The response was good.

Here is the first analysis.

This is Diego T, and these are some excellent turns.

So don't get me wrong, I'm going to be hypercritical here, but these carves are probably better than 99% of snowboarders can achieve.

Diego has an alias.

He's better known as CarverArcalis.

You may know him from his Instagram or YouTube channel.

He's the one that does the snowboard carving animations like this one.

Diego and I worked on this animation together in the summer.

The goal was to model technically perfect turns specifically to use in these analysis videos to compare side by side with the subject rider.

This is the video we used as a basis for the animation.

I had to search pretty deep to find some video of myself riding in something close to textbook form.

Usually, the camera only comes out on the best days when the groom is perfect and I'm aiming more towards great style than perfect form.

I'm stretching out my body, trying to minimize my movements to make it look easy, and I'm trying to drag my armpits to make it look cool.

On this run, the surface was quite rough.

We hit it late and small moguls were already forming, but it's in these conditions that I really have to maintain proper form to keep my edge in the snow, and that's why it was chosen.

Despite the fact that I'm getting tossed around and flailing my arms for balance at times, I think it was the right choice.

When Diego posted, he specifically asked for help with his toeside, and that's where we'll focus mostly, though I will have some suggestions regarding his equipment to add later.

We're going to do this one in a side-by-side format using all three of these clips together, and we're also going to make reference to the nine elements.

So if you haven't watched that video yet, I would suggest you start there so we have a common vocabulary.

I like to think of it as required viewing for snowboarders looking to get better at carving.

Alright, let's begin here, right where the boards go flat as we each transition into a toeside carve.

There are many subtle differences noticeable here.

We're going to focus on just three, the knees, the hips, and the shoulders.

Let's take one at a time.

So look at where the front knees are pointing here.

The animation and I both have our front knees slightly forward of our front toes toward the nose of the board.

Diego's front knee is pointing slightly rearward, towards his back knee.

And look at the orientation of the hips and shoulders here.

The model and I are pretty much facing the same direction as our front foot, in line with our stance.

Diego is facing more across his toe edge.

He's almost in the warrior position.

He's doing the Cassie robot thing.

He's under-rotated already, and the turn hasn't even begun.

Let's back this up even further actually.

The problem is most easily observable in Diego's first turn of the run.

Here is Diego's initiation.

Okay, knees drop.

Also the upper body drops.

You see that?

That inside shoulder, that inside arm is reaching down for the snow.

Now contrast that.

Well let's look at this, the model here.

Okay.

You see as he drops his knees, we get this arching in the rear obliques and this crunching in the front obliques to counterbalance.

And then into that patience part of the turn.

And let's look at this other turn.

This one here.

Okay.

And you see what happens here.

My knees go down, my upper body comes up.

There starts to form an arch here and a crunch over here.

Okay.

So I'm achieving high angulation between the board and the snow.

And I'm stretching through those obliques to compensate and keep my shoulders more level.

This is a trade drill J-turn.

There'll be a video later.

But you can see I'm holding my hands out.

I'm trying to pretend to keep that tray level.

And to do that, I'm stretching through those rear obliques, stretching through the rear obliques, crunching through the rear obliques, bending down, back is flat against the snow, head is coming down.

My neck is up, my head is up, the model's neck and head are up.

So what's going on here?

Diego here is breaking the number one rule of carving, which I've said so many times.

Keep your shoulders level.

Look at that.

He drops the inside.

His knees really aren't doing much.

He is achieving some angulation, but he's not really dropping the knees as much as the model or I are doing.

Okay.

And this, I think, is the fundamental problem in his toeside turn, although there are other issues.

Let's look at this one more time.

I have one more turn on this video.

Where is it?

So heelside and drop into toeside and right about here, you can see that arch in the rear obliques, right?

And the crunch in the front obliques.

I'm pushing hard, reaching away from the snow, letting the snow come to me.

I'm dragging both hands, but I'm not reaching for the snow at all.

Now, we've isolated one of the problems, but we can't fix that without also addressing the other two.

So let's look again at the hips.

We talked about the hip orientation earlier, but just as important is the pelvic tilt.

Have a look at these positions.

Notice how the model and I are tucking our tails and driving into the turn with our hips, whereas Diego is exhibiting anterior pelvic tilt and sticking his butt out.

When we talk about the hips, it's hard to forget Jonasmo's unforgettable line, steer with your dick.

I think this refers mostly to the rotation and orientation of the hips.

So let's also add thrust with your dick as a cue to remind us to tuck that tail and drive the board into the turn.

Now, of course, I realize that not everybody has a dick, but it turns out that some 97% of my YouTube viewers are men.

So I don't necessarily feel the need to use gender-neutral language everywhere.

But if you are one of those 3%, what can I tell you?

Grow some balls and commit to that edge.

Get on top of your board.

Thrust with your midsection deep into the turn and feel the control and the power that belongs to you.

Okay, so in this video, we looked at 3 elements of Diego's toeside position and made corrections.

One were the shoulders, one was the hips, and the third were the knees, okay?

So let's look at these again in a practical dryland demonstration.

First the shoulders, because that's the number one rule of carving and that's the biggest mistake, most common mistake I see people making all over the place, is dropping that inside shoulder and reaching for the snow.

Okay, and that's exactly what I see Diego do.

When he is initiating on his toeside, he's angulating the board, dropping the knees, but he's also dropping the upper body and reaching for the snow, making his butt stick out, giving us some posterior tilt in the hips, which we'll get to in a moment.

The idea is keep your shoulders level.

When you drop your knees, you lift up your upper body so your shoulders are level, counterbalancing over the edge.

Okay?

Crucial, crucial.

You reach away from the snow, you let the snow come to you, okay?

That's how you're going to get an effective carve.

That's how you're going to keep your edge in the snow.

Reaching for the snow, oh look, I'm carving, I'm carving.

You're dragging your hand, but your board is probably not really holding a thin line and staying on edge.

Now the hips.

When we looked at the hips, we looked at two different elements, okay?

The first was the rotation, the orientation, which way your hips are pointing, okay?

And the second was the anterior or posterior tilt of the hips.

Very important that we maintain that anterior tilt, right?

We tuck our tail and we thrust our hips forward, and then we point our hips in the direction we want to turn.

On our toe side, I want to go this way, so I'm going to rotate a little bit, generate that rotation from the hips, but thrust them forward, tucking the tail, okay?

And I'm going to use those hips to really drive the board in the direction I want to go as I initiate.

The third element was the knees, okay?

And what I see, not in every turn, but in some of Diego's turns, I notice he's got that knees together, old school, Craig Kelly style, which definitely has a place and looks awesome, but actually I think this bending of the front knee backwards is actually blocking Diego from having successful toe side turns.

Let me show you why, okay?

When I tuck that knee in, it limits my hip rotation.

Also it prevents me from leaning forward over the front of the board, okay?

So watch the difference here, okay?

When that knee comes forward, boom, all of a sudden my weight comes forward, which is where you want it for initiation, and it opens up my hips towards the front of the board, which is where I need them to be.

It enables that anterior tilt, that tucking of the tail that I want, so I would suggest for Diego to do at least a few runs focusing on bringing that front knee out.

So the knees do, in a sense, come together, and as I turn, they also move together.

Um, yeah.

That's pretty much it.

I promised some comments about Diego's gear.

The first thing, one of the first things I noticed in his video was that his stance is too small for him, and he's running a 47 centimeter stance.

I'm not sure exactly how tall he is, but for an average-sized male, 55 centimeters is about the right stance for soft boot carving.

Now he may feel a little bit awkward when he stretches that out, especially if he's used to that old-school narrow stance, knees together kind of style, and this is where canted risers come in, okay?

I can spread my stance out as long as I lift my front toes and lift my back heels and add a little inward canting.

Now, I get the effect of those knees together and the solid base of support, but I have more control and more leverage because I'm spread out further on my board.

So now that we know what we're looking for, let's revisit these first turns and let's see what's happening in practice.

All right, Diego first.

So look, you can see, of course, he's dropping that inside shoulder, sticking his butt out and leaning towards the snow with his upper body, achieving some angulation, but not a ton, okay?

But what I really want you to see through here is this.

Through this whole section of the turn, the board is pretty much tracking straight.

It's not engaging.

It's not turning at all.

What's happening is he's gaining a lot of speed, making his turn that much more challenging.

Now look what happens in my turn, okay?

I'm dropping down, but there, you see right there, you can see that arch in my rear obliques on toe side.

You can see my hips, I'm balls to the wall here.

My hips are thrust right into the snow deep to get that board to turn.

I'm driving my hips into the turn, making that board come around fast to accomplish, guess what?

To accomplish controlling my speed, which is the essence of carving.

Speed control through turn shape.

And that's it.

I hope you enjoyed this video.

I hope you learned something.

I sure did.

Thanks to Diego for providing the animations and for submitting his video.

Thanks to you for watching.

I really appreciate your support, truly.

If you've been watching my videos, you'll know that I'm on a mission to get the snowboard industry to make better carving specific gear.

To accomplish this mission, I could use some help.

Please subscribe.

More subscribers means I have more clout and more legitimacy when I approach manufacturers with suggestions on how they can improve their products for us carvers.

Right now, a lot of them are just ignoring me.

We need to prove that there's a demand for wider boards and stiffer, lower profile bindings.

When they see that there's a market, they'll want to capitalize on it.

Competition will ensue and we'll all benefit from better equipment.

Another thing you can do is buy a wide board from carversconnection.com.

We have five Exeggi Double Wides remaining and another 20 C4s from JCJ Anderson coming soon.

Well, 19 actually.

One of them is reserved for Carver Arcallis.