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nils

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nils last won the day on January 31 2020

nils had the most liked content!

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  • Website URL
    http://www.extremecarving.com

Details

  • Location
    Lyon, France
  • Home Mountain/Resort?
    Zinal, La Grave, Verbier
  • Occupation?
    Swoard snowboards founder, now running an architecture firm and raising a family with 4 kids
  • Current Boards in your Quiver
    ALL kinds of Swoard!
    Swellpanik 185 and 196 Swallowtails
    Phenix Swallowtails Splitboard
  • Current Boots Used?
    Northwave .900 and Dynafit TLT6 ( backcountry)
  • Current bindings and set-up?
    TD3 Sidewinder Ti 54/47° at 0°cant/lift, Dyno HD
  • Snowboarding since
    1988
  • Hardbooting since
    1988

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  1. Yes Beckmann, but I forgot to mention that the idea is that the new gear making things easier to reach given point allows also for creating new devs into the unkown: riding level, discipline etc....and either the rider or the gear will evolve to be able to reach that new zone that was not possible to see before...Jacque's idea was developped because he wanted to reach a domain that the available gear showed him could be reached.. I see gear dev as stairs where each steps are solidground to further exploration. What I regret in today's evolution of the sport that is driven by money and marketing is that we are presented very specialized gear that basically kill the versatility that took years to create...what is the point on creating a new old version of the first wintersticks when we have developped much better performing boards that are able to cope with much more variety of terrain/ riding speeds etc and still be better in that field that the specialized gear of the time. This is what I feel when I see all the Korua's and midget wide shapes with fancy cuts: do they perform better than my own powderboard: no... are they able to cope with as much terrain than mine: no.... I thought the quest of the perfect gear would be to have the board with the biggest field of use aka universality : marketing proves otherwise in many fields because it needs niches to justify its presence...opposing the trend of sustainable developpement..
  2. Peter Bauer was not in any of the Canon Surf they were typical french movies of the times..Only Antoine Massy the swiss rider was invited...Its more a Regis ROlland / Jean Nerva movie
  3. interesting topic ! My experience with old gear is biased by our Swoard story and the first model that is the extremecarver. The first designs with that width were output by Jacques by hand in 97-98, using his experience from the Wild Duck Knifer he designed for 3-4 seasons. He fined tuned during 3 seasons the shape and construction of the board in order to reach the maximum performance for the given task it was made for. In 2002 came the industrialization of those prototypes in order to be able to replicate what was hand made previously and it was the first generation ECarver that was still non refined ( no tip/tail protection-insert, no full edge wrap). After many generations derivating from this concept and after almost twenty years of production ( what other model is there that is 20+?) : What has changed and differs between the first generation and the last ?: not much in term of shape or performance. BUT what has changed incredibly is the abilty to reach that performance with much forgiveness, comfort and easyness. What required 20 years ago Jacques and Patrice's riding level will now take any rider with good EC understanding the ability to do the same turns and performance... Of course one may say it is because training and practice helped experience, but the evolution of the gear itself makes it easier due to fine refinements in the shape, in the construction making grip easier, dampening better etc.. Basically if you put Patrice on the 2001 Gen1 today, he will do the same turns, but will need more concentration and good conditions compare to his today's board which allows him or other riders to perform on artificial snow as well as bumpy snows etc. Evolution in boards I think provide mostly tolerance, versatility and forgiveness... its however difficult to quantify in certain cases and won't be the case with all boards.
  4. Unless they moved, they are indeed made by NBL in Poland..As for those shapes and carving....marketing sells for sure..of course it carves, but as soon as you push it under the feet, there is no way the short edges and that nose shape can hold any pressure or big angles...it you look carefully on the vids, you can see they are never pushing it hard and linking turns...or when they push hard its frontsides and there is a editing cut so you don"t see the guy recovering. Am sure those shapes are fun in slow/mid speed mixed terrains thu....but not versatile the way I think versatile should be..I think the most difficult board to design is the perfect all terrain / riding style board...
  5. interesting article for once, american biased of course ( the snowboard world was moving big on this side of the ocean too at that time)...but the hypothesis on why seems to be skippin the idea that it all came from marketing from the majors ( especially Burton/Sims, but also fashion brands) The reason is simple: FS sells because it brings year long pics of dudes with fluo gear and later baggy / grunged inspired gear that would sell to the masses of kids getting at best a few days riding or none each season. FS is circus ( air rotations etc..) that looks extreme and summer camps bringing easy pics not far from media also helped promoting FS ( not for the spirit of snowboarding) but for big $$$. It only forgot that turns are what makes the sport so nice..and carved turns adding G forces making it nicer! I remember the first french media reactions when we launched Swoard: they said: alpine gear... are u a kamikaze?
  6. Sorry guys Patrice has written long explainations on the EC forum..might be easier to read his explaination directly there instead of copy paste here.. https://www.extremecarving.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=13845 Arnaud, who is a team member since prehistoric ages and happens to be a plastic injection engineer has also spent time with Patrice and UPZ developping the specs for it.. his explainations are also helpful to give you answers !
  7. what a weird question.....It is a style that suits some, and not others...Be it !
  8. I use my TLT6 for all my "soft" setups aka powder or other days than on my full carving deck
  9. Explainations: We have worked with many boot makers in order to try to fine the best combination for EC/Freecarve that suits our style of riding ( aka: no plates, wide boards with EC in mind) to replace our aging .900 and try to avoid a 1000+€ solution. It took Patrice and Arnaud ( we have the chance to have a plastic injection engineer in the team) 4 years or riding different boots with mods and work finally with UPZ with a modified injection formula that suits our riding style better. The mold is this of the RC12, with different tongues in the kit for each tastes, and also a modified spring system that one can adapt to our style " à la northwave style" the way we experimented with Jacques and Patrice in the early years of Swoard ( 2001-2003). This made it however possible to keep everything in the 700€ price range with all the optionnal mods included. ( sorry if this sounds like an add > moderators can feel free to move it to dedicated forum area) This season will see the first batch of final production with feedback from the full riding team as well as 2019-2020 customers. Can't wait to test mine! Nils
  10. I agree the vids are not ideal, I have seen the first Casi vid and it is more efficient at showing how rotation works...I don't agree about how swiss snowboard teaching would be inferior to what it used to be thu... They have had a long history of teaching rotation technique, and it is obvious even in oldschool vids like Canon Surf ('87-88)where you can see swiss rider Antoine Massy (white wool cap) turns vs the french crew...He clearly use rotation and the french, even Jean Nerva are clearly in counter rotation..Denis Bertrand and Regis Rolland also.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-wrD1L_IgE Anyway it's good that rotation is now a real subject of teaching, the term alone was not really used before the last decade...along with push-pull ( load / unload) they are the way to go whatever discipline you are doing..( ski, snowboard etc..)
  11. I use only TLT6 in powder and even in soft snow freecarving now
  12. flat, flat flat: no canting or lift as usual
  13. Flat indeed ( EC or freeride/Dual2 oriented)...Still working on the binding design and improvements..Its a very long quest for the perfection...The released ones are pre-series under the feet of the dev. team and few selected clients...so be patient! Maybe we succeed, maybe we don't!
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