Jonny

I'll be coming up from the Berkshires, arriving at the hill around 10 on Saturday, then heading down to Hartford, ct for the evening, in case anyone needs a ride either way.

Two I can't stand - #1 is death-cookies - two inches of ice which has been chopped up and "groomed" into a pretty looking layer when seen from the lift which just turns into a hill full of marbles when you get on it. My most recent day at Sugarloaf was like that, a few years back - not only unrideable but I couldn't even deal with it on skis. The other is the man-made stuff turned to glop which has ben mentioned by others. If the layer is compressed enough it's really not even slush - just like riding through partially-cured epoxy or something. You can grind huge structure into the base, and use X-C wax, which helps, but it's then tough toget your board back to winter tune.

I really think there's only one way to do this: For EACH insert, turn a screw into the bare board until it bottoms out, counting the turns from when it catches to when it hits bottom (gently). For instance, on my Coiler that's 5.5 turns on all inserts but one (5 even). When mounting the board, set up your bindings and count turns from when the screw catches until you're at your number. Now turn the screw back out and use a bench grinder to grind the screw so that you get about one fewer turns than the max. Do each insert individually or you're dependent on the board being fully consistent throughout.

If I remember rightly, the idea was that with your weight fairly far forward as when driving through a fast bottom-turn (like a toeside hardboot arc) you'd have the long gun-like tail for stability and flow. Slashing off the top or jumping, obviously with the weight further back, the tail would bend up and away, giving release similar to a short square tail. I had a few rides on a 9'4" slalom board set up with one of these, and enjoyed it. Didn't find it to be all that fast (mastfoot was set up too far forward, though) but very smoth.

Dunno about the full-face thing, but the neck-injury thing is much on my mind at the moment. I took a nasty tumble two days ago and really felt that the new, much larger helmet I now wear - a Giro Nine-10 - put more strain on my neck than my older lower-profile helmet would have done. This was one of those deals where I was fully proned-out toeside coming around a built-up jump and didn't know about the drop-off on the other side. Toeside edge caught when I landed and flipped me right over onto the back of my neck. Still pretty sore today, although i'm sure it was a concussion at least if I hadn't had a hard-hat on. I think a football-style mouth-guard has a lot going for it, but haven't gone that far yet.

Yes of course - send me an email and we'll get out of Joe's thread. jyepstein(AT)gmail dot com

Gotcha - Protons are fun sticks. As far as the LE, the negative taper (minimal at 2mm) gives the board tremendous energy at the end of the turn, without requiring massive amounts of camber, so it's a lot smoother than many other SL boards without giving up any quickness. It's the tightest-carving board I've ever been on, including the original 158 Madd and the Proton. Surprisingly smooth and not hooky at speed although it doesn't have the race-car acceleration of the Madd. At my weight or yours it's a toy for crowded days, because you can just cross-under through any traffic. For a lighter rider - a youngster or many women - it's raceable in local events. Looks like this:

Need the Proton only? I have a spare 160 Carbon LE slalom board. Limited edition number 1/354. Clear (cap) topsheet shows the cool carbon/kevlar weave and the Titanal butterfly. Base is good without gouges anywhere although I'm sure it could use a grind, edges very good, dimensions are 233/184/235 (negative taper), sidecut 10.5 or so, and it turns RIGHT NOW. Similar in dimensions to the Proton 160 but the construction is a lot more exotic. I picked up two of these from a racer a few years ago, and haven't ridden this one at all, or even mounted it - just kept the edges decent and storage wax. I'll take some pix if you're interested. $100 plus shipping

The world is the world. If you're the only one who is clued up enough to realize that carvers and skiers together create a hazard, then it's your responsibility to take care of it, no matter what a Code says. I don't ride a carving board at all when it's crowded enough for this to matter, preferring to switch to skis. If you stay on a board, though, you definitely need to have the looking up down and sideways thing going on, no matter what it does for your enjoyment, and you probably need to be practicing your skids and shortswings and whatever else that doesn't create these massive closing rates. OP's situation is different, because that really does look like there's no one around. It's one reason why ECES and other gatherings are so cool - a large posse creates slope awareness among the skiers and other straightliners, so we have a little more latitude than we do riding on our own. Because this actually ISN'T a carver's worst nightmare. The real worst nightmare involves collision with a child, and then the matter of fault becomes irrelevant.

The lift certainly might be contributing - worth fooling with at least. As a drill you might also try a more crouched body position - make some turns with your chest right on you front knee. Not a good way to ride all the time, but it'll get your weight over that leg for sure, and you may start to feel more drive through the turn heelside. I think it's part of the learning curve which you may just need to suffer through for a while. Many riders, myself definitely included, felt much more confidence in the toeside at first, but once they'd been riding a while the heelside becomes the stronger and cleaner side because the hips can get so much lower so much more easily.

Looks to me like your weight is pretty far back on all the heelsides except maybe the one around 3:20. PSR gave me a tip once about "stepping forward" onto the front foot to initiate the turn which has helped me a lot. I also think that if you try using a "pull" to transition from time to time (a drop rather than a lift with the body) that the step forward will give you an immediate sense of the edge egaging. When you are coming up to change edges its very easy to let some swivel enter the picture, which makes it much tougher to get the edge to start doing it's work quickly. Racers do it, but they're really committing with much more aggression to the new edge than most of us are strong or brave enough to do.

Very true. Super trail was softer but still wore me out in about an hour. Put my board away and got my GS skis out. Missed you but saw your trenches on the transition on Standard. Nice

Hoping to get there Friday around 9 and ride for a while before joining some friends on skis. Probably just do laps off the 6-pack unless the snow's really great higher up the hill.

Thanks - kinda what I figured. I'll bring a 160 along with my 180RC. Stratton tomorrow but I'll be skiing most of the day - hanging with some friends who just go too fast for me to keep up on a board.

How's the B-East these days? Driving up on Saturday - do I need to tune up a Slalom board or is it semi-carveable?

I'm planning to be at B-East this saturday. If you like I'll put my old Burton PJ in the van in case you want to try it and haven't got your own ride together yet. It'll take ski boots and is a regular (left foot forward) asym. Fun ride although a rental from Pureboarding would be much more current and would give you more idea of where the sport is nowadays.

Üdvözöljük! It's a good deal if the boots fit well. That boot is really pretty soft which will be a hindrance as you become more skilled but may be helpful now. That board is a good one but fairly narrow even for an Alpine board, so it'll be a large adjustment to make. Ideally I'd want to suggest a slightly shorter, wider and softer board, and slightly stiffer and more supportive boots, but it certainly seems a fair price and will get you carving quickly.

Here's a picture of a Fintec assembly (not sure why I couldn't find them in the Bomber store - maybe sold out?): http://www.hardbooter.com/Fin_Tec_Heels_p/fintec.htm The heel screws into a set of T-Nuts which are installed from the top down through the plastic of the boot itself, so it's pretty darm strong, although you do hear of them ripping out once in a while. Very very rare, though - rarer than a bail failing on a conventinal binding for instance. Stay aay from the Burton step-in design, but the TD and Cateks are pretty bomb-proof, and lots of the flexier ones - F2 and their cousins, are fine too. all of those use an Intec heel. I don't think you'll find a pair of used dedicated snowboard boots of decent quality for under $125, even with normal heels. Bomber has the 325 on sale for $249 and that's a bargain (and a great boot). As far as the Asyms, they ripped for sure, and IMO would be a reasonable way into the sport, with a pair of normal latch-in bindings, which you could really ride in ski-boots for a while. You'll find them all over - most of us have at least one in the basement - I know I do - and you could pick one up in good shape with bindings for $125 or even less. The limitation is that the Asym design likes more fore and aft movement than is currently fashionable, and you just don't know how strong the inserts are after 20 years.

Step in bindings like the TD2 require the installation of an adapter called Intec, or the "Fintec" which is Bomber's more durable version. Most but not all modern snowboard boots will accept the Intec/Fintec, including any Raichle with a three digit designation ending in "5" or "0" such as the 325 or the AF600. Head, UPZ, Deeluxe boots from recent years are all fine too. Earlier boots won't work without modification, and even some modern boot require installation of "T-Nuts" for saftey. the Intec system has two pins which extend from the sides of the heel, which engage with holes in the step-in binding. the difficulty is that this means you're being held to your board no more strongly than the heel is being held to your boot, hence the need for beefed-up installation of the heel adapter. The adapter is also kinda pricey. I love step-ins but they're somewhat more complex, somewhat pricier and much stiffer when riding than other designs, so fo a first setup you might want to go with something a little simpler, flexier and less expensive.

Can't do 2/1 but will be up either 2/2 or 2/3, planning to ride in the AM then switch to skis when my legs get beat.

These narrow, shorter boards can be a handful at slower speeds, and slower speeds make sense before you feel in command, so it's catch 22. One thing you might try is to pre-load the board before committing to an edge. If you've seen Ben's instructional video on the EC site you can see him do this, although I'm not sure he'd describe it that way. What he does is drop pretty far back as he drops down to start the turn (EC so it's down-unweighting) and this really lifts his front foot which in turn counterflexes or puts rocker in the board. Now when he hits an edge he's already arcing pretty tight. It's much more fore and aft movement than is fashionable on this continent, and once he's up to speed you can see that much of it goes away, but the key is that he's initiating a carve right away based on rocker rather than just sidecut. His board's two inches wider than yours, so it's going to look different, but the principle works well on narow boards too. Here's a link: Go to around 5:12 and thereafter. Don't worry about the lunge into the laydown - you're not going to EC that Virus at anything but Mach 2 - but give his pre-turn drop a try. Good luck. Once you've got that dialed I can find a home for that Proteus 180....

It was a celebration score - honoring years of dominance AND progression. If the competition had stil been going on it was going to get a 97+, and realistically a 98+, but since he'd already won the thing it was an exhibition and they scored it that way. I'm OK with it, just as I was OK with Comaneci getting 10s back in the day (with routines which wouldn't qualify her for the Roumanian team at all now) - she did stuff at a level no one had touched before, so before changing the scoring as they knew they'd have to, they celebrated where they'd got to in the meantime

Welcome! No doubt as your skills progress you'll want at least one big, stout board, which believe me will make any turn you ever made on race skis look like a skid-out. Before you get there, though, there are easier ways to start. Something a little wider and a little softer will get you down the hill when you're beat (and you will be) while still giving you a decent platform for learning how to get your edges out from under you. Something like a Burton Alp (I think I saw a 169 in the For Sale area recently) would be ideal, as would a lot of the "ATV" and "AM" style boards. If you go too stout too soon there won't be any middle ground between a full sweeping carve and just locking up and straightlining into the trees. By all means post when you're planning a road trip (Berkshire east is great but a long way from Marlborough) and someone's like to make sure to get some runs in with you.

Can you give some idea of how flat the base is and whether it needs a grind or not? Any sense of how the edges are set up? Thanks!

TNT Carbon is going to make life tough, especially with poor fit at the calf. You'll be riding around 55 minimum on most boards also. You can ride with ski boots unbuckled on top, which will give decent flex but poor transitions. Post a Want to Buy and you may be surprised at what pops up. If your inners fit well you might be able to get by with just SB shells of some kind. I think I have a pair of AF600 or 700 shells size 27, and there are probably others too (the 600 is pretty stiff for a beginning hardbooter). I see quite a few boots on eBay in size 26-26.5, which will probabkly fit if your TNT are 27.