Phil

You can use soap for this.

Wax's main purpose for me is to protect my base. I need my boards to last as long as possible. I wax at least every other day. I am not really that caught up in performance - nor do I (care to) notice a big difference.

You bought a Tanker? My offer for you to demo any of my boards is now off the table! ;) Very Jealous.

Quite sure.

--- Someone dial nine eleven....This phone has no eleven.

I remember watching that (all 753 times.... - each season) and thinking "what the heck was he thinking trying to go over those rocks like that?" Now we see unathletic kids who think that the world is their playstation try to ride every (un)natural feature and face plant just like Perata because they have no idea what they are doing. There's nothing like good entertainment. Who needs reality TV when you have a beginner terrain park outside the lodge? BTW (on Perata), can you say "helmet"? It may or may not have saved his teeth, but it definitely would have helped with the other head injuries. Any movie that has kept my stoke going all summer long gets my vote, and there are so many of them. I still remember some quotes that really stuck with me. --- Jeff Brushie's rap "Went up to the mountain, there was snow, caught big air like nobody know...." --- Jean Nerva (I think) "You carve, you carve, you carve, you carve, no slide, even if it's icy." --- Damian Sanders " Jumping, that's what it's all about." --- Steve Graham "There's only so much you can really do in a trick, everything is just getting reverted, and landing backwards and maybe another twist on it, but how far can you go? You gotta get upside down." (Boy, he didn't know what was coming. I'll bet he is somewhere enjoying a superpipe and a terrain park today.) --- Olly North "I shreaded. I was never told not to shread. I shreaded because I thought it was the right thing to do." Maybe I'll remember more later and post them...just waking up now. Now I'm all stoked to start my day.

I have never heard of them. There is a local shop selling 2 of their alpine boards in 160 length. They have 21 cm waists and REALLY resemble some of the old burton alp boards. Does anyone have any info on them?

But you don't understand. We are Americans, we fully understand ALL political issues both at home and abroad. Because of our superior understanding, we are the best people to judge what is right and what is wrong in our country, your country and everyone else's country. In fact, we do not even need to know anyone there and talk to them about it first, because we know enough from our media sources to have the ultimate knowledge of what is going on. You need to tell your people how it is, because apparently they are in the dark. Please, pardon our ethnocentrism.

...+1.

Art just posted this thread the other day.

Kudos to the other mods on snowboard.com They reworded their stance on height to the following. "Height can play a role in stance width and other factors...but remember you DO NOT choose a board length based on the chin to nose factor." I would say that this is acceptable. It is still oversimplifying, but I would not say that they are doing a disservice to their readers.

I am not sure that I totally understand what you are saying, but I can tell you that every boot should have a mark on the bottom to tell you where the center is. If you are worried about centering yourself, you would pay more attention to this mark.

I don't know why you guys are so worried about clubs. I think they just need to make the hole a foot or so in diameter. I am almost sure that someday I could get down to 100 if they did that.;)

Lift, cant, and damping have all been done in the past. Like you said, the lift is being done by Palmer. It is also being done by Burton. Damping is being done by Burton as well this year (ECS). I have not seen cants around for softies for a while, but I still have some old cant/lifts in the "old bindings box" in the basement. I don't claim to know all of the current tech, so maybe there is more out there that I don't know about.

Thanks for all of the responses. I VAGUELY remember talking to and reading conversations with WC racers and coaches in the past that talked about height not being as determining a factor as once thought(NOT that it wasn't a factor at all). They talked about things such as leg length, weight distribution, etc. being more important. Because of these conversations, I thought that there may be more to what the people on "the other" forum were talking about. I am reassured that from the response here, as well as the AASI forum where I also posted this, theories on height and weight vs. board selection are still as valid as ever. After reading "the other" forum a little more, I also realize that these guys are seriously overestimating their expertise when giving advice. For instance, they will truly tell a short, heavy person to ride a long board and a tall lighter person to ride a short board. They will also specifically say in these cases that height has nothing to do with it. Whatever. I was truly hoping that there was another good snowboarding forum that I could take part in - the offerings are just not very good. It is a shame, though, when people are looking for advice from a forum, the "experts" give advice that makes no sense. These kinds of things make me really appreciate Bomber!

.Sorry, I missed that part. The idea that I am talking about is facing your body toward your toes, so that your feet are not turned 50 degrees relative to your body. It is almost more like being in an athletic stance with one foot a little in front of the other. IMO, if you are riding efficiently and as effectively as possible, you will not feel one leg working more than the other because you will be using both legs to work the whole board. As I write this, I realize that if someone does not ride like this, these last two posts probably make no sense at all.:o

Sorry, man, I meant no harm. I was referring to the age old Bomber flame war of "face the nose vs. face the toes". This refers to where your upper body is facing when you are in your "neutral" stance. I assumed from your post that you are a "face the nose" kind of guy. My riding stance is a very neutral and comfortable one, even at 65 degrees, but then, I face the toes. I feel more like I am in an athletic, or "ready" position when I am on my board. I do not feel like I am twisted up at all. Whenever I work with a new student (new to hardbooting AND/OR new to me) the first thing that I do with them is make sure that they are able to get into a neutral position. That may mean that we work with bindings and boots, or it may mean that we work with their body position - or both. IMO, that is the best place to start riding, whether you are on softboots at -15, +15, or you are on hardboots at 50, 65, etc. I believe that once someone is in a "neutral" position, they are a clean slate. In this position, there is no input on the board except the input that they choose - positive or negative. From a good "neutral" position, the only thing that should be twisted up is your neck as you turn your head in the direction of travel. If you truly feel twisted up, maybe it would help to have someone look at your stance? Maybe there are some adjustments that can be made to help you.

Now I have another reason to tell people not to face the nose. ;) ...Yeah, there's this guy, he faced the nose so much that he can't walk straight anymore. He now looks like Quasimoto... Seriously, though, besides my belief that it can be a detriment to riding, riding all twisted up just seems so unnatural.

+ 1 It is too bad that it will not be in stores. I would like to check it out before I buy it. You guys will have to check it out for me.

I was just on another forum where it was declared in a sticky by a mod: I replied that I did not think that height was totally out of the equation. I used the example that a person who is 5'6" and a person who are 6'6" may be the same weight, but that their inseams could dictate such radically different stances that the same board may not suit. The "guy who was in the know" on that forum mocked me and reaffirmed the (forum's) view that height is in no way a determiner of board size. And used the example of a tall guy who rides a 152 because he is light. Before there could be any discussion, the mods deleted my posts - that is how serious they are about height not being a factor at all (and there was absolutely nothing offensive or even negative on my posts). He made a reference to the idea of height being a determining factor as an antiquated idea. For this reason, I think that they are reacting to the fact that shops used to say things like - the board has to come up to your chin, or between your chin and your eyes. Of course, I am suggesting no such thing. I understand that the idea of choosing a board by your height is not the way to go, but to say that it has no bearing on board selection seems to ignore some important considerations. Am I out of my mind? Please discuss.

My post was about how I feel about people, not what I DO about those who I disagree with. I said that I try to love and respect people, not their actions. I believe that we have a responsibility to try to help people and/or help them to change their errant ways. IMO, it all starts with building a relationship. Once a relationship is established, your likelihood of having a positive effect on someone greatly increases. It is really hard to build a relationship with someone if you look down on them. I believe that elitism and snobbery puts a wall between us and them. Once the wall is there, how can we help them to change? Bitching about it gets us nowhere. Being open to relationships with young thugs is a start. It is like this: I know a guy who got mugged by a thug in the city. He says "I don't know why this happened to me, I never did anything to anybody." He is right in two ways. He never did anything to hurt anybody, so in his innocence he did not deserve to be attacked. However, he also never did anything to help society, especially not underprivileged kids in the city who grow up having to decide what means they will use to put food on the table. Of course, I am not saying it was his fault, but I am saying that he did not do anything to help the situation. Now he will most likely spend his life bitching about degredation of urban cultures, but will not lift a finger or spend a dime to do anything about it. (this was all WAY oversimplified, but I think you will get the point) Bottom line is that talk is cheap. Are we still talking about snowboarding?

You know, I have been watching this thread since you started it and several times I have typed responses only to exit and forget about it. I just did not want to get into it. Unfortunately, now I am in it, and for better or for worse, I will try to give you a thoughtful response that I think that the topic deserves. First off, I try to respect PEOPLE, not their actions. I highlighted "try" because I don't always do very well at it. Let me peel away the layers of your comment: Rich - I am not rich, but if they are, is that their fault? 10 boarding outfits - If I had the money, I would have 10 as well - why not? 7 boards - my functional quiver is 4, but I have a lot more than that on the wall, so I have no room to talk here. sorry attitudes - that's too bad, but if I build a relationship with them, maybe I will understand them better - heck maybeI can even help them out. wannabe gangsters - I'll never really understand this because of my age, but then again, I used to wear neon and want to be like Damian Sanders;) (remember him? back when one would race and compete in the pipe in the same event?) smoke pot all day - yeah, I think this is a stupid thing to do, but are you telling me that there aren't "core" riders (many here on this site) that do the same? Believe me, I do not excuse poor actions, but I try not to write someone off because of their actions. My goal is to love and respect people where they are. I try not to take their actions personally. Sometimes I fail miserably. Other times I am successful and my perspective is broadened by experiencing a new personality or subculture. I still may not accept or respect their actions, though. In the end, as Chris K. said, it is about having fun. I have found that I can have fun on a snowboard with just about anyone. I have even been known to spend long hours on the bunny slopes with people and still have a blast just playing on my snowboard. (I am of the firm opinion that ANY snowboarder can learn SOMETHING on the bunny slope) There is another side to this story. After reading what I have already written, hopefully you will not take the following personally. One of the many actions that I personally dislike (and am guilty of) is elitism. To me, this thread, from the very beginning has been very elitist. Correct me if I am wrong, but the title of this thread could have been "Core riders are better than posers" If we are weighing actions, I don't see how being an elitist is any better than being a poser. To me, you have two different kinds of people who are trying to find their identity through the same medium, only one wants to be identified with the culture (poser) and one wants to be identified by their skill and/or commitment to the sport ("core"). I spent many years trying to find my identity through what I do (a lot of that was snowboarding) and many times I still find myself doing that. I am sure that those who have read my posts at Bomber over the years could probably recognize that I have this problem. The problem is, where does getting your identity through snowboarding get you? If you are "core" you will always be ranking yourself among the "core" people and looking down on those who are not "core", or who are less "core". If you are a poser, you will always be ranking yourself on how much you look and act the part of the culture you identify yourself with. When you are old and gray, are you going to look back and be happy that you were a "core" snowboarder? That doesn't do much good if you were a grouch who looked down on others who were not like you. Where did being a "core" snowboarder get you in life anyway? Or are you going to look back and say "when I hit up the park, I was rollin' strong in my Shaun White getup, matta fact, I had it in all three colors." For people who are really into snowboarding, they would say "yeah but you missed out on the essence of snowboarding". That being true this person probably missed out on a lot more in life as well. I remember a time when people would not get on a lift with me or go down the slope with me because I was on a snowboard. That sucked. I personally have a lot of shortcomings. If you see me on the hill, some of them may be immediately evident. Others would take time to discover. In spite of my shortcomings, I hope that people will still be willing to ride with me. I can honestly say that I don't believe that there has been anyone who has ever ridden with me that has not had some sort of fun. They may not have liked me all that much. They may not have respected me. My personality and/or my shortcomings may have annoyed them. I would still bet that once we hit the snow, we had a good time. In the same way, when I meet you guys on the hill, I hope that whether you fall into the elitist or the poser category, or some other category not addressed here, we can just go ride and have fun. I promise that I will try to look past any shortcomings that I perceive in you. After all, we are all supporting the same industry in one way or another. Without that support, we would enjoy less of the luxuries in this sport that we all love. I am ready for snow. Maybe next time I will be smart enough to stick to snowboard specific threads.;)

It sounds like your attitude toward the terrain park is just like their attitude toward you. They probably say "we also unfortunately have a great race dept." I have NEVER gotten any flak from any FS riders because of my race boards. At most, when I am about to drop in, they may ask "are you really going to ride that thing in here?" Respect gets respect. Disrespect gets disrespect. Usually.

I'm blushing Jack.:o J/K Anyone w/15's already knows about riding high angles (if they are a carver). On a 25.5cm waist, you are talking about riding well over 45 degrees if you want to carve hard. Even on a 28cm waist the lowest I can get is 33 degrees:( . IMO, over 45 degrees means lack of performance. Many would argue that even lower (30+) lowers performance. In any case, it sounds like a great board and I wish you the best. You may want to post it in a thread for normal sized people, though. BTW, as far as Donek and softies go, my Incline (Sasquatch) is about the best carving softy board I have ridden. If you blow out on that thing, it is nobody's fault but your own.

For a size 15 foot??? Oh, you little guys. You'll never know our pain.;)