Rob Stevens
-
Posts
1,388 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
8
Content Type
Blogs
Gallery
Downloads
Store
Events
Profiles
Forums
Posts posted by Rob Stevens
-
-
You said “North America”, so look at Banff, flying into Calgary.
Your wife can hang out in town which will have plenty of diversions and you can choose any of three resorts serviced by buses (Lake Louise, Sunshine Village or Banff Mt Norquay) or an easy drive in a rental to the fourth (Nakiska). Midweek, no one is around to get in your way. The lone exception to that is SSV where the gondola at the bottom can make for some bottlenecks, even midweek. The views are off the charts at SSV, so you have to do at least one day up there… just don’t go on a weekend!
If you want to do a cat trip, you can leave the family in Banff and within a few hours drive, be in Golden or Revelstoke to the west, or go south to Fernie. There are more than a few cat ops in those zones. I like Gostlin Keefer Lake, Great Northern or Fernie Wilderness Adventures. If you find you only have time for a single day of cat, or don’t mind doing disconnected days, you should look at KPow at Fortress as it’s connected to Banff in the same way the lift serviced resorts are.
Wherever you go, get after it!
-
2
-
-
1 hour ago, barryj said:
Come on boys!.......find another place for your little Tryst.
None of this..... is in any way helpful.
But…
This is what happens when you ask a group of lay people for medical advice.
That said, if I lived in the States and didn’t want to trigger a five figure bill for simply presenting myself to emerg, I’d ask internets for medical advice too.-
4
-
-
13 hours ago, StrangeFuture808 said:
Compression fracture of my L1 at 24 means Sacroiliitis for life either way. Funny enough it’s way worse in the summer than winter and the more engaged I am with work and riding the less I get any sciatic nerve type pain. I definitely try and keep it from touching down hard (keeping it off the snow has been a huge focus this year) but that little corridor leaves less room for the ideal standard.
Hey Jordan.
I want to say that regardless of it being a little “dirty”, this takes some real skill.
that was a narrow and steeper run, so hats off to you.
That I was blowing by you kids on the pow day however is unacceptable.-
1
-
-
26 minutes ago, StrangeFuture808 said:
Lower lift line at MCC yesterday. Not my cleanest work but there's always next year
Keep ramming your a$$ cheek into the ground like that and I can guarantee SI disfunction in later life.
-
1
-
-
That was awesome.
Came a day late and bugged out a day early (Gramma needs me), but had unreal groomers on my first day and box seats for the next pow day.
If you’re wondering if you should go, do it. Turner is a great mountain… the vertical is there, the pitch is super consistent (starting mellow, becoming progressively steeper as you descend) and the glading is about the best I’ve seen, where logger / skiers seem to do it for fun.
I’d have to say that the crew of people in attendance are some of the best people I’ve had a chance to slide and hang with.
Finally, massive thanks to the Redman’s and Turner Mountain for some rad times. Love you guys and see you next year.
-
5
-
-
1 hour ago, bigwavedave said:
You might want to check if you still need to pre-register with ArriveCan to get back into Canada.
Better f’in not.
I’m here now, so they’d better let me back in. -
20 minutes ago, Neil Gendzwill said:
Oh, that sucks! They're still demanding a recent test or something?
Proof of vaccination, not a negative test.
I took it off my phone when restrictions were dropped, so only have it in paper form.
Apparently, Uncle Joe pushed out the border requirement until… May?Anyway…
-
1
-
-
Had a lovely round trip to the US border and back from Canmore yesterday.
Who knew a requirement for Covid documentation was still a thing?Not me for one.
Take 2? I’ll decide after coffee.
Have a great day out there all y’all!
-
4
-
-
16 minutes ago, Chouinard said:
Front boot is basically vertical.
I’m thinking on the back foot.
If you go more forward lean on the back foot, you’ll just be more force-flexed on both legs, right when you want to ride more relaxed as you’re tiring out.
When you’re fresh, more aggressive forward lean feels right though, if all the other adjustments are balanced too. -
Would you consider relaxing the forward lean as you get more tired?
Being able to straight leg ride when you need to takes pressure off the system.
-
2
-
-
15 minutes ago, Neil Gendzwill said:
I think it's pretty tough to generate the same inclination on skis as a snowboard, your inside leg gets in the way not to mention boot out. So it's entirely likely that instructor can't turn as tightly with the same SCR.
That ski instructor clearly hasn’t been watching WC racing.
-
1
-
-
2 hours ago, philw said: about 75cm overnight. It's unridable when you get that much though - you can't ride the steeper stuff as everything's sliding, and the flatter stuff... you can't penetrate. I have had many days following a skier-laid single-file track down the steepest safe thing... it isn't very much fun.
You know you're in the good stuff when you have to time your breathing with the turns. My first ever heli trip in 1989 had that on the first run: I was screwed.
This.
Anything over 40 cms of (all but the lightest) snow and you have no power in turns, plus the steep terrain is a no-go.
-
21 minutes ago, barryj said:
I don't want to learn/start all over with a new discipline.
Nuff said............
Hey Barry.
I’m sure the last part there is meant to shut this conversation down, but I’m the only one still on here offering advice, so I’m going to keep on.I’ll start this post however to address your actual question… if you use a cant in the rear to have some effect on your position which you feel will make you more confident, you may wind up too far forward on that board. As a carver and someone who has been doing it for a very long time, I have realized that the more you want to be able to stand on the front foot, the more board you need in front of your front foot. If you cant in the rear, can you set your stance back further? If not, you might look at a a board that offers you as much nose as possible.
I also offer some bindingless riding as a solution for your apparent loss of confidence. I never jybed with hardboot powder riding (even though I have a fair bit of mileage with it) as I found the setup to be hyper-sensitive to inputs. Unless you have a great deal of time in this game where you don’t crash and have a setback as you have, you might wind up where you are, looking at an uphill battle to come back, or throwing in the towel.
The problem right now for you is starting again with a platform that requires a fair bit of skill and performance, when ideally you need to dial it back.
That’s where bindingless comes in.
Ideally, you’d be doing this initially at walking speed, rediscovering finer movements you’ve become unaware of over time. Think of it as an exercise someone would give you to try with the goal of incorporating the increased skills back into your riding.
My background is instruction. Know that I would never suggest something dangerous to you. I gather that you are older and as a default, so not want to fall. I feel the same way… I’m a mess at 55 years old and “cannot fall” myself. That said, if you choose the right day, with very soft snow, a mellow pitch (not even the ski hill… any slope close to home will do) and low speeds, you’ll be very safe.
If I’m rejected again on this subject, I promise I’ll stop this time.
-
Just now, barryj said:
No.. I believe ya. Just not for me.
What causes you to hesitate?
-
On 1/21/2023 at 5:43 AM, Corey said:
Brilliant, Rob! Love the idea of a hard reset.
Comments like the one I’ve made can be a thread-killer.
@barryjprobably thinks I’m joking / being a €#nt, when I actually only want to spread joy and love to my wonderful friends here and that I couldn’t be more sincere.
you should NoBoard. -
On 1/16/2023 at 10:38 PM, Neil Gendzwill said:
Yeah, that’s South Divide, super carving there when it’s groomed. Old farts like me call it Brewster.
Yeah Brewster.
-
Take the bindings off that Moss and devolve to powsurf.
So it's only temporary, use some removable two-sided tape and stick some throwaway MTB tires with the bead cut off over top of the entire area you could put your bindings. If you have some throw away $, buy a brand new Maxxis Minion 3C.
Go to a mellow hill with a foot of snow on it. If you have more, to the point where you can fall down and not care, you can go steeper.
Get on it and slide down the hill standing sideways. Preferably with your feet angled how they'd be if you were doing a squat. If you want to go left and right, bank. The "Norm" vid is good for a visual here.
You sound like you might be going too far into the weeds and need a hard reset.
-
3
-
-
3 hours ago, StrangeFuture808 said:
Agreed I ride 2 boards +27+12 (this is my first year riding ++) and 2 boards +27-9 and that counter rotated toeside feels way more dramatic when riding duck and ++ makes rotation on my heelside feel much more efficient. I'll never go full ++ but its hard not to see it as the most efficient stance for carving.
** If you don't mind being initially terrified, you should try a full-blown alpine setup because you're right... it is the best for getting the most out of carving.
Your current turn is usually only as good as your last turn and your ability to return to a neutral stance between carves is kinda your only defence against your own consequences.** Too right. The best riders seem to be ones that can make neutral happen no matter what terrain they're in. If you can start a turn that will end well on the steep and rugged, you're in good shape. Of course, the best riders can jump well too, but that's a different sport altogether. My friend Brett says that his best tricks are "his left turn, followed by the right one".
I did it again.
-
1
-
-
16 hours ago, crackaddict said:
Okay okay...
I had fixed the channel but I had to go through each video too tonight. No one watches my crap, that channel is just to share video with you boys. Maybe something quality coming soon though...
I'm watching your "crap" very closely. You and @StrangeFuture808are f'in killing it.
-
2
-
-
43 minutes ago, StrangeFuture808 said:
I'm going to say something I know wont sit well with a lot of people but most of the best riders I see carving rotate on their heelside driving with their hips and then counter rotate on their toeside (to a varying degree) by putting their hand down further forward on the snow than their lead shoulder.
** I think it's important to note that the kind of carving you and @crackaddict are doing start in alignment with the median of your stance, or back foot if you run a fair amount of splay. In watching James, you can see him sometimes over rotate the start of the turn, then come back into alignment. When he nails it, there is no over rotation... he starts in alignment to his stance, then cranks a bit of rotation before the switch. This naturally leads to a bit of counter-rotation to the toe turn. The counter-rotation on the toes initially helps me feel like I'm "projecting" into the new turn with less resistance, as I'm "leaving that arm / weight behind" as the rest of me leaps forward. The Asian carvers have taken this to another level by lengthening that motion and holding it for longer. I try to avoid the latter Asian style of over-emphasis on this arm motion as it has negative effects on "slarving" freeride turns on steep terrain. Just the same, it feels great to the point I'm allowing myself to employ it in carves. Note that I'm not disagreeing with you, but just clarifying when I think rotation starts and where it progresses from.
The trickle down effect of that hand down is going to fairly mild at the hips but the motion of driving your rear knee down towards the snow also contributes to the communication to your board that you are counter rotating. I've played around with this a fair amount on the mountain in the last few weeks and found that mild counter-rotation in your toeside carves like in this main image of this video has great effects. If you watch videos of Japanese "mustard" riders you'll see they initiate the toeside turn with their front arm almost behind their back and sweep it forward as the turn progresses bringing them from a heavily counter rotated initiation to a more rotated position at the end of that toeside carve, then they do the same sweep on their heelside with their back arm from back to front. The super aggressive ones will make this sweep almost look like a punch.
** I think this is very relative to binding angles. For me and in the clip Jack posted of me I run +28 / -3 for stance. In that position, I constantly remind myself that if I allow too much countering too late in the turn, I'm only supported by the back half of my edge. By rotating back into alignment as I leave the fall line, I engage the entire edge. Again, if angles are higher in both feet, this return to neutral will still appear (and possibly be) more countered.
It's unfortunate that carving on that level is an afterthought to the governing bodies of instruction/coaching in North America so we're left guessing, debating and playing around finding out what works best for us. At least they got something right, "there are no wrongs in snowboarding just consequences".... aka #^(K around and find out.** CASI needs to pay me a royalty on "There's no right or wrong in snowbarding... only consequences".
** @Xargo got it bang on when he said that what we're talking about really needs to be viewed throught the prism of binding angles as opposed to the material boots are made from. The mechanics of a turn appear and are very different as you move from dead equal duck to something Squall like.
Forgive me... Like my video clip which I couldn't upload (thanks to jack for doing it and for tolerating the portrait positioning, as opposed to the preferred landscape orientation), my lack of knowledge probably sees my replies embedded in your comments @StrangeFuture808
My comments embedded in yours are denoted by a "**".
-
3
-
-
8 hours ago, Neil Gendzwill said:
Don't you want your hips lined up with your stance in the soft-booting world?
"Rotate your hips earlier and more" doesn't work in this scenario. If anything, that decreases edge angle at a time when you want it to increase.
Find pressure on the heel of your back foot, hip angulate in alignment with your back foot, THEN rotate to complete the turn to a degree that aligns with your front foot.
I'd love to post a video I have that is 1.2 MB, but the rejection says the video exceeds 4.313 MB.
-
On 1/14/2023 at 8:54 AM, nextcarve said:
Was watching your steep rides again.
While your riding is really great, I nevertheless take the liberty of suggesting a small change in your backside turn
You may try to rotate your pelvis earlier and more, in the direction of the turn in order to establish a balanced body position (BBP), leading to a cleaner carve without any catering.
More pelvis rotations meaning to keep the ass off the slope, by bringing it over the board.
Something like this:
No.
No. Then again, I'm only guessing what I'm no'ing about.
-
2
-
-
Great runs boys.
-
1
-
-
The Asian carvers don’t have the whole hill to work with. If they’re not aggressive, the corridor gets too wide and they’d get run over.
I don’t have the energy to turn that hard, so am glad that my locals are big, western mountains.
You keep putting that hand down and you’re going to get it ripped off. Try rolling a Drum with one mitt.
Living well there, my friend.
Scene at MCC23 - Post your pix and tales here!
in Carving Central
Posted
Hey @dredman
Who got the surfer at the auction?