Welcome to Frosty Rider! Well, it seems that you have the right idea about controlling the snowboard speed and direction. Progressing to the “S-Turn” is absolutely the way to go! However, to do that you need to equally as comfortable balancing on both heelside and toeside.
You personally are better and more experienced on heel side. Don’t think you are weird or anything, it happens to everyone — not just when starting out, but perpetually as well.
So let me offer some tips for you to get more comfortable and balanced on toeside. First and foremost, practice. A good way to practice toeside more when on the mountain is to start from kneeling position and start riding from there. Traverse and side-slip just like you do on heel-side. Now, to get good at toe-side, you need to good, strong, and balanced riding position. Here is how… (
Welcome to Frosty Rider! Well, it seems that you have the right idea about controlling the snowboard speed and direction. Progressing to the “S-Turn” is absolutely the way to go! However, to do that you need to equally as comfortable balancing on both heelside and toeside.
You personally are better and more experienced on heel side. Don’t think you are weird or anything, it happens to everyone — not just when starting out, but perpetually as well.
So let me offer some tips for you to get more comfortable and balanced on toeside. First and foremost, practice. A good way to practice toeside more when on the mountain is to start from kneeling position and start riding from there. Traverse and side-slip just like you do on heel-side. Now, to get good at toe-side, you need to good, strong, and balanced riding position. Here is how… (You can do this at home first to get used to it)
- Take a natural stance on your board. Slightly bend your knees and keep your back straight. Stay in alignment to your stance. Do not twist your body. Only turn your head to look in the direction of travel.
- Flex your ankles, lowering your knees and push your hips slowly forward. Your back should be straight or slightly arched.
- The board tipping should occur naturally. Do not force it. Do not do the “Michael Jackson”. Your stance over the toe edge should not put you off balance.
Notice that increase in edge angle should occur by a combination of lowering your knees and pressing the hips forward NOT from standing higher on your toes. Additionally, your gear can affect toe-side control (as you mentioned in your post), particularly “toe hang”. Too much can put the toes of your boots into the snow resulting in loss of edge grip. Too little can put the toe of your boot behind the toe edge of the board and make it to hard to tip the board on edge.
I recommend having EQUAL TOE AND HEEL HANG of about 1/4 on each edge. So check out your gear and see if you are in the ballpark there. Doing all this will get you more confident and proficient on your toe side which will be very helpful when beginning to nail your S-shaped turns.
Give this stuff a try and check back in with us — ALRIGHT?!?
