By Dan Bogardus
The “butt-out syndrome” is a disease that plagues many aspiring trench diggers. If you have watched a new carver perfecting his/her technique, chances are you have witnessed the dreaded syndrome. This usually occurs when the rider is on his/her heelside edge in an attempt to gain leverage in order to exert more force on the edge. For some it is just the hip, and for others (without shame) it is the whole kit n’ caboodle. In either case, it is inefficient and ineffective, not to mention it looks awful.
By sticking your butt out, you lose your ability to effectively pressure the edge and you are likely to skid out or experience the chop (you edge bounces off the snow many times successively and rapidly). This most likely to occur on hard snow or ice, where you have to be on top of it. It is possible to produce a nice, deep, carved rut with your butt out, but you’ll never be able to lay it out on ice or hard pack consistently until the problem is eliminated.
When you move your butt to the inside of the turn to gain leverage, you are actually moving your center of mass away from the edge, making it impossible to effectively pressure your edge, and difficult to move your center of mass back over the board to start the next turn. This also requires that you move your head forward for the counter balancing effect. In addition, this movement too far to the inside of the turn is usually accompanied with leg straightening to maintain balance, and we all know what happens when your legs are too straight (that’s right- skipping out!).
Don’t despair! There is an answer (aside from burning your carving board in sacrifice to the Snow God). The answer is in the knees. By flexing the knees without breaking at the waist you can keep your center of mass over the turning edge allowing you to exert more force directly to the edge. Also, by driving your knees laterally (side to side) toward the snow, you can increase edge angle without moving your center of mass away from the edge. Many riders already drive their back knee laterally toward the snow (or toward the front knee), but don’t drive their front knee the same direction. You do have independent leg action, so take advantage of this- you don’t have to keep your knees together all the time, as many old-schoolers would have you believe.
When practicing this technique, first play with the timing and duration of the lateral movement. At the beginning of the turn, most of this movement comes from the front knee, progressing toward the tail as you near the end of the turn. A word of caution: be careful when trying this for the first time, because it will transfer more force to the edge than you are used to, and may cause it to dig in too hard and eject you from the snow (an unpleasant experience). With some practice, however, you will learn how much pressure is enough, and your power on the heel side carve will increase dramatically. Once you dial it in, you’ll be layin’ it out with the best of ‘em—toeside and heel side.