nils

I know the board...but its the idea of riding deep snow on a short board that is strange to us here...This is why few people ride the fish in the alps. I'm just trying to understand why there is a tool difference.. we have all kinds of snow here and it shouldn't explain all..Indeed burton is a US company, and also Swallowtails makers have never stopped building boards in europe over the last 20 years, so that could also explain the difference... but is it all? My personnal experience is riding with undergunned people you keep waiting all the time.. kinda frustrating powder/ heliski experience.. All the swallowtail guys were like... where are the others..? they usually arrive later, way tired compare to us :).. ( of course both have fun but its not the point of my question). Also its not just a US vs euro stuff, since there are riders in north america are riding the undertaker 198, or big nitro's swallows...but what makes it so seldom.? N.

There is something ( a bit off topic ok sorry) that always amazes me... Why do north americans use way longer boards than us on the groom, and way shorter boards in powder....? In europe the biggest carving decks are in the 170-175cm range, and we go up to 2m quite easy when it comes to riding swallowtails...I'm not sure to understand why you want to ride in the powder on the backleg so much...? Powder is about riding on the nose: the further the faster you go.. Milovich is even redrilling inserts on his boards these days to be able to sink the nose of his swallows under the snow.. Am I missing something? Are you missing something? I know we have much bigger open faces here to ride at full speed, but you can really spin a 2m swallow in trees if you need it ( we all have to go back to the bottom in the trees).. its just a matter of technique and quickness.. and those boards are way, way better designed for the pow. Euro 2cents advice: in powder: go BIG, it handles much bigger speeds and allows for riding forward without looking like a freestyler on his painful backleg. Nils PS a few pics ( i've done heliski with that board on the mount blanc area a few times its incredibly efficient, even in tricky icy parts.) the last pic shows Jerome Wilm a "roots" rider on a 200 apocalypse that was designed for open faces... he manages between the trees with it...

u started riding at 1...? pretty impressive ;) N.

untrue because most of us are using that binding ;) U can modify the poll then ;) nahh kidding ;) would be interesting to know the stats of those with 0/0, those with 3 or 6 degrees discs, as well as those on yellow, red or purple bumpers Nils

poll is missing the No cant No lift option... All EC'ers are on 0° cant and 0° lift... Nils :)

The ultimate, most expensive as well as most beautiful board is the Miura Tekila. Its a 214cm handcrafted Swallowtail. Its base price is 2000 euros, and since there is no order yet, the shaper is working slowly on the proto, and hasn't finished a stock board yet. He has defined almost everything since the past 2 years he is working on it, and he says the last research is on the nose. The board is a bigger version of the Miura Mucho Dinero 191cm, which is arguably the most beautiful wood work seen on snowboards... I'm sorry because my gallery is still down, but a small google image search with Mucho Dinero Miura or Miura Tekila should bring a few pics ! When i can spend that much money on a board, i'll definitely order one :) Olivier the shaper is doing around 30 boards per season, all handcrafted and he takes 80 hours per board minimum.. The Tekila is more than 3 times that time of work he told me. Nils Of course we are not talking about proto boards or cost of racing boards for one guy.. When you add the mold costs, or CNC programming time to one or two units produced, you often reach the 1500 euro / board cost !

actually got that phone since a month now.. it has a "built in flaw" that can be easily solved: the PIN card is moving in its slot, causing loss of connection, and phone switching to the off position. Solution is about 20 seconds and almost free: cut a small card size piece of thick paper, and fill it inside along with the PIN card. The thickness of the paper will push the card to the connectors 24/24. I haven't had any issue after this! Ergonomy of use is very nice, and efficient! great pro tool! N.

yes forgot the battery trick on the motherboard :) Had the problem years ago too on a PPC 7100! N.

i wish i was able to drop acad :) (using mostly in 2D) but since i'm in a middle of a huge construction network with engineers and builders just using it, I cant. I'm sometimes working with 200-300 plans that are linked together, and I tried once to convert them in and out of acad...gone crazy! Yes may apple release a intel version of OSX, at least so we can get rid of XP! :)

phiokka's are not the worst bindings, seems quite a lot of WC racers from europe use those bindings, Isabelle Blanc among them.. I'm not sure how you can qualify it like this without any explanation... Quality of build is very good, but there was some past issues on the plastic lever (not the bails) that, in certain circumstances such as lower angles and EC like turns that put a lot of lateral strengh on the levers would break. Fulvio, Phiokka's manager then changed the design of the levers, and it seems there is no more issue with them. I personnaly think they are too stiff for my liking, and good for racing but too stiff for freecarving (the PH1 I have tested). Nils

Does the mac boot using the target mode on the external drive? IF not: it can be a real motherboard/power failure, if it does boot, then it can be the HD that is defective ( meaning dead). I also love my mac, i wish it had more wintel apps such as acad, rhino and other pro software i cannot use on the mac :(. My laptop is a first gen titanium from 2000, its still doing great.. I know few people with year 2000 laptops from the PC world that dare to take it on travel :) N. I suggest u use apple's knowledge pages ( aka forum) u will get loads of answers.

please don't come to zinal its overcrowded already ( u can verify this in the EC movies)... That said, lyon and geneva are the two closest international airports that might take you to the northern french alps. Then if you target italy, Milano and Torino are the two places... You forgot to mention what kind of mountains you were after? powder? off piste? long slopes? carving? challenging carving? family slopes etc...? I personnaly hate our cash machine resorts such as all the big names u have above like 3 valleys etc> mountain is usually overexploited there, and often ugly. Austria and German switzerland have smaller friendlier resorts to my opinion compare to the big french resorts. Here is my fav's Powder: la grave, Alagna ( shhhhh), cham Carving: Z***l (shhhh) Try asking your question on our forum with more precisions of what you intend to ride :) Nils

All my recovery wishes to Joel... He has to do what he does for financial reasons so i'm not blaming him for starting an action.., i'm personnaly against the intec and prefer standard bails because i see with my eyes what is locked and not, and trust much more Fin's bails than a small pin with a spring... When i see the bails we used in the late 80's (emery for example) i'm wondering if there was any lawsuits at the time, since bails were 3mm and people did races on them! When i'm putting my foot on those old boards with old bindings, i'm walking on eggs and feel not safe at all! Fin, be aware that if things go financially crazy, there will be a full community ready to backup, fund, or raise $$$ to help you ( in case needed) Nils

the taxes on gas is financing a lot here, mostly social security and education.. This plus high VAT finances most of our euro countries... ( France has a 19.6% vat, sweden even 25% but at the same time the best social protection in the world..) Lowest VAT in Europe is 15%. Switzerland has a 7.6% VAT but its a rich country that can afford it ! rest of incomes comes from IRS that are up to 48% here ( single male making lots of $$$), and I believe its even higher in sweden and Finland.. Cheaper things often mean there is a price to pay.. but later, since the cost of things has to be the same a way or another. N.

We reached for the first time 1.53 euros/liter today on the 98 premium It means : 7.34 USD per US gallon! Germany has reached 1.51 euros/liter yesterday too! Seems my 1943 Willys will stay in the garage for a long time, just finished the mechanical rebuilt for nuts! I'll stick to the TDI from Volkswagen until further notice! This decade is the end of the V8 era for good, its bad for car fanatics, but good for the environment! Projects are to reduce the top speed on superhighways here too to a slow 115 km/h( 72 mph) instead of 130 km/h (81mph). Strangely Italy just raised the top speed limit to 150 km/h(93mph) on certain highways ( still no limits on german ones, except when dangerous / jams etc when it can reduce to 60 kmh(38mph) in a few hundred meters: means u need a good car, and good nerves to drive there!) N.

actual costs in here: France diesel: 1.20 / liter France premium 98 unleaded: 1.45 / liter for you US non metric ( i know u are officially but..in real..) a gallon is 3.78 liters 1.20 is in USD> 1.5 USD x 3.78 = 5.67 USD / gallon 1.45 is in USD> 1.81 USD x 3.78 = 6.84 USD / gallon Seems you have margin before reaching those prices... At least it might lead you guys to use fuel efficiency cars, and begin to save energy....might even lead to the US signing the Kyoto treaty! My car drives 1200 km with 75 USD and the car has seven seats and a quattro transmission...the non quattro drives 1300 km with same amount i heard! What's your scores...? N.

Do our extremecarving.com clips count??? you can just use those ones :) They have been downloaded zillions time over the years and i'm sure its worth that tboard! Nils :)

very nice french site: most of them speak english and they can answer your questions in the forum www.skwalzone.org Nils

Funny has almost same specs as the Swoard :) (161-167-171 and 23cm width) Chris we are going to sue you! Our lawyer is yours ;) Welcome to the wide carving board club! Love the website too...but until further notice, Donek's is my fav in the business! Nils ps: wanna try it!

those are raichle derivated SKI boots... Its the ski division from Raichle that has been fusioned? with kneissl. The snowboard brand remains i assume.

raichle site ( www.raichle.com) leads to mammut website! must be same owner! are u sure Kneissl got Raichle? N.

Started both my two olders without leash, but exactly as Blue B stated. ( also added those plastic compas that hold the ski tips together with great results, but you have to get rid of them quite fast as soon as they manage turning). My 7 yold daugther is now kinda impressive, and 4.5 yold boy is about to follow us almost anywhere ( end of next season i guess)... I'm waiting until they are "fluent" with skiing to put them on a snowboard... Have fun its a great reward to watch your kids on the snow with you :) Nils

Not sure the idea of controlling the flex with the plastic tongue is so good. it has been tried since many years, and no one finally succeeded in a perfect progressivity with that. This explains why the RAB, and other systems such as that of the Northwaves, UPS and all the mods that begin to appear have so much success. You can fine tune the boots and the springs to your needs, choose the progressivity on both sides ( frontside AND backside), which you can hardly do with just a few tongues to choose from. Nils

I like guns, but dont like the fact that so many people can have them freely without beeing trained and controlled. In europe, u can have hunting guns almost freely, hunting rifles you need to declare, handguns if you are authorized and only if you do it for sharpshooting in a club ( but shall never carry it appart from home to club transport). War weapons are totally forbidden and calibers such as 5.56,7.62 and of course 12.7 are totally forbidden. Of course you can still use a elephant weatherby 480 to rob a bank, but since it is not automatic, you will need to be fast, and bear the recoil! N.

i've heard stories of guys using this: recycler leaving not a single bubble at the surface, and able to stay 2 hours under the surface! N.