Most snowboarders progress rapidly from skidded to carved turns but few work on extreme carved turns.

Surfers are some of the few who possess the knowledge to really put a snowboard on edge and unlock the fun that true, deep carving provides.

You can spot the carving rider by the marks he leaves: pencil-thin tracks of pure, rounded, linked turns.

When a snowboarder is really locked into carving, he can get so low that the lower hand scrapes the snow, with the body just inches from the ground.

Deep carving is worth the effort to learn because these tight, fast, low-pivoting turns can give you an unbelievable connection to the snow and a graceful riding style that will make other riders stop and take notice.

Josh Shramo of the Arapahoe Basin snowboarding school spent a day with me carving up the mountain's slopes. If you want to experiment with carving, it is really helpful to have a certified instructor at your side. If you want to hook up with an instructor for a private lesson, be sure to specify that you want to work on carved racing turns.

In setting up your board, it helps to have your binding angles set well forward - 15 degrees or more on the front and about 8 degrees to 10 degrees forward in the back.

The angle of the knees and the ankles is the key to getting your board up on edge. Look at the rider doing a front-side turn. The upper body is open, with the shoulders almost perpendicular to the nose of the board. All of the turning is done with the knees and ankles.

The essential idea is to keep the upper body quiet, let the leading arm hang down toward the snow and use a deep knee bend and ankle flexion to put the board steeply up on edge.

Notice the rider's head position. His eyes are looking in the direction he is guiding the board. Having the rear hand resting on the back helps to open the shoulders and keep the upper body driving forward through the turn.

Pressure is applied to the entire edge evenly, with slightly more pressure on the front foot. By slightly relaxing this front-foot pressure, it is easy to fine-tune the carve. More pressure sharpens the turn attack, while backing off on the front foot decambers the board and opens up the turn.

In the second photo, Josh demonstrates the carved backside turn. Again, the upper body is straight, with the shoulders open and perpendicular to the nose of the board.

The angle of the knees and ankles makes it almost appear the rider is about to sit down into a chair. The head is looking up and forward, sighting down the line of the intended turn. Notice the extreme board angle, with only the edge biting in to the snow. This is the signature of the extreme carve.

It is best to practice carved turns on a groomed intermediate slope. Begin with the frontside carve. As you begin the turn, lean forward slightly and lift the heels and turn your shoulders so they come square with the nose of the board. Work toward getting lower to the ground by bending the knees and ankles.

With the backside carve, imagine the same body position, only rocked over in an arc onto the heels. Here, you will find you need to almost sit into the mountain to get the edge to bite.

When you have perfected the carve on either side, work toward linking the turns with a fast exchange from edge-to-edge. By staying low, you will find the board pivots underneath you almost instantly, with a feeling like a whip-snap as you move from frontside to backside turns.

To check your turns, stop and look at the marks left in the snow. If they are fine, pencil-width lines, you're in the groove.