The Duck Stance For Snowboarding

In the article Establishing Your Stance, we discussed the recommended angles to use for your bindings when establishing your snowboarding stance. You may, however, have heard of references to the 'duck stance' and how they are supposedly recommended for anyone from beginners, to experts to specific styles of snowboarding.

What is the Duck Stance?

The duck stance is one where the back foot is set to a negative angle so that both feet are effectively pointing outwards while the shoulders are parallel to the board. While edging on the heel side, your head would be pretty much pointing straight down the slope.

An example of the duck stance would be 10 degrees for the front foot and -10 degrees for the back foot.

Riding Fakie

Because your body would be balanced evenly across the snowboard, there may be a slight advantage in using the duck stance if you like riding fakie a lot or do a lot of tricks in the halfpipe.

However, you do not need to absolutely have to have a duck stance for riding fakie. There are very few pros and competent riders who use the duck stance and all of them ride fakie just fine.

If you're starting out with snowboarding, learn to ride forward with a comfortable stance, whether it's with both feet angled positive or with a duck stance. Then you can learn to ride fakie.

It's not difficult to adjust your stance angles while you're out on the hill. Therefore, you can just make adjustments till you find something that feels right. If the duck stance feels comfortable forward, then use it. If not, don't hesitate to angle your rear foot forward and practice riding fakie that way.

The Case Against

Personally, I would not recommend the duck stance for beginners as they may develop the habit of just remaining on the heel edge while traversing forwards and fakie all the way down the slope.

It's easy for beginners with the duck stance to get confused as to which direction is actually forwards and they may not be comfortable enough to initiate a turn on the toe side.

Riding with positive angles for the front and back foot will square your shoulders more to the board while giving you a consistent feeling of direction so that you know which way is forwards and backwards without feeling confused.

In doing so, understanding the basic concepts of snowboarding while performing and practicing the maneuvers such as traverses and turns will make much more sense.

Riding with the duck stance can also be tough on the knees and ankles, particularly on your rear foot. Many riders have reported pain and soreness in their knee and leg region after using the duck stance.

Bottom Line

On your first day of snowboarding, it would be best to get your feet angled positively and learn to ride the way most people would before you get too comfortable with the duck stance and have to unlearn/re-learn everything again.

If for some reason the angles do not feel right, you can always adjust your stance angles at any time and if you feel the duck stance would suit you, then use it. Although, realistically, you would be one of the few riders who would prefer it.