Heelside carve stalling or chattering on a snowboard? First check where you are looking

Many people working on their carving reach the heelside and start studying their butt, knees, hips and body angles, as if the turn will appear on its own once the posture looks right enough.

KAKU’s view is that something comes before all of that: your gaze.

This is Part 3 of Carving Lab. Part 2 covered the ankles on the toeside; this part covers the eyes on the heelside.

This post is for you if you:

• feel the board chatter or stall on a heelside carve, and can’t get pressure into it
• spend all your effort studying your butt, knees and hips
• still have your head facing the run ahead of you as you enter a heelside turn

What follows is the teaching view of KAKU and 西西, drawn from their Threads posts and from 西西’s teaching notes. It is not JSBA textbook wording.

How early to turn your eyes

KAKU’s point has two parts: when, and for how long.

Just before the heelside turn begins, turn your head to look behind you, toward where the turn is about to go. Not a glance and straight back: keep looking until the whole turn is actually finished.

Only where your eyes go will your shoulders, torso and weight dare to follow.

KAKU

KAKU puts the problem bluntly: for many people, the heelside isn’t failing because they can’t press it down. It is failing because, from the very start, their eyes never let the body anticipate where the line goes next.

Miss this step, and carving is only “forcing the movement through”. KAKU’s closing line: stop staring only at your butt; what is really holding you back may be that you don’t dare to look back at all.

KAKU’s post doesn’t say how many degrees to turn your head, and gives no conditions for slope angle or speed. Our editors add one thing that is not in the post: turning to look behind you assumes there is no one ahead of you and your speed is under control. When you can’t see what is ahead, safety comes before form.

Key point: turn your eyes before the turn and keep them there until it is finished; the shoulders, torso and weight follow the eyes.

西西 adds: turning the gaze fully, plus the hips and highback

In a teaching note, vice principal 西西 wrote about how to fix heelside chatter (the board stuttering across the snow), and the first fix was gaze. In 西西’s account, when you rotate, turn your gaze far enough that your head arrives over the board; only then can your weight hold the heel edge. The second fix was turning the shoulders fully: where your head and shoulders sit decides whether the pressure on the heel edge has any force behind it. That note was about the hard parts of moving from JSBA Level 2 to Level 1, and 西西 explains that these are not exam tricks but foundation drills you can do on the way to Level 1.

In a separate Threads post, 西西 answered “What are the key points of the heelside?” with three questions to think through. Two of them bear on this post:

• What you edge with. When you balance on the heel edge in an open stance, 西西 believes that leading the edging or braking with the heel or the ankle joint makes you less efficient. 西西’s way is to press the front shin against the highback of the front binding, then drive from the greater trochanter of the femur (the outside of the hip), sending the force into the edge.
• How the hips fold. Tilt the pelvis forward and fold at the hips diagonally forward; don’t bend at the waist and round your back. 西西 says that if the hips fold straight forward, like a bow, your weight shifts back and the turn comes late. Fold diagonally forward instead, and your weight settles naturally over the middle-to-front of the board; the nose then actively “bites” into the snow.

These are 西西’s terms and teaching descriptions. They are not a medical explanation, and they are not JSBA standard technique. How each part of your body should actually move is something an instructor needs to see while you ride.

Key point: 西西 puts the heelside emphasis on turning the gaze and shoulders fully, and on the highback and hips. That is 西西’s way of teaching, not the only way.

Side by side with the toeside

Each of the two instructors wrote about one side. Put them together:

	Toeside (Part 2)	Heelside (this part)
Whose view	KAKU	KAKU, 西西
Key point	Actively keep the ankles stable; don’t kneel into the boot tongue	The eyes go first; 西西 adds the highback and hips
Common way it goes wrong	Knees driven low, but the edge never comes up	The eyes turn too late, so the body doesn’t dare follow

The two sides use force differently, so you can’t carry the toeside method straight over to the heelside. For the toeside details, see Part 2.

Who this post is not for

• Riders who can’t yet link turns consistently: read the fake weight shift post first. Heelside carving is too early for you.
• Beginners who get scared the moment they are on the heel edge: for how to deal separately with the fear of falling backward and the fear of not seeing ahead, see how to get over heelside fear.
• Anyone looking for “how many degrees to turn your head”: KAKU doesn’t give a number, and this post won’t make one up.

SnowWind’s Snowboard Progression Lesson requires that you can already link turns consistently; for content and prices, see the courses page. For KAKU’s qualifications, see the principal’s profile; for 西西’s, the vice principal’s profile.

This post draws on KAKU's Threads post of July 2026, 西西's Threads post of November 2025 and 西西's teaching notes. KAKU's post includes an image, which this post does not use.