Stance settings? type of riding

My younger brother who shreds, rides what I call Duck style front at 18 and
rear at -15 and I can't understand how or why the hell he does this? He
does spend some time in the park.

The great thing about duck is that you can compress all the way down
until you're squating with your butt on your highbacks, and your knees
are still straight out over your toes... no "twist" in your ankles. So
it's really good for soaking up harsh landings in the pipe or park
without twisting your knees and ankles around. For freeriding, I think
it mostly blows.

So what stance do you ride at and why? Thanks.

30/21, no setback, width around 20 inches. Works well for all around
riding. I have slightly largish feet, so even though I'd like to back
off my rear foot to around 15 or so, I'd get to much overhang. Most of
my friends use 20/0 or stances around there. By putting your back foot
forward, your hips and shoulders will face forward more. I like that
for all around riding, but you have to make an adjustment to moving
your hips from edge to edge at an angle instead of just thinking
"heel, toe".

Actually, I'm interested in how those stances compare. I'm sure at sun
peaks they'll put me on a skinny stick, so I'll likely be around the
60/60. But so far I've been assuming that when I want to freeride in
hardboots, I'll want to go to something around 53/45.

I've tried parallel stances (60/60, etc) and OWIE! But some people
like them. Must be that bum hip of mine. I personally find the 3
degree difference works better on groomed, especially hardpack, and the
6 works better in crud or powder. I suspect my all-mtn stance will
change a lot this season but my hardpack stance will remain at 57/54.

Neil Gendzwill wrote:

I think your French instructor was wrong. If you're interested in
carving and general purpose riding, you should be looking at more
stance angle, not less. Try running your front foot at 35 or so and
your back foot at whatever's comfortable (for me that would be 30).
When your angles are higher, that lets you get your weight more over
your edge on heelsides, as opposed to the sitting on the toilet stance
that most softie riders have. You'll be able to get lower without
losing your edge. With a duck stance, getting low just hangs your ass
off the side and moves your CG way away from the edge.

Agreed that higher stance angle gives you a better heelside position but
I don't find it works well with most soft boot/binding combinations because:
* it's difficult to get the highback parallel to the board edge and so
you end up pressing the edge of the high back with the side of your calf
- not comfortable!
* you the boots/bindings don't give you as much lateral support as
front/back support
I resisted toilet sitting for quite a few years by using high angles and
body rotation. But heelside performance really does come from bent knees
and big forward lean. And you can pressure that high back most if it's
right behind your calf.
My angles: 24/12
(previously 33/9 and even 36/24)

--
IainD at ukme dot me dot uk

Iain D wrote...
Agreed that higher stance angle gives you a better heelside position but
I don't find it works well with most soft boot/binding combinations because:
* it's difficult to get the highback parallel to the board edge and so
you end up pressing the edge of the high back with the side of your calf
- not comfortable!
* you the boots/bindings don't give you as much lateral support as
front/back support

Hmm - well I haven't been on softies in years, but I understand that
the angles are workable up to 45 so long as you've got good stiff
boots. If the boots are soft and the highbacks can't be adjusted,
then yeah I guess backing off the angles is necessary. Doesn't change
the fact that for most people who aren't spinning, duck is probably
not the best choice. Both feet should be angled forward, and the more
the better I say unless you're big on riding switch. OTOH I ride
switch OK (not great, but I don't practice it that much) at 45/40 in
hard boots.

Neil

Hmm - well I haven't been on softies in years, but I understand that
the angles are workable up to 45 so long as you've got good stiff
boots.

I've found bad things start to happen with front foot 33... just my
personal experience with Salomon S6 bidnings (no rotating highback),
Malamutes, and skinny ankles. The boot starts to roll sideways too
much and my heels lift up... those Malamutes are pretty soft when pushed
at a 45 degree angle! (Or are mine just really well broken in?)

Anyway, I tend to save softies for days when I really want softies with
low (for me) angles like 24/15

(Jason Watkins) wrote

Actually, I'm interested in how those stances compare. I'm sure at sun
peaks they'll put me on a skinny stick, so I'll likely be around the
60/60. But so far I've been assuming that when I want to freeride in
hardboots, I'll want to go to something around 53/45.

I've never ridden really steep stances. Right now I'm on a Prior 4WD
with a 21.5 cm waist, and I ride 45/40 with size 27.5 Raichles. This
works really well for me, but I always thought it was a little shallow
according to the mainstream. However thought is shifting away from
really steep angles and more towards as shallow as you can get away
with given the width. Of course, to a lot of these guys 50 is
shallow. However if you plan on doing more than carving the groom and
need the leverage to handle abrupt directional changes (bumps, trees,
steeps) you will probably be happier with shallower angles.

Neil

However if you plan on doing more than carving the groom and
need the leverage to handle abrupt directional changes (bumps, trees,
steeps) you will probably be happier with shallower angles.

From the bit off off-piste riding I did last year in my hard boots I
definitely found going a bit shallower helps. I'm really most
comfortable in hard boots at 57/54, but the 54/48 makes a noticeable
difference in being able to make a quick change from heelside to
toeside. In soft snow I'm talking subdued hop turns and in bumps
either a quick skid or a hop. I tried 48/42 and while it made the
quick toesides easier everything else suffered. So I am going to work
really hard on quick toesides in soft snow at 54/48!

Mike T

Neil Gendzwill wrote:

Hmm - well I haven't been on softies in years, but I understand that
the angles are workable up to 45 so long as you've got good stiff
boots.

I've yet to find a binding where the highback could be rotated 45 deg
and still function properly. And with straps you will have less lateral
support than forward/back - i.e. you can move your knees significantly
perpendicular to the direction your feet are pointing (one of the big
benefits of straps). So with high stance angles it's difficult to drive
the heelside edge with your knees as you would with hard boots because
of this lateral movement.
I think the story is different with step-ins such as clickers where the
sole of the boot is more firmly anchored to the board and some of the
boots are very stiff in all directions.
Neil, do you still hit people with big sticks - I remember that from
your sig from a while back.
Cheers, Iain

--
IainD at ukme dot me dot uk

Iain D wrote
I've yet to find a binding where the highback could be rotated 45 deg
and still function properly.

I stand corrected by at least 2 people. My 45 degree max was going by
some info I picked up on Bomberonline courtesy of the teaching pros
there - although admittedly they did say that 45 was the very outside.
I do know I was out last year with a friend of mine who was on a Wire
in softies at around 35 and he was doing fine.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that many if not most people
would be signficantly better off if they just recognized that a rodeo
5 isn't in their future and set their bindings to work for the riding
they really do. The 25/15 angles you guys are suggesting would do
wonders for those people, as would some seriously stiff soft boots.
I've been advocating softer hard boots like the Raichle x24 series for
years - people still seem amazed when they meet me on the lifts on my
rig, I go everywhere but the park with it. (Prior 4WD, Raichle 224,
Intec RS step-in plates).

Neil, do you still hit people with big sticks - I remember that from
your sig from a while back.

Yup, been playing kendo for over 20 years now. Just heading off to
Winterpeg this weekend for a seminar with the Canadian team coach.
Nice to know somebody remembers me!

Neil

(Jason Watkins) wrote in message . com...
30/21, no setback, width around 20 inches. Works well for all around
riding. I have slightly largish feet, so even though I'd like to back
off my rear foot to around 15 or so, I'd get to much overhang.

Ditto, exact same setup here. My Malamutes, like Mike's, don't seem to
like angles over 33 degrees, and I get too much overhang at lower
angles. 30/21 is Just Right, as Goldilocks would say. I don't spend a
lot of time in the park, though.

-Jules
--
http://learning.snowboarding2.com