Rob Stevens

Those pesky mission statements sure do get in the way when you're trying to bury what you were supposed to be caring for. But I probably have them figured all wrong...

Alpine may not be the most popular branch of snowboarding there is, but doesn't the governing body have a responsibilty to encourage participation and development of athletes in events at all levels? You would think that this would be their mission and mandate. The ISF folded all those years ago because they were no longer the pinnacle of competition in the snowboard world due to the fact that the FIS had a lock on the Olympics. Given that and what Phil additionally said about the event being dropped from the Lake placid schedule, it would seem to me that jr. development or Nor-Am, coaches and athletes need to STAND UP! You're not going to get your own tour back (unless you want to race the "Y" in the Jeep KOM), there's no Olympics or real $ at the end of that road. You can have a great feeder system of junior clubs and events and a killer Nor-Am series, but without the "prize", you're going to see alot of people drop out. I guess everyone should refer back to the letter off the top of this thread and complain LOUDLY to the USSA. They should, as the governing body for your sport be almost legally bound by their mission statement (if they have one) to hold that event. They really shouldn't have a choice.

Nothing stopping you from putting cross-country bindings on a freestyle board, either, just don't have too many expectations. Switch riding, 1's, no grab airs and spins will all work out. If you want to grab anything but frontside or "suitcase" method, though, you'll wind up having to cut all the plastic out of your shells for some flexibility, but that would kind of defeat the purpose. I'd ditch the cants, unless the wider stance aggravates your knees or ankles, but just try to let your knees rest apart the way they'll want to naturally. Don't try to ride with them together. You probably already knew that... Angle wise, just turn the front a bit more than the back and stay away from the higher angles you used when you rode alpine. You might also want to try a bit of duck stance. Around -5 on the back might let you get closer to your board without bending at the waist too much, but only if the stance itself doesn't hurt.

Unlike mountain biking, there's no rule that says a venue has to host all disciplines during one stop on the tour. I've been to events where 2 pgs's were run on back-to-back days because one had been cancelled at the prior event. I've seen the same with sbx and hp, with no other events held. Was Lake Placid asked to hold an alpine event? If they were and they said no, then your governing body is lame. If the schedule didn't call for another race, then they were probably never asked. It seems to me that the FIS would be smart to hold the racing where they're going to get a crown and a good vibe (Europe, Quebec). The same goes for hp and sbx (anywhere). As for sbx being a fs event, they could really screw the RACERS by throwing a bit of judging at it (Yeah, she was fast, but I didn't like her style off that last step-down, so I'm putting her back to 2nd). Meanwhile, back in the instructing world, CASI is thinking about creating two streams for it's level 4 course. One where you can qualify as a freeride / freestyle rider and the other would get you into the program via freeride / freecarve. The plan is to continue supporting and recognizing hardboot alpine as a valid part of the sport. The core of the course would still be freeriding skills, but you'd get there by choosing either higher end carving or stunting.

If you can find a Giant Reign 2 or 3 from last year, It'll probably be in your budget, have a lifetime warranty on the frame and be all the bike you'll ever be likely to need with just over 5 inches of travel front and rear. Even this year's Reign 3 is a very budget oriented bike and will treat you right. Giant is also owned by a huge corporation, so their pricing beats just about everybody, hands down.

Blue B... Get your acronyms straight! CASI is the snowboard instructors assoc. The CSIA are those other guys we share office space with. If you came skiing by us like that, the worst we would say would be "at least he ditched the poles". Rob CASI Prez

D-sub's short, first answer to your question hit it on the head. You're looking for zero overhang. Where things get tricky is angles and bindings. I'm not into high angles on soft gear at all. That's personal preference, of course, but if you go too high, I think you're going to limit your mobility and have toeside pressure and stance and balance issues. Best to just ride the angles intended for the equipment. That being said, I wouldn't go over 35 degrees in the front and no more than 20 degrees in the back. Personally, I run 30, -5. I like the duck stance a lot since I switched from 0 on the back. Getting my toes out of the way allows me to get far lower to the board than I used to be able to pull off. Try bending your knees and ankles with your toes pointing straight ahead and then try it with your toes a bit duck. If you're like me, you'll be able to bend more deeply. Maybe this isn't that important in average turns, but it sure did help give me more "travel" in the suspension for landings. Now for the binders... Getting 0 overhand on the toeside is usually not a problem, but as D-sub mentioned, many bindung have baseplate heel loops that stick out quite far, extending things enough that even if your boot heel isn't hanging over, the baseplate will be and you'll feel it when you tip over to a high degree. This really burns me, particularly with the Burton "C" series and P1 bind-me's. An amazing set up all around for support, comfort and stiffness / control, but a baseplate that adds about an inch of foot length isn't doing your riding any favours. Last year, I actually cut the heel loop out and attached the highback directly to the side rails of the base plate. I couldn't fold the highbacks down anymore, but I didn't care... I could now get about another 20 degrees of edge angle before booting out. A laid heelside, EC style turn with my angles is turning out to be my holy grail. I can do them toeside at will, but I want the complete package without sacrificing my stability by going high angle. Eventually, this set-up snapped and since then I have been on Bent Metal carbons (Mervin Manufacturing). This bindup has a high, thin aluminum heel loop that doesn't drag. I have to say that after starting in softboots in 84, switching to hardboots in 89 and sticking with them until 95, I have since been in them only to teach our Canadian level 4 instructor course, or to conduct Alpine coaching courses. Otherwise, it's soft all the way. I know what a carve feels like and if I couldn't retain most of the performance I was used to from plates, I might have gone grovelling back. A final word: If you want to drop the whole angle / binding pretense altogether, shed them and go noboarding.

As a Japanese ski jacket of old once said... "Touch the rugged, feel the snowflake".

As an oppressed minority, it's easy to spout venom. I threw a thread on this site talking about a little distraction we do called "noboarding", where we ride powder with a leash and no bindings. The two responses I got were pretty flip, to say the least. I was just trying to spread a little knowledge, but there was no respect for something different here... kind of like how TWS treats alpine. Thankfully, snowboardcross may be the boost hardbooting needs. We need rising numbers so we can keep alpine style riding in our Canadian instructor courses. Some people, mostly in Whistler, say it's dead and want it out of the program so they can get their Level 4's without donning the plastic. I like alpine and I think it creates a better rider, when mixed with freeriding and freestyle. Certainly, if you want to claim to be the highest certified instructor someone could hire, you'd better know how to ride it all (no bindings included).

Yes, bending at the waist on a toeside looks like a weak position, and may result in a breif hand touch. Just as bad a position may be having your hips across the centerline of the board, "looking good" and hitting an unexpected bump. this may result in a huck-buckle as you can't absorb the shock. It sure is a great way to hold pressure, this arched position, but Jaseys style in the photo on this thread allows much greater absorbtion, even though he is pretty much inclining, with little, or no, angulation. I like the non-committal approach he has to either arching his back, and moving his hips too far forward or leaning too much at the waist. From where he is, he can move to recover in any direction he needs to. He is also strong as ****, so he doesn't need to be as "locked out", hips forward as some of us need to in high G corners. We sure have taken this thread to the outer limits as I'm sure we all agree that leaning the upper body over more than the edge angle you're trying to acheive is a waste. I like to spray though, so...

Your body parts are supporting the turn? What does that mean? By thay logic, you could keep turning even if you lifted your edge while laid out. In any turn, the board / edge is always the base of support. The "low" opinion held by some of the laid / EC style is weak. An edge only, "hands off" turn may take more leg strength and, to some extent, greater core strength, but requires no more or less timing and coordination than pure "Euro-carves". Both are skills learned only after a lot of time "in the trenches".

Does anyone on this thread know where I can buy one of these things? I had heard that they were going for something like $150. I have tried one set up with the noboard pad, but I really want to get one going with binders.

A 1984 Outland swallowtail made by the same guy who invented the VPP rear suspension design for mountain bikes, seen on Santa Cruz and Intense brands. Jaimie, the builder, made boards with metal edges when Burton, Barfoot and Sims, the players at the time, were still rocking fins.

I haven't seen this race yet... She grabbed when she was out front and got passed?! Is that the deal? If so, what a f#*kin' bad move. What was the CBC piece on Olympics and snowboarding all about? I did the commentary for Nagano and Salt Lake and that first Olympics was the ****! Snowboarding was a bit of a shocker to the masses back then...

Close... it would be hard to say what the U.S. riders in this forum would have been happier to see... The plate rider win, or Seth W. Watched the races this morning at 7 am. No Canadians in the big final which is too bad. Jasey looked as though he was trying to avoid colliding with the rider who moved in front of him, but had less speed and becase of his "fending off" move, was disqualified. It creates an interesting situation. Unlike BMX or 4x MTB where a rider can brake in a straight line, in SBX you have 4 choices: 1. Do what Jasey did. 2. Just run into the rider with your hands down. 3. Throw it sideways, tangle with the other rider and both go down, or 4. Go over the berm. In snowboarding, you can't brake in a straight line. This creates an issue when your line gets scooped by someone going outside / inside / outside at a slower speed. When they get in front of you, you'll still be going faster and if you have no place to go, you're up against the above senario. Oh well... that's racing for ya. As for the pass at the end for the win by Westcott, it was brilliant. He was far more prescise when it came to keeping his board on the ground. His ability to "squash" the faces of jumps was unmatched by the plate rider who had speed in the corners, wether he was on the panel, or up the berm through the turn, but was unable to tame the rebound he was getting from his boot shells. The plate rider just couldn't be as supple as the soft booter on the jump faces and couldn't get the base back on the snow fast enough. Lesson: For SBX, plate riders should think about soft boot freeride angles, so the boot can "roll" in the binding, side to side, rather than take the hit toe to heel without much ability to flex the ankles to absorb the kick. Lates.

Go to cbc.ca and look for the link in the Torino section under snowboarding. There is an interview with Jeff Ihaksi, the builder from Whistler.

Interesting. You should meet our friend, Smiley. He lives in Tokyo and is down with the alpine scene. I can't beleive there are 2 of you out of, what? 10 million? If you see a giant, bald gaijin with a race board under his arm, say hi for us.

Smiley; Are you Tanguays friend? You have too many posts. Get a f#$kin' job. Stevens

Thirty-Two Team 2's Burton Driver with the VIBRAM SOLE (new this year). You'll never know how much a stiff sole can contribute to a good carve vs. a stiff ankle.

Hello; Do you remember when you first tried snowboarding? Did you try to turn right away? Probably not, because you just couldn't, even if you wanted to. Now you know how, but maybe that knowledge is standing in your way at this point. If you want to practice edging and balancing at the same time, don't confuse yourself by involving too many turns. Traverse alot. While you're traversing, edge a bit and then back off. Do this from one side of the run to the other. Use the whole slope width but watch out for people flying down. they won't be expecting you to be using all that space. The constant repetition of the edging move will get you into a rythm for an eventual move to the fall line and a much more natural feeling turn. Your stance looks ok, but for sure will feel f#*ked compared to what you're used to. Goodbye.

If you have lots of room and can turn where and when you want, you can get low through the turn and stand up to change edges. We call this up-unweighting. (cross-over) If you need to make tight turns or turn when you don't want to (traffic, trees, late in the gates, ect) you'd be better served by pushing out to the middle of the turn and then quickly pulling your legs in to change edges. This is called down-unweighting. (cross-under) The most dynamic of all is a combination of both. Get low to pressure because it's stable if you hit a bump and if you hit ice you might slip, but you won't fall. When you move to change edges, rise up a bit to press the board for that last bit of grip, but then when you've made enough room for your legs and board to pass under your trunk, pull the lower body through the gap. You Yanks call it cross-through and the EC fellas call it "push-pull". We don't have a term for it except to say "do a little of both". I guess you could call the latter 2 turns the best as they promote a quiet upper body which works better in all types of terrain and promotes more even edge pressure through the whole turn. The first is a good, mellow way to get down the hill, but leaves you a bit extended and exposed to a fall when you're at your maximum extension and farthest away from your base of support. It also takes the longest amount of time to happen, so is only good for big turns. Generally, any good run will require the use of every skill you know so break the run up with something other than groomed terrain. If you don't go into "real" conditions (untouched by the machines of man) you'll never force the issue, thereby learning something new.

I do remember you. It was you who turned me on to this site. Don't know about SES... doing alot of snowmobiling lately and will be sledding right around then (with the noboard, of course) You know you're always welcome up here, too. Lates

If you read all these posts, you'll never get to ride. Keep it simple. You've got some really good tips here and some that are a bit complex. I think you know which is which.

I'm sure the courses will wind up dictating the set-ups riders run. My friend, Jeff is building the course at Torino and he likes lots of jumps and big berms. He was a SBX'er himself at one time and used soft boots, so that's likely where his inspiration comes from. Will hardshell use die? If people keep getting on the podium with them, likely not. When FIS first started to have their SBX comps, there were alot of alpine boards. The courses were flatter then but it seems that use of this kind of equipment hovers around the same point, year after year. Local use is certainly no indicator of worldwide usage either. If the Banff region was a barometer of alpine popularity, you'd think it was as dead as Latin. As is evidenced by sites like this one, though, it is alive and well and the future is unknown. Due to its "blended" nature SBX probably has the most room for technological advancement.

You can get a moldable liner at most ski shops. Buy new ones. If they're old enough to be considered a "remold", they're probably played. Ski boots are a bit funny as they tend to be narrower side-to-side. This means you won't "boot out" tipping your skis over, but they will roll in the bindings and be a bit too stiff to work well as a first set-up. The sole length is also too long... not really an issue in skiing. With heavy mods, you could make a pair of ski boots into good (but still stiff) snowboard boots. You're better off just ordering a pair from this site (softer ones) If you guys are shredding, I might be able to hook up robstevens@remax.net