Poster: A snowHead
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Okay i got another newbie question for all you guys..What difference does it make if you set up your bindings on different degrees? i was informed that you newbie set-up would be 15 degrees on your leading foot and a zero on the trailing foot? how much does this matter and am i on the right tracks with this current set up? How will affect me if i change?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Thos guy has got just about the best advice that I have come across.
http://www.cs.uu.nl/~daan/snow/stance.html
It boils down to whatever suits you best. Personally I like to change my setup around quite a bit depending what I am doing, how energetic I am feeling or what the snow is like.
Anything but duck - it kills my knees.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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icecubez, Duvet's pointed you in the right direction, the width measurement (knee, ankle, shoulders etc.) is the same as from the tip of your middle finger to end of your elbow (one of God's little mathematical pranks). Use it as a median measure and work in or out from there. Your natural angle is the one where you can stand 'relaxed' with your feet apart (see above) and drop to full squat and rise again without ANY discomfort or lateral tension in your knees or ankles. Your knees should stay in-line over your toes as you drop and rise and your heels flat to the floor. (lads, you need to get yer'sen to an aerobics class ... there's nowt like feel of damp Lycra) . . . hmmm back to the point. Your natural angle is the one with least or preferably no discomfort. Once you've worked that out, you can gradually turn your foot angle toward the nose of the board if you want to avoid riding 'duck'. In reality when you start to board, you need to be as flexible, comfortable and in control as possible to avoid simple strains that are posture derived. You will gain additional flexibility with practice but if you learn your basic skills in comfort you will have a base-line measurement to judge any binding angle change you make against. If you spend your first weeks mucking about with different settings it will probably slow your learning curve and increase your reluctance to ride switch.
Everyone is different, but comfort, control and safety are the first criteria. So get your board out without your bindings, one of those whiteboard markers, a protractor and tell us what makes you feel comfortable.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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icecubez, I'm with Masque on this one. I play around with my bindings depending on conditions etc, but when I was learning, 15 on the front foot and 3 degrees duck was about right for me.
Depends on the individual, but your instructor should set you up with the best learning angles.
Good luck and happy riding.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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The above link gives good detail on the principles but I think it is a bit out of date. Reading it makes you think that a duck stance is outmoded (he says it is not so common nowadays) whereas I would say the opposite. I think that more people are riding duck now than ever before as they discover that it has real benefits, for normal riding but especially if you like larking around and riding switch etc.
But that said, the bottom line is that the stance must work for you - there are no hard and fast rules as long as it feels comfortable, allows you to control the board and does not stress your knees too much.
I think that people that do not get on with duck stance fall into the trap of having their feet set up in duck stance but still twisting their body forward as you would with an aggressive alpine stance. This stresses the back knee. The key to riding duck is to keep your body largely in line with the board, forcing the knees apart and not letting the back knee twist inward. When done correctly this feels comfortable and natural and allows you to really squat down to lay on power turns.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Indeed, I would say that duck is far, far more popular than forward nowadays.
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+15/0 is a good starting point. Just go with what feels comfortable. I ride with +15/-6 these days having started on +15/0. Change the angles, do a few runs and then change it if it doesn't feel quite right.
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I moved to duck stance this year (well last few days of banff trip). So trying out +15 -10 at the moment.
Very easy to get used to anf found it made my carving easier after being on a rather extreme alpine setup for the last few years.
When I first started I rode +15/0 and ended up at one point +20/10. At one point last season my front binding loosend off and it was hanging at +30 or something like that.
Its still not helped me riding switch which was part of the reason for moving stance, I can turn heelside put toeside ends up with assorted crashes etc...
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