Bindings: Logic vs Reality

I've been thinking about the position of my bindings this summer
(nothing else to do in the summer by think about snowboarding). I
have come to the conclusion that when you are riding on your heel
edge, all your weight is on the heel of your foot (Duh). However,
when riding on the toe edge, your weight is really on the balls of
your feet, not your toes. I'm not planning on testing this, but I
don't think cutting off my toes would have a huge impact on my riding.
It might, however, affect my day job as a ballerina

My point is, I have been centering my bindings on my board so that my
toes and heels are equal distances from the edges of the board.
Wouldn't it make more sense to center the bindings using the balls of
my feet (or a little in front of them), and my heels? This would
push the binding forwards a little towards the toe edge. I would
expect this would enable a more equal amount of pressure to be used on
both the toe and heel edges. The toe edge has always seemed to be a
little harder. Perhaps this is because my actual point of pressure
for my toe edge is further into the middle of the board.

As the title suggests, this makes perfect sense to me logically, but
reality doesn't always follow MY logic.

Any thoughts?

Wouldn't it make more sense to center the bindings using the balls of
my feet (or a little in front of them), and my heels?

If you do that you will end up with your toes hanging off the edge of
the board far enough such that they will drag when you get up on edge.

Mike T

So I either cut off my toes or get a wider board.

But seriously, there is some room for adjustment there. Will it make
for a better ride or am I totally missing some law of physics (or
snowboarding).

So I either cut off my toes or get a wider board.

But seriously, there is some room for adjustment there. Will it make
for a better ride or am I totally missing some law of physics (or
snowboarding).

I personally feel the most balanced between heelside and toeside turns
when my boots are centered over the board. If you are having trouble
getting up on your toeside edge then do *not* go to a wider board.
Unless you have something that's very rigid crosswise it will make
things harder not easier. There's a whole list of things to try -
experimenting with your stance, reading up on technique, take a lesson,
etc. Bottom line - do what works for you! If that means hanging off a
lot on your toe edge, try it. It might help you now and then if you
find yourself catching your toes on hard turns you can revisit the issue
later.

it seems to me you're not leaning your body forward enough.
that might explain why you *feel* the weight in the ball of
your feet. btw, i'm no a physician :-)
juani


"Skitzo" wrote in message
om...
So I either cut off my toes or get a wider board.

But seriously, there is some room for adjustment there. Will it make
for a better ride or am I totally missing some law of physics (or
snowboarding).

Thanks Mike. Not really having any problems. Just too many months to
kill between snow. After all, if it works... screw with it. I'm the
kind of guy that will change the bevel on his board every few weeks,
not because anything is wrong, but because there may be a .000001%
chance it could make it better. By the way, anybody know what
happened to the metal on the sides of my board? I swear there used to
be some there.

See yall on the slopes (I'll be the guy with his toes dragging in the
snow).

See yall on the slopes (I'll be the guy with his toes dragging in the
snow).
They did used to call us knuckle draggers, which I suppose is not that far
off.

If you really want to get it sorted, you need some hard boots & bindings.
Then you can put your foot where it should be, crank the boot's lean to get
your knees where they need to be, and cant the thing anyway you like. Your
weight then acts where you want it to, and you apply edge pressure using
your legs not yer ankles ;-)

If you really want to get it sorted, you need some hard boots &
bindings.

Funny, I almost suggested hard boots as well! (I ride hard boots more
often than not)

Other people mentioned this, but I'll say it more directly: there are
2 ways you can press on your toe side edge: standing on the balls of
your feet (and toes, to some extent), or pressing your shin against
the tounge of your boots. Everyone blends these two together, to some
extent. If you've got soft coosh jibtastic boots, you probibly won't
have much cuff to lean against, so your calf has to work harder. If
you have boots that have a little stiffness however, sometime on a
toeside turn try pulling your toes UP towards your shin and leaning on
the edge. This way, your calf is working less, and you can put your
bodyweight behind your entire shin to press that edge. Riding this way
really helps when you need to go through some choppy stuff.

Jason Watkins wrote:

Other people mentioned this, but I'll say it more directly: there are
2 ways you can press on your toe side edge: standing on the balls of
your feet (and toes, to some extent), or pressing your shin against
the tounge of your boots. Everyone blends these two together, to some
extent. If you've got soft coosh jibtastic boots, you probibly won't
have much cuff to lean against, so your calf has to work harder. If
you have boots that have a little stiffness however, sometime on a
toeside turn try pulling your toes UP towards your shin and leaning on
the edge. This way, your calf is working less, and you can put your
bodyweight behind your entire shin to press that edge. Riding this way
really helps when you need to go through some choppy stuff.

Interesting! So essentially you're pressurising the toeside edge through
the stiffness of the boot. I can see this would do 3 things:
* save your calf muscles (as you say)
* lower your edge angle (as the boot flexes)
* provide more suspension

I can see these would help in crud. What do you do heelside to achieve
the same effect? Of course, Phil and Mike will be slicing straight
through the crud ;-)

--
IainD at ukme dot me dot uk