jtslalom

piusthedrcarve, Finally this post is getting some where. WOW!!! That has to be the best review I have ever seen. Thanks for the details. I liked the comparison you made to the F2 and Rossi. I will look for this board and make an effort to some how ride it this season. If you ever venture up to the NJ/NY area send me a pm. It would be great to ride with you and the rest of my buddies. Thanks jt

piusthedrcarve, If and when you do ride that "Hammer Deck", post a review. The board definitely looks cool, like it would totally rip through hard pack but its so difficult to tell by looking at it. I would just hate to drop $500 - $700 on a cool looking board that isn't what I expected it to be. Thanks jt

piusthedrcarve, I like your post but am very skeptical about some of those boards. I just bought a one year old 160 cm Ampid UNW8. Supposedly it is a good carving deck for softbooters. I think it has the carbon honey comb sheet and some other features that make it a good board for carving. I rode it twice this year and am not so sure that it is any better carving than any of my other boards. I have seen other boards like the one you posted above that claim to be great carving boards for softbooters. Hats off to all companies that are starting to see the light by trying to build a deck that softbooters can carve, however I would like to ride it first before purchasing it. I find myself questioning any board manufacturer that constructs a "soft boot carving board" that hasn't already been in the market of manufacturing hard carving decks or even boardercross boards. Personally I'd rather see it the other way around. I find myself still gravitating to hard boot carving decks and compare all the new "soft boot carving boards" I've ridden lately to my Rad Air Tanker. They just aren't there yet. I hope some day those manufactures reach the point of mastering soft boot carving decks. Hopefully it is coming soon. jt

I'm pretty sure that snowboarding originated with soft boots. I can say for sure that I was carving a soft board long before I was carving a hard deck. I vividly remember on my local hill that none of us had hard boot equipment until the early 90's. All throughout the late 80's we were carving on our soft boards. There were no parks or pipes then and all of us took pride in the way we rode. It was all about carving and searching for some side slope hit that we could jump off of. Today it seems like more and more kids are carving their soft decks for the same reasons we were 30 years ago. It was the only board we had and it was fun.

Hey queequeg, How was Belleayre? Did they have the gondola running yet? How many trails were open? I remember riding there with you and a few other carvers. Belleayre is one of my favorite mountains in the east for day trips. I will often choose Belleayre over Hunter because of the crowds and price. All year long if you bring in an empty coke can or bottle on Wednesday you can ride for $32. Check it out. I will be up there on January 3. Hopefully other carvers will be there. Jt

Jam those knees together boys. I think there still are a few of us left from the 80's style of riding. Nice videos

Buell, pm sent jt

Hi Buell, I'm interested as well. If drschwartz is no go I will take the board. Thanks JT

Yeah, there are quite a few in northern NJ. There are many in and around Vernon NJ. Mcaffee ski shop is pretty good. They guy there has been tuning forever. There are also a few guys at the Mountain Creek ski tune shop that can tune pretty good. good Luck

We rode Jiminypeak peak on Friday 3/17. Best conditions of the year. Had a great time carving up the mountain on Tankers and Jimmy on his F2. Didn't see any other carvers out there but did talk to some pretty cool people on the lift. All in all one of the best days of the year.

Hi Mike, Mountain Creek has come a long way since the days of VV/GG. I ride almost every Saturday and Sunday mornings at MC and a few times during the week in the late afternoons and evenings. As a sessions pass holder you get one hour to ride before the public day pass crowds are aloud on the lift. This past year was hit and miss for conditions. We had some decent snow but soon after we had warm temps. It was a frustrating year to say the least. In years past however we have had some killer snow days. Enough to ride the mountain bike trails in the woods. Those trails are insane to ride. The carving during those years has been excellent. This past year. MC has widened trails and made it easy to carve all the way across the slopes, including zero-g and Grand Prix. A seasons pass is about $350 which makes it well worth your time to of ride MC. I do take frequent trips to Hunter, belleayre, Windham and Plattekill but MC on good snow days there is no reason to leave MC. JT

This is the information I am looking for. Thanks so much fellas. Since owning my Tanker I really don't want to ride anything else. I don't mind spending money on a good board and had hoped that there were a few shorter tankers lying around somewhere. I will definitely look into the other boards you guys have mentioned. Thanks'again Jt

We will be riding JIminy Peak on Friday 3/17/17. Hope to see other carver there.

I am looking for a shorter Rad Air Tanker. I already have a 172 which I really enjoy riding. The resort I ride at does not have many wide slopes and is usually icy. I am looking to buy a shorter Rad Air Tanker some where in the low 160's. Plese let me know if you have anything to offer. Thanks JT

John, It sounds like you had a great day on a great board. Like said above the conditions were probably great for your personal level and style of riding. I firmly believe that carving and good riding are mostly a product of the rider first, the conditions second and the board last. I do think that certain boards ride much better in certain conditions. I have a small quiver of boards but I will only ride one specific board in icy conditions while riding another board in semi-firm to firm conditions. More than likely you were on the right board at the right time. Does it warrant buying the board? If you really liked it then you should probably buy it. The only thing that I would be wary of is that the board is asymmetric. Jt

13 inches of snow fell on MC yesterday (2/9/17). I rode with Dave and Jimmy and it was awesome. It wasn't what I would call a carving day but it was soft windblown snow conditions that were down right fun to ride in. Bumps started to form on Zero-G and Upper/Lower Straightaway. We were also able to get a few mountain bike trail runs. Those are always nice with the high banked turns, whoops, and table top jumps. It was so much fun. Do yourselves a favor and get out and enjoy it while you can.

The 1980's porn music really fits his style of riding. Knees together is fine (80's style of riding). There is no problem with that however I think he needs to drive them laterally together down to the snow.

I have to admit. The Burton super model is just that. A super model. One of the best all around free ride boards.

Softbootsurfer, I haven't really thought about pressuring my turns different from toe to heel until you mentioned it in your post. I do remember riding asymetrical bords like the Burton pj and Hot logical back in the late 80's and early 90's. I know that those boards compensated for the 6" difference that you talk about in your post. When I went back to symmetric boards I never really thought about riding any differently than I did with the asym boards. I think it just happened naturally. When riding asym boards or symmetric boards I always pressured each edge as hard as I could depending on conditions. Today I do the same. I find that if I want to really round my turns I pressure the edge as long as I can until I am turning up hill. I think that most riders will try to get away with pressuring the edge only as needed not to slide a turn. If a rider rides blue and green trails alot, I think they get used to pressuring as needed for the pitch of those slopes. Usually it is not much, however when they get to steeper slopes that aren't that wide the same pressure on blues and greens will not do. Here is when I think most people run into trouble. They just aren't used to holding that edge a little longer and then quickly going into transition and starting the next turn. I think that if riders really practiced this routine they would find it quite easy to round turns. I guess it comes down to having the right terrain and snow conditions to practice on. Jt

Rode with Ken and Dave today. After this past 10 day warming trend conditions are finally starting to get better. MC made some snow at night last night. It was just enough to blend into the frozen granular so you can get a bite on the hard pack. Horizon to sianara to matchmaker seemed to be the best trails. Zero g was also pretty good. Skiers left was a little firm but mid way down was good. That trail is very wide this year making it a little easier to carve the whole slope even when conditions are firm. It's still challenging for us soft booters but throw on a set of plates and it should be no problem. All in all we had a good day.

I find that in order to really round my turns whether toe or heel side, I have to drive my knees laterally towards the snow while trying to make a "C" shape with my body. I try to create a pinch point at my hips and level my shoulders to the plane of the slope. This task is much easier to do on heelside than it is on toeside. As said above your body tends to fall in this position easier on heelside than on toeside. I used to concentrate on holding my carve for as long as possible, in your case Corey that would be your toeside. I used to think about pressing my toes into the snow as hard as I could while sinking my body into the toeside turn. For me it created a large edge angle between my board and the snow. Eventually I started to carve uphill on every turn on steep slopes.

Snow ferret, A few of us ride every Saturday and Sunaday morning at Mountain Creek. We are riding tomorrow 1/14 Saturday morning. Come over if you can. Jt

Has any one ever ridden Catamount ski resort? Is it worth a 2 hour drive from NJ? Are the slopes wide?

Excellent video. Thanks for posting it

Wow, the video is nice but what is most impressive is the slope width and corduroy conditions. That is just a dream to a lot of us ice coast riders. Thanks for the post.