Basic rotational turn

This turn can be used almost in any conditions. The turn is based on the rotational mechanics of turns. That means gaining rotational movement to the body when the board is edged, and then transferring it to the board when the board is flat.

It is useful to distinguish four phases of the turn:

  1. Rotation gaining
  2. Leaning initiation
  3. Rotation transferring
  4. Turn balancing

Rotation Gaining

The boarder starts to rotate his or her body against the edged board to the direction of mentioned turn. Using small but permanent power of body muscles, the rotational speed increases all the time in this phase. No body leaning occurs in this phase yet. For this basic turn it is the most appropriate to rotate the torso using waist muscles against hips and legs kept fixed to the board. Spread arms can help get bigger rotational momentum.

Leaning Initiation

The boarder starts to lean his body in the direction to the centre of mentioned turn (i.e. downhill and a little backwards to the ride direction). This leaning leads to releasing the board edging – the board moves onto the flat base, consequently starts to slide sideways and is ready to start turning. It is important to keep, or increase, the rotational momentum of the body gained in the previous phase, so the transfer to this phase from the previous one must not be too late. There still must be free space in joints to continue the rotation.

Rotation Transferring

The boarder stops the rotation of body against the board by fixing appropriate muscles, and thus moves the rotational energy to the board, too. As there is little or no board edging at the moment, the sliding board starts to rotate together with the body. This phase should start immediately after the board is flat. In practice this means that the beginning of rotation transferring fluently links to the beginning of leaning initiation.

Turn balancing

The body leaning continues to the centre of turn. The longitude axe of the rotating board subsequently passes the fall line and the board is positioned to the new direction. The continuing body leaning causes the lower legs to start leveraging the board on to its edge. This will happen until the edge increases, stopping the board’s rotation and thus finishing the turn. The goal of this phase is to control the body leaning so that the rider is in a balanced position and the curve has the desired shape.