Fastskiguy

Hey, a little off topic but what's the best snowboard bag for air travel?

Flew United last week from Idaho to the midwest, went great! Took my carving ski stuff and carving snowboards stuff, had the snowboard, two pairs of carving skis (135 and 156cm), and 4 ski poles in one bag, 48#, no problem. I did put the skis in ski bags and padded the board before putting them in the jumbo ski bag. No extra charges either. Yay! That would be funny "Nope, can't take the boots as carry-on" "Ok, I'll just wear the boots and take my shoes as carry-on" LOL!

Well I've got some crazy feet and spent 200$ on fitting....w/o the insole LOL! Almost all of it was stretching the shell, took the guys a week to get all of the bumps punched out. Don't ask for pics! But if they seem narrow, an experienced shop can stretch'em out for ya'. Plus a custom insole would be worth it.

I'll be in Boise for a day or two and would like to rent a carving board if possible. I'm not trying to be funny here...I'd like it to be "somewhat" modern (ie not made in the 90's (or 80's LOL!)). Anybody have a shop to recommend? Thanks :)

So I'm at Sun Valley for a...um...profession education event that just happens to leave us in between class 9am to 5pm and I brought my board (Rossi Throttle 159cm) along. I'm a beginning carver but I'm improving every day. Conditions here are brick hard, quite a bit harder than I'm used to back home in Wisconsin. And the green runs at Dollar mountain are pretty steep too. Anyway I rented a Burton Factory Prime 67 today from a local shop to get an idea of how different boards ride. It seemed bigger, heavier, more stable, held an edge better but was harder for me to skid down the steeper sections and it took a turn before I could bend it. The little board felt turnier but way less stable. Still, I liked the little board better. So my question is about the FP 67...is it considered a stiff or soft board? GS or SL? When was it made? It was black and had red trapizoidal sidewalls. The guy at the shop said "I don't know anything about it". Thanks for the help :)

Perfect! Thanks :)

Just wondering what the heck I'm riding on...it's a Rossi Throttle 159cm SL board. Is there a way to calculate the sidecut radius or get an estimation of it without using pi and r squared and all of that stuff? Or if somebody has gone thru it...can you post the formula? Or...maybe if anybody just happens to know (off the top of his head) the radius...??? Thanks :)

Well I've got upgraditis already and have sure thought about it. Are the step-in bindings just as good as the "non-step-ins"? As far as performance and durability?

Beginning carver here, long time ski carver, 3rd day on my snowboard stuff. Hey man, we had cold temps, good snow, and sun here in the midwest, amazing! Managed tighter arcs than I have ever made on skis....and I've been at that ski carving thing for awhile now. It was grrrreat! Anyway, I was playing around with the adjustable forward lean on my boots today and ended up liking to run the front foot pretty straight and the rear food fairly flexed. I have some flat bindings, no cants or anything. But it felt pretty excellent like that and I was able to ride with much less muscular effort...I'm only moderately sore now, not completely wrecked like last week. My boots have a #1 as the most flexed and a #5 as the least flexed and I ran a 2 in the back and a 4 or 5 up front (still not sure which I liked better). Typical? Or does this mean I need an asym board<-kidding!

Yes, my quest for the perfect carve landed me on the 156cm slalom sticks. They do pretty well and I like them but I can't turn them as tightly as some of the snowboard tracks I've seen. Plus I think I'm ready for something a little different....I like carving the skis but you know how it is going down the same slope 30 times in a day. I like racing but you've got to start wondering about the cost/benefit ratio (training, equipment, etc) of striving for that last .2 seconds (I was .2 seconds off of the fast time that Sunday LOL!). And if free carving the snowboard gets boring....there's always racing :)

Joe from team ? but I'm retired LOL! Or at least taking an extended break from Monday nights. I live down in Rockford, IL and it's just a bit too far as I get done with work a little after 6pm. But I'll be there on a Sunday, prolly in February and start asking around. I'm looking forwards to it :)

That's probably good advice. Coming from a ski racing background, I understand the difference between angulation and banking...and EC carving looks like big time banking. I know I have a long way to go before I can choose between these types of snowboard turns....and starting with good technique really sounds reasonable.

Thanks for the used stick recommendations, not sure if I'll just use what I've got, buy used, or buy new but thanks :)

Gotta say, those eurocarves look super cool...

What about the blade? Can anybody comment on it? http://www.donek.com/01_products/blade.htm

Oh yeah, I've been to Tyrol a few times, twice this year. Got to wear my cool red and black dreadlock hat too, really diggin' it but my ski racer type buddies were confused LOL! Then I struck terror by wearing my vintage speed suit and padded top, I hope you missed that part. Anyway, moving right along.... So I've got a few questions....can you crank tight enough turns with a GS board? I mean, as you know our vertical is limited... And is there a chance of riding some stuff there if I demonstrate that I'm not too much of a hazard to myself and/or others? I'd love to try a few boards this winter before plunking down the cash on a new stick. But I'm not totally opposed to just buying something either-that Donek FC II looks a popular recommendation, and the 171 and the 179 with an 11.2m radius and the 175 with an 11.75m radius, well, that's smaller than my 156cm SL skis and they turn a pretty tight arc. So I could prolly be talked into it...but I'd really dig taking a ride on a few boards before buying. Where do you guys buy your stuff? From the Donek site? Thanks for all of the info guys, I sure appreciate it :)

Well the thought that maybe I was a little big for that board crossed my mind.. My boots are 322mm and I'm running 57 degrees in the front and 43 in the rear with quite a bit of toe sticking out over the edge. The article says most guys are 57-63 degrees with both feet so maybe I'll change my rear foot to 57 right away. The board is 7.5" wide or about 19cm so it's not super duper narrow. As far as the type, I really am not very interested in versatility. In southern Wisconsin we just don't see much pow LOL! We've got good snowmaking and the runs are groomed pretty well (except this year, this year is super warm) but I'm no jibber and mostly we're talking pretty unexciting terrain. I really want a tight turning board that doesn't need much speed. Wider would be easier for my big-ish feet. It needs to be OK for a 200 pounder (OK, now I'm being honest). Does somebody make my perfect board?

I'm a skilled ski carve maniac but am in the process of learning alpine snowboarding. Guess I just got jealous of those laid out snowboard carves or something. So I got some used raichle 324 boots, spent a whopping 200$ on stretching so my crazy hoofs will fit'em, and snagged a rossi throttle sl board 159cm off of ebay. I'm 6'3", 195 pounds. I'm only interested in free carving the groomed runs and I don't really like to go fast (on a snowboard anyway...) Those laid out eurocarves look so totally awesome! We haven't gotten much snow here in the midwest this year and conditions are really pathetic but I got out for the second time this year and managed to do some carving on some really inconsistent snow in flat light. The first day I only got in a few runs before succumbing to the siren song of the nastar course and racing (on skis) for beers with friends...but anyway So today I managed several 180 degree linked carves locked on edge on an "intermediate" run (but think *easy* blue run). Now it wasn't exactly pretty and my arms are sore from flailing but I laid down some grooves. It was easy to look at my tracks from the lift as there were about 3 people skiing today. Someday I'll have some video and ask for feedback but today I was skiing solo, plus the light was flat. So what about this board? How old is it? Is it worth riding this board for awhile or should I move to something else right away? It felt like it was getting bounced around a lot but the snow was bumpy and soft....then hard and bumpy...with flat light so I'm not sure if it was the conditions, the board, or just me (hey, I'm new to this!) Those step in bindings look great, especially given our 250 foot vertical hills. I'll tell you, this board feels like older ski carving stuff-it worked OK but it didn't grab hard in the turn and you had to really be in the right place for them to carve. Newer stuff just seems better-they just tear into the snow at the beginning of the turn and are easier and more forgiving (and I'm talking race stuff too), leaving just two thin parallel, continuous arc. So I'm wondering...and suspecting...that newer snowboard stuff is a lot better too. So what do you guys think? Thanks and sorry it got so long...I'm enthusiastic!

I didn't get on the SCX until the mid 90's (liked the 183's, really liked the 173's, and totally loved the 163's!) so 15 years ago that was really revolutionary-it would have taken an open mind. I remember debating 205 or 203cm for slalom! You know, the 203 might be just too short... That Magfire does sound like a nice all around ski-and a little wider might be nice too when it's tipped way way up. I don't have any recent video of my turns but here are a few easy turns from 2001 just to give you an idea. I've improved my skiing since then....mostly by thinking about these crazy alpine turns. http://homepage.mac.com/fastskiguy/Movies/iMovieTheater12.html You know, this is a great site with some friendly folk. A couple of the ski-oriented sites are just full of really annoying people-yuk! Thanks for all of the comments :)

You need something like this http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=004&item=140039874535&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEDW%3AIT&rd=1 just don't bid too high against me for 'em if they happen to be back online ;)

Yeah but you have to be really moving to get like that, way faster than you could safely go on a regular green or blue run. But with a short radius ski...say 10-13m or so...it should be possible, right? Well, that and some skillz ;)

I'm a ski carving maniac but I can't carve as well as some of the alpine snowboarders I've seen out west...specifically Buttermilk. Yeah, I've "experiemented" with snowboarding, even bought a second hand alpine board to try (using my race boots, probably not the optimal setup). But I've invested a lot into my ski technique and am not sure I want to "change teams" right now. Some of the things I've seen on these carving snowboard sites I've been able to incorporate into my skiing. Most importantly the idea of starting the turn low and extending at the top to press the skis into the snow and start the carve. Then, by being tall in the middle of the turn, I can decrease the pressure at the end when force of gravity and centripital force are pulling in the same way. Which sets me up for the next turn. So I can't do this like the "eurocarvers" can on snowboards but I can do this with my skis to some degree. The problem is that half of my body seems to be in the way while on a snowboard you can just keep tipping over until you are grazing the snow. What I'm hoping for is a ski community like bomber online or similar alpine snowboard sites, just for skiing instead. Hardcore carving is a little different than the raging mania of backcountry booters and rail/gap jump/halfpipe type skiing. But there doesn't seem to be many addicted to the alpine ski carve. So far the skiing community isn't really leaping forth with ideas or suggestions so I thought I'd post here and see what you guys thought. I've been skiing long enough (31 years now) to remember the monumental change in ski designs years ago and that it was probably due to snowboard technology so it is with respect to that community that I ask. Thanks for your comments :)