Rob Stevens

Wear contacts and Transitions goggles.

MTB tire. if it works for noboarding, it’ll work for you.

“Earthed” soundtracks on Spotify.

Great stuff. I have some Backlands now and would love to get the Phantom kit. Joey Vosburgh raves about it, while my one outing with the boots at low angles was pretty gross.. far too stiff in ride mode.

all of them

Where’d he get that heel to toe move?

Except for the “jamming” part, you’ve said it very well. Actually, I shouldn’t say that... a good hack is an amazing feeling, but you can apply pressure in all kinds of ways, once you get the board a bit sideways before applying. While I’ve never ridden one of “Bryan’s Big Boy Boards”, I can see that having a lot of nose out in front of you, along with a fair head of speed, will let you experience a sensation closer to a railing carve. That said, you’d better be prepared to pin it.

The “Y” model does say that, but that supports the idea that a beginner instructor should be in softboots, as that’s what the student will most likely be on. “They all start in the same spot”. Given how effectively you can carve in softboots, a rider might only take the alpine branch of the “Y” a fair way into their snowboarding life.

On the heels you fall into a countered position at first, but become further countered all the way to completion and edge change. That can be destabilizing. You can start the turn with a bit of counter, as that will help you set the new edge, but you’ll need to come back in alignment with your stance as you switch edges. Your moment of switch should look identical to your position when you’re standing in balance on flat ground.

^ This.

Too bad that good alpine skiers blow our doors off generally and would see no advantage to picking up alpine snowboard equipment. There was a time when we had a better carve, pre shape skis, but those days are long gone. I was on the pitch yesterday with some J2 level ski coaches. They were ****ing flying. My experience tells me that only the very best alpine snowboarders in the world could hang with them. These snowboarders would need to be very brave, have the best gear and probably still need to stivot a bit to hold the line. It could be done, but then the coaches would turn onto a bumped out, steep face, leaving the alpine riders to completely rot.

Oh, that’s ****ing gold. And at the heart of the matter. When CASI fist came along, it was as an extension of a group called the QSC. These were riders from Quebec with an interest in standardizing a teaching model. All of them were in hardboots. The first western guys to fall in with them were also hardboot riders, or riders who spent a fair amount of time on them. Our first “team” picture from 1992, where the eastern hui’s came out to Lake Louise, shows fully 3 of 4 of us in alpine gear. The point there is that we tried to promote solid turning, right from the start. As it turned out, the vibe of the sport wasn’t going that way, with skating as the major influencer. Say what you want about how beginners are set up... I’ll offer that I’ve never taught a beginner who didn’t take to it more quickly on softboots over hard. Others have alluded to the ability of a growing number of riders carving well on softboots. I’d go so far as to say that you’d have to spend a fair amount of time on an alpine setup to rail as well as some of the people I look up to who’ve never ridden alpine equipment. If someone looks at us from the outside in, not showing them an advantage, while further offering them reduced versatility and greater expense isn’t going to win hearts and minds. That said, if I’m a skier or neverever riding the chair, and I see Ryan and the Japanese fella from the carving on the steeps video riding below me, I’d have a tough time deciding which one I wanted to do. If Travis Rice then did a Cab5 into Corbett’s while I watched, that would help me make up my mind. The last paragraph is based on the attitude of someone who naturally analyzes things. I sweat the pros and cons. This in in contrast to most who are of the mind that the kid uncontrollably straight lining the pitch is going waaaaay faster, and is therefore having waaaaay more fun than those grown ups doing stupid turns. Novice, full-gas straight lining FTW.

The static demos the Russian rider does likely shows more fore and aft movement along the length of the board than is actually happening when he’s in motion. For the most part, he seems in alignment with his stance. Sometimes I think the rotation in purely there for effect, as you could do those turns with your shoulders, hips and knees aligned. If you think about alignment while you’re turning, you’ll be less out of position when you want to stand up, especially heelside.

You’ll need to be evenly pressured to stand back up on a carved edge. The “forward” movement would come when your torso and hips come back over the topsheet, in the direction your bindings are pointed (the average between the two... I’m at about 30 and -3, so I’d expect my “lunge” to go at about 15 to the running length) not “forward” in the direction of travel. Look really carefully at Scottishsurfer, Ryan and the low angle Japanese riders. They all align with their stances as they stand up to a flat base.

If you stay on your front leg, continuing to drive the back arm forward, you’ll have to get up by way of FS1. Scottishsurfer has hardly any pitch to work with, but he like Ryan K, both bring their pressure back to even over both feet as they compress to the board in alignment with their stances.

Yes. -3. 28 wide waist on my board though. Width underfoot will determine everything. In the video section, there’s one from Donek where the board used is a 29 waist. Laid heelside happening.

For me, riding on those wide, low angle pitches in hardboots would be like taking an F1 car to the drag strip. There’s just not enough interest in the course to truly challenge the equipment and rider. The Japanese rider on the steeps, airing into his turns? That for me is where I’d want to be, but it takes terrain like that to make a rider and his or her board “sing”.

I tried calling those numbers to ask what stances they run. No one picked up. Seriously though, at a minimum, those angles are 10 degrees higher in front and the whole number in back. The first two bracket my front angle, as it happens. Given their terrain, I’d say that they’re using what works to provide maximum sensation on minimum terrain. Hardboots for me on that slope would be a bore... just too much stability and control, making for a sleepy ride. Having to create that stability through internal forces is more of a challenge. Given that they probably don’t need much of a performance sliding turn, I can see where you might as well turn the feet forward to make better carves. In my experience, I don’t get on very well with higher angles on steeper freeride terrain, where I need to slip my turns.

Pretty much. Amazing angles. I’d like to get a clearer picture of their back foot angles. Thanks for posting this stuff.

I don’t really notice a lag in the switch phase between my last 26 wide 170 Salomon and my 28 wide 170 Donek. They both could change edges within their own running lengths. I definitely notice how much more I can tip one over vs. the other.

Thanks for the newsflash. Neither do I, but a size 10 is still long enough to at least need 27 something at the waist.

Too narrow for that length.

Here’s a critique. That run is too easy.

Having started MTB'ing in the rigid days, I have had the pleasure of riding the gear you mention. Either on a personal bike, or a borrowed / demo one. The RS1, early Manitou stuff, ProFlex frames, Allsop stems (and catapult-like "beam" seatposts), Slingshot frames, where the downtube was replaced with a cable, Trek's early "work" (remember the 9000, with the single beam swingarm and elastomer stack, or their URT frames?)... While you probably won't see this tech outside of rural Africa anymore, at the time they all did as advertised, and that was to offer some isolation from the bumps on the ground. In a word, "suspension". Not great, but in many cases, better than nothing. I'd also say that, given the anecdotal observations of riders here, these plates are doing things comparable to what we think of more conventional linkage and dampers doing and that is to make the ride smoother. These riders' impressions also seem to be a bit more positive than the early, uneducated views of things like flex stems, which never really got any love. As hard as the industry tried, most people who road off road for real thought they were shit from the outset. I can also see why the bicycle industry didn't just bite MX suspension tech early on, and that's because the weight just couldn't be justified by an industry which was all about keeping things light. It wasn't until "freeride" MTB came along that moto-style coil springs and open bath oil damping, along with beefier stanchions, sliders, crowns and steerers became common. Then you saw products like the original Marzocchi Z1 turn up. Only once the manufacturers got the idea that some riders would sacrifice weight for performance did suspension really start to work well. Of course, this weight-be-damned mindset did result in the Marzocchi SuperMonster T, which took things a bit too far. I looked at the AllFlex site. If I had to compare what it does to what a rear suspension bike does, I'd offer that the plate provides the linkage (frame and pivots on the bike), while the board offers the damping characteristics (the "shock", or damper).

Pow surf is pretty full on these days. Have a look on Snowboarder Magazine's webber for Ashley Call's latest edits. These were just done in BC, in the same place I have my cabin and sleigh. He steps to a few of these lines in a way you'd probably best identify with being in binders. His weapon of choice is Tim Wesley's "Shark". Incidentally, this is the same brand Mark Fawcett is on now, as he's just started to get into the game. His own line of boards arent made anymore. For me, noboarding is my first choice on a powder day. I just manage the variables well, with the biggest one being crappy snow, and that's where the rope comes in to play.