Buell
-
Posts
1,733 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
5
Content Type
Blogs
Gallery
Downloads
Store
Events
Profiles
Forums
Posts posted by Buell
-
-
Personally, I would not ride F2s at your size. You can get flex out of any binding / boot combo. At my 145 pounds, the F2s are great.
-
-
-
I'm currently riding TD2's which are awesome for customizing the lift and cant. All the local riders are on the F2's and I'm thinking of switching because apparently you get better feel with the F2's. Can the F2's be adjusted for lift as well as cant? I've seen canting shims but nothing that looks like it provides heel lift.
Cheers
SWL
Stacking two opposite cant wedges gets you a small lift without cant. Doing this twice (4 total cant wedges) gets you more lift without cant, but still less than the big lift wedge. You can get almost any combination you want out of F2s with a little thought.
It sounds like you plan to ride hardboots well into the future. Try them to know what you prefer so you can make the best gear choices for yourself.
-
Mark,
Thanks for responding here. How does the board handle transitions in snow consistency as one might encounter in the back country? For example, from powder to wind pack or powder to crust.
Thanks
-
I have to gear my automatic 5.7 Tundra down to second gear to get up that road. Lots of smelly belts at the top. Not to mention that you have to drive an extra 2000 or so feet up to get to the parking lots, which are at the top of the mountain. Yes, you ride down from the car and take the lift back up. Downhill in the snow is the bad part though.The good thing about the road is that if you are up top before 9 AM on a snowy morning, they often have to close the road for a while because too many cars are stuck in the middle of it and no one else can get up or down.And they keep talking like they are going to really develop it. There is no way.Today was spent driving around aimlessly. I wandered over to the town of Eden then continued on the road up to Powder Mountain, which brought to mind the following impressions:Dude! Are you totally serious about this road right here? What the hell?
There are few roads that have sections so steep that I have to shift my 117HP econobox down to first gear, but this is one of them. PM may be the largest resort in the country, and may be the finest "locals' secret" anywhere, but I can't get there from here. I only have front wheel drive, and even with good snow traction tires I think that this road could be a problem in all but the best conditions. I'm too lazy to chain up. How many cars slide off the road every winter?Wolf Mountain might be more my speed. A super tiny, family learning resort that is easy to access. Next I visited Snowbasin briefly then headed back to Park City.
-
We have spent the last 6 mid winters in Eden, UT. The weather and snow are so much better there than in Oregon.
The pass price wars are only now making it to UT. Basin dropped their prices a bunch this season. PM released their pass prices well before Baisn and did not get the memo. I expect they will lower it for next season.
-
Snowbasin is a really fun resort, I've been riding there the last two years. Not too crowded during the week but that could change this season because of the insanely lowered season pass rates. I bought a weekday pass for $449 and plan on buying a pass at Powder Mountain for the weekends.
Weekends at Snowbasin tend to become crowded after about 11:00 and I'm betting with the lowers pass rates it will be even more so.
Not a whole lot of carvers there even with the great terrain.
It seems that there are more hardbooters at Powder Mountain and the runs are a bit wider.
The biggest downside is the goat trail that is called a road, it can be a bit white knuckle driving back down if it's snow packed.
Also they do not have any snowmaking it's all natural snowfall so it always depends on if it's a good or bad snow year.
Goat Trail? It is a really sketchy road a few times a year. Those are really good powder days though, if they do not close the resort.
Powder is a mellow carving spot with only a few short steeper pitches. Crowds are almost non existent on carving days. The snow is almost always on the soft side of hero and there is a decent sized crew of cruising carvers.
Basin is quite a bit more intense with narrower trails and much shorter views uphill due to twists or rolls in the trail. It also has a lot more very fast skiers which requires lots of checks over the shoulder. Some are super good and some think they are super good. If you seek steeper, more challenging terrain, and longer runs,Basin has it.
Like boardguru, Rebecca and I have a weekday pass at Basin and a full pass at PM. Some days we carve the first couple of hours at Basin, then go to PM.
-
Buell, is this photo taken recently? do you guys still have that much snow in OR?
The photo was taken July 6th so there is quite a bit less now. I did just see a TR from the same line from just a couple of days ago so it is still plenty rideable. We get a lot of snow and late spring / early summer is much milder than Colorado so the snow really sticks around.
-
But I am looking forward to carving again.
Just rode the line just left of center (in the shade) two weeks ago and the line just right of center (in the sun) the week before that. Both were ridden from the summit on the upper left. That is it for the snow season though.
-
Buell,
Couldn't you consider that the rockered Tanker has a "decambered" nose that's not metal? I realize its not the full package and that the one you reviewed is rockered tip to tail but my experience with the new tanker with the flat under the bindings is that it does still have that "pop" off the end of the carve... way more pop than my Coiler AMT stubby.
In the broad sense that is true but I was referring to carve board to carve board. I don't want to make anything other than very broad (and cautious) generalizations when comparing a wide freeride board to a hardboot carving board.
-
I've thought a lot about the issue of a long, soft nose in the resort chop tossing the rider around. (I had this issue with my 4807 this year at MtBachelor, albeit it may have been attributable to or in conjunction with the boat hull design or my center of gravity.) I've thought about a Hazelwood with a soft center flex, like how I've heard the Coiler AM refer to, but that Furberg looks interesting. After the exchange rate and shipping though, the Furberg is a rather expensive proposition for a non-custom board. Based on your experience, would you say it's worth the cost for those of us on this side of the pond?
I have hesitated to put Furberg's price online but it has been consistent throughout the year. Thus far, he does not charge shipping to the US and there are a lot of Norwegian taxes built into his online price that we do not pay in the US. I paid $519 for mine delivered to my door and that is the price Daniel just charged another BOL member here in the US. It was also by far the easiest European transaction I have had. Just like buying from a shop in the US. He does travel a bit and is a very small company so cannot always respond super quick.
-
Does the spearhead have that much rocker though?
It has camber in the middle but a large rocker area in the nose. Between that and the taper, it floats incredibly well and is quick through the trees. The nose is bigger than I like in chop and, at this point, I prefer full rocker or closer to full rocker in powder. Boards with camber push the nose and tail into the snow in the powder limiting your turn type options.
-
That seems to be the current feeling, Buell.
But as to "taking the load off" the board,
is that always a good thing?
I did not say it takes load off the board. It takes it off the furthest points of the board and brings it closer to the middle which increases the rider's power over the board, among other benefits.
From riding cambered, decambered, and rockered boards in all kind of snow conditions, I say absolutely yes, it is a very good thing.
-
Decambered nose is a huge benefit for freecarving. It aligns the upturn of the nose with the sidecut much better. The nose slices instead of plows. It also rides over ruts and bumps more smoothly.
I fully agree with this. Another thing it does is takes some of the load off the nose and tail at turn initiation and brings it toward the middle of the board. That helps make the board less hooky and reactive.
I have never ridden a non-metal decambered nose board so it is hard to say for sure but decamber could be as important as metal in the advancement of our boards
I had an early Prior Metal and an early Coiler Metal. Bruce sent the Bachelor crew one of his early metal decambered prototypes. I knew immediately that board was a huge step forward from my non-decambered metal boards. In the spring conditions that day with slush on one side of the run and ice on the other side, that prototype just killed my two metal non decambered boards for ease of riding. It made such an easy transition between the different snow consistencies.
-
Jon, the Whale seems a lot like the Spearhead, which I have really enjoyed and has now been beaten into my rock powder board. Should be fun.
I compared my 166 Spearhead to our 156 Hovercraft and they were almost the same board outline wise (the Hovercraft has less taper). The HC is just missing its tail and the nose is blunted a bit to make the 10 cm difference in overall length. Oddly, the 178 Dupraz lined up pretty closely to the 166 SH as well. The Dupraz just had that long pointy nose that if rounded off, like the SH, could almost be made into a 166. It is amazing how boards that are so similar in effective size can be so different in overall length.
-
I couldn't find any Rossignol Judges, but the Salomon Sick stick can still be had -- still a good route to take? I'm looking for a softboot pow board for non-groomer days to ride both serious pow as well as bombing resort pow chop. The Jones Flagship caught my eye, but I've heard reports it's lacking seriously with regard to dampness.
This is an older thread. There are lots of new options for powder.
Eastcoast?
A lack of dampness probably will not matter in the conditions you are talking about. I have not ridden the Flagship though.
For resort chop, I have found that the big nosed, true powder (Fish, Spearhead, Hovercraft) boards do not work as well. I like a stiffer, rockered, mildly tapered, more traditional sized nose (Tanker, Flagship?) that does not get knocked around and flexed as much as the bigger noses. As long as it has a rockered nose, this design is now my preference in powder. I picked up a Furberg for this season and its design is just awesome in powder and super stable in chop. I am also riding a 172 Tanker (review) and will be getting a 162 Tanker for next season.
-
+another. I love my 162. Groomers only on it for me though. I seem to hit a lot of rocks on powder days.
-
I am pretty sure the Coiler models I am thinking of are the Monster and the Mini-Monster. One rider I know who had a Monster described it as like "riding a lounge chair". Another carving buddy got one this year and it totally changed his riding. He always looks just like a longboard surfer making beautiful carves down the slope, now everything is that much smoother. He also never passes up a chance to ride it in the soft snow in the trees. Maybe he will post up his thoughts.
-
Hi Buel
Hey, that comment by me was in no way directed at you or anyone.
The comment I made regarding this was all about me and my past, I have spent years buying boards and buyers guide(s), searching for the right board as Randy is doing. I love riding and getting new boards, ask my wife about this!
Sorry for the confusion, this is sometimes a pitfall of communicating via a forum, etc.
For the record, I happen to agree with you regarding your Coiler thoughts.
Cheers
Rob
That is funny. Whoops. It totally matched something I said in my earlier post about a new Coiler every year.
I am sure more posters here would love a wife to surprise them with boards they wanted.
-
I picked up a 162 Furberg earlier this year because I am a lightweight. The 167 and 173 would be awesome for medium and bigger riders.
It is not a great groomer carver, in softboots anyway, but it is outstanding in soft snow conditions, especially good powder. It is a charger. Super stable at speed and likes to be pushed. It has a great powder turn and slarved powder turn. Because of the rocker and the relatively narrow nose and tail (due to the big sidecut), it is much quicker edge to edge than you would think considering its waist width.
They are also much cheaper than you would think as Daniel really wants to get some of his boards out there.
There is a pretty long thread on Splitboard.com discussing it. The first few pages are just people talking about it. Deeper in, a number of us give our thoughts on how it rides.
-
I can say that since riding a Swoard I have not felt the urge to continually buy a new board each season, constantly looking for something new each year. Not saying it is the best board in the world, but it is a quality board that many will enjoy.
Cheers
Rob
Rob, that is a misinterpretation of my post. I regularly change my boards because I love trying new ones. That has to do with me, not the boards Bruce was building me.
My post had to do with the cost and resale of Coilers if Randy wanted to tweak a design to get it even more to his liking. That is because you can tweak boards with Bruce, not because you will need to.
-
Absolutely follow your own instincts on this. Obviously we all have varied opinions.
My thoughts are that the more picky you are, the more a custom makes sense. I think you already learned quite a bit from the Kessler and can get much closer on your next attempt. Cost wise, someone would love to have your Kessler and you can likely sell it for the price of a new Coiler. The resale value on hardly used Coilers is really high compared to the new cost. That is why I would get a new Coiler every year when I was riding them, it just did not cost me that much. New Swoards are more expensive than custom Coilers. The Pure Boarding boards are fairly expensive as well.
-
Randy,
So many different opinions. I rode a Swoard a couple of years ago and found it incredible at its intended purpose of ECing. It would lock into a turn and hold until the end. Unfortunately, I did not find it versatile beyond that and was not very fun for me.
I have been riding a Kessler 162 and 168 for the last two years. As you have found, Kesslers are not cruisers and require a lot of rider input. They come out of turns going much faster than most other boards and that means the rider must be on it. That is not the board for you.
Bruce at Coiler can definitely build surfy cruisers. He knows how to build a board that will come out of a turn going slower to make a more relaxed ride for a freecarver. Like Corey Dyck remarked above, the last Coiler I had was a 165 VSR-AM extra tight sidecut and it was the most surfy carve board I have ever had. Mine might still have wanted more rider input than you are looking for but Bruce also builds the Monsters which are the biggest cruisers I have ever seen. You could at least talk to him to see if you thought he could build a board that would make you happy. Being on east coast snow, I definitely think that the newer materials are going to benefit you tremendously in getting a board that could be described as surfy and easy.
Powder Mountain Sold
in Utah
Posted
Wow. What a weird video. Really excessive on the presentation. Maybe I am just out of touch with the 'happening' people.
No one has been able to do anything with PM yet. The access is too difficult. Seems like there might be some really deep pockets with this crew so who knows this time.