Setting Your Stance
Stance and binding angle both depend on your riding style. There are four factors to determining the perfect stance, they are: Width, location, foot angle, and boot shift.
Width. Width is measured from the center of one binding to the center of the other binding. Most width’s are between sixteen and twenty inches wide, or just slightly more than shoulder width apart. This will also vary depending on how your feet are angled on your board. If you ride freestyle your stance will most likely be on the wide side. But, if your feet are angle toward the front of your board, as in freeriding or carving, your stance will most likely be narrower.
Location. Location refers to either forward of the center of the board, in the center of the board, or toward the back of the board. The manufacturer will most often give you a reference point where they think your stance should be. This is a good starting point. For most freestyle boards the stance location is usually centered. For freeriding, or carving, it is usually back from center. You can change your stance position depending on snow conditions. If you encounter varying snow conditions it is usually safe to go with a slightly back stance (which is about a half-inch or an inch back from center depending on the size of your board).
Foot angle. Changing your binding angle will change how pressure is applied to the edges of you board. The more angle you have the easier it will be to vary the amount of pressure you can apply to the edge of your board, and the more leverage you will have to move the board. You generally don’t want an angle of zero on both feet. Most people who ride freestyle usually ride straight across the board. But, if you have a zero angle on your rear foot, you should have between a five and fifteen degree angle on your front foot.
If you freeride, or carve, the average angle is between five and fifteen degrees on both feet. Even a slight angle change will give you more leverage. But, you do not want too much forward angle, or this becomes counter-productive. It is best to experiment and find an angle you like.
Boot shift. Boot shift refers to centering the boot between the edges of your board. You do not want too much toe overhang, or too much heel overhang. Your bindings have slots in them to help you adjust boot shift. You want to have your toes just over the front of your board and your heels just over the heel edge of your board. If you have too much overhang you will fall down when you turn because either your toe will drag in the snow, or your heel or the back of your binding will drag in the snow. The best way to eliminate any overhang is to buy a board that is wide enough for you. If you have size U.S. 10+ boots you might want to get a wide board. Another way to eliminate this is to change your binding angles. Also, you can buy pads (like Red Gas Pedels) to put on your bindings to lift your toe (but, this only works if you have traditional bindings, not step-ins). If you have to have some overhang it is better to have more toe overhang than heel overhang.
The best way to find what you like is to experiment. So, bring along a tool to adjust your bindings when you head to the mountains.
