Phil
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Posts posted by Phil
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Does anyone have a nice asym sitting around?
It's Jack's birthday and I thought we could all get together and send him something nice. :)
edit: This was post 1,000! I'm a trench digger! I'm a trench digger!
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apparently being coach of the year means you are always right and dont have to even try to listen to what others say
No, being coach of the year means that he has forgotten more about snowboarding than you will likely ever know. I realize that at your age, and being a college student (and apparently a bright one) you feel like you know a lot. A few days on a snowboard and a keen understanding of physics still does not put you in the same league. Trust me. You will not understand this until you
A. put in 1000+ days on a snowboard
B. get some advanced training on a board that will show you how much you really do not understand yet
and
C. ride with some people at the top level of our sport to see what you lack.
A guy like Phil Fell has trained with the best coaches and athletes and gets more days on board in two or three seasons than you have in your entire life.
My guess is that your arguments are coming down to semantics. You may be talking about different things while thinking you are talking about the same thing. The point is that you should be listening and trying to understand - asking the right questions instead of having the right answers. You listen to your professors at school, right? Do you try to prove them wrong, or do you ask questions to better understand what they are trying to tell you?
Listen, I am not trying to put you down. I just hope that you will understand that you sound like an intelligent guy. Hopefully, you will be wise enough to listen and ask the right questions so that you will also have a better understanding of snowboarding.
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The Mid Atlantic slopes will freeze Monday night and be groomed and white Tues. am. The nights will then continue to be below freezing the rest of the week. The freeze/thaw cycle will make for great morning carving conditions throughout the Mid Atlantic.
Please, don't let that stop you pansies from putting your boards away for the season.
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this video is kind of humorous for a couple reasons. ..."drop your butt like sitting on a low chair."
Can you expand on that? I thought it was sound advice:
R.I.P. J.P.
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Any way that you do it, as long as you are riding softies with relatively low angles, DO NOT face the nose of your board.
Ride in an aligned stance with your body facing your toes - then turn your head in the direction of travel and/or the direction the board is pointing.
This will be much more effective than twisting your body up to face the nose. Facing the nose on softies and low angles would be akin to skiing by leading with your front shoulder or riding side saddle on a bike. :rolleyes:
All of this being said, most of the basic ideas of "The Norm" transfer well to soft booting.
A lot of the better carvers out there are on soft boots - many of them with a duck stance.
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That's right—forgot you were at Bear Creek. So if it's a carver's paradise there, what would you call Aspen/Snowmass? LOL
Scott
It's not that the mountain is a carver's paradise, we have just had great conditions this week. They are a little more strategic with their snowmaking than the Snowtime resorts.
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Yah yah, LOL. Well, we've already established long ago that a) the RoundTop groomers are far better than Whitetail's, and b) RoundTop actually faces north...instead of the "DOH!" decision Whitetail made to face southeast! (Makes a big difference.)
I'm not at SRT anymore. I'm at Bear Creek. The funny thing is, I was giving a clinic today (most likely the time you were at WT) and the conditions at BC had seen heavy traffic, but were still a carver's paradise.
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You have GOT to be kidding me!
Don't worry, I'll enjoy all of the epic morning conditions in PA for you until the end of March Scott. We're still making snow. Monday morning was the best carving conditions I've seen all year!
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Seems like the steeper your angles, the more you turn top-down (since bottom-up transitions don't work as well as you don't have as much ankle leverage). Just observing better carvers than me, it almost seems (on groomers anyway) that top-down transitions can be (or appear) smoother and less "hair trigger" than bottom-up. (Think of how a slalom water skier turns, as an analogy.)Does the tail wag the dog?
I love this quote. It sums up what I think of top down vs. bottom up. The slalom water skier turn analogy breaks down quickly because the impetus for their turning is coming from both tension on the rope and ground reaction force. We have no rope.
I think that bottom up is more effective overall regardless of your angles. The difference is that you are using inversion/eversion more as opposed to plantar/dorsiflexion in your ankles.
Plantar/dorsiflexion:
Inversion/eversion:
Inversion/eversion causes smaller overall movements when compared to plantar/dorsiflexion, but is still effective at high angles on a narrow board because you don't have to move your center of mass as far to be over the edge. It is also made possible by the fact that the boots do not flex laterally as much. Yes, it may seem easier to ride top down with higher angles, but I would still argue that it is not as efficient/effective. In fact, skiers have a forward stance and even laterally stiffer boots, but are taught bottom up as well. (because the tail does not wag the dog) As a complete generality, I believe that higher angles allow a rider to be lazier if all they ride groomers. You may find this appealing. This ability to be lazy is hampered by any kind of subpar conditions, though.
On a snowboard, we need to be able to move laterally (over our edges) and fore and aft. We also have to be able to combine the two and move anywhere in between. The higher your angles, the more you are using plantar/dorsiflexion for your fore and aft movements, so you will be able to move further this way. OTOH, with low angles, you will be able to move more laterally just by using plantar/dorsiflexion. At 45 degrees, you are using a balance of inversion/eversion and plantar/dorsiflexion for both lateral and fore and aft movements. Then you throw in foot to foot movements and you have more stability fore and aft naturally. With that in mind, I believe that you will find more advantages with lower angles. By lower angles, I mean closer to 45 degrees as opposed to 70 degrees or higher. If the main advantage to higher angles is fore and aft movement, you can have that with lower angles by using foot to foot movements.
Here are some other quotes that I think are pertinent:
It seems to me one other reason that slightly wider boards are being used is that a lower stance angle allows for bigger and more powerful pivoting movements. While pivoting is generally detrimental to carving (as it can result in skidding, scrubbing speed), when the course requires it most successful racers are able to pivot their unweighted boards in the transition, and to 'lock on' to a carve to maintain a fast line. It has been my experience that lower angles are much better than high ones for these pivoting, 'leg scissoring' moves.
You can feel this for yourself by standing up now, as you read this. Try standing with very high stance angles and then then try stepping your feet to move your legs through this pivoting move. I think you'll find that higher angles allow a smaller range of movement than lower angles. Lower angles also recruit stronger muscle groups and allow for further pivoting movement through using the knee as a hinge to 'sweep' the foot.
Not only does this result in quicker, stronger, accurate movements, it also results in better balance, as it seems that riders with extremely high angles have to make additional movements of the upper body to get the board around, resulting in imbalance and a jerky, edge-of-control look to their turns.
It seems that for these biomechanical reasons (larger range of movement from the ball-and-socket joint in the hip, using stronger muscle groups, and, when necessary, using the knee/ankles to further sweep the board) that slightly wider boards are more useful whenever the course requires pivoting moves. If you're free riding, lower angles are useful in situations where you might need to quickly, powerfully, and accurately pivot the board, such as bumps, trees, steeps, crowded slopes, etc.
With high angles the knees and hips are used to change edges.With lower angles, a rider can involve the ankles, which are way quicker when it comes to shifting pressure across the foot.
Combine this with all the other points raised and you can see why this change has been taking place for years.
It's been a LONG time since I saw a race of any kind where there wasn't ALOT of pivoting going on. I think the last time I saw a unbroken, clean carve from top-to-bottom was Jaseys winning run in the World Champs from Italy many years ago. This was a single GS (the last of its kind on the World Cup) and utilized the whole run from side to side, with all of the terrain changes, banks and rollers. It was a beautiful run to watch, even in the free-carve sense.
Now, parallel GS makes it harder to avoid pivoting in order to create equal courses.
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If your hill is under 300 feet, you may want to consider a slalom board or a tight turning FC or AM board.
I would not recommend the Nidecker GS. I rode the 183 in the late '90's (a couple of years after the one pictured above) and loved it, but I would not want it on a little hill.
The aforementioned brands all have something that fits the bill.
Jack's Madd might be a good fit, but it is awfully short.
An SL board should probably be around 163 for you.
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...on a PERFECT GROOMER.......on a MODERATELY WIDE & STEEP BLUE...
A "perfect groomer" would not be a "moderately wide and steep blue".
;)
If I was on a trail that had consistent pitch, width and groom the whole way down, I would do the style that I felt like doing for said trail. The reality is that most trails change and/or we take detours to other trails on the way down. With different trails comes different turns. With different parts of trails (diff. pitch, width etc.) comes different turns - for me anyway. The mountain is my playground. I like bumps, steeps, rails, pipe, jumps, switch etc. I would say that I am a mix of styles, but I am a mix of a lot more styles than you have listed.
Honestly, Scott, I am not trying to be difficult.
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Where are you riding? RT? Lib? WT? Wisp? Other?
I would say that your choice of resorts may influence the board that you choose.
What kind of riding do you like to do?
Depending on where you are in MD, there may be some guys who you could get together with to test their gear. I am at Bear Creek, PA and you are welcome come ride some of my gear sometime. I'll also be hittin' up SRT this Sunday if you want to try something there.
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Hey ncapriot,
I ride Bear Creek 6 days/week. I see you are from Glenside. If you ever get the chance to come ride, let me know. I have the last Litigator made before they changed the name to "Skunk Ape". I have been riding it a lot lately. I would not ride it with plates, but then I am a big guy. If you are not a big guy and you don't put a lot of stress on the board, plates might be alright. Of course, if you are not a big guy, you probably also do not have big feet, which will mean that you have to run really low angles on this board in hardboots, which may not be favorable.
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Sounds like how some SB racers feel about EC. :rolleyes:
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I talk about safety every chance I get. With experienced riders, I still remind them to look uphill when appropriate.
I have found that expert riders still don't "get it" when I am giving clinics. Just last week we were doing a carving session and we were very busy. Every time we did a drill I would remind them very deliberately that we are very busy. Pick your time to "drop" and then look back uphill often to make sure that you still have your "window" to do the drill. Several of the people in the clinic got a good start, but a few turns later they would stop looking uphill altogether. We had several close calls that could have easily been avoided. Would a collision have been their fault? No. Could they have helped avoid it? Yes. Even these seasoned riders could not focus on two things (learning AND safety).
We also teach ALL instructors to review the code and incorporate it into their lessons every chance they can.
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Now, by refusing the tips, am I actually ruinning the things for my fellow, full-time instructors, who definitely need every penny to make the ends meet? Should I have accepted, for the sake of industry's standard practices?
I feel that way. I rely heavily on tips. I don't know of many instructors that refuse them (well, now I know of one ;) ). What is the harm in taking it? It does not depreciate your love for what you do, it shows that you have high value for what you do.
Do I, or my fellow full timers everywhere love the sport any less than you do? Probably not, but for us, it pays the bills, so tips are important.
My guess is that the guy is the kind of guy who naturally gives tips. You may not have changed this. OTOH, he may now think that tipping an instructor is not necessary. Who knows?
If it is that important to you to show the love of the sport without monetary gain, next time take the tip and be gracious to the guest - then take the money and donate it to a good cause - snowboard related if you like.
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First weather a person tunes or not has nothing to do with their technique. But a person with bad technique will have a better time on a well tuned board. Plus most people tune in the evening, a time when they can not work on technique, so them tuning does not take any time away from working on technique. Your first point makes no sense.
O.K, so when I used to see some at the mountain where I used to work tuning several times a week (and again, I am not talking about taking a stone to the edges) for extended periods of time DURING THE DAY and I would ask them why they are tuning the same board AGAIN, the answer was always the same, regardless of who I asked - it's icy today and my edges just aren't biting.
So let's assume they tuned three times a week and all totaled they took an hour (go to the tuning area, set up, tune, tear down, clean up, go back) each time. I would bet you that I could have taken three of those hours one week and two the following - still allowing them a full tune every two weeks, but working on technique for five hours that they would not have otherwise - they would have better edge hold on any conditions - and still have good edges.
Does that make sense?
Good Lord. All I am saying is that I know a lot of people that are too obsessed with keeping good edges but pay less attention to learning better technique. The guys that are disagreeing with me have all put their time in learning the technique. :rolleyes:
Let me remind you how I started in this discussion:
I would never go so far as to say that you should not have your gear tuned well...
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How can a tune be used instead of technique?
It can't. That is my point. A lot of people worry so much about tuning all of the time and continue on with poor technique. I am saying spend more time developing the technique.
Taking one minute to run your edges every time with a stone before you go out carving is not out of line either.Sounds easy enough, but I still just don't see where it is necessary. I like to just grab my board an go. I do not see taking a stone to a board as being the same as a tune, though.
I am just shocked that there is any division about this at all. It's not like we are sliding rails here. Most are carving. How can it not help?
How can it not help? Sure it can help.
I just think that a lot of people waste a lot of time and money on tuning that would be better spent riding and learning.
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Have you considered a Custom X Wide?
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why question if tuning is necessary?
of course it is
why else would all those tuneshops be so busy?
For the same reason that I keep bike shops busy: I suck at biking, so I try to compensate by putting a lot into my gear, so that I can get better. Better gear makes me better, right?
Again, I am not saying that tuning is not important, just over utilized in place of technique.
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I think about this question all the time—the fundamental question of...what's more important for the *average* rider—the gear? Or technique? (Yeah, yeah...I know..."Both!")....
Scott
I have to say that I agree with the entirety of your post, unlike how I felt about your "black diamond" post. ;)
I would never go so far as to say that you should not have your gear tuned well, but I believe that people go overboard and put too much importance on it. I tune my boards once or twice a season (I am an ~80 day/year rider). When I used to race, I tuned them much more. As a freerider, I really don't see the need. Edges have to be pretty dull before they will not bite with good technique. In fact, I used to spend time with an ex-WC ski racer that often would detune the whole edge when we had hero snow just because there was too much bite for the level of skill that they had (my words, not theirs).
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Butter milk has to be the most boring stop of SES. I spend the entire time there dissapointed and bored. If your a carver that thinks buttermilk is the action then you are a carver who goes slow and probably never comes close to working any board any where near its true flex and proformance.
Billy, I would bet that this describes 80% of hardbooters. How many recreational riders do you really see on the hill that are getting the most out of their equipment? The great thing is that they are most likely still having fun.
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I'm off Sundays.
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Are you pretty much teaching the whole day? would you have time for a few runs?
When you know you are coming, shoot me that PM. We'll go from there.
Setting the board(s) up will be the most important thing. My boots will be too big for you, so you will have to wear the ski boots you have unless you can find someone with SB boots that will fit you.
OS board
in Summer Carving
Posted
I realize that this forum is more for longboarding, but I was hoping that you guys could help me anyway.
I have been promising my daughter for over a year that I would get her first skateboard for her birthday this year. I have also told her that Daddy would get one too and we would ride together.
I used to skate when I was younger and I would love to get back into park/pipe skating, so I want a regular freestyle shape, but I am a big guy and my inseam is 38". I feel awful when I get on regular sized boards, so I would like a longer wheelbase. I would like something wider for my size 15 feet as well.
I have seen some Sector 9 boards that are for pools that have a longer wheelbase and look good. I see that Lib Tech and Alva also make similar boards.
Any suggestions?