Edging skills are crucial when moving across the flat bottom of the pipe and when going up and down the walls. Check out the Video Lesson, Tilt in the Halfpipe!
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The Drop-in
Drop in with a straight run parallel to the lip of the pipe and a simple hopturn with minimal air to conserve speed and avoid a hard impact. There are two distinct advantages to practicing this proper drop-in technique. First, riders learn to immediately point the nose of their snowboard in the direction they want to be travelling once they enter the pipe, (i.e. toward the opposite wall). This eliminates the need to make a speed-eating turn on the flat runway leading up to the pipe entrance (the bottom of the deck). Second, it enables the rider to manage their speed and control the forces associated with it.
Even beginning pipe riders should use this drop-in technique so that as they improve and increase their speed coming into the pipe and the height from which they drop in, they'll perform it consistently every time. The accompanying photo sequence illustrates the technique.
Carving on my toe edge, I'm already starting to lean in to align with the pipe wall. Notice that I'm heading almost parallel to the lip of the pipe as I ride onto the deck. In the next photo, I'm still carving, But I'm beginning to lean in further and extend slightly to help unweight the board for the drop-in. This extension provides room for my legs to retract, as shown in the next image in the sequence.
As I approach the lip, I'm retracting my legs and unweighting the board while simultaneously dropping my fromt shoulder into the pipe and picking the board up off the snow. Once airborne, I point the board in the direction I'll be moving when I touch down. My shoulders arealigned with the slope of the pipe wall, and the board is carving on the toe edge at a slight angle across the slope of the halfpipe wall. In the last photo, I extend to pump the transition and weight the board to continue the toe-edge carve. Having used this drop-in technique, I've set myself up for a successful run in the pipe.
Getting an Early Edge on Pipe Riding
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Students who are first learning to harness their sped and perform air maneuvers might be a little on edge. And that's a good thing...as long as they're on edge at the right times.
In the halfpipe, riders travel from one wall to another across the fall line of the hill in order to use the vertical walls to propel themselves into the air. Edging skills are crucial when moving across the flat bottom of the pipe and when going up and down the walls.
Many riders make the mistake of maintaining a high edge angle as they rise up the wall and approach the vertical, but this causes their boards to skid - scrubbing speed, momentum, and most importantly, directional control. Before going into the pipe, practice carving on groomed terrain to ensure you can engage and disengage a high edge angle quickly during carved turns and traverses.
In the halfpipe, play with engaging a high edge angle to move across the flat, and then flatten the board as you go up the wall and approach the vertical in preparation to catch air (click the photo sequence above). If you don't begin to release the edge by flattening the board before you jump, the hard wall - combined with an increase in pressure - will make the board slip. This will cause an imprecise take-off and throw you off balance during the maneuver in the air.
If the wall is truly vertical, you just need to ride the board into the air without significant extension. Speed alone propels riders into the air. In pipes with an undercut lip, an over-vert part of the wall, or a wall that doesn't quite get to vertical, riders must adjust their "pop," or extension as they leave the lip. The less vertical the wall, the more they need to "pop" to stay in the pipe.
The frontside air uses a small upper-body turn down the pipe for the return back into the pipe. In the photo sequence and video coaching session, I could have rotated my arms and shoulders a little more but instead I had to resort to another rotation to realign the board just before landing. During a spin the rider's leg extension at the lip doesn't affect rotation; riders just add more rotary input at take-off to spin further. After pulling off the trick, they'll need to land on a flat board, engage the opposite edge as they approach the flat, and use the new edge for the next sequence of flat-to-wall riding.
Carving on edge will help riders take an optimum angle across the bottom of the pipe and towards the opposite wall. But again, this is where the subtleties of proper edge angagement come into play. Even though you may stay on that same edge all the way up the wall, you need to decrease the edge angle as you approach the vertical. To avoid a skid and maintain speed and balance, you need to keep the board pointing in the direction it's moving (or carving) at all times.
By studying the accompanying photo sequence, you can pinpoint the edge-play that accounts fro a well-executed run in the pipe. The sequence outlines the steps for a frontside air, but the rules for early edge engagement also apply to practically any maneuver in the pipe, even a simple turn performed on the wall.
Here's what's going on in the photo:
Starting with a flat board as I drop into the pipe, notice how I suddenly increase my toeside edge angle as I approach the flat. I've bent my knees and ankles to allow for this; if I'm too extended, I won't be able to create enough edge angle to maintain my momentum across the pipe, and I could end up picking up too much speed by taking a steeper angle down the fall-line, and have to speed-check or ride low and fast down the pipe wall.
As I finish crossing the flat, I begin to flatten the board by moving my body over the center of it, moving slightly from toe to heel, and down the pipe. This keeps my lower body soft for absorbtion, and allows the board to keep carving but with reduced pressure as I head for the pipe wall. This also prevents the board from skidding as I rise up the wall.
There are many ways to perform a frontside air. Here I've combined two movements: edge release from the ankles and the movement of my whole body down the fall-line. Just as if I were carving across the fall-line on a groomed slope and wanted to engage a new edge early in the next turn, I let my upper body begin to fall down the hill, reducing edge angle from the previous turn. This turning tactic works as well in the pipe as it does on the groomed slope, with the only difference being that the edge change happens in the air.
Just before landing I turn my upper body to align the board with the direction I plan to travel once I've touched down. A timely counter-rotation move - in which I rotate my arms and shoulders to the left so that the board will keep rotating to the right - helps me finish the turn and put the board in proper landing mode: flat and aimed in the direction I want to travel down the wall. Once I'm gliding on the snow again I can realign my upper body with the board.
Next, I let the board glide down the wall with almost no edge angle, i.e., maintaining a nearly flat board. Then I flex my lower body to tilt the board up quickly to a high edge angle early in the flat bottom of the pipe, just as I did when riding toeside in the first set of photos.
To ride the pipe well, engage your edge as soon as possible after landing and gliding down the pipe wall. The sooner you can make the carved turn, the sooner you'll be heading across the fall line in preparation to flatten the board as you rise up the wall. This will make for an easier and more fluid run in the pipe.
Check out the Video Coaching Session above and watch Shaun White win the US Open at Stratton, Vermont in 2006! I talk about what he's doing to ride so consistently in the pipe, and how you can take your own pipe riding to a higher level.