Frusterating issues!

[Aqua]

(Sorry for the long post but I need to "vent" and get some advice)

Well I've now been skiboarding 3 days worth so yea I am a noob incase someone didn't read my posts before I've beena snowboarder all my life then just made a switch to skiboarding this year along with my boyfriend.

I started off with a ski swap woman's rossi boot which killed my feet, I guess it was too narrow. To make a long story short I bought new boots that seem to fit well then went to a boot fitter and had em stretched and a Superfeet footbed added. Wow what a difference, no more foot cramps!

I highly recommend anyone who skis and has any sort of pain to go see a good boot fitter!

Anyways so that problem is solved, but now the big one.

Oh my GOD it is killing my legs! I'm sorry if this sounds silly but I have never been on skiis since I was like 11 years old, and it's just pure leg torture.

When I ride it's like doing a 30 min wall sit.

I have little to no foot pain now, but instead my entire leg feels like its going to collapse at any minute.
I can't barely make turns because of the pain.

As an experiment I rented a snowboard and I had very little leg pain just normal soreness and I was whizzing down the mountain like nothing.

When I'm skiboarding I have to stop every like hill and roll on the ground in agony! God I had no freaking idea skiing was so hard on the leg muscles, at least I am not used to it.

However my boyfriend is doing AMAZING on his boards, last year he was pretty pathetic on his snowboard, but on his skiboards hes whizzing around and can even keep up to me on my snowboard. :eek:

Why the heck am I having so much trouble getting into skiboarding??? i want to like it but it seems everything is against me.
Flailing around on the hill in pain while 50 people on skis ans boards zoom past me is hardly a good way to represent the sport, I feel just ridiculous.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, or maybe my muscles aren't strong enough to hold me up in a skiing position. I work out and bike and hike but I never have skiied, maybe my muscles can't handle it! I don't know!:eek:

Help! Should I just go back to snowboarding for now?

[tyberesk]

NO no snowboarding for you...

maybe your stance isnt right and thats why your legs are so sore. Watch some videos on the gallery or on the forums and compare your stance to theirs. Skiboarding is alot like walking....except with your knees a little bit more bent.

[Aqua]

haha ok, well I tried basically sitting back and bending knees and everything I could think of, but there is just a horrible burning pain that requires me to stop every few feet and rest.. I will surely have another look at the videos and see if i am doing something majorly wrong. i can only hope that is the case.

Every bump I go over is torture atm so its not exactly much fun yet. :o
Plus I am driving my boyfriend crazy when it should be me waiting for him at the bottom of the hill! ;)

[tyberesk]

you are probly riding in a crouched over position instead of more upright. It may also be that your boots are forcing you into this more forward position.

[Aqua]

Originally posted by tyberesk
you are probly riding in a crouched over position instead of more upright. It may also be that your boots are forcing you into this more forward position.


Hmm yea possibly, how would my boots be doing this? They are just $200 atomics with the aforementioned mods. Any idea how I can fix it?

[robalo]

hey aqua,

ski is not harder than snowboard, you dont do much more effort on the legs or nothing like it. you just have to know how to do the right things.

example, how do you brake? braking or stoping in beginner way (sorry but i dont know the name - toes in, heels out) that way... it really hurts after a run or two doing it all the way down. once you know how to brake (sliding way - dont know how to call it either) youll see its much easyer. almost no effort.

another thing is boots not well straped. youre used to snowboard and "fluffy" boots, in ski, you need to keep them tight. in the way that lean forward... and do not feel the boots to spread free. thats one of the things that will help because you will reduce the force needed to turn the skis.

thats just somethings i remembered, hope i helped.

have fun

[tyberesk]

yea i forgot about that...make sure your boots are in tight!

[slow]

Hi Aqua,

I have to agree with all the advice that has been posted and would add the following: relax and focus on learning how to stop, hockey skate style. Once you are confident you can stop, you will relax and find it less demanding.

Another suggestion is to not ski the boards by keeping them flat. Keep on edge by making soft repeated alternating turns (by leaning the boards edge) down the slope. As you develop your skills the speed will come and you will be racing others.

Last winter my sister in-law and her husband asked to be introduced to skiboarding since we could not stop talking about how much fun we were having. They struggled until they mastered the stops, thereby relaxing, and started staying on edge. This was also what my wife and I experienced when we started four seasons ago.

Hope this helps. Do not give up, it is worth it.

[Aqua]

Originally posted by tyberesk
yea i forgot about that...make sure your boots are in tight!

Yes that could have been part of the problem, I was doing a bit of snowplowing but mostly turning.. could be that my boots were too loose.

[tyberesk]

i started riding my boots when the last buckle up...since the one thing got bent...and i know it was really hard on my legs. Kind of reminded me of how i wear my inline skates.....but alot heavier. Loose = not good for skiboots lol.

[Aqua]

The best way I can describe it is it is like doing a "wall sit" all the way down the hill, that burning pain in the quads that makes your leg shake after a while and causes spontaneous flopping over in the middle of the run :p

[kirk]

Yea, I didn't think about that either...

When my girlfriend first tried skiboarding, she wanted to snowplow and it killed her legs too. Once I got her to start doing skidded hockey stops, she had no trouble and started to love it.

Also, you really don't want be having to lean forward or back at all. As long as everything is adjusted right, you should be able to stand straight up and ride without any troubles. If you're leaning back your legs will get really sore really fast.

Great advise guys!

[CrazyBoy-1]

I'll second the suggestion to work on stopping. I was in the same position the first couple of times that I skiboarded. I was constantly in this crouched over nervous position for fear of loosing control. I got comfortable stopping and was then able to loosen up my stance. I still have a more hunched riding stance, but it's much looser than when I first started, and that's only on the diamonds or if I'm really going for speed. Just meandering down a slope I'm almost standing staight up. I can't stand exactly staight up since my ski boots are canted forward. That may be part of your problem as well. If your boots naturally have an agressive forward lean, then they may be putting you in a more tiring position.

[robalo]

I dont agree on the standing all straight.
I agree with CrazyBoy though.
Youll always be a little bit standing forward because of boot construction. the bottom part of your leg till your knee is a bit forward, and the rest of the body just have to go with it. play it cool and relaxed, with the legs a bit flexed.
I dont think you get tired in this because the front part of the boot supports your weight, and you dont force your muscles as if youre wallsitting.
but, for this to work, the boots have to be tight. not so tight that blood cant flow... :P... but tight enough.

I once had that little problem. was feeling a loose boot... tight it up.... still loose.... tight a little more... hum.. not enough... a bit moooore... ouch... ah perfect.

after 1 hour i coudnt move my toes... and after stopping in a coffee shop for some foot massage I realized they were purple.
I was feeling bad, like I needed to throw up.. it was really a bad experience :P
good part: I had a foot massage.
bad part: besides the indisposed feeling, that foot massage, was given by a friend... male.
lol

thats it.. end of story.

[Greco]

i had the exact same problem out of the blue one day when i was riding in utah. first a bit of background. i've been skiing for 21 years and 10 of them have been on skiboards so i pretty much know what to expect from my body when i ride. i head out to utah with my wife and it's the first time i'm skiing in utah and i'm really excited and i find i can barely make it down the mountain. i have to stop every 100 yards and rest my legs otherwise i can't get down. i couldn't understand what was going on. i thought something was wrong with my body, crazy thoughts like oh no i'm too old to skiboard anymore (which is ridiculous). well i found the problem on the second run. the boots i use, the deeluxe ones from a couple of season ago, are great, so comfortable and i love them but i found that day they have a "powder" mode i think it's called where when it's engaged the boots are locked at a forward lean angle and don't allow the cuff to go back past a certain angle. this was the problem. once i disengaged that the problem was solved. so i'm thinking you might have your boots locked in such a way so the cuff won't move back or they are just designed to put you in a really forward stance. i would check out those boots.

g

[Manlenium]

I was going to say the same thing as Greco. Make sure your boots are set to any correct "modes" they may have as a feature. It may be causing your body to work harder by compensating.

Also the snow plow (Heels out, toes in) is a definite killer of quads and thighs. My girlfriend was in pain as well, and it was because of her riding style. She was afraid of the speed (at first) then she realized she didnt have to plow to carve. As we all know carving slows us down......It started to hurt less and she began carving properly. It was very entertaining to watch her feet progress from a V pattern into two parallell lines.

I wish i had a video because she went from zero snowsport background to prett decent rider by the end of the day.

You do use different muscles when you are skiboarding, but certain techniques do help avoid the pain (hopefully.) If not, you may have to look at a different pair of boots, or some decent socks help too.

Try the BFs BWPs and see if it makes a difference....

[Aqua]

Thanks for all the great advice, I feel a bit more hopeful now.

The boots I have now are just basic boots, Atomic B-tech they have a flex of 55 so are no means extreme or anything.. they don't have any forward lean adjustment just the normal ski boot angle.


I guess I will just try tightening em up more next time they might have been too loose if they packed out a bit while I was riding.

Yea I was thinking of trying his BWP's as well I mean I am not scared to go fast or anything I am scared of my legs collapsing from under me and everyone staring at me as I scream in agony LOL.

I seriously tried on 50 pairs of boots.. I wanted a lower end boot for a bit more flex and also like I said this is my first year so I didn't really want to invest major bucks.

I tried all the Softlights I could find but I found them to be quite uncomfortable for my feet, the atomics felt about the best thus far and are still pretty flexy and they are really comfy at least now just have to figure out this leg pain thing

:p

[Manlenium]

Good luck.:D

Yeah boots should be a little tight but not tight that they are uncomfortable.

Trick is to do up the bottom 2/+ latches, then middle, top, middle. This gives you a few more notches to work with.....

Hope you can get rid of the pain to experience the fun.

[SBruce]

The soreness you are feeling in your quads is because you need to exercise those muscles and stretch before you go out to the hill.

Doing 20-30 squats a day for a few weeks before will definately help...

[winterparkrider]

the way you stand and hold yourself is going to make all the differance. Have you ever heard the term siccored. One foot a little in front of the other. This applies to which side you apply wieght.so as you want to turn left the left board should be about 2-5 inches infront of the right one. Like your snow board you have to learn how to TRUST YOUR EDGES. You want to pretend they are snowboards you are just facing forward. Dont try to ski them. They are not skis. Ride them like boards and they will respond like boards. No push turns. let those edges and side cut work for you not against you. Shift your wieght on the edges and lean into the turns. This style of riding will let your body move with fluidity and work those muscles less. You said you were a snowboader before so now with a new stance and facing forward ,different muscles are being used . They are not used to it yet and dont like it. But never fear muscles start to remember. It will get easier, I promise

[Aqua]

Yea I think you're right winterpr I was trying to ski them not ride like boards...
I did used to X-country ski for training and thats the only real skiing I knew till now.

Well we are getting a huge snowstorm tonight I'm going up tomorrow with a new outlook and hopefully I can get over this issue.

I really appreciate all the advice!

[CrazyBoy-1]

Hey at least you're getting out on the slopes. I have yet to get the chance. Here's hoping some of this advise was what you needed, and you have a better time of it your next trip. Good luck!

[Aqua]

*Update*
Oh man, I am soo fricking happy now! I just went for 15 runs in a row with no resting and very little pain.

I went up the ski hill by myself this morning on the BWP's and started off tightening my boots a lot more, I figured if they were too tight I can always loosen em.
I think I was paranoid to tighten em due to the cramping I had before, but I have 0 foot pain since getting them fitted properly! I just went for 15 runs in a row with no foot pain at all!

This time I took it easy on the bunny hill (which is actually quite decent for a bunny hill, it has it's own chairlift hehe) and concentrated on pretending they were like "forward snowboards" as someone suggested.
Before, I was trying to force my feet to turn the boards which I guess was making my legs die within about 5 mins.

I stayed on my edges and treated em like snowboards and now I can go straight down the hill like nothing.. just a few speed checks.

Oh man it is so nice not to have to put on my back binding every time I get off the lift, I just whiz down the hill, I passed all the newb snow boarders and skiiers by my thrid run just relaxing and letting the edges do the work.

I think wasn't trusting my edges like I do on a snowboard and I was forcing my legs to snowplow turn lol.

I think snowboarding actually hindered me a bit cuz I had this idea I would be a pro the first day which was making me nervous when I realized there was a learning curve and actually more scared to go fast!

Well I had a blast anyway thanks again for the advice I think I "fixed" the issue now woot! I can't believe I almost bought another snowboard in panic.. good thing you all set me straight (no pun intended)

:p

[tyberesk]

thank god you found the problem!!! youll be on skiboards happily for awhile now

[slow]

Good to hear that it all worked out for you Aqua. Enjoy!

[winterparkrider]

you're welcome. I knew that had to be the problem. I am glad you had a blast. When you are ready to tackle deep pow let me know I will give you the proper tips.

[robalo]

WOOOTTTT :D

cheers to you :)

[ax1um]

Like someone said already, your stance could be it. Straighten up your back so you aren't making your toes put pressure on the ground. Get out of your chair and stand up straight. See how your feet have equal pressure? Now lean forward. Your tows are now compensating for your stance, thus putting more strain on your calves. This is one possibility. :) :)

Edit: Woops, didn't see the second page :confused: . But yeah, happy it worked out for you!

[Manlenium]

Good job Aqua, Good to see your up and running now.

Isnt it a blast to wail by the snowboarders stopping at the top of the hill to do up their bindings??