) the backsides that can be seen are done with a less straight body position, maybe a bit closer to my sitting position. Is my perception correct or I'm just having daydreams? If I'm right, then does this phenomenon have anyithing to do with the board itself? Or does it have to do anything with other settings?
Do you have any other hints how to reach this gorgious backside? (maybe I should change jobs from banking to snowboarding)


Thanks in advance,

István

ps.: These videos are perfect marketing elements. The more I watch them the more I tend to think that all what I see there is due to the special board. Of course in more sober moments I realise that I also need to practice much-much more.

[nils]

I have noticed for my part, that beeing straight in those backside helps absorbing shocks because it makes my gravity center much lower ( i still cannot reach this level of course)... The key to the success in the backside is to lay down before the board has turned, the difficult is that it is scary hehe...
Have funThe videos are indeed nice ! they have a lot of sucess We should make a commercial DVD someday
Nils

[rilliet]

Hi Istvan,

I'm happy that you like our movies.
The sitting backside position is a classic difficulty that everyone meets one day. To avoid this, there is several things to respect. First, when you ride normally, be very carefull not to lean forward with your upper body. Keep it in the same natural position as when you are walking, but flex your knies to be able to absorb the piste uneveness (have a look at the photos of correct position in our technical pages).
To be able to keep your upper body in this position during a backside turn, imagine you let yourself fall back on your bed when you are very tired. In this situation, your mind knows that the bed is soft an the landing will be nice. During the back side turn, just do the same added to a rotation and the push-pull technique. The centrifugal force will prevent you to fall like a stone and your front arm will help you. This is one of the amazing feelings of extremecarving. But of course your board must not betray you with a sideslipping or a chattering.

BUT: I have also realised that in the other two videos (Extremecarving from 2000 and Extremedreamer from 2002) the backsides that can be seen are done with a less straight body position, maybe a bit closer to my sitting position. Is my perception correct or I'm just having daydreams? If I'm right, then does this phenomenon have anyithing to do with the board itself? Or does it have to do anything with other settings?

You are right! We are learning and improving too.

The more I watch them the more I tend to think that all what I see there due to the special board. Of course in more sober moments I realise that I also need to practice much-much more.due to the special board. Of course in more sober moments I realise that I also need to practice much-much more. due to the special board. Of course in more sober moments I realise that I also need to practice much-much more.is due to the special board. Of course in more sober moments I realise that I also need to practice much-much more.

Both are needed. A perfect board and the right technique.
Extremecarving has been possible because we could improve the boards and our technique at the same time. When we felt we had reached the boards limits and that technical progression was slowing down, I had to go to my workshop and build a new extremecarving board prototype that worked better.
The SWOARD is the result of these many years of developement and we will continue to improve it in the future.

Have a very nice winter

Jacques

[István]

Hey Guys,

Thx for the useful hints and advice. Can't wait to try it in two weeks in Austria. Should I fail, I'll send you the invoice of my medication

One more question: what are the settings (stance) U use? I am asking this, because it seems to me that an enormous pressure is needed on the edge during these backsides, and once Nils wrote me that the Swoard is made wider also to allow a lower angle of stance, which results in greater forces on the edge.

I ride F63 B57 (don't ask me about the distance, but it feels ok.) as I have an F2 Silberpfeil 172, which is a rather narrow board and my feet is size 44 (EUR) so I could not really use a lower angle.

Somehow I felt during experimenting with the angles, that a greater angle (more looking to the tip) makes it easier to carve, but makes it more difficult to control and steer the board at lower speed. The setting I use makes me really comfortable and stable in carving, while I do not care too much about low speed controlability. Rather sitting in the 'hütte' than riding slow in the crowd

What is your view on the effects of the angle on carving?

Cheers,

István

[Hans]

Hi, Istvan. I have ridden a Silberpfeil for three weeks also (some smaller length, nowadays the guys from F2 make this type somewhat longer, like you have). I only could make small and if i try hard, make some middle turns with this board. Like the board has such a small width , it's more like a race/funboard than an ECCarveboard like the SWOARD is. And in my opinion you need some width to make some stable ECcarves with not such extreme stance angles. Nils, Patrice or Jacques correct me if I am wrong. So making ECcarves with a Silberpfeil will cost some more effort than on a SWOARD. Maybe you can make some eurocarves with the board!

Greetings, Hans