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I am super excited about today's video, because once I'm done walking my dog, we're going to be talking all about down, unweighted turns.
Now, these turns might just be the missing ingredient which is stopping you taking your riding to the next level.
Indy, you ready?
Let's go, go, go.
Come on.
Go, go, go.
Let's go.
Down, unweighted turns make for a really quick edge change, but most importantly, they put you in a really strong position at the very start of your turn, meaning that you will no longer be a passenger on your board, just reacting to the forces coming at you and going wherever your snowboard dictates, but you will be in full control and you can decide exactly what your snowboard does and exactly where it goes.
Before I explain, let me show you some.
Down, unweighted turns are advanced turns, meaning if you don't already have good edge control, you won't get the benefits of this movement.
They're called down, unweighted turns because you actually drop your body down towards the snowboard at the edge change.
I just want you to imagine for a minute you're stood on a pair of bathroom scales.
If you were to quickly drop your weight down, those scales would read a lower weight.
We can do the same thing on a snowboard.
As we drop down, there is less pressure underfoot, and that is the perfect time to make an edge change.
You are down, unweighting.
They're called down, unweighted turns, but it actually just refers to the edge change.
The turn itself can be any size and any shape.
There are huge benefits to starting your turn in a low down position.
It means straight away, you can begin extending your legs and putting pressure into the board.
Going back to the bathroom scales analogy, if you stand up on those scales, you read a higher weight, which means as you do that on a board, you're applying more pressure through the board.
What this does is it bends it into reverse camber and will actually tighten up the radius of your turn.
This is awesome for steep terrain where you don't want to be spending too much time in the full line, so short turns are ideal.
It's also really fun to do with your carve turns because you can suddenly whip that board around and create any turn shape you like.
No longer are you just being a passenger sitting on the edge of your board and letting it pull you around, but you are dictating exactly what your board does.
In chopped up cruddy terrain, being low at the edge change will help you keep your balance and make sure you don't get bucked off your board.
The down on weighted turn is also the best type of turn to do in the powder.
Because you're in a low down position at the start of every turn, as you push your legs out, you actually compress the snow underneath you and create a platform which is pushing back against your board.
This really bounces you out and pops you into your next turn and means you don't just have to ride powder by leaning all your weight on the back foot.
Let me show you.
So now let me break down the movements so we can get the timing and the coordination of this exercise.
We're going to begin in a side slip and this is going to work best if you have a slightly steeper blue or even a red run.
Begin in a side slip.
You're going to drop down, make the down on weighted movement, bend your knees, get your body close to the board, and use torsional twist.
If you don't know what I'm on about, check out this video.
Use torsional twist to get the board turning into the full line and changing edge.
Once it has changed edge, start extending your legs back out again into a side slip on your opposite edge and finish up with your legs extended at a high point on your new edge.
Then we simply repeat the exercise, changing between edge to edge, toes to heels.
So the next step I will tell you once you've hit that like and subscribe button.
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Perfect, done.
All right, the next step is to replace that side slip with a slight traverse across the slope.
Begin traversing across, focus on dropping your hips, dropping your body down towards the snowboard, using torsional twist to make the edge change and then extending back out through the turn.
Traverse, drop down, edge change, extend through the turn.
Drop down, edge change, extend through the turn.
The final step is to add a bit more board performance into your riding.
That means take the turns with a little bit more speed but also increase your edge angle.
This will translate to carve turns on mellower terrain and gripped turns on steep terrain.
Really have a play with the movements.
You can progressively extend out through the turn, feeling the grip build up as you turn the board across the full line but you can also be rapid with the movements as well.
If you really quickly extend your legs out, you will feel the board really whip round underneath you and it's a super fun way to ride.
You have to understand that this movement, it's not going to be a quick fix.
This is a process, a way of changing your riding.
It's pretty much how I ride all the time, making these kind of turns.
Once you understand it and once you begin to feel it working, it's just awesome and it really will make you a much better rider.
That is really good fun.