correct stance and back heel position

[AZ]

hello Fellow Carvers:

I have a question maybe some of you can help me with.
When I go on really hard, icy snow, I noticed that I tend to lift my back heel.
This is (mostly) true when I am going in a straight line - diagonally across the piste. During the turns, the lifting tendency is much lower, or even non existent.

The question is: should I perhaps modify the location of the bindings?
Try to move them more forward? back?
Should I change sport entirely and give up?

Unfortunately, i don't have any film to show you and that would make my stance problem much easier to diagnose: I always go snowboarding by myself since my friends are all still into skiing and all the younger snowboarders are all into softboards who prefer to sit around the snowpark, doing those incredible tricks that I can only admire and envy.

Thanx for any advice you might have.

[Silber]

Dude,

just write on the italian forum and come carve with your fellow hardbooters...we'll tell you what u do wrong no prob. Come to La thuile in 2 weekend! (far, but in 4 hours you can make it from Trento...

Ciao
Francesco

[e_wi]

Maybe your "hanging" too much towards the nose of your board? that could explain the lift of your backheel...best would be centered between the 2 bindings and thus have a balanced weight of the body.
good luck,

[RicHard]

hello Fellow Carvers:

If your bindings are centered... there's no other issues: you are leaning too much toward and have to load the tip less. Feel the weight on both the legs or, if you don't want to be "right", load the rear one a little bit more.
Ciao!

[István]

Do you mean that you lift your heel within the boot? So the boot might not fit your perfectly? Once you feel that the boot is ok you should experiment with heel / toe lifts / cants.

Many of the guys on this forum will disagree, but you might want to try a 2-3 degrees toe-lift on your front foot. It helps to bring your body back to the correct centered body position. Also you could try a 3-6 degrees heel-lift. Just play around with the settings and you'll find your position. If your bindings allow you to apply canting at the same time, even better.

On narrower boards in my experience a heel / toe lift helps to find the correct / comfy body position. On wider boards with lower binding angles you'll be most probably fine without lifts / cants.

I hope the above helps.



Best

[AZ]

First of all - thank you for your answers and advice.
La Tuille ... humm.... a bit far, but that would be something to do.
I will keep this in mind and I will post here if I venture that way in the future.

Do you mean that you lift your heel within the boot? So the boot might not fit you perfectly?

Precisely: I lift the heel inside the boot. Definitely the boots do NOT fit well. They did fit fairly well when they were new, but now they have lost their stiffness and inner volume, so I feel a bit loose in them. On the other hand, there is absolutely no hardboot to be bought in the stores here in Trento or nearby (only soft boots are available; also the boards are all soft; I had bought what I think was the last hard burton in the store).

The strange thing is that when the snow was more "wintery" (winter? this year there was no winter) and fluffy, I had no problem at all. Feet well planted, weight even on both feet, good edge control, no slip. The problem with the heel lift manifests itself only on the very icy conditions that are now the norm in the early hours (by 14.00 hrs. the snow is back to slush and the problem goes away).

Oh well: if I can make it, I will have to go to Val Senales where the snow conditions are still very nice.
[However, the board and boots are up in Bondone, 30 minutes up from my house. The roads are now clean and dry - they even removed the winter gravel. So I can take the motorcycle, have fun going up the "tornanti" (switchbacks for you), change motorcycling boots for the UP snowboarding boots and do a few runs thus combining two of my passions within an hour. Yes - even lowly Bondone has some advantages].

Ciao to all.

[joemzl]

Perhaps we can solve the problem quickly.
What is the length of your feet in cm?
What is the Mondopoint of your hardboot ?(you`ll find it on the liner)
Both numbers should be nearly the same.
I´ve had the same problem. My old boots were too large.
I bought better Raichles 1 1/2 numbers smaller and it works fantastic.

[Arnaud]

Hmmm,

I tend to lift my back heel.

and later

I lift the heel inside the boot

Typically, this is linked to a wrong rotation of your body (counter rotation).
Especially during a front side "straight line - diagonally across the piste", if your body is rotated facing the board nose, this tend to pull on your rear leg, lifting your heel.
Some pictures or vids will help (or "live" observation in la Thuile )

[AZ]

Perhaps we can solve the problem quickly.
What is the length of your feet in cm?
What is the Mondopoint of your hardboot ?

Yet another motorcycle ride seems to be required to go see those numbers in the boots as I have left them up in Bondone mountain.
And while I am there, I can go for a test to see if indeed I am counterrotated as suggested by Arnaud.

l will also start looking for a new pair of boots - I wanted to change them anyway, so I might as well start searching around.

Thank you very much for the comments and suggestions. I appreciate them.