A friend recently sent me a link to a video – “5 reasons your carving sucks”. I had thought my carving was ok, but then learned that what I thought was carving was in fact mostly scraping. Nothing wrong with scraping if you need a quick stop or are turning above 30 mph, but carving is more efficient, as well as easier on your legs, your equipment, and the snow. I learned that carving is riding an edge through a turn, while scraping is spraying up snow through a turn. Carving is quiet and scraping is noisy. Scraping is moving your skis/board like a windshield wiper, and has the same effect on the snow as a wiper has on rain drops. You’ll go a little faster carving because turns have less stopping power when carving than with scraping. I had been slowing down too much through every turn; it was tiring and I was leaving behind bare spots.

I think this concept applies to both skiing and boarding. Skiing and boarding have many differences and similarities, but maybe that’s a topic for a future Fall Line newsletter. Boarders have only one edge to work with in a turn, and that one edge is shorter than either of the two edges most skiers have to work with. Because of this, a board will slide into a scrape sooner than a ski, so I think it takes more conscious effort and slightly shallower turns for a boarder to carve well. But I think the benefits of carving accrue to both skiers and boarders. After working on my carving for a season or so, I’m more comfortable boarding faster through shallower turns and my legs are less tired at the end of the day. I hope you find this useful and that it may enhance your enjoyment of the great outdoors this winter.

Keith Leavitt
AEA Ski VP