crackaddict

This I stole, like most of my curriculum. This one from Tom who was (is?) a hardboot instructor in Aspen, he used to do clinics at SES and ATC. I might revisit duck carving this season too, just to see how far I can take it, inform myself and pay attention to the changes in technique so I can try to teach it later. If it's only a question of mobility then my experiment is doomed to fail... Lars told me on YouTube that he wants to meet up and ride. He seems like a well informed and competent carver (I may have stolen a thing or two from his videos too). Can you put us in touch @Rob Stevens? I've been waiting for his email. Agreed. Rob is one of the small handful of softboot riders that I've witnessed making steep groomers look fun. That was you??? 74k now... Running 16k per day and still climbing. I didn't really have concrete expectations but I suspected the world needed this video. The comments have been overwhelmingly positive, lots of people are trying out the posi-posi thing this weekend. I've been trying to sell this stance for a decade but no one would listen, they had to hear it from Jeremy Jones. His lawyers called and asked for a link and a credit. (That's when I knew I had made it!) Not sure what to do next. I'm thinking maybe live stream part II on Wednesday evening? Look closely at the interface, update part I and address some gaps, apologize for the trash talking... Any thoughts? How long should I wait? How can I follow this one up? Should I save some content until I can get a real sponsor who wants to publish it on their own social media or just blow my load now and worry about it next season? I'm thinking one part on boots, bindings and risers (interface), another on boards, and a third where I look at some videos (of me and other) frame by frame and analyze the body positions and movements. Wondering whether people want to know about my history in the sport or is that personal stuff too self-indulgent? I hope the cat will agree to appear in future instalments, he was very popular. My producer is negotiating with Smokey's agent now (in Davos). Expectations are high, I don't want Part II to be a dud. Open to ideas and direction. There are basically six weeks left before people start turning their attention to mountain biking videos.

Revelstoke has snow. There's a deeper base here than any of these other resorts above, and the warm up won't take much of it. After tonight's snow we're expecting dry conditions with some sun this week. Warm, but the freezing level will only touch the top chair momentarily. Should be pretty good on the upper chairs. I'll be riding all week, HMU for some company.

I use straps. Not Strapins but same thing, two per boot. They definitely stiffens the boot, especially when combined with a plastic tongue insert like PowerRide. I recommend straps to any carvers, even those who's boots fit well.

Mat Schon, Utah.

Do it! Keep in touch, let's ride!

Yes, I do the down-unweighted turn sometimes. Usually when there's a steep roller or if I'm running out of space at the side. So I'll suck up my knees in the transition and extend through the apex. It slows me down and tightens up the turn, I sometimes end up with both hands and my chest on the snow, @caspercarver style. I feel like it's cheating but the crowds seem to like it... Look at this short video for examples of both types of turns. I start the upper slope with my usual up-unweighting (not so obvious because I like to minimize the compression when it's possible) and the last three turns lower down are down-unweighted because of the big roller (first toeside in the video), then the lack of space for the follow up heelside and now I'm in this rhythm so the final turn is down-unweighted too. This happens naturally from my instinct for self-preservation, I don't really think about it. For me, it's the safety turn. For others, the down-unweighted extremecarve is the ultimate expression of style.

Too narrow for me... Pass. Jeff Brushie was one of my snowboarding heros. Remember that scene in Burton's "Chill" video when he shows up in Japan and all the girls are going hysterical like he's Elvis or something? I wanted to be him so bad... I even had the dreadlocks for a while. No girls screamed.

Oh yeah, no problem. This one only took me a year to put together... Seriously though, the hardboot market is less than one percent of the soft, and the hardbooters already have a lot of this information. So no. No one wants to watch hardboot videos anymore, sadly. If I had made this exact video in hardboots it would probably have less than a thousand views. Fortunately, the techniques are pretty much identical. Most of this curriculum was developed on hardboots actually, back when I was trying to figure out how to carve and would read and re-read and try to decipher the technique articles on Bomber. All the drills work in hardboots, it's the same body positions and movements too. The biggest change I would say is that the oblique crunch is more pronounced in the steeper hardboot stance. Later, maybe, will come an addendum for carving in a duck stance. We'll see. One thing at a time. The wife says first I need to clean up my room, then I can start working on Part II. Hell yes! You looked smoother in the posi-posi stance... No surprises there. Cool vid. Your long, uncontrolled head first slide is the main reason my boards are so wide. Been there. Scary when there's a tree or a skier in my path.

When are you Lower Mainland boys gonna get up to Revelstoke? This is where all the snow lands you know?

Yes, the Flow is an excellent stiff binding for carving. By far the stiffest available and it has the lowest profile also which will reduce boot out potential on the narrow X Carve. Get the large for sure. There's a thread in the soft boot carving gear reviews that discusses the Flow in detail despite the title:

Good to know. How much do you weigh @dhamann? I have always found Ride bindings to be bomb proof tough and high quality. I'm only 155lbs but I create a lot of edge pressure.

Coming in part II. Frame by frame analysis. Much better, now I can see what's going on. Good turns. I understand there have been some advances in snowboard carving tech since then...

No, it means everything. You can that see the Ride adds length past the boot in the heelcup while the Flow does not. The amount that the Ride heelcup sticks out past the boot is the BO factor. Every mm of BO factor is another mm you have to add to your board width to keep the boot out potential constant. In the photo, the Ride looks like 15 to 20mm BO factor (neither binding has a toe cap so they both have zero to add in the front/toe area). So in theory, a 260 waisted board with the Flows would boot out about the same amount as that same board with a 275 or 280 waist using the Rides. That's a huge difference when I'm already pushing the limits of width for my builders and still fighting to avoid booting out. With my new Flows I have been able to drop the risers on most of my boards. Now I want four more pairs so I don't have to keep moving them around from board to board!

I'm not sure what "out" means. Please explain? Here is a photo of how I measure BO with two squares and my boot in the binding. (If the binding wasn't mounted I could have just pushed it back against a wall.) So for the Flow NX-2 Carbons set near the highest forward lean both squares actually touch the boot, so the BO factor is zero. (I had measured 2mm last time, maybe forward lean has changed). I remeasured the height also, 103mm today (100 last time). Judging by @i8summer's photo, mine is set 10 to 15% more forward. Let me know @i8summer how the ride A-10 compares measured in this way? Sweet looking binding. How far are the squares (or wine boxes) from the boot?

Been thinking along those lines... @b.free is actually in Revelstoke this week but it's too cloudy and soft to shoot. He's so knowledgeable and a very impressive rider to boot. It's been a blast, I learned a lot. Of course it was! I'm still waiting to see footage of your new ride (non selfie footage, that is).

Interesting... I'm also in a 26.5 and I found the large too wide in the toes. Almost bought these until I read that. Too tight how? Show me a picture with her boot in it please?

That's Smokey himself! He's about 16 months old now, he loves investigating the forest, hunting mice and harassing the local chickens. His pet peeves are a dirty water bowl and a cold woodstove. Yeah, that was intentional... You know me @Jack M, always trolling. It's my online persona, I'm nicer in person. Funnily enough I was riding with @b.free today and he was explaining the differences between European extremecarving and Russian extremecarving. Respect and love to all carvers (even the duck footed ones). That might happen later. I know that's the way things are done on the world wide web, but I just wanted to package everything together to start and give people a one stop shop for the theoretical knowledge. It's my magnum opus, if you will. In my dreams it becomes the new cannon for carving curriculum and the foundation on which new ideas are framed in the future. Part two will be shorter. You got me. The editing software you downloaded for me last year doesn't have a spellchecker...

Better late than never, I started this project over a year ago. It's not quite everything I had imagined but at least it's finished now. Enjoy. I'm open to feedback and critiques, this is a first shot at codifying my (mostly stolen) curriculum.

Good point... Shoot. Indeed! Good one, though I don't know how many ASB members will get the reference to the Wild Country Friends.

So the SkiFav rep found me on YouTube last year and sent me some product to test and review. Product promotion is not my niche so I made the video "unlisted", only people with this link can view it. I'm posting it here too because I think this is actually a great new product that many ASB members would appreciate. The quality seems good and they're not expensive, strong enough to hold two boards each. Available on Amazon.

Flow NX2 Carbon Fusion. Because it goes over the toe instead of toe cap style, the BO factor is lower.

Very cool! I love to see videos of members posted up! Great content, thanks!

It is, but the release on the buckles are stiff even after a good break in period. So they can be a bit hard to get out of but super easy to get into. Even though I have to loosen and tighten the buckles on every run and do three mechanisms instead of two, I don't have to reach down to get the straps out of the way (or even kick them out of the way) before putting my boot in and that saves time and energy. Presumably if you ride them looser, like on a powder day or whatever, you wouldn't have to touch the buckles once they're set. And a moving step in and buckle up is relatively easy too, which is nice in Revelstoke with all our flat traverses. Funnily enough, it turns out highbacks are only for heelsides! A few times I've forgotten to lock in the highback and I never notice on my first toeside turn...

Turns out the Nidecker Supermatic is a relatively soft binding with a lot of play between the highback and the heelcup. Worse, it has a massively thick heelcup. The Supermatic will add 37mm to the total length of your boot, better carving bindings are in the 13mm range (Now O-Drive, Drake Podium), the Flux XV adds 23mm. The Supermatic is not a carving binding. All these others are stiffer too. I took some measurements last week. I call it the BO factor (boot out factor): it's the total length the binding with a boot in it, minus the boot sole length. I also measured the height of the heelcup off the board. The lowest was the Drake Podium at 67mm, the highest heelcup was the Flow NX2 Carbon at 100mm. Supermatic was close at 95mm (which can somewhat make up a little for it's massive length). The O-Drive was 80mm, Flux XV was 75mm. The best binding for carving, in my opinion, is the Flow NX2 Carbon. This is by far the stiffest and it has the highest heelcup and the lowest BO factor at an astounding 2mm! If you're between sizes, size down. The large is a little wide in the toes for my size 9 Driver Xs. The F2 Eliminator is a soft flexing binding, the Flux CV is a soft flexing binding. Not recommended for real hard charging. I have yet to hold a Ride A-10 in my hands or any SP binding, but otherwise my survey of the best bindings marketed at carvers is relatively complete I think. I have hand flexed a lot of other bindings too and dismissed them immediately as too soft for me. If you want super stiff, the lowest BO factor (by far) and the highest heelcup, it's the Flow NX2 Carbon. If you prefer a little softer interface then the Drake Podium and the Now O-Drive are pretty stiff by today's standards and have the next lowest BO factors, a whole cm lower than the Flux XV and that's a whole cm you can take out of your waist width! The Flux XV is stiffer than these other two though, by a lot. They're like old school 2003 stiff. But the NX2 Carbon is the stiffest I have ever seen, ever. I can relax my toes and lean into the boot top like hard boots. The XV feels loose after riding the NX2 but until this season I would have said the XV was the stiffest and highest performing binding out there. The NX2 is also more comfortable than the XV, which cause me pain (on the outside of the calf, both legs) if I ride them hard more than a few days in a row. Just one man's experience and opinion. I fully recognize that not everyone wants an interface as stiff as mine. They may want to look at other Flow bindings though which probably also share a very low BO factor and high heelcup but I haven't measured any of them myself. I am curious though about other bindings. I would be interested in BO factor measurements for any other stiff bindings, or confirmation on my own measurements. All you need is a square and a tape measure. If this turns into a binding comparison thread let's change the title and put it into the soft boot reviews section please @Jack M

Thanks Jeff. That's the Wooley Bully and then Sunshine. Mid mountain is finally open! It was a carving paradise until the snow started falling again...