ExtremeCarving

Style
Drills
Boots
Bindings
Board
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Patrice and Jacques, the Swiss carving duo, have developed the ExtremeCarving technique, which allows Totally Laid, Linked Turns™ consisting of consecutive linked armpit-in-the-snow laid-over turns with full body extension on both heel side and toe side. The Older Eurocarving style (Vitelli turns) were generally limited to a single laid-over turn, usually on toe side. Jean Nerva and Peter Bauer can be found carving laid-out Vitelli turns in older snowboard videos, but you never see them linking two laid-out turns in a row. In contrast, the ExtremeCarving technique can link continuous laid-over turns on toe side and heel side. A good example of ExtremeCarving is demonstrated in the Opus 4 video on the ExtremeCarving web site.

The ExtremeCarving folks have teamed up with Jonas Rejman to produce Carved, an HD-quality video. You can also download a trailer, or pay for the full download.

Style

ExtremeCarving is actually one facet of a more general technique called push-pull. The push-pull technique involves two dynamics:

These two techniques are combined with the following goals in mind:

The Push-pull technique is versatile enough to be used anywhere on the mountain - powder, moguls, crud, etc, and for any steepness - it is just a matter of regulating the forces to control speed and stay fluid.

ExtremeCarving happens when the push-pull technique is pushed to the limit on steeper, hard, groomed runs. In this case, the push-pull technique naturally results in Totally Laid, Linked Turns™, a style that consists of three stages:

To help with the heel side turn, it is beneficial to use a "wind up" at the end of the toe side turn. The wind up is accomplished by rotating your hips to the inside of the turn so that your torso faces the slope. When transitioning into the heel side turn, you uncoil your hips and use the extra momentum to enter the heel side turn. Just before you uncoil at the end of the toe side turn, you will be in the "Egyptian position" - torso facing the slope, inside arm raised up toward the center of the turn, outside arm pointing down at your board, with your head looking downhill over your shoulder so that you can see where you are going. This wind up gives the EC style a figure-8 motion, with the uphill motion of the body forming the humps on the figure 8. The wind up must also be progressive: your body should rotate throughout the toe side turn, and reach the Egyptian pose just before the heel side turn. This technique is clearly visible in the EC videos. This wind up can be further leveraged by snapping the hips at the entry into the heel side turn. For the heel side to toe side transition, this sort of wind up is not necessary, since you will already be facing the bindings.

Mastering this extreme version of the push-pull technique to achieve Totally Laid, Linked Turns™ is difficult. The rhythm and timing are essential, and laid-down turns must be done on steeper slopes, where you will be going fast. In addition, you must completely eliminate counter rotation, otherwise you will end up ExtremeSkidding. A drill to eliminate counter rotation is to keep your arms glued to the sides of your body, which reduces the rotational momentum of your upper body and forces you to lead turns with your hips. In addition, there are a few subtleties to their technique:

EC technique is suitable for beginner riders who have never carved before. The body rotation and push-pull technique is fundamental to basic carving, and can be learned without laying it over. It is simply a matter of starting with slopes that are less steep. The push-pull technique will naturally become laid over if you move to steeper and steeper slopes while maintaining speed control, allowing you to achieve Totally Laid, Linked Turns™. The key is to maintain a smooth, fluid style as you progress. The EC style looks and feels totally effortless, because it is so fluid and dynamic.

The downside involves falling down, and in particular, tipping over and doing a body slide. In the process of learning, it's typical to arrive at the lift at the bottom of the hill with your goggles and helmet stuffed with snow. C'est la vie.

Drills

The ExtremeCarving team recommends a setup that is somewhat unique:

Boots

Bindings

Board

They use a custom-fabricated carving board, the SWOARD ExtremeCarver. See the board details on the boards page. The board was designed based on the needs of the ExtremeCarving technique:

And finally, The ExtremeCarving technique is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, because you can't understand it or analyze how it works until you can actually do it, and this paradox means that you will encounter a steep learning curve on your way to achieving Totally Laid, Linked Turns™.

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