crackaddict

Beautiful collection!

What? Alpinesnowboarder.com has a store now? Brilliant! Just ordered a set of powerride hard with wings to replace the spare tongues from my Stratos Pro I've been using in my softboots for years. Hoping these will be better, stiffer and more comfortable too. I want to see a basic affordable riser next! (And a mitten that lasts longer than half a season please?) @dhamann PM me and I'll show you what the risers should look like.

Tell me about it... After all this it better be a great video @barryj, our expectations are high.

That's why I started a YouTube channel... You can post videos there as "unlisted" and then only people with the link can see them.

This one? Sims Freestyle 165 circa 1992: very little sidecut depth and straight sections at the ends of the effective edge. Not as wide of course but the shape is reminiscent.

Really? It's not much more expensive than the Sony camera. Any other opinions on that option? Haven't made a dime from media revenue sharing. My secret is that I don't have any bills to pay... I spent a decade living in a camper van for example. Now I grow a lot of my own food, heat my house with wood that I cut myself, and wear some of the same clothes I bought from a thrift store twenty years ago. I can buy a season pass and a couple of new boards each winter for less than it would cost you for a week long snowboard vacation in BC. Priorities, my friend. I also save a lot of money on haircuts and razors because I don't mind looking like a homeless person.

Thanks to everyone for the replies. Honestly, a lot of it went right over my head. My friend Caleb does the formatting and editing for me. He's trying out Topaz AI this weekend, I'm a bit of a Luddite myself. This looks like the kind of camera I'm looking for. Thanks for the recommendation. Anything else I should consider in that style and price range? Martina has an older iPhone with a single lens, I have a Samsung S21 5G. We learned a lot this season about digital vs optical zoom and frame rate but still we know very little. Next season will be better, I'll have better cameras and will probably get a professional editor. I might even hire someone to manage an Instagram account for me. This season was very successful though, my amateur videos were way more popular than I ever expected and I'm working on getting some sponsors now. Six months ago I would never have thought it possible. I only started that YouTube channel so I could show off to the ASB community. Then Jordan started producing videos for me and Ryan Knapton promoted my little channel from Montucky, and now I've come to realize that there's probably hardly anyone else who can carve the extremely steep groomers on soft boots like I do and so I intend to leverage that. Look out next season for a "how to carve" video series promoting myself and my sponsor(s). I may even be able to fulfill my childhood dream of having my own pro model, imagine becoming a professional snowboarder at 48 years old! How crazy is that? Turns out too there's a technical riding championship competition in Asia every winter and Red Bull co-sponsors a (non-competitive) carving event with SG - that course has limbo gates and a 360 turn, almost as though it was designed for me! Look for me there in 2024...

Definitely 3rd person shooting, the selfie videos just don't capture the carving the way I like. @philw's video above is actually quite excellent for a selfie stick vid, but when I see selfie carving video I can't see the rider's body position or the terrain properly. Generally, I find these boring, repetitive and sometimes even a little nauseating to watch. I'll look into Topaz AI, thanks. I might also need a better computer...

So... Anyone who has seen my videos from this season knows I need a real camera. They were all shot on phones or gopro or insta360 X2 and I'm not getting the quality I want. I'll buy an insta360 X3 next year for sure, but I also want another video camera for fixed position shots. Can I make videos with super slo-mo and crisp picture like the examples below without spending a fortune or carrying a huge pack? What's out there? What should I look for in a camera and how much do I need to spend? And:

Thanks for doing the math @Neil Gendzwill I'm having trouble with the formula though, is it supposed to be the whole thing under the square root divided by 4 or just the square of the stance width? I tried it with R and S both in metres and I can't make it work. My gut says there's probably a bigger difference between 8m and 16m than between 10m and 20m. Plus, soft boot stances are closer to 60cm than 50, and that a board design like Contra has most of the sidecut between the feet. But even without these additional factors, 6mm is not nothing; that's already a big difference in boot out potential. For example, I'm thinking of my NeverSummer 27.5 wide w/8m scr vs a JJA 29.5 wide with a 16m sidecut. Width underfoot is way different for sure but the NeverSummer is soft and has so much sidecut that it doesn't require nearly as much speed or angulation so boot out potential is similar. So when I said: I should have said that its a combination of all the board specs, including flex, that determines the ideal waist width for a given rider on a given run in specific snow conditions... accounting of course for the phase of the moon at the instant they initiate...

Well said. You're right. I guess it's the heelside I was thinking of. Some of the Asian carvers like to open the shoulders and underrotate on toeside with the front hand behind the back. I'll post a link if I see a good example. Interesting... Thanks for the explanations gentlemen. Here's something cool from the old school at my old haunt with my old friends... Enjoy.

No, no you don't. That one needs some adjustments... As Bruce says " I always learn more from lemons than from gems".

It depends on your riding style. For big fast carved turns I recommend 2cm longer than your mondo boot size for intermediate riders on intermediate terrain, 4cm longer for expert carvers on black diamond terrain. For BX or Banked Slalom, the same waist width as your boot is fine. There is no such thing as a quiver killer. That board that your favourite manufacturer tries to sell as an all mountain that carves steep groom, floats pow, turns tight in the trees but long in open bowls, and flies in the park is simply bad at everything. Different boards, different bindings, different stances for different intended uses if you want high performance. Agreed, but two out of three boxes checked ain't bad and Kessler makes wicked boards. I figured this Cross would be a pretty great "one board" solution for @Mahoyvan, but the better solution is always more boards... The problem is that the more boards you have, the more likely you are to choose the wrong one on any given day.

@wayte Welcome to the forum. Without generalizing too much, the Asian style seems to be more quick push-pull turns on green and blue terrain, they tend to ride steeper binding angles and have smaller feet than Americans. Some of those guys are fantastic riders, who am I to tell them their boards are too narrow? In BX competition 250-260mm seems to be the average waist width too, and those racers also know what they like. For myself, my riding style (big fast turns), my preferred terrain (steep), the wide runs and sparse crowding in Revelstoke, and my preferred binding angles (+30/+15), I need 300mm at the waist for a long sidecut board. And risers too. On a big board with a big sidecut I need to angulate a ton to keep my turns tight and my speed under control. When my boots start to touch the snow it slows the board down and pushes my weight forward, plus the pressure of my toes on the snow surface wants to lever my board out of its trench. Shorter, slower boards with smaller sidecuts can be narrower but I wouldn't even attempt to carve anything less than 27.5 on a Revelstoke black diamond. Remember too that it's the width underfoot that really matters, not at the waist, so sidecut radius and stance width also play a role in determining the ideal board width. I had a 310mm wide Donek (12m scr) and I found if I angulated far enough on steeps I would boot that out too, and yet it initiated turns like a tank. So my opinion is that there's always going to be a tradeoff: no board is boot out free, the wider you go the less boot out you suffer, but the narrower boards are much smoother through the edge transition and they're lighter which is important if you're doing tricks. Hope that helps.

Yes. Yes that's an awesome board for your needs. A little narrow for my preferences maybe but an excellent find. Buy it. And welcome to the forum. Let me know if you find yourself in Revelstoke next season.

Probably my deepest trench ever. Think soon I'll be able to give @big mario a run for his money?

Interesting topic. I learned a lot riding three Coilers this season in the same shape with different stiffnesses, and last year I had two JJAs with identical shapes in different stiffnesses also. My opinion is this: same ride, but stiffer is faster and makes a significantly wider turn. There's a big difference in maximum speed/ maximum edge pressure when you up the stiffness, and equally so with the minimum speed required to initiate. The boards each still do their thing and each can carve any slope, the softer ones just do it slower with tighter turn shape. So I ride the softer ones in variable conditions and the stiffest ones for bigger, faster turns on good groom. You know a board is too stiff when you tilt it over to ride the downhill edge but it doesn't engage and start turning; it just keeps going straight while you balance on the edge momentarily. It feels tippy and hesitant on initiation. I found this too with stiffer boards, but it turned out it felt like I was getting tossed more partly because I was just going faster. Also true that a too-stiff board won't absorb the imperfections in the surface as well. For great cord though, I haven't met a board that was truly too stiff since my old Factory Prime. JJA showed me a whole new level of stiffness; you gotta be careful when you tell Jasey-Jay Anderson that you want it "super stiff", his scale is about two orders of magnitude higher than the rest. (I had meant "super stiff recreational" not "super stiff Olympic racer...") My favourite kind!

You need a Donek. As far as I know they're the only manufacturer who will build a board with a waist wider than 295mm. Get a 305mm waist at least. You'll need a very stiff interface to pair up with such a stiff board; boot stiffeners and Flux XV or Ride A10.

Meh. High performance equipment is always purpose specific, no compromises. A slalom board is not appropriate in a GS race, a downhill mountain bike is not a commuter. An all-mountain board that is supposed to turn tight in the trees, float in powder, fly in the park and rip the groomers is just plain bad at everything. My hard boot Coilers are 210mm wide, my soft boot Coilers are 296mm wide. So what, you're gonna buy a 260 and imagine that it's good for both? It's too wide for smooth hard boot transitions AND too narrow for drag-free softboot carving. A waste of titanal if you ask me (and you did). The whole "quiver of one" idea is ill-conceived. It suits the manufacturers and retailers well but not the high performance rider. If you want the best performing equipment, pick one boot type or buy two boards.

soft boots: hard boots:

Also... @Eboot What's your mondo boot size? What do you weigh? I recommend at least 2cm wider at the waist than your mondo size for intermediate carving and 4cm for expert black diamond carving. My girlfriend Martina has been riding my old NeverSummer Ripsaw X 160 with an 8m radius and a 264mm waist. In the production board universe that Ripsaw X is meant for a full size man who rides hard, Martina is 110lbs and size 25 boot but this board is too narrow for her and she's booting out after only one season of carving (she rides steep angles too: 39/27). The stiffness is about right for her though. Crazy right? Think about that before you buy a production board. What they sell as a "very stiff long-turning wide carving board" is actually only suitable for green runs unless you have tiny feet and you're 50lbs lighter than the minimum recommended rider weight. Guys like Malcolm Moore and Tommy Bennett test ride these boards and say things like "best carving board ever!". Those guys can't do what you aim to do, they're carving green runs (poorly), pay no attention to their board reviews. What you want is a Coiler Contra T3 169 12m. If you tell me your mondo size and weight I'll recommend a width and flex. I'm hoping Bruce will make one for Martina with a 27.5 waist, 5.7 stiff. Mine are 6.0 and 6.6 stiff, I rode a third one in this exact shape at 6.4 stiff as well as the T4 version in a 14m radius. If you can't get a Coiler for this fall try Winterstick or Prior; they're more expensive than Donek but they're metal; worth every penny, especially on "east coast hardpack". Sell that 250mm waisted SG to some unsuspecting G.O.R.Bie, I would consider it for Martina but it's too narrow for her.

Phantom Slipper is the only boot designed for splitboarding. The boot sole length is significantly longer than a carving hard boot but since you have small feet it shouldn't be a problem. Really though, you want a proper hard boot for proper hard boot carving. They're too heavy for splitboarding though and not available with the tech toe for skinning. If you're just gonna mess around on a regular board at the resort Phantoms are fine, but they're not suited to a narrow race board for example. You need two pairs of boots. Welcome to ASB.

@Eboot 1. Forget the Knapton Twin, Donek has some better carving directional models. 2. The Korua Bullet Train is better than the Cafe Racer for carving and they make it in titanal, which is essential if you want a great board that will rip through the NE ice. 3. Don't buy a compromise board to save a few bucks, buy a great board and then resell it if you don't like it. Give the softboot thing a real chance. You're not likely to fall in love with it on a glass all-mountain production board.

Yeah, just as I was starting to turn! Perfect timing!