Video / Year /
ISBN / publisher |
Photo |
Length / Format |
Comment |
Installer 3.5
2004
ISP Pictures |
|
25 min
all_region
DVD |
In Japanese (no subtitles). They carve "middle and short turns," which means somewhere between GL and SL. They use a lot of lower cross-under, with a face-the-nose style, fully extending the legs at the apex of each turn, using an upright body position. They go for speed more than high board angle, so there is no laid-over carving. They use an upper-body wind-up: The upper body over-rotates at the end of a turn, which they release at the beginning of the next turn. Music ranges from OK to good. Filmed at Mt Hutt in New Zealand. Probably the least impressive of all the Japanese carving videos - not recommended. |
Snowboard
Alpine
Technique
2005
4635913767
Yamakei |
|
55 min
Region_2
DVD |
In Japanese (no subtitles). Featuring Morio Aizawa, Tadayoshi Chabara, Kazunori Miyao, and Kouichi Masuoka. Lesson 1: Basic posture, 3 elements of a turn, carving vs skidding. Lesson 2: Turn Control: stance, turning by bending the legs. Lesson 3: Turn Control: super carving, using fluid motion, riding the steeps. Lesson 4: Turn Control. Lesson 5: Turn Control: rhythm, SL turns, middle (semi-GS) turns. Lesson 6: Gate Training for GS: Best line for the flats, finishing turns, strategies for deep ruts. Lesson 7: Gate Training for SL: planning your line, adapting to the rhythm, how to recover, and correct your line. Plus: Freestyle Alpine with Hidekatsu Tsuchiya, Rei Aoki, and Yuko Nakamoto. Pretty good mix between racing and freecarving. |
Carving
Master
2
2004
4789940357
SkiJournal |
|
45 min
all_region
DVD |
In Japanese (no subtitles). With Tadayoshi Ohabara, Daisuke Hayashi, and Rei Aoki. Covers 9 steps for alpine carving: positioning (up/down, body angles between limbs, center of mass, issues of breaking at the waist, stacking bones over the edge), weight transition, edging (drills for hopping from edge to edge, flexing and extending, and increasing edging, crossover, tips to increase board angle, riding with the back foot out), open/closed styles (facing bindings vs facing the nose), eye contact, when to pressure the board throughout the turn (focus is on cross-over, using a more stable style), turn control, transition control, focusing on carving on a freeride board, middle/short turns, with some cross-under. Most of the techniques are shown on both hardboots and softboots. |
Carving Master
1997
4789930661 SkiJournal |
|
30 min
NTSC VHS |
In Japanese (no subtitles) - If you are a beginner, it's a great
introduction to angulated carving, but only if you can understand the
dialog. If you are advanced, you will recognize all the techniques and
can provide the voice-over to teach your girlfriend how to carve. Includes
drills for: avoiding counter-rotation; verifying balance by riding with
the back foot out; weighting / unweighting; flexing/extending; angulating
by touching the outside hand to the knee or edge. Also cross-under slalom
style techniques. |
The Carving
2004
4635913481 Yamakei |
|
55 min
NTSC VHS or Region_2 DVD |
In Japanese (no DVD subtitles) - A very well done, advanced how-to instructional
video on angulated carving, but only half the techniques will be clear
if you don't understand Japanese. It covers 9 training steps: cross-over
and avoiding counter-rotation; weight shift across the board; timing for
weighting / unweighting; flexing/extending the knees; leading with the
hips / hip alignment / rotating the hips to avoid sitting on the toilet;
angulation vs inclination; GS gate training tips and timing; shorter GS
turns; slalom technique. Plus some tricks. Also riding with the back foot
out to verify setup. They show split screens to compare variations on
technique. They get pretty low. |
Snowboard Alpine Technique
1998
4635871878 Yamakei |
|
45 min
NTSC VHS |
In English, with Japanese subtitles. The video features
four pro racers: Sigi Grabner, Karl-Heinz Zangerl, Dieter Krassnig, and
Ueli Kestenholz. 1/4 of the video has freecarving, and half of that is
very good looking GS and SL style turns. The rest of the video consists
of clips of SL and GS racing. Plus they give some racing tips, but it's
very basic - for example: "For SL on front side, enter the turn with
most of your weight on the back foot, and shift it to the front to get
acceleration. Then for SL on back side, keep the weight 50/50 on each
foot." They also show race clips and analyze the styles of 5 other
pro racers. Plus some cliff jumping. Ok music. It's recommended if you
would like to get a close-up look at the style of the four featured racers. |
Alpine Technique: Freecarving
1999
4635877124 Yamakei |
|
30 min
NTSC VHS |
In English, with Japanese subtitles. Features Ueli, Sigi,
Karl-Heinz, and Nicolas Conte. Also brief shots of 4 other pros. 1/2 of
it is freecarving, and 1/2 is freeriding big powder in Alaska and Jackson
Hole. They give tips on carving, all of which are useless. The carving
ranges from OK to pretty good, even though a lot of it is on chopped up
terrain. The big powder riding is OK. OK music. There isn't quite enough
great carving to recommend it as a carving video. |
GS Gate Technique
1999
4645877132 Yamakei |
|
30min
NTSC VHS |
In English with Japanese subtitles. Features Ueli, Sigi, Karl-Heinz,
and Nicolas. 1/3 of the video is freecarving, about half of which has
good looking GS turns. The rest of the video consists of highlight clips
from about 25 different GS races from the '99 ISF Tour, which include
about a dozen different pro riders. It's good for comparing the styles
of different racers. They give very basic racing tips - in a nutshell:
don't break at the waist, keep torso rotation to a minimum, keep your
shoulders parallel to the slope, and unweight to change edges. Good music.
Recommended if you want to compare the styles of many different racers. |
1997 ISF Snowboard World Pro Tour
463587169X Yamakei
(recently discontinued) |
|
45 min
NTSC VHS |
In English (mostly), French, German, and Japanese, with Japanese subtitles.
They show PSL and PGS heats from 30 competitors, and interview each one
afterwards. The racers talk about their technique and give very basic
tips. Mark Fawcett shows off his flo tubes, Jasey-Jay shows the ski pole
handle he grips during the race, and Karl-Heinz says "I ride an asymmetrical
board ... when you carve on them, they are always faster than a symmetrical
board." Some of the PSL and PGS races have a drop off jump in the
middle, resulting in major air. It's highly recommended if you want to
take a look at the GS and SL technique of 30 pro racers. |
Super Carving Training
2000
4635877213
Yamakei |
|
35 min
NTSC VHS |
In Japanese (no subtitles). You need to understand Japanese for this one. Features three carvers: Morio Aizawa, Jiro Aida, and Miwa Yoshida, at Whistler / Blackcomb. They go over carving in hardboots and in softies, using an upright stance. The video starts with "Easy Carving," focusing on push/pull and transition. Then it moves to "PureCarving", which includes diagrams on when to pressure the board during a turn, and how to stack the bones, along with fore/aft body shift. The climax is "Super Carving", with emphasis on angulation and weight position, with diagrams showing arm and leg body angles. They explain how to tighten up turns to make circles instead of wide ellipses, and how to avoid counter-rotation. Also how to use knees for suspension, and rhythm. Each rider talks philosophy and tips. Skill-wise, they are OK, but not great. It's on par with "The Carving." Also a few shots of ISF races. |
Advanced Technique
1998
4635871932
Yamakei |
|
30 min
NTSC VHS |
In Japanese (no subtitles). About 1/3 of the video covers carving skill, with Morio Aizawa. It goes over flexing/extending, upper body position, and rotation. They cover medium (shorter GS) turns, then longer GS turns. It also has some tips for carving through moguls and chop, as well as some tips for high-speed carving. There's a bit too much skidding in some of the sequences, and the techniques are not considered in-depth. Not recommended. |
Alpine Style
1995 SnowStyle Magazine (discontinued) |
|
36 min
NTSC VHS |
In Japanese (no subtitles). Carving at Japanese resorts. About 5 minutes
of pro riders on SL and GS race courses, but the rest is really lame.
Not recommended. |
Much like the French fascination with Jerry Lewis, the Japanese
have a fixation on Sigi Grabner. He uses an upright racing style for everything.
Factoid: Like most racers, he does almost no carving during the winter, because
he spends all his time gate training.
| Video / year / ISBN / publisher |
Photo |
Length / Format |
Comment |
|
Sigi Grabner Back to the Roots
2001
4635877523 Yamakei |
|
30 min
NTSC VHS |
In English, with Japanese subtitles. Also includes about
a dozen different pros carving and running gates. The race-style carving
looks pretty good - the best of the Sigi series. For stance setup, Sigi
dethrones conventional wisdom by saying only that "each rider has
to find his own comfortable position. Never copy anybody." Front
side tips include pushing the hips to the inside of the turn (a way
to angulate). Back side tips include keeping a 90º angle between
thighs and torso (also a way to angulate). He braces against a bungle
cord to illustrate how to pressure the board, and he emphasizes smooth
movement. Includes wacky Japanese humor. To demonstrate backside turns,
he actually sits on a toilet. There is enough good carving, race shots,
variety, and music to recommend this one. |
Sigi Grabner Ride in Japan
2004
4635913600 Yamakei |
|
60 min
NTSC VHS or Region_2 DVD |
In English, with Japanese subtitles, featuring Sigi. The carving is
1/3 slalom (boring), 1/3 short GS turns (boring), and 1/3 GS turns (for
racing - not laid-out). Plus a few 1-turn layouts and running gates.
He focuses on flexing/extending and timing. He gives very basic tips
on SL and GS gate training, and draws sketches to illustrate how to
pressure the board around gates. He also critiques 6 beginners running
gates in his camp. Plus shots of Gilles Jaquet carving (he gets lower
than Sigi) and running SL. Includes 9 PGS runs and a PSL run from the
FIS '04 - Sigi is very smooth and gets major air between gates. A bit
heavy on the wacky Japanese humor. If the video had more advanced gate
training, more advanced GS carving, or better music, it would be recommended. |
|
Sigi Grabner All-Mountain Riding
2003
4635913295 Yamakei |
|
52 min
NTSC VHS or Region_2 DVD |
In English and German with Japanese subtitles. The carving is 1/3
slalom (boring), and 2/3 racing style GS turns. The carving is a bit
sweeter than "Ride in Japan," but is not laid-out. Sigi explains
front side and back side turns at a very basic level - in a nutshell:
keep your feet, hips, and shoulders stacked in a straight line over
the edge. Then pressure the board in the middle of the turn, and unweight
to change edges. Shows 5 of his runs from the FIS '03 PSL championship
- he looks great and really pumps the board around gates. He gives a
few tips on dealing with ruts and bumps on a GS course, but it's very
basic. For strength training, he demonstrates 9 exercises that require
only stretch cords. He critiques 6 other pro riders on their SL technique
as they run gates - that part, as well as a few other brief sections,
is in German. Good music. The final part has some shots of super-steep
heli-riding and powder surfing. It is marginally recommended. |
has a few copies
available, $25/each 
