crackaddict

Less than half a run this time... This section of the Snow Rodeo is the most consistently steep groomed section in Revelstoke. About 600 vertical feet of 33 degree double black diamond corduroy. I have nailed this thing on soft boots in seasons past with power and style but it won't count until we get in on camera right? These are some attempts from December. They don't groom this section every night and the corduroy keeps getting buried under fresh pow this month, but the storms will stop rolling eventually. I'm at my absolute limit here - just how I like it! Not a lot of room for error, not a lot of room at the side for a cameraman (credit to @StrangeFuture808 for risking it). One of my goals this season is to ride this section in perfect style on a sunny day and get it on film. Stay tuned.

That's right @Jack M, it's the insta360 on a long pole. Makes it easy...

Hey @slopestar what's the max width that Alloy is making? Do they build with titanal? Any chance you're bring some to MCC? I'll swap you for a run on a JJA...

Right? Why are they so aggressive? It's not even steep!

It's the music! Still looking for that onesie a la Dredman...

@barryj "a lot of turns"? Too many? Then don't watch this next one it has even more! That was a Coiler Contra 169 with a 12m sidecut, lazy turns on green terrain. This one is a JJA TCX T4 171 with a 15.5m sidecut. Slightly less lazy, mostly blue terrain with a taste of black diamond steepness at the end. @dredmantold me not to max out my suspension so I bent my knees a little for him today... Any notes this time? Anybody?

Was it you who trenched up the Snow Rodeo this morning? That's my line!

Best day of the season so far! Just some easy turns, trying to stay tall and minimize the weight on my hands or not touch down at all. Some steep carving video coming soon...

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CmLZYDnpbdm/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Are you maybe using the TD3 center disks with the TD2 elastomers? Send photos. There shouldn't be any play.

Hey @mallory, Thanks for the link to those K-carving instructional videos. They're somehow simultaneously very interesting and very boring... There's not much for good carving instruction in English on YouTube. The Asians seem to use extreme stances. An American softboot carving stance is generally between +9/+18 and +21/+36. You'd have to go toward the higher end of that range if you're booting out a 29. Downsizing your boots and/or using risers can also get you on a narrower board. Hardbooting will get you on a narrow board real quick. It's not so inaccessible. If you're willing to spend the money for good gear, put in the days and look like a freak, it's just the most incredible feeling.

I want to try those Technines... Gotta say though, I'm still a fan of the rotating highback idea: power directly to the edges but also flexibility in the fore/aft directions. I expect a three strap design like the Technine will have to have a softish highback to keep some lateral flexibility, it could be way stiffer if it rotated. The power transfer on the Talanian Strap-On rivals hardboots while the lateral flex is similar to any high performance softboot carving binding. I want to ride these in a lighter version with a way shorter length. Another advantage of the rotating highback is that you don't have to lock and unlock it on every run. Ski boarders don't need to unlock them because they stay on their feet on the chairlifts and won't get crushed under a low chair. It may seem like a small detail but you already have three straps to buckle and with another mechanism to lock you'll never catch up with your friends riding Flow bindings on powder days...

Chuck Norris... Lol, awesome. One last turn for closing day today...

Just had to share some of this stuff. Wasn't sure whether it belongs in the "Tracks" thread, or the new "Cord Porn" or the "New Board Porn" thread, or maybe "Softboot Carving Worth Watching"... So it's completely unheard of for April but we got a meter of snow ending last weekend and it's been so cold all week: between zero and ten degrees Fahrenheit in the alpine! So the carving has been excellent of course and the mountain is empty. No slush, no refrozen death cookies, no people, just sunshine and corduroy... Three days left to shed!

@patmoore Slow it down, don't be in such a hurry to transition between edges. Stay on that same edge until your board is perpendicular to the fall line, go the full 180 degrees on each turn. It's a patience turn; assume the position and wait it out (while very slowly decompressing and moving your weight slightly back). Also, rotate your shoulders. You're upper body is staying open to the fall line throughout your turns, you should be rotating more into the turns. Shoulders and hips face the front of the board on heelside and they point in the same direction as your front foot on toeside. As you start to carve deeper and get lower, crunch in the obliques to keep your shoulders level with the horizon.

So today was the first time I rode since testing the Talanian Strap On and only the third day on the new Coiler (the first two had been with the test bindings). I found myself immediately missing the rigidity of the metal highbacks and the third strap... These are good bindings, fun to ride. Yes, they're way too long and way too heavy but they do offer many of the benefits of hard boots: the power transfer, the ability to hold way higher edge pressure and bash through surface imperfections as though they weren't even there... Super smooth ride with precision control, the new Coiler felt way faster with these bindings. I also noticed that the third strap kind of suspended my boot over the footbed and I wasn't feeling any of that ankle pain with deep heelside carves that has been bothering me all season. I cringed at first sight of an all metal binding but they were surprisingly comfortable. To me, this binding presents an opportunity to get the feeling and the benefits of hard boots while still riding soft. I'm sure many of you are thinking "why not just ride hard boots?" and I have a few reasons... First, I like soft boots for their increased lateral flex as well as the lower stance angles. I feel more freedom of movement and I am able to tackle more of the mountain in softies. Second is the walk from the parking lot ('nuff said, you all know what I'm talking about). Third is the simple fact that I don't look like such a freak, I fit in with the snowboarders on softies even if (or maybe because) they don't understand how wildly different my setup is. But finally and most importantly is the simple fact that there are probably ten thousand times as many softboot snowboarders as there are hardbooters. So if you're going to build and market a new product for snowboarding, it should probably be aimed at softbooters right? 99.9% of these softbooters have never tried hardboots and would be blown away by the performance of these bindings mounted on their favorite board. So these are marketable; aspiring softboot carvers would buy and love these. (Well maybe not in their current form but the next prototype is already in development.) I honestly didn't mind the weight of the bindings (unless I was carrying the board or trying to ollie), I feel like the extra mass makes the ride smoother while carving and faster through flat traverses. I'd like to see the placement of the pivot rotated toward the heel and away from the side of the board (for the front foot at least) and I'd like to see that pivot point moved lower as well. Beyond that, if they were much lower profile (shorter total length) I would ride these regularly. I have much more to say about these bindings and bindings in general, but not tonight I'm afraid...

A short clip from today. Watch out for that crazy skier aiming right for me on a super wide empty run... Head scratcher... Will have more time next week to discuss the Talanian Power Strap on in more detail.

Interesting day... Some whiteout, some bootout, lots of adjustments, but ultimately these bindings ride great! Feels a lot like a hardboot setup in terms of stiffness and power, crud busting and stability, but maintains some of that softboot steeze. If it's less foggy tomorrow we'll post some better video, this is a just a taste. The conditions were pretty horrible at this elevation (under the fog) but the bindings were well suited to the refrozen corn. I consider the concept proven, hoping to see a lighter prototype in the fall.

Binding choice for softbot carving... What the heck??!!

@jason100 showed up today with his new three-strap binding, same day as the new Coiler! 7cm fresh during the day today and it stopped snowing just as the machines were heading out to groom, one couldn't hope for better conditions in late March. Gonna be an interesting day tomorrow... Stay tuned

Cute! Nice and tight... I've started teaching my daughter to carve. I tell her: "First you learn the 'J' turn, then the 'C' turn and the 'S' turns, and finally the 'e' turn." Yours is a beautiful example of the 'e'! Thanks Bro

Careful @Xargo... The 16m sidecut on your 174 Contra is big, but a 16m sidecut on a 160 is humungous! I have a JJA 166 TCX with 142ee and a 16.5m sidecut and it's extremely intense when runs get steep and/or less than very wide. Bruce's boards might be softer than Jasey-Jay's, but what you're aiming at is a monster. You'll need a very stiff interface and balls of steel to carve this thing, be warned. A 16m sidecut is usually found on a 185cm hard boot board with a 165 or 170 effective edge. Your 160 softboot board will have only about 135ee which means very little sidecut depth, you'll have to angulate a ton and power hard into it to stay out of the trees. I like the way you think, just want you to be prepared... A 13 or 14m scr would still be huge on a short board like this, maybe more fun and versatile, less dangerous too...

With respect @workshop7, what's absurd is saying that waist width is purely determined by boot size... As @Neil Gendzwillpointed out, Knapton's boots are size 8 but his waist is 32cm! The ideal waist width has so many determining factors. I mentioned only three above (scr, steepness of terrain and softness of the groom) but there are many more. While I didn't explicitly include the rider's skill level I did kind of imply that, and it's true at least in so far as a more advanced rider will want to carve faster on steeper runs and angulate more (that is, carve harder) in all terrain. Consider your friend with the production K2: that board is sub 8m scr and so the width underfoot will be much higher than a board with the same waist but a 12m or 15m radius. Further, that board will turn slower and tighter with it's production softness and radius and so it doesn't need as much angulation to control speed without slarving; a little overhang could even be tolerable on a board like that. So again, the higher the scr the wider the waist has to be, both because a higher radius board will have less difference between the width of the waist and the width underfoot (which is really the more important factor) and because it needs more angulation to carve tight enough to control speed, especially on steeps. Other factors to consider when determining ideal board width are stance angles and stance width, lift, binding profile, personal preference (because of the trade off between smooth transitions and boot out), terrain steepness and surface softness as mentioned, and yes, the rider's skill level as well. A great rider can carve just about any setup to some degree, but will quickly find the limit to the amount of edge pressure that setup can withstand without chattering and the degree of angulation it can maintain without boot out. When that rider craves higher g-forces they'll want a faster, stiffer board with a higher sidecut radius and also a wider waist...

Indeed! Been asking for something like this for a long time... I've owned boards from every builder who can go over 29cm (Donek, Exegi, JJA) but it's the Coiler I've been dreaming of! Well a 27cm waist with a 9m sidecut will have about the same nose width as this one. Bruce said 12m was the minimum scr for this waist width (to fit his press). I've been riding 30cm wide JJAs with 15m sidecuts, I figure I can take down the waist a bit without booting out because the increase in sidecut means I won't have to angulate quite as much to control my speed. I'm actually hoping to ride the Coiler without risers, we'll see. It's not theoretical anymore; @Ryan Knapton has been riding 30+ waists for a decade now and so have many others. Admittedly, most of those others have huge feet, I myself squeeze into a size nine Diver X. Size ten is more comfortable, but that extra centimeter would have to be added to the waist. The bigger the scr, the steeper the terrain, and the softer the surface, the wider the waist has to be. I need the width. I'm already at 36 and 21 degrees with 1/2" risers and bindings with minimal added length to reduce drag but it still happens sometimes. I expect this one will be my go-to in mixed conditions because the Contras are known to excel in chop and because it'll be a little slower and tighter turning than my JJAs. That's what I ordered it for, I'll ride bigger, stiffer T4 boards on perfect cord but the speed gets exhausting and dangerous as the conditions deteriorate. I'll let you know how it rides, closing day isn't until April 18th and there will plenty of refrozen chop, slush and ice for sure. I'm sure Bruce will be happy to make you one of those but once you start charging harder and riding steeper terrain, you'll find the waist too narrow. 27cm waist and 9m scr is about right for intermediate or advanced intermediate soft boot carving in my opinion, depending of course on the size of your feet, your stance, whether you ride east or west coast corduroy, your binding length, the steepness of the terrain... and importantly, personal preference. There's always going to be a trade off between smoother transitions and boot out. There is no magic number for waist width after which boot out doesn't happen; I had a 31cm waisted Donek (12m scr) that would still boot out on steeps. Compromises have to made. (Risers work good too.)

Coiler Contra FreeRide 169 prototype, fresh out of the press! 12m sidecut, 29cm waist, this is the widest board Bruce has ever built... I've been waiting for this one almost a decade, it took a while for him to re-tool his shop to be able to produce a "real" soft boot carver, wide enough to handle the soft groom and very steep terrain out here. It's gonna be a riot!