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K ick Carve Turns pg 2
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Heelside kick carve
Linked with toeside kick carve
This sequence shows a heelside kick carve. The turn is followed by a toeside kick carve. In this sequence the two are linked without even touching the front trucks down. This is a fun way to link kick carves.
This comes out of an old school trick called a "space walk" where you do a wheelie and sort of sweep the board back and forth as you're wheelie-ing.
Linking kick carves quickly and smoothly simulates the two rapidly linked turns of a surfing cutback. This sequence simulates a cutback on a frontside wave. That means that, going right, I go out to the shoulder of the wave, cut back heelside toward the curl, then whip the board back around toeside and continue down the line.
The kick carve to heelside is done with the same idea as the toeside kick carve, trying to swing the board around a little faster than the turning radius of the wheels. It's tricky to balance it, because your weight has to be back on your heels. You can balance more effectively by holding your arms very wide, as I'm doing here. Also, a nice trick is to think of pushing the tail hard instead of swinging the nose with your front foot. You will get more power this way, and your front foot will stay on the board better.
In this frame, I'm linking the two turns, keeping the wheelie going. I try to think of being in the start of the second turn before I've finished the first one. This anticipation of the next turn is the key to effective linking of turns, no matter how you're doing them. My right arm starts the second turn of the kick carve cutback.
With the tail still weighted, I swing the nose around into the toeside turn.
If you want to get off the tail between turns to get your footing, you can set the front trucks down for a quick "tic tac" and then continue to link the two kick carves.
Fakey 180 kick turn
This turn is related to the kick carve turn and is useful any time you're trying to spin the board around 180 deg. With a big board some kind of shoulder rotation must be used to get around smoothly.
In this sequence the set up is I'm rolling downhill tail first or fakey, and approaching the tail as if it were the nose. Since I'm moving downhill the turn doesn't carve, it just pivots a hard 180 and so has to come around without a hitch.
I've walked to the tail. The switch footwork puts my pivot foot on the nose (tail).
I weight my front foot, bend low, and wind up my shoulders counterclockwise. I bring my right arm across my body to help the windup.
I throw my shoulders clockwise into the turn, and swing the board down the hill. Gravity accelerates the swing at this point.
The landing of a 180 kickturn while moving in a straight line produces a hard impact which must be caught with the knees bent. You can see my upper body lean over from the recoil. It could have been a smoother landing. My shoulders check counterclockwise to balance and stop the rotation.
