crackaddict

Someone told me once (probably from this site, can't remember who it was) that the force behind the rapid change to duck stances and tiny boards was Burton Snowboards. The story goes that by the late 90s they found they just couldn't be competitive in the race world so they made it uncool and promoted the Shawn White style riding instead, a market they could dominate. Apparently, according to the rumour, this was around the same time they started adding the big whoop-di-doos into the BX courses so hard boot riders couldn't win anymore (ahem... I'm thinking of Jasey-Jay Anderson, for example). I was out of the scene for a while around that time and have no actual evidence of this conspiracy, these are unconfirmed rumours. Any informed opinions out there? All I know is that I when I stopped snowboarding so much around 1995 everybody was posi-posi and carving, and when I came back to the sport in 2006 I couldn't find any more stiff bindings on the shelves and the guy at the store was trying to sell me a 153cm rocker board, telling me it was built for speed. I told him I wanted the biggest carving board they had and walked out with a 160 Burton Triumph. That was my sixth and last Burton board. It sucked. The Asym Air from 1990 was way better at carving. I checked the catalogue and indeed the Triumph was their carving model that season. The next season I found a used Coiler Pure Race 185 on the Bomber forum, sold my old Factory Prime and never looked back. Well, until now. So what the heck happened there? Burton didn't accidentally "lose" the technology so should we assume it was intentional? Who's this guy? Seems like a pompous jerk.

That's what I'm saying!

@pow4ever Are you asking for suggestions for a soft boot setup? It's not totally clear. Are you looking for one single setup to carve and also ride powder, little jumps and trees too? That's gonna be tough, there will have to be compromises. Many many compromises. Also, carving on HB is generally easier on the body than SB. Jump turns through an icy mogul field however is a very different story... Do you ride SB at all? Boot size? Weight? Maybe you just need a second setup for non-carving days, and/or a softer slower HB board like a Contra? What are you riding now? Gumbo Power Plate is super heavy, not recommended. Driver X is stiffer than Ion and fits my wide forefoot pretty good. Someone just told me that the Nitro Select TLS is stiffer than Ride Insano but I haven't tried it on yet.

@Sirui This video has been quite popular. Thanks for your contributions!

It's somewhere in this video, along with all the riding footage we got yesterday.

"Another new video James? C'mon, I haven't even finished watching the last two yet!" Finally catching up on the editing front... This one features local legend @Sirui

Do you mean tempting him? He rode a Coiler today, I'll let him speak to his own impressions. A few turns on video coming soon. What's that? I can't hear you...

Would love your support on this one. Join in, ask questions, keep the vibe up!

Nice board. What are the black stripes? Is that some kind of plate or riser?

The final public version is up! I know you're all subscribers anyway, but just in case anyone missed it...

We got cord too! Finally! This is a raw run. I'll zoom, stabilize and edit for the masses tomorrow, this is an unlisted pre-release for my bros on the forum. There's more coming. We shot a lot of good stuff today. Fowley's Lap is a short run but it has eight of the best turns on the mountain. Nine if you come in fast for the 360 on the banked wall at the bottom. It's a Revelstoke blue run on the kids chair but like all Revelstoke blues, it has a black section. The two turns just past the slow sign are wicked steep and narrow. (I've hit that sign more than once. It's buried deeper than it looks. Ouch!) Thanks for all the inspiration in this thread gentlemen. I was so tempted to pack the car... It's hard to find patience sometimes but I finally got my fix.

Definitely! The upper mountain is in excellent condition right now. Cold and sunny for two more days before the next storm...

Good to know. I can only ride them hard two or three days in a row before I have to "change into something more comfortable". Any other opinions on this? @Board Doctor Welcome to the forum. You're in Kelowna eh? Ever make it to Revelstoke? Let's ride!

@Samurai le Blanc Your boots are too big. J bars can help but you will probably need a smaller size. A better liner will improve the fit too, but if the shell is not your size that solution will have limited results. Heel sleeves can also help. Go to a better shop and ask for a performance fit Driver X. Have them measure your mondo point foot size and fit the shell without the liner. You should have less than 1/2" between your heel and the back of the shell with your toes touching the front. If you can fit more than one finger behind your heel in the shell, you will need a smaller shell. I ride the smallest size I can without pain. I experience no heel lift, no feet sliding around, and less boot out potential. I use one J bar in each boot and I shave it down for comfort. Sometimes there's a tradeoff between performance and comfort. To me, it's worth it.

That video will have to remain private...

I need a fix! The forecast suggests some improvement here in Revelstoke but it's gonna take a metre and some colder temps for a complete surface rehabilitation. That's not gonna happen this week. Tahoe is getting dumped on right @barryj? Will it stop snowing and stay cold? How's Colorado LCI? Did you have a big melt off? Norway? @Xargo? Anyone got something firm and smooth that I can dig an edge into? (No rocks, no ice please. I may be desperate but I still have standards...)

How about this one?

How the snow in Norway this season? Anything can happen but our season is expected to be short. Let's talk in March... Today I will release a six minute summary of the "Secrets" video, just the core lessons and four drills. Only 4% of my viewer made it to the end of my 42 minute monstrosity so I thought a more digestible piece might be well received. Next up are two videos shot in my boardroom, the first on interface (boots, bindings, risers) and the second on boards. After that I might like to turn to some video analysis of my own and others' carving. This was supposed to be in Part I but I had to finish up and publish without it. I might do some live feeds too. A friend who is handling my Chinese social media and has asked for live feeds to engage my audience. I'll probably do simultaneous sessions on YT and Red Book. These I expect will be far less time consuming than shooting and editing, and may work well to acquire the influence I need to push my agenda. I do have some good footage that I haven't released yet, and I can always recombine some old footage without too many people noticing. I made a mistake last spring with the "Crushing" video: those were most of my best turns for the season, I didn't hold enough back. Those who ride Revelstoke and know those sections were certainly impressed, but I should have stretched in out to four 90 second videos instead. Viewers lose interest after a few turns. Even my ASB brothers are bored of my riding videos... I put a new one on the "Softboot Carving Worth Watching" thread a few days ago and didn't even get a single like!

Sweet! Send me a DM if you're riding up here, I'll come out for a few laps for sure!

Noah? Is that you? Fancy meeting you here... Yes. Find a high performance tuning shop with a high quality machine though, don't let some kid at the resort touch your boards. Racers even use different structures for different conditions and temperatures. Also, because your boards are probably wide, not every shop can do it. Measure the shovel (widest part) and call first. Hell yes! Love that feeling!

MCC 2023

Wow Barry! You're way better looking than I had imagined...

Yeah I do. It's true they're pretty quiet though. I think the Canadian ride boards could be fewer: one for Western Canada and one for Eastern Canada would be plenty. I mean, Alberta is only two hours from here for example, and no one has posted in the Maritimes thread for four years now. I love the ride board local focus idea but it's hard to gerrymander the districts. I'm closer to Schweitzer, Whitefish and Nakiska than I am to Whistler, but of those four only Whistler is in my district. I suspect that there would be action if the districts were bigger. @Jack M

I've got a plan for that... Be patient please.

Gotta disagree there... First of all, I only have two tricks (toeside and heelside) and I've pretty much posted my best examples of these. It's hard to get good riding video. I gotta find a competent videogapher who's available on short notice when the groom is good and the sun is shining, but I haven't seen the sun since we shot the hands in pockets stuff three weeks ago. We had some great days last season and got some good footage but our cameras were not great so slow-mo or zoom-in doesn't work. Secondly, it seems people want the knowledge. Look at @Justaride-Snowboard-Channel for example. Lars started the season with about the same number of subscribers as me (450) and, I assume due to lack of snow, started posting videos of himself talking to the camera in his attic. I don't think he's posted a single riding focused video this season and he's up to 3600 subs! Look at this guy: @shmsnow. He has some instructional stuff but his most popular video (100k views) is 32 minutes on "how to wax your board in 15 minutes". (See the irony there?) This other guy @skng has 733k views on a video titled "how to put on your ski boots"!!! Unless you're Markus Kleveland you're not gonna get a lot of views with only riding. Some good ideas there, thanks. I know the shorter vids are more popular and keep people engaged and coming back to the channel but I wanted to start will a comprehensive how-to so people could find most of the info in one place. From here on they will be shorter. What you say may be true, but I'm trying to sell boards so keep it to yourself! Not the plan... If everything goes well I won't be releasing any more YouTube videos after this season. This is a stepping stone for me, not an end in itself. I need to get views and subscribers to get noticed, some measure of influence will be necessary to start working on my bigger goals. Definitely!