Stopping back leg burn…

Bigger board, or one with rocker or swallowtail? Or try setting your bindings back a bit?

If all else fails, hit the gym!

To start….the reason why you get back leg burn is because in powder you are forced to lean back and put more pressure on your back leg to keep your nose up. You can reduce the burn by setting your stance back as far as possible so that you don’t have to lean back so much to keep your nose up but there are some boards that allow you to keep your stance centred and nose up without having to lean back.

Pow specific board shapes include the Prior Khyber, Spearhead or a Venture Euphoria. The new rockered boards also address back leg burn and those include the Prior AMF and the Venture Storm. You could even split a Burton Malolo, Fish or any of the swallowtails.

The cut on these boards have a wider nose with a narrower shorter tail. The scoop at the nose also starts earlier so that snow stays beneath the nose. The idea is that narrower shorter tail allows your tail end to sink in a bit more which then keeps the nose up and it provides for really quick turning in deep stuff. The less weight you have to put on your back leg to keep your nose up means less pressure and burn on your muscles.

The downfall of these boards is riding switch and crust and ice is harder to ride on because you have less effective edge. For example….

160 Prior Spearhead effective edge = 109cm
160 Prior Khyber effective edge = 118.3cm
161 Prior Backcountry effective edge = 121.5cm
The Venture Euphoria has a similar cut

In my opinion, the biggest advantage of a pow specific board is that you can go with a bit shorter of a board than if you were to go with a standard cut board. With splits weighing so much, shorter = lighter in my books.

With all of that being said, I recently just sold my 158 Burton Malolo. I rode it for two days at Whitewater in Nelson, BC and then for a day at Big Red Cats out of Rossland, BC. All three days we had at least 27” of fresh and that board cruised through all of it and I never had back leg burn. My split is a 158 Prior Backcountry which has me a bit sketched out on the length of the board but when you compare the dimensions to a Malolo it is surprisingly similar. So with any luck….this year I can keep my shorter split for weight savings and still cruise over the deep stuff with no burn. Packing light will be key to making this system work but I’m also not a big guy so I think that it should work out pretty well.