Flow?

A snowHead

veeeight, Fall line is purely due to gravity. Flow line will vary from that (if my comment about a river bore any semblance to truth), but will be the most efficient way of taking all the contours into account.

...or to give a (flawed) illustration, in a waterslide the fall line is along the bottom of the tube. The flow line sometimes goes up the sides a bit.

A snowHead

You can go over bumps in the fall line but have to around them in the flow line?

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

fall line - the line of least resistance (your hips may follow this line). flow line - the line (path) that skiers skis take in continuous arcs.

You need to Login to know who's really who.

edit - The skis take a longer line (path) than the hips (centre of mass). At some point depending on arc length the feet have to pass back under the path of the hips. Note: The feet can only ever pass under the body as the hips (CM) take a shorter route. hence the term Cross over is not accurate! However, the feet can pass under the body with the legs long or short.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

To amplify on elbrus:

The flow line conserves momentum from the previous arc, and changes direction at the midpoint of the next arc.

The fall line merely happens to intersect the flow line, probably somewhere in between direction changes, but not necessarily.

One can easily imagine a flow line that intersects the fall line only at the beginning or starting points. ( Not a joke: Visualise an entire slope with a "double fall line")

But then, we've already had a graphic on this.

You'll need to Register first of course.

comprex, like it. Very good.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

I though that the term 'Flow Line' was exactly the same as 'Fall Line' It just uses different words so as not to associate the line of least resistance with the word 'Fall' so as not to scare nervous skiers. Puzzled

After all it is free

Spyderman, Sounds like something SSE would say! You know what they are like!

elbrus,

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Fall Line vs Flow Line:

A view from Fred Foxon (Author, Skiing - Technique, tactics, Training), is that the flow line is the path followed by the skier's Centre of Mass. So, Fall Line is purely gravity, but the flow line is determined by your motion - by the path of your momentum.

And I do recall some guff recently from SSE about calling the fall line the flow line Shocked

snow reports

veeeight,

Anyone notice the words "in which the body faces" and wonder whether the term "body" includes the face and eyes?

You know it makes sense.

The following is an Interski Korea 2007 report from a member country, of the BASI presentation including the concept of "flow". This is a snowboarding workshop.

+++++++++++++++++++

Developing “Flow”
GREAT BRITAIN
Paul, from the British Association of Snowsports Instructors (BASI), presented an
on-snow workshop, which introduced the concept of “flow” not only as a means of
riding, but of thought.

The session started with a breathing exercise – breath in and tense the entire body
– breath out to totally relax right down to the feet, to attain total relaxation. Following
this, we were asked how we felt – loose? Stable? Balanced?

Exercise two involved incorporating this into our riding…breath in to start the turns,
breath out to complete them. Again, this was related to how we felt during the
turns – stiff or rigid at the start, and more relaxed and fluid near the end.

We then completed an uphill turning exercise. We were asked to breath in and ride
the edge across the slope, and breath out as we reached the other side, where
we would let the board run backwards, on the same edge, and repeat in the other
direction.

Our next exercise was to loosen the bindings and “feel” the board throughout the
turns. Without the support of the straps, you had to feel your centre-point, and feel
your way down the slope. We then tightened up our bindings and went for a run,
trying to feel the difference in our riding.

The British system relies on “stacking” the body, or as we would say, remaining
aligned over the board. Feet, knees, hips and shoulders all “stacked”. To prove the
stability of this position, we were asked to pair up, and one partner was to push
down on the shoulders of the other in different positions. (IE: bent over, twisted,
etc.) Staying aligned with a slight flex at the knees and ankles proved to be the
most stable position.

At first glance, the BASI system bears many similarities to the CASI system, except
with it comes to this “stacked” position. They advocate holding this position
throughout the turns, and they don’t advocate the use of upper body rotation to
start the turns. They do incorporate a method of steering involving weighting the
front foot and balancing fore and aft, and making a “pedaling” movement.

Pedaling involves starting the turn by weighting the front half of the board,
on the downhill edge, with the feet. This causes the board to move down and into the fall
line. This also flattens the board. As the turn progresses, this movement is
copied with the back foot, and then reversed.

So, if you were doing a heelside turn, you would lift the toes of the front
foot first, and then lift the toes of the back foot to finish the turn, so both toes
are lifted, and you’re riding on the heel edge.

Overall, the BASI riding style seems quite passive and not as dynamic as
the Canadian technique. Without upper body rotation or anticipation, it was felt
that the board could get ahead of the rider, and without steering or “twisting
the disks”, it may be difficult to generate rebound. While “flow” was the
theme to this workshop, the end result in the riding appeared quite rigid – there
was flow up and down, but not as much between turns.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Help!!

Flow?

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