Leo, Richie and I had the opportunity to join the Koreans on-snow clinic today and based on the title we were pretty dam excited.
They took us on a journey with their limited English, to-the-point approach and wowed us with their hard boot demonstrators. We learned that 95% of their snow is artificially made hence why they are pretty dam good at carving.
We did some fun tasks like loosening the boots off completely (ideally we would have positive angles), carved J turns, linked carve turns with the focus working through the sidecut of the board with getting our weight towards the nose at the beginning of the turn and pressuring through the tail at completion. All in preparation for the air we were about to get!
Kim ripping it up on his hard boots
The Koreans have a big focus on:
- The ankles, knees, and hips flex in the same direction
- Always moving vertically
- And lots of angulation
They introduced us to foot peddling, and that torsional twist can create a hard rebound. We put this into the edge change for small, open carved turns, similar to our retraction turns.
After ripping around the mountain in our group, laying down some trenches and watching the hard booters dominate in the steep, slushy and bumpy terrain we got down to business with putting it all together. In a forward body position, lots of hip flexion, an up unweighted movement pattern, we took off to make large carved turns down the demo slope, a challenging black run. The fun part was coming out of the carve through the completion phase of the turn, loading the tail, rebounding getting air and landing in a centred position on our new edge. I recommend going out and trying it. How exhilarating and fun!
Richie landing in a heelside carve
The Air to Carve demo is assessed at the Korean Level Four (trainers/examiners) Certification. It sounded like the concept is similar to the versatility tasks we have at our SBINZ Level Three certification.
The Koreans sure know how to carve, get the best performance out of their board, and look good doing it. Lastly, we finished with a group train off the 15ft jump on the demo slope lead with the hard booters and race boards. It was impressive and highlights how versatile the Koreans are in their riding.
Afternoon on-snow clinic with the Koreans and other nation attendees
Do your current binding angles support a more open and forward body position?
Ride it, explore it, and find out how it affects your carving technique and performance.
– By Claire Dooney