2 Steps for Snowboard Carving Turns - Step 1

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Before learning carving turns, please make sure that you have no problem with completing deep turns with more edge angle on intermediate slopes.
Since carving turns require you to have better balance on the one edge while turning, strong balance while turning with more edge angle is required.
Now let’s begin!

Step 1

Firstly, you should understand with your body the difference between carving and sliding turns.
In my coaching experience, many people can’t feel with their board if it’s skidding or not skidding when they start learning carving turns.

But they can stop and stand still and slide on the slopes with their board perpendicular to the hill.
This means they can feel the difference between skidding and not skidding with their body.

Ok, now let’s start from standing still with your board perpendicular to the hill.
Stand either on the heel or toe edge on the steeper beginner slope.
Turn your head towards the nose as if you are finishing your turn.
Keep bending your ankles and check if your knees are above your toes all the time so that your hips (aka weight) will be aligned with the board, and it will be easy for you to maintain your balance while standing on the one edge.

Now, from this position, try making more edge angle by leaning your shins uphill.
Just please make sure that your knees are above your toes while making more edge angle.
You can try and see how strong you can make an edge angle since this is the one of the balance training over the one edge.

You might have noticed that the toe side is easier to make more edge angle than the heel side thanks to our body structure.
This means that the toe side is easier to carve and the heel side is easier to skid as the stronger the edge angle is, the harder to skid for your board.

Now, try decreasing your edge angle this time and find the angle where your board starts skidding.
Once your board starts skidding, stop skidding by making more edge angle.
Repeat this and remember with your body where your balance should be to avoid skidding.
This edge angle will be changed depending on the angle of slopes, the, speed, the size, and the shape of the turns.
Therefore, you will need more experience to know the appropriate edge angle to prevent skidding with more types of slopes.

To understand your balance deeply with your body for your carving turns, you can hop uphill and downhill this time.
The key point here is hopping and landing on the one edge gently to avoid skidding your board.
You don’t have to hop too high but try to hop twice uphill and twice downhill in a row.

Next, try to do the same exercise but while going across the hill with slower speed.
Please focus on your feet and learn the differences between skidding and not skidding with more edge angle and less edge angle.
You can try adding a hop while going across the hill too.
You should check your path every time after finishing these exercises to sync your feeling and actual performance.
If your path is a thin straight line, your board wasn’t skidding at that point.
If your path is a thicker line at some point, this means that your board was skidding.

When you have gotten used to do it and confirmed that your board wasn’t skidding, then you can try starting it from where your board is pointing a little more downhill.
So, you will draw a big arc on the snow thanks to the side cut radius of your board.
Your goal here is starting it from where your board is pointing straight to the hill so that you will learn the bottom half of the carving turn.

But remember that you don’t want to add a rotational movement.
This is one of the issues people have while learning carving turns for the first time.
Even if you have enough edge angle for carving turns, adding unnecessary rotational movement towards the direction of a turn will cause your board to spin, meaning your board is skidding.
Therefore, you should minimize your rotational movement while drawing an arc.