Jonny

I like Rob's advice for higher speeds, but at the slower speeds I think you're talking about the centered move he decribes doesn't really clear the nose for me (I'm pretty heavy at 220 and my 205 is pretty narrow and not a swallowtail, so you may kick loose earlier.) For me it takes a delicate little mini-ollie to clear the nose and then a gentle step forward as I kick the tail into a little slide to get things started. I'm pretty centered once I get close to the fall-line. For me, the big deal is to find a technique which is balanced and also dynamic enough that my back leg doesn't just burst into flames after three runs, and a fair amount of rhythmic fore-aft movement helps with that. Obviously I'll go pearl-diving if the nose gets too much pressure, but the moment when I'm in that initial slide is usually OK.

WOW! She rode beautifully. Unbelievable how strong they are to still be able to ride like that after so many runs.

Great link, thanks! The German girls seem generally to run the purest, roundest line, and stay much more over the middle of the board. Everyone else seems to want to load up the tail and blast off at the transition. Interesting to see how close the two styles are in terms of speed. Course must be one big rut by now.

About half and half for me. If there's serious pitch I'll always ski for preference, likewise in trees or deep snow, since I don't have a soft setup. I'll also ski when it's crowded, or when I'm with my wife and our youngest. They're slower coming down and it's a lot easier to hang out on skis than on a 60/60 hardboot setup. It makes a difference that current model skis are so fantastic now, compared with what used to be available. On GS skis I'm WAY faster than on my 180 Coiler(Head iGS RD/VIST 183) and my slalom skis (Head iSL chip) will make a turn just as pure as my Oxygen slalom board will, on much steeper slopes. On an easy, NASTAR type course I'm about 10% faster on skis, mostly because I can skate. On tougher courses the margin is greater. Freeride cruising speed on my GS skis or even my all-mountain Crossmax is at least 10 mph faster than on a board. No ski gives the kind of full-body rhythmic experience a board can (and the boots hurt a lot more...)

Yes - don't crash like that - if you stuff the nose at an angle at anything above moderate speed there's going to be a big load on the front leg somewhere. If your boot is loose or soft you can hurt your ankle, if it's solid there's load on the shin and knee. Nothing like the havoc any type of releasable binding would cause, though. Pressure down through the middle of the board is a good thought in ruts, and keeping your front foot light is good in slush.

Heck yes - in fact you can break an ankle in stiff racing ski boots. Hope yours is OK.

No chance, I'm afraid - rehearsing all day. Really bummed but got to earn a living... It's jyepstein(AT)gmail.com

always kind of day to day, since we don't get our rehearsal schedule for the day until fairly late the previous evening. I'll post when I know, though. I'd hoped to come out to run some gates sometime but evenings are going to be tough now that we're out of the studio and in the theatre. That was fun the other day but it got a little soupy after 1PM. There's one slightly concave spot right above the park where it looks like a carve-around ought to be possible but I never really got more than a 270 on a true rail. Went up and slipped a few of the bigger ruts before I left, at least :^)

That guy could ride about anything - his turns made a very distinctive hissing sound - like ripping a piece of silk - and his track was ridiculously narrow. The PJ was very rideable at moderate speeds, but it liked a lot of fore and aft movement, and was twitchy on hard snow without being particularly quick edge to edge.

The Open at Stratton did indeed use to have a "Super-G" although by skiing standards it was really a wide-open GS. I qualified in via The Green Mountain series (maybe '93? '92? - not sure) and ran on a PJ - completely overmatched from top to bottom and DNF - probably just as well because the big left near the bottom would have been deadly on that setup. On modern fast snowboard gear on modern super-g courses (which are a lot like DH was back in the 60s) the injuries would be devastating - lots of broken jaws and wrists from frontside edge catches out of the air and lots of concussions from catching heelside. A really technical GS course would be more fun to watch for me.

I saw that too - can't afford to get rammed - gonna try Ward this AM instead...

I'm probably hitting Wachusett thursday AM until 1:30 or so if you've got another day trip planned,,,

Great to see, and pretty decent coverage - they had the whole track for a change. I couldn't figure out why LV's hip angulation was so extreme going left until they showed the isolation slo-mo and you could see she was riding her inside ski all the way around like a freedogger doing an outrigger, clearly to take the load off the right shin. Sick.

Nice guy - really - much better move than what I used to do. I used to just throw their skis in the woods.

As a side note - did you see the little feature they showed on tuning? Beautiful finish and structure, and some NASTY insert-suck right under the bindings! Have they found that this really doesn't matter? Too time-consuming to pull or at least loosen the bindings before waxing every time?

Just awful news. Scary sport that is - I've never been so terrified in my life, not even sailing in a hurricane, as I was on my one skeleton run.

Anyone riding Ward this evening (friday?). Is it a total mob-scene on saturdays during the day? Might be able to get out somewhere tonight and/or tomorrow, but I do hate having to look over my shoulder all the time when I'm in a turn...

Going to be a little tough, until the end of March. Meanwhile, I'll give you a call when I can sneak out for a little quiet poach during rehearsals midweek and mondays - weekends are out until we close. I might make the Monday of ECES but my show opens two days later so it's a little chancy...

Hey Bobby - hope we get to ride again soon! I was thinking about your situation and given your technique, especially that really pure heelside move you have, I bet you could set that Voelkl up the way a lot of euros used to - around 52 front and steeper - close to 60 - in back. Feels a little weird at first, and it's truly lousy for skidding, but I think it would fit on the board, since it's a bit wider up forward, and oddly enough it seems to take some load off the lower back and feet (might feel weird on your knees, however). Give it a try on the carpet at home before chancing it on the hill of course. Best, Jonny

aaargh - wish I could but I'm working late. Riding Thur or Fri evening? Never been to Ward but it looks cool.

I sure will. Hope it didn't get washed out. Didn't get up to B-E yesterday, just rode Bousquet for a few hours. Got a nice compliment from an older skier: " That's beautiful! The way you get right down to the snow like that! Actually makes snowboarding look like a real sport..." Turns out the dude was Heidi Voelker's dad (Bousquet's her home hill). Made some pretty nice turns himself, for an 82 year old.

At your weight, and especially if you're mostly riding something else in firm condition, you could really do worse than a Burton Alp if money is a factor and if the bindings will mount. These aren't anywhere near as solid as the other boards which have been mentioned, but they're very well-mannered in trees and at slow speeds, and can be had for a song.

Skier since 1961, eventually PSIA intructor, sometime racer. I still ski about half the time, especially if there's serious pitch involved. Much better skier than rider, in terms of versatility - I'll come down pretty much anything on skis while on a board I have to be more conservative. Windsurfing since 1981 or so. First tried a board after hours in a foot of fresh at Bromley around 1980 - a couple of brothers were offering good skiers a ride on something they'd cooked up - kinda like a Snurfer but wth no rope from the nose - wish I'd invested... First snowboard was a Burton Backhill (all wood, no P-Tex or metal edges), quickly replaced in 1987 by a Cruzer (beveled swallowtail, single center fin which I removed) - still have that board for surfinging around in the backyard - no bindings on it. First hardboot board a Hot Logical, around 1990 I think.

I wish... Really the issue is that the actors' union frowns on principal players participating in anything more hazardous than ping-pong while under contract. That said, anyone riding tomorrow at B-E? I was stuck inside today and i'm jonesing.

I'm pretty sure I rode this very board - probably at the '03 ECES. Really a very sweet ride - locked up nicely and lots of pop at the end of the run. A little soft for full-on blasting for my 220 lb but by no means overpowered for normal riding. Too close in terms of range to my 180 Racecarve (7.3 flex), or I'd be all over it myself. Hope that helps...