Buell
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Posts posted by Buell
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covering bad technique with top notch material.......
You continue to act like this is a bad thing. We are riding for fun and to get better. If one wants a challenge, go to a run that is harder to ride. I would rather not fall on my ass just because I bought a board that is harder to ride.
Seems really simple to me. I guess you ride with a different philosophy.
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Titanal and decambered nose don't make a good board out of a bad one. And covering technique flaws with board construction sounds like changing the weather with yellow sunglasses.
It is true that not all new shapes are alike quality wise and I definitely have my favorites. I was responding generally to the advice that the OP should just buy some older used boards to learn on.
As to the other advice you guys are advocating, do we really need to buy boards that are harder to ride for learning to carve?
If someone wants to work on technique on a new design, they just go to a steeper or bumpier run or one with poorer snow quality. It is that simple. They do not need to buy a board that is more difficult and less pleasant to ride.
The lessons will be the same as riding an older design on a much easier run or in better snow conditions. The boards do not change the learning curve. They just allow you to step up quicker to more challenging conditions. If they are tired or prefer to cruise then they can stay on the easy runs and take advantage of the boards easy riding benefits.
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Agree
Come on, this is nonsense. A good standard board is ok. No need for fancy stuff. Covering technique flaws by better equipment is a thing that brings the sport down.
All the gear but no idea.
Nonsense? Those boards are in the past. We have moved beyond them now.
I have learned to carve just fine on my nice boards and, as Mike said, it is so much more fun.
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So, here is why you want to go with the FLC in 174 or 177:
-Flickability. The board is so easy to flick around in emergency situations, as well as being super damp to absorb irregularities in the snow.
-Ridability. The boards can ride both longer and shorter than they are, depending on what you want to do with them. Going into the '60's will be super short, IMO.
-Sidecut. The board is not hooky. You tell it what to do and it does it. No extra hooking up the hill, or not disengaging when you want it to.
I would be careful with your certainty when applying your preferences to another rider.
Your advice would be wrong if it were given to me. This same advice has been given to me by others and it took me a few years to move beyond it through personal experience.
BTW. I have ridden Kesslers, Coilers, Doneks, Priors, and F2s in the 170s, many of those brands in the 160s, and the Prior Wcrm in 183 and 187. Most of them were metal constuction. Nothing compares, for me, to riding modern boards in the 160s.
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This is a Key here. I ride a 177 Coiler AM-t as my daily ride, I never felt it was too long to do what ever I ask it to do. Metal seems to be the Ultimate Equalizer. I bet you will be very happy with a 173 and wont believe how nimble it is within the first hour you ride it.
PLEASE check in here once you hit the snow, I cant wait to hear your review of metal. Now go and buy that damn board already
Likewise, metal and the new designs make a smaller board much easier to ride and more versitile with a large range of different turqn sizes. They are incredibly stable and therefore much faster than pre-metal and pre-decambered boards.
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By today's standards is 169 now considered a slalom board?!
No. I am sure someone has race slalom on a board that length but 165 is generally a long slalom board.
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Beware of the BOL longboard bias.
It got me in the beginning. I quickly was on a 183 Prior WCMR. It was easy enough to ride on most slopes but then I got a 177 Coiler which was more fun. Then a 174, next a 165, and now a 162 Kessler SL.
Smaller boards allow you to play much more on the groomer's terrain variations. The new designs are fast, stable, and maneuverable. Best of all worlds to me.
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Yeah, moving in towards the FLC actually.
ls 169 a bit much for all mountain playing?
I don't ride carve boards off piste but considering you were riding a 166 off piste it seems the 169 should be fine. The various sizes of stock WCMRs I had a couple of years ago were very forgiving and rode a bit shorter than their overall length.
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FLC is the newer design that is most similar to the newest designs from other top builders. With its multiradius sidecut and significant taper, it should release better from turns and be a more playful board overall than the WCRM.
The taper will also help it in the soft snow off piste.
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Buy a good, modern technology board. Make sure the board has decambered nose and tail and metal construction. It will make learning so much more pleasurable. The new boards are so much better at covering technique flaws and it is wrong to say that you should learn to ride first before buying one.
A side suggestion, don't buy one that is too long. It will slow your learning if you are always skidding or stopping because the board is too big for you to fit it between the lines of the groomed.
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It's tough getting anything past Buell :)
Hmmm. What are you trying to say Kipp. ;)
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Well, I meant "the thing that your feet are attached to no longer bends".
Ah yes. The photo of a plate on a swoard did look a little strange but maybe it will work well.
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It's going to be hard to adhere to EC doctrine when your board no longer bends.
How does a plate keep the board from bending?
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I rode an early Khyber and I've ridden with people on newer ones now and then. They're not "rave" boards, but they are powder boards. Personally I'd not want to ride one on piste, but then I carry 2 boards.
I was saying it was part of a two board quiver.
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In the winter of 1981 the V.P. of Winterstick (Renee Sessions)three friends and I went to Les Arcs to "introduce wintersticking" to the skiers of France at the request of Alain Gaiumard (sp) who was the mountain manager at the time.We were called the "Winterstick Team" by Dimitri and Renee and also the French press.
So I wonder if the name just carried over for a while until the term snowboarding came about.
Mick
Mick, that is an awesome story!
Welcome to BOL. See you in a couple of months!
Thanks for the video Nils.
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You will get a number of people praising the 4WD. I have seen a guy ripping on it with hardboots in mixed conditions and powder. I think it will depend on your style.
I like a quiver. I consider powder a much different medium than groomers. Powder is ridden with the base and float is important. Groomers are ridden with the edge and float is irrelevant. I also hit things all the time on my powder boards and damage the base and edges. I really don't take my carve boards off the groom because I like them in carving condition.
I am unsure of recent design changes, but I had a 169 4WD a few years ago. For me, it is not a powder board and things have come so far with materials and design on the carve boards that it could be dated for carving as well. It will function, but there are many boards that would do so much better. I don't see why the FLC wide (wider than the 4WD with taper and a nice decambered nose) would not work as well in the powder as the 4WD. That way, if only one board, you would have a much better carve board.
A narrowed hybrid rocker Khyber would be a great alpine powder board (if you went with the carve board and powder board) for trees. I guarantee that it would carve just fine on the soft powder day groom, if you happened to find any. The carve deck would come out on groomer days.
A couple of years ago we had a year in Utah that never stopped snowing. It was a couple of months of powder before I pulled out the carve deck. It was sure nice to have it though. It was especially nice to ride all that powder on a dedicated powder board.
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Hey Everyone,
Paypal judged in my favor. l suspect this thread had a lot to do with the verdict. l just want to say "thank you very much" to everyone who wrote in here, especially Angie and Jim!
Guess that means l'm shopping again!
Nice! It is really too bad you had to go through all of that over what seems to be a straight forward situation. So strange.
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Sweet. Sounds like you are set up. I am pretty cautious on over 32 degrees unless I know the snowpack is stable and consistent. That is plenty fun, especially in the heavier and often wind buffed west coast snow. The bc will change your impression of snowboarding for sure. At this point, even riding at Powder Mountain (fairly empty), inbounds powder just is not that exciting anymore. Carving days and climbing in the bc to ride powder or corn are what I am so excited about now. It is just a completely different experience.
Avy bags are not used by many bc riders. It is true though that survival rates of full burials are really low. Vapor is the first person I have heard of that rides with one (I am sure there are more). The other big issue besides the price is that they weight about 6 to 7 pounds. I think Vapor must be a climbing monster with his plate set up and his avy bag.
The Dyanfit toe pieces and adapters are for this and make skinning so much better. No, you do not need to use them, but I very strongly recommend them. Your bindings and their weight go in your pack for the skin up instead of on each foot. The connection between the boot and the board is solid, especially compared to the crude touring mode of the Voile slider plate and pin system.
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I have a pair of Bates 9" Tora Bora Alpine Boot for my military service from past.
It has Slip Resistant Vibram Rubber Alpine Outsoles for those bails to hook.
For splitboarding, is this boots work? I am curious if the bails would be stayed in hooked when the board gets laid on edges as much as alpine carving because the outsoles are made out of rubber (although very stiff).
Anyone?
No way. Those ledges are for crampons, not bail bindings.
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Nice Dan! Now just add the Dynafit adapters and the Dynafit toepieces on this Spark R&D page and you will have the set up for skinning!
Do you have a board?
That mountain in your backyard is too big for you to make welterweight. Get after it!
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Apologies for the threadjack; I have a general question on AT boots with Bomber splitboard bindings.
I'm looking for some AT boots, and not having much luck finding anything used. I see that TheClymb currently has a sale on Scarpas: the Hurricane, Men's Spirit 3 and Men's Spirit 4.
I know pretty much nothing about splitting, but would lean towards the Spirit 3 because it's lightest and cheapest. Will this boot work with Bomber splitboard bindings? Are Scarpas sized like Raichle/Deeluxe? (That is, if I buy the same size as my hardboots, is that likely to be the right size for me?)
Yes they should work fine with Bomber bindings. I would go for the Spirit 3s, especially for a lightweight like you and me. Generally, the lighter and fewer buckles an AT boot has, the softer the flex.
I measure just over 26 mondo, wear 24m Deeluxe Track 700s and 25m Scarpas. I have a pretty narrow, low volume foot and the Scarpa F1s and F3s fit like a glove. I do not know about the Spirit 3s.
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Splitboard thread on mountaineering boots in Spark bindings.
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1. Forward flex is my main concern. Not enough forwardflex when you max it.
2. To stiff lateraly when you run lower angles. Thats why I figure 3 buckles is the best option for freeriding. The carbon is probably super when you ride steeper angles.
But it´s a sexy bit of equipment compared to my 325's
If they are like the Zzero 4s, there are some little tabs inside the upper cuff that hit on the lower cuff. If you cut these off then you will have additional forward flex. Grinding the tongue thinner at the ankle will make a softer boot.
The three buckle boot is supposed to be softer. You can get a non-carbon version of the 4 buckle boot or you could just remove the lateral and medial carbon strips to increase lateral flex. I have considered that for Rebecca's Zzero 4s for splitboarding.
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Did you try a pair or just try a pair on?
AT boots are nice aren't they. I have not really tried AT boots for carving although I know a couple of riders who use Garmont Megarides and do like them. I expect it will be personal preference. If your weight gives you the flex you want out of the boot while carving then you might be most of the way there.
Here is the old thread. It was a bit tough find.
As has been mentioned, flex will be the biggest issue and you may need to do some modifications on them just like the people who carve in alpine ski boots. The AT boots depend on boot deformation to control flex.
I splitboard in AT boots and have modified them to be quite soft for that. They are too soft to carve in now on a regular basis. Rebecca was trying the Zzero 4s for carving but she finds them too stiff for her in ride mode and too soft in walk mode.
The Zzero 3 has a lower cuff height. I don't know if that would be an issue but it is something I would consider. The Zzero 4s might be better for carving but again, personal preference.
Got cash, but meagre talent: how much should I drop on a carving board?
in Carving Central
Posted
Yep, I suck. Keyboard carver. ;)
Dude, how many times do I need to invite you to ride with me in Utah? You are just scared it might be a powder day and you would have to sit in the lodge! :D