Alright, let's get into it!

So let's have a little look at what this position is before we get into how it's really going to about the angle of your front foot and by creating this open position you can see my back knee here on my toe edge is much more bent.

It allows me to drive a bit more pressure through to the back of the board and it's the back of the board that really drives around these powerful carves.

So this slightly open position, shoulders turned out about 15-20 degrees facing down the slope and just rocking from one edge to another.

So when we're carving we're putting a lot of pressure through the board, you know when we really lean into these turns to bend that board into reverse camber it's putting so much force through the board it wants to just skip out and skid away.

So for us to be able to hold on to it, for us to be able to balance and ride on that edge we need to be in the strongest possible position and this slightly more open position that I'm in now is how we get there.

Look at that view by the way it's beautiful.

So the stance we teach most beginners and that we ride in most of the time like this where we have everything in line with the board you know this is good because it allows us to be ready for anything.

If we hit a bump, if we hit a patch of ice we are in this nice stacked position and we can quickly react to it you know I can go whichever way I want and do what I need and also you might be able to see my front knee moving a little bit here but being in this inline stacked position I can really use my front leg to pull the board around like this and make shorter tighter turns but let me get over here when we're carving we don't necessarily need our front knee to pull us into the turn because we're going to rely on the side cut of the board that natural arc we have in the board we're going to and swing the board around in a skid but what I do need is a lot of power through my back leg because when we're carving and we're really trying to get that board to grip on its edge we're using much more the middle and the back of the board so I want to center as much weight there as possible so just by opening my stance up going from this closed position to this more open position it really allows me to drive through that back leg if you take a look at both of my knees on my toe edge in a second let's come around you'll see how much lower my back knee is towards the snow because I don't need the front of that board just power through with my back leg and if we take a look on my heels coming around really tense up through my core it's like you're about to take a punch in the gut and again that just puts you in this strong position let me get into it where you can really drive the board into the snow and really get it to grip and pull you around man it is hella good fun so like I just said your standard stance that's good for most of your riding but when you really want to get that power and that drive through the back of the board and you want to put that board on as much of an edge angle as possible to be able to hold that edge angle to not skid out for that board to grip and pull you around in a tight arc you need to be in the strongest position possible and we're going to achieve that just by opening our shoulders a little bit now it's not huge it's about the angle of your front foot so sort of 15 to 20 degrees don't be turning a full 90 that's going to put you in a really weak position but as you see as I turn so if I rock forward onto my toe edge by just opening my shoulders I can angulate my body now angulation is a term skiers use all the time they're always looking to achieve loads of angulation to give them grip as they come around the turn and it's the same with snowboarding but for us to really achieve high levels of angulation that is putting the in the direction I'm going if I stay in my closed stance here already even balancing here feels a little bit weaker it doesn't feel very good but by keeping the shoulders open you see that back knee it really drives into the snow you can get it down there but I'm still keeping the straight line from my knees up through my upper body which is what we want so we're driving all our weight down into that edge okay so that's your toe edge position shoulder turned open slightly really think about pushing your back knee down towards the snow that's going to give you lots of grip at the back end of your board where you need it as you come through the edge change just pull the hips back across the board and keep your shoulders open at this angle and now like I said earlier you've got to be really strong through the core you know imagine someone's going to punch you in the gut it's this kind of position and once again it's going to drive lots of pressure through your back foot and really it's going to allow the board to grip and come around in a tight arc okay so this isn't really one where we slowly build up to it you're just going to open that stance up have a play with it and see if you can feel the results it's not going to happen straight away but give this a go and you feel it when you get it right that board it's really going to whip you around it's gonna make you feel like ryan napkin okay so let's have a play with these movements before we lose the sun it's just dipping behind the mountain and i'm going to talk you through some of the things i'm feeling as i'm doing these turns to help you kind of really visualize these turns and you can even practice them at home do these movements at home so that when you get out on the slope you can get straight into it all right let's go first things we need a little bit of speed okay oh yes so the first thing i'm feeling as i'm coming around on my toe edge think of dipping this back arm this left arm down towards the edge of your board so toe edge left shoulder left arm pull it down and it's opposite on the line between my shoulders it's almost doing the opposite of what the board's doing and it's like the line of my shoulders is trying to be parallel to the angle of the slope man it's good fun dip the left arm tip the right arm so obviously before you guys try this you want to be able to that's going to help you out with some of the basics but for those of you that are looking to really try and crank those tight arcs you know when you're trying to get down low to the snow when you see people dragging their hands in the snow or you want to get towards those euro carves adopting this slightly more open stance that's what's gonna get you there okay so have fun with it let me know how you get on in the comments down below i'm going to finish off with a few more turns and i'll see you guys next time oh that that was getting icy at the end there so ideally you want good conditions and also you want to try and have some edges on your board take it in for a service that is going to help as well both things i probably should have done