philw

Well I guess it makes sense. Snowboards are the only thing people don't care about racing, apparently. It's just not cool to go faster with those. You have to do more "tricks" or something.

It's good marketing, clearly. I just think that if I ever ride with these skiers boasting about their number, I'll still decide based on watching them if they can ride or not. We don't need their numbers to work it out.

I ride soft boot boards all the time with hard boots, on piste and in powder. So I don't think it's a bad idea. I use F2 and Atomic Backlands/Phantom springs on a Burton board. In days of yore I used more traditional snowboard hard boots and those worked nearly as well, but the Phantom springs are game changers. I've never ridden American bindings, just F2. They have been less successful than F2, maybe because of stiffness issues. In my view your weight is the key, not height. Just get a soft boot board where you're in the middle of the recommended weight range, and which will neatly accommodate your stance angles. I've almost always avoided hard boot board manufacturers boards, I just ride standard boards. I think that's because I ride the same way good soft boot boarders ride, I just happen to use hard boots. If you want to ride like Knapton, buy his signature board. Ditto Ranting James. But those folk are soft boot riders doing particular types of turn; it's hardly "all mountain". My own board is a 1.44m with a 6.6m sidecut. It carves with the best and rips in powder... but for dragging your armpits in very well groomed snow you'd want something designed specifically for that. It depends what you want to do. --- Not a terrible idea; it's what I do. I ride with a lot of very good soft boot people, and the boot thing isn't really relevant either way. I would say, that soft boots could also work for you, but you have to switch style to a more soft boot style. Do not, for example, try to ride soft boots with hard boot angles; that's not how they need to work. If you're looking for all mountain, then I'd be wary too of soft boot merchants selling carving on specialized hardware to YouTube fans... that Coiler 172 does that one turn type on very smooth terrain already.

Because Cherry isn't trying to alter his line around a gate whilst maintaining speed. In fact he's attempting to keep his line, not change it: this turn is the last thing he would want to use. As someone racy said earlier: "In engaging this slide, you can maintain or reduce speed ..." It's a line-changing technique, which fulfils the thread title. Outside a race you'd not do that aside from in emergency; maintaining your line is more elegant. Cherry isn't "drifting" because he doesn't need to correct his line around a gate. He's not dumping speed much either, because he's riding well groomed terrain which isn't terribly steep or technical. The "special type of technique" Cherry's using is to pick one easy slope to demonstrate dressage on. One needs to understand what's been demonstrated and what is not.

For future reference there's actually a racing section in the forum here which will avoid confusion.

Me, a non-racer, I think.... (1) by varying how much you angulate. Note that some styles, for example fully laid out turns, don't allow as much variation in angulation as I get by riding more "stacked" over my edges. I do the opposite of those laid out guys, I reduce how much centripetal force I need so I can carve tighter circles at slower speeds, if I want. (2) It depends what you mean. To me, slopes are either mellow enough to carve without worrying much about speed, or I have to dump speed somehow. If your definition of "carved turn" means pencil line in the snow, you're going to accelerate because you're not dumping the kinetic energy you're gaining. So you're going to have to skid sooner or later. In very steep resort conditions I'll carve very, very short turns, more like a skier doing the same thing than a snowboarder carving circles. That's more like linked aggressive (and I hope smooth!) hockey stops than a carved circle. I think a definition of a carved turn which precludes any skidding at all is idealized and mostly unhelpful. The action's the same, skidding is entirely allowed, it's not binary. I'm not sure "unweighting" is a helpful concept. I don't "unweight" as far as I know; I can transition edges fully loaded, on demand, and there's no up-down bouncing. Some boards have aggressive camber and provide a satisfying "rebound" which gets you from edge to edge, but other boards don't and still work.

Pants which look like they're denim. They're hard to get these days, but I have a secret stash bought when they were in fashion. I get people who claim to recognize me from the pants alone, so it must be a "calling card". At resorts more generally it's probably more "that guy with hard boots" I suppose. Or "that guy with hard boots kicking our ass" if I'm lucky.

Quite a long time for me in BC this time around... the season's been unusually warm, something I expect we'll see more of as politicians whilst politicians remain mostly not scientifically educated. I have some piste video, but the heli stuff is much easier to deal with, so this was taken over 4 weeks in Blue River, spread over 4 months... I'm still riding the Hometown Hero 1.44, and as that's probably three or four seasons old now I wonder what next season will bring there. The F2 Ti race bindings remain bomb proof; I carry a couple of pairs in case the airline loses the pair in the hold, or one breaks. My Atomic Backlands are showing scratches but no damage. I discovered low temperature PU tie wraps to hold the Phantom Link Levers in ride mode; I can walk fine like that anyway. I also used some simple copper wire as a second line of defence, after discovering that I can't ride at all in "walk mode". Maybe next season they'll bring out a BOA version of the Backland, although these 2 clip ones seem bomb proof and work great. Still using the Insta x3, as the X4 is as yet only a rumour. I think quality from that (and also using an optimized workflow including Topaz AI) is above the quality of free Vimeo anyway, but you can see the limitations a bit compared with true 4K. I think the Hero plus Backland-Phantoms is working well, so much so that I avoided trying a few other boards which... I just didn't think would work as well. I don't want to get set in my ways, but if it works...

Definitely different things. On (1). ... as a hard booter I also can't put boots in the hold (risk of being misplaced; there are no local replacements available in most places), and I need a spare pair of bindings in the cabin too (ditto). Oh, and you can't put electronics (eg transceiver, radio) in the hold. My solution is a maximum legal carry on with boots and spare bindings plus electronics in it. That is heavy (even with modern boots), so it needs wheels. In contrast the hold bag - a snowboard bag - can be minimal. Two wheely bags are hard to manage; it's better to have a light weight board bag (awkward but light) and a heavy cabin bag (manoeuvrable and wheely). (2) My SLC mates all have those non-airline boot bags with the built-in heaters. My boots don't need padding, you could throw them around and they wouldn't care. I suppose my car might need some protection from minor scratches from them.

I guess imitation is a sincere form of flattery. Please feel free to moderate this away, but it looks like someone forked your repo. I've no idea what license you published under, because I'm not going to steal your stuff. https://nicholaswmin.github.io/alpine-carving/

Well, I think it's a perspective problem. I'll ride railed pencil-thin carves with zero-length transitions when the conditions are good for that, but I'll switch to any of a range of turn styles for other conditions. I do not try to make the mountain conform to a single tool in my toolbox; I just use the right tool for the conditions, varying what I do continually. By analogy think of the guys who want to drag their armpits on novice runs. It would be a mistake for them to try to do that on a mogul field, or in deep snow. If your goal is to use one single tool [turn] for all purposes... I think you'll fail. Relax, learn to vary your turns as needed, don't fight the mountain, work with it.

I have and love the Backlands with Phantom springs, which to me were a game changer (see threads here). Other choices exist. You can see what Phantom did with their slipper, and decide if that's what you want. I have not tried their conversion, but I suspect it may be more astute marketing to overcome the "I hate all ski related technology" feelings of many soft boot riders. The Backland ankle system - friction free - is common to both boots of course. It was obviously designed for skiers walking uphill, but it works great. I actually lock my springs into ride mode (with low temperature tie-wraps) as I never use the walk mode, but I use the springs every turn... As noted I expect most AT boots with friction-free ankles will work. I have wide feet but the Atomics fit great; although as noted they look narrow and skinny compared to most boots.

So yeah, there are lots of ways to skin this one. My approach is very different from most hard booters, but I came to it through evolution. I just finished a couple more weeks riding helicopters. Decades ago I discovered that powder boards work really well in powder. I mean proper powder boards - Burton, Capita, whatever mainstream boards, not the "all mountain" products of niche hard boot manufacturers. No disrespect to Mr Kessler, whose slalom boards are supreme, but I'm not looking at him for my powder boards. I know there's no real difference between a soft and hard booter in powder, so what works for them works for me. The Donek board there... the waist is too narrow, it's really hard to balance laterally with that sort of width, and obviously you end up with angles which don't work well in powder. I'd guess the flex isn't right for powder either - you particularly need a tail flex which is right for powder, as the tail is the speed-control device. My board is 24cm at the waist (1.44 Hometown Hero). I could not sensibly balance my Kessler 156 SL in bottomless powder. A powder board is wider and softer, so easier to balance on all axes. Balance is massively important in powder; everything else is easy. A powder board will also be soft enough in the right places to ride moguls well too. I would find a powder board you like the sound of, then use the angles you need to ride that, which I think should be more like 40/30 than those old school steep angles. Size/ length: use the manufacturer's recommendations. "float" More surface area makes the board easier to get on the plane, which is relevant if you ride mellow terrain (Japan...) or if you can't read terrain and ride skier tracks across the flats (BC). But it's more of a balance issue than a "sinking" issue. You don't sink; smaller boards just take more speed to get on the plane. Novices fall over and stop all the time, both of which are easier with a bigger board. A big board is easier on very mellow terrain, but I only ride that when nothing else is available and it's not great even on a big board, so I just suck up the marginally worse planing performance of my small board then. I would certainly not "go smaller" than you're comfortable with. There are lots of board designs, some with more tail/ length and some with less. Try a few and pick one you're comfortable with. You're compromising performance ("twitchiness") against ease of balance at slow speeds in deep snow. I got "smaller" over time because more experience allows that, but I started on bigger boards and only downsized when I was ready. It's the same as with windsurfers. Some boards (like Fish) have particularly short tails, which some folk find easier to ride in deep snow, although you lose some control without a tail. I think the OP's text "sounds right". I'd try various boards and pick the one you like. I love my Hometown Hero, the first powder board I have had which is equally capable on hardpack. I can carve circles indoors (!) on this thing, and also rip bottomless powder. But it's not a novice (in powder) board; most people I've seen try one don't like it (too stiff, too small..). I think the stiffness of this board works really well with the power you can generate with hard boots (it's probably better with hardboots than soft). I cannot ride hardpack with overhang or underhang, so the board width has to be right for the angles I'm happy to use.

I'm not entirely sure, but I think the parts are one size only. The size difference is in the base plate, I believe, not the components you bolt on it.

I have a bunch of strategies to avoid numpties hitting me, and so far it's been a win for me. I'd add to those already mentioned... Never stop mid-run, just ride top to bottom. That saves having to work out a safe place to stop and all that stuff. Avoid European "home runs" with drunk people on them. Whilst they make for interesting slalom gates, overall it's a risk I can do without. Support places like Whistler where speed cops are common. I like speed cops, who never stop me even though I'm faster than most folk. I just eyeball them and slow down, put in some fancy controlled carves, and they maybe nod and look away, and I'm gone. They're not after me. Don't ride the same schedule as everyone else. Get the first lift, and don't stop for lunch when everyone else is doing that. The statistics are available online for collisions and injuries, and the good news is that the straight lining "intermediate" numpty skier/ boarder is most at risk, on intermediate grade runs. I think they may need more speed cops on high accident incidence runs, and maybe to design some features (like massive moguls?) to slow down the straight lining limited skill folk. Another option would be to build a speed ski course, and force all straight liners to go there when caught. The intermediate nature of their skill would become immediately apparent on an actual speed course. Or maybe just castration?