Bruce Varsava

Once I read about the Talus , how it gets very little blood supply and fractured pieces could die off, that was enough to get my attention. Stickers are on my to do list!! BV

Just had a half day on snow after my late Jan injury and it was sore but bearable. I ended up with the front outside corner fractured off the tibia and misdiagnosis had me weightbearing when I should not have been. Also there is some locking on the inside no doubt from some bone chips. Doc said hopefully no surgery req'd if things stay out of the way but driving my car today had the bone chip making me nearly miss a few shifts. May get some good relaxing times at the cottage this summer :) In my case ( classic board stoppage in soft snow to front flip) seems the tibia got driven back over the Talus from the boot pressure and the Talus won that battle. Good news I guess as that Talus is pretty deep in there. Oh yeah, stickers going out soon!!

A vacuum pump, vernier calpiers, router and jigsaw can take you all the way to a World Championship or two. The Olympics may require the firehose. Vacuum is plenty good for regular construction boards but some Titanal constructions need to be pneumatic pressed. The assembly is pretty straightforward given the info you can get online. Design is what takes all the trial and error. It was easy for those of us who started long ago as if it was thick in the middle, thin at the ends and slippery side down, it was a success. Now you are already spoiled by the 10 years of development and have to try to match that. On the flip side, theres lots of stuff to copy and that makes total sense when you are doing first attempts.

Self Diagnosis is a tendon torn off the bone on the outside of the ankle. Peroneal tendon subluxation is what my Dr will call it later today when I see him. Good news is I can weight bear in an aircast and have done a board a day since the injury. Pretty draining on the energy though. Finishing the last 3 Olympic boards today and then that is finally off my agenda. Learned tons and it will filter in slowly but mostly to do with the Titanal constructions. All I can say is most people would not enjoy the wide turning of the boards we developed but they accelerate extremely well and you can really keep the weight on the edge over any type of ice! Head to head testing showed that my best fiberglass carbon boards ( superboards) would flutter a bit over certain real hard patches where the Titanal boards would just hold. The metal construction works well in freecarve boards but I have not done a ton in that direction due to the goals of making them fast. The ones Jasey will be using in PGS have 14mm taper!! I have tested enough to know the limits in either direction and now will concentrate on making them more user friendly for the different levels of riders. The construction is fine and I just need to put it into a more friendly shape. I was testing a 169 AM that was built for a person about 40 lbs lighter and it was a bunch of little things that added up to the crash. 1-board too soft 2 - not waxed and sticky 3- unfamiliar hill 4- soft heavy snow in unexpected ditch area near side of trail Eliminate any one of these and the survival rate would surely go up. I came over a small rise on the hill where a traverse goes across and just popped about 2' of air and was to land on what looked like solid ground. My weight was a little forward due to the sticky board on takeoff. The snow gave away, the board stopped dead and I was upside down after hearing the snap in my ankle. Could slide down a bit on heelside but toeside was out of the question as the tendon would pop whenever pressured. So it will slow me down but not stop things unless the Dr tells me differently. So back at it and sorry to all the guys I screwed this season with bad delvery promises as I really ended up doing a lot more towards the development than expected. I'm almost filled with orders for 07 as I had a large order for high end racebaords and I'm trying to not end up in the way behind position again as that is the part about the business that really takes the fun away and its simply my own lack of planning for all the little gremlins that seem to sneak up. Probably will not do ECES as my cast will just be off by then but will send off a one of a kind 180 Racecarve II Titanal construction for the draw. That ought to break a few hearts!! Cheers, Bruce

Looks like I'll be doing a CBC radio interview on Mon 31st. Taping is at 8:15 am and air time is supposed to be around 11:30 am. Toronto station is CBC one which I believe is 99.1 on the FM dial. Its a show that has interesting passionate Canadians being interviewed. Hopefully I qualify and don't choke! BV

I believe it would be of help if you are at the level of being on the podium or at least threatening at local level races. Of course the icier the better! Only time you do not notice much differnce is in real good snow. Of course those types of conditions don't usually last so you could see the benefits of it by the end of any typical day with average traffic on a hill. My view is that it isn't much different in good conditions and makes a definite difference in bad conditions so all in all you are getting a sizeable gain in performance. Only drawback is they will be quite costly as I'm guessing at $ 1000.00 cdn for the extra work and materials. Never thought I'd see boards priced like that but they are a lot of work to put together especially if they are custom sized on top of that.

Those board shots were awesome I wonder how much I would have had to pay to get that kind of R&D footage! So far he says the boards are holding up great. I have a picture from a local paper that has him just before the wipeout he took in SL. You should see the boards nose bend in that shot as it looks like he is about to go over the bars. Looked similar to that GS shot but quite a bit more severe as was indicated by the " OH S**T" look on his face. Just finished a second PGS model with slight mods to it to be a little more forgiving. Won't take long to get these boards dialed once I start finding out what the changes do to the performance. Bruce

Henry: My wife actually got most of it on a VHS but just so so quality. Heres a funny story! After getting home from the race I was checking CBC for a ny action and Ross Rebagliatti was doing a blurb with one of the announcers and it ended up being a call in show. I managed to get through and despite some weird time delay, relayed most of the story of the board construction info while Ross and the other announcer just sat there and listened. The segment was supposed to be "ask Ross" or something like that but managed to get it changed into an " ask Bruce" until the producer shut me down! Ross even mentioned he was thinking of calling me to get some new boards. He's going to finally make a comeback!! The race coverage was awesome to watch but we didn't get any of the slalom. The board are good but Jasey no doubt had it all together in those super rough conditions. It looked ugly on TV so I would think in real it was waaay worse! Bruce

The trick with this material is going to be matching it to the riders ability and I believe they will need a certain skill level before it is useful to them It excels on steep icy and bumpy conditions. Most provincial or state level races are on slightly easier hills where it is not so much of a concern. I am already building a new GS board for Jasey with slight changes to the design as he found the first one a bit too powerful! Seemed to work OK in Whistler though. I did a few race runs on one yesterday and it didn't make a huge difference as the conditions were not that icy during my runs, I was actually just forerunning so the course was smooth. With some practice on rough stuff, I'm sure it would make for some better times though. Bruce

I'm ordering some supplies so yes they will be available but most likely not till next season. Want to make sure on durability issues before I start sending them out in any numbers. So far things look good. BV

For BX he uses a 182 that is based on a 178 raceboard. It has 160 rl 15m sidecut and 6mm taper, 18.5 wide. The extra length is added nose and tail to round it off a bit. He uses his PGS board for the Jeep events. Should now be a good bet to get good results in those races! BV

I'll be at the race as I get to forerun it! Haven't run a gate yet this season so it should be interesting! I will use the first Titanal proto I built , its a real soft one. I honestly had one of the best days ever riding it last Saturday after the thaw and freeze. I was at a local hill ( Beaver Valley which has a hill called Avalanche, real steep and of course on that day real icy. The board just doesn't let you down! This one being so soft, would not be good for a race as if you get slowed down in softer snow you'd be finished as the mid section would collapse if you pressure it too hard. On steeps its a blast though. I rode that hill like never before. Later in the afternoon after 20 or 25 runs I used my race board from last season. Jasey borrowed this board and won the Canadians on it also did well at the last Jeep event and Breckenridge event on it, so its a pretty good board. No way I could hold the edge as solidly. The metal board would bounce twice and then just bite on most sketchy turns whereas the composite glass board would do small chatters and float over the ice without biting in. Jasey got the 2nd and 3rd boards and that is what he used in Whistler. I was not totally happy with the results of their construction and no doubt we will change some things to get them to work even better. My feeling at this time is that it is like when the first longer race boards came out. It didn't matter what it was like as the length was just so superior to shorter boards , you did well. Now it seems if you have the metal in your boards, you will do well no matter what the design, within reason of course. I was quite surprised at how well he did in softer conditions as I'm pretty sure in the harder stuff, these boards will rule. You just get to keep the hammer down almost all the time! I only got bounced out of one turn in about 30 runs and that was due to real bad body positioning. I was railing ice patches, landing and jamming turns on ice patches, the thing was just unreal, even though it is super soft! It seems the Kesslers have taken a direction to take things to the next level and now all others will pretty much need to go that route to keep up. Of course we are talking higher level abilities to handle these things though. Designs will evolve and most likely there will not be one design that works above all others, just too many variables, esecially conditions. We have decided to somewhat mimic the designs we have worked on for many years as they worked well and will now work better with the addition of the metal. It was quite an emotional couple days for me as I never in my wildest dreams thought I would ever reach that level of accomplishment with my boards. I was actually scared to check for todays PSL results as it is just too nerve wracking! There are also a few thanks that have to go out and some may surprise a few of you Kessler lovers. First Jasey has to be praised for his ability to overcome the odds and conditions he was up against. He literally had to learn to ride the boards as he went through the heats. I can't wait to talk to him and see the races if they come up on TV. He showed huge amounts of confidence in my abilities as I tried to talk him out of getting a slalom board . I just though we were spreading our limited resources too thin. He talked me into it and of course the rest is history! His input into the design was a definite asset to getting things right I guess I deserve a little mention too as I never thought I could pull it off. Trying to get customers boards built and then developing 3 new boards in a couple weeks having no experience with this radically different material made for some interesting times! I did mange to get Xmas day off though and started the cores for his boards on Boxing day. Now heres the kicker! Chris Prior and Mark Fawcetts names came up plenty during the designing phases. Eight years ago I met Mark in Whistler while we were both competing for the Olympic spots in Nagano, of course he had a much better chance than I but I managed to get into the race somehow. I saw him in a restaurant the night before the race and he told me in no uncertain words " Bruce, put aluminum in your boards" I gave him a funny look and he returned the look and walked away. He was using metal in his board about 10 years ago and Jasey had some of the info from those designs so we used that as a basis for our design. I actually built a proto about 6 years ago but the alloy was way too weak and it flattened out in a few days. Worked awesome apparently , I never tested it but even when it was flat, I heard it still worked well! So since this material was patented in the 60s and ski guys have used it extensively, it is a surprise it took us so long to incorporate it with what could be wide success. This is just a semi educated guess but there aint no lookin back now! Cheers and see you racers out ther on Saturday. Bruce Varsava

That weird ass board is a 188 with a 179 cm running length.Thats equal to a 197 if I put a regular nose and tail on it. I built it so long ago I can't guarantee these dimensions but I believe it is a 17m sidecut with 18.5 waist and 4mm taper. I fully do not certify that nose as it just looks too dangerous for my liking but Shred know best. Look for him doing high speed cartwheels at a resort near you!

I'm really sorry that all you guys ( and some girls) are waiting soooo long for your boards. The problem was totally from me planning that I was going to get some boards done over the summer so I set my schedule up with that idea in place. Unfortuanately I realized I just can't keep that kind of schedule up for 12 months of the year, just need to take a rest at some point! So I figure, no worries just work a little harder in the fall. Well that didn't seem to work out either as while the boards are not that hard to build, you still have to put in the hours as they still are very labour intensive to build. Then you throw in Jasey wanting a few new Titanal models and that eats up even more time! For next season I plan on actually slowing things down a bit and keeping a more realistic schedule as not to make promises I can't even come close to keeping. Olympics are on next season so I will also spend a bit more time developing things with Jasey to give him the best possible chances for good results. This will benefit everyone eventually! I can imagine its a real hassle for guys especially those who have broken or otherwise unloaded their older gear and end up with nothing to ride on. Not getting the boards out on time is the part of the business I dislike the most and realize its my problem to fix. The results will be an easier schedule for myself and boards that get delivered on time but the flip side is that there will just have to be a lot more saying "no" when I have the schedule filled up. Currently I am already booked until mid October so if anyone is interested in getting something for next season, now is the time to get the order in. I am just getting things on a tentative list as I have not yet organized next seasons information handling system yet as I still need to worry about this seasons boards!

From a size standpoint it would be close but it isn't wide enough to use the softboots. Reasoning being that since Jasey is so used to his hardboots at certain angles, he isn't too keen on going more sideways and still not have the ability to handle the really rough courses where the softboots can suck it up better. He used softies at the last event and got 5th. On another manufatureres board of course.

Heres some interesting BX news for you folks. Over the last 2 seasons I was working with Jasey on developing BX boards His ride ended up being a 182 with 160 running length and rounded off nose and tail, 18.5 wide with 16m sidecut. Superhuman for sure but it was working for him to a degree. The only concern was that in fresh snow, the board always lagged behind most others especially in gliding on the flats. We tried different bases and still no luck. Recently he had some tech help and they came to the conclusion it was not the base material but was the long narrow shape of the board. The shorter soft boot boards seem to glide better in fresh snow and flats. They apparently did a quite thorough job of eliminating the variables and that was the conclusion. Hate to say it but it looks like in those conditions the soft boards have the advantage. He figures he will have to ride both set ups depending on the course layout and snow conditions. Hmm, should I start making soft boot boards;)

Paul: It is unfortunate that you were put off by my comments and I'm not going to deny saying those things but in the case of boards that require that much custom fabrication I do have to make it worth my while. Reason being that I have so much work and get farther behind when slowed down with the complex jobs that always seem to take more time than you calculated. Another factor is that I have only done a handful of those boards and just don't have a pile of data to draw on to get it to an acceptable level of performance that I would be comfortable with while selling for the inflated price required to build it. In comparison to the refining that is done on the other boards, the splits are definitely behind design wise. I was just trying to make my point clear right from the start that I did not want to do it . Since it would most likely take me at least 1.5 times the regular construction time, I cannot afford to spend that time and not get compensated for it as my development time is currently spent doing other things. Bruce Varsava

Some good points here especially the detuning. On rare occasions I get replies from customers that the boards feel too stiff when they get them and when I asked how they were tuned, usually it was out of the box and right onto the snow! They are getting too much power and most likely it is a longer board than they have previously had so that compounds the feeling of unmanageability which is seen as a stiffness concern. The thought is, I spent my hard earned money on a longer board and I want to get the use of all of it! Nice theory but it will probably cause you grief in the long run. I also have heard form high level racers that they have have lost races due to wrong detuning so it is a critical thing. I'm really technical ( or weird!) when it comes to detuning as I do it asymmetrically. I detune a little more on the front heel side and rear toe side where there is more distance from your boot to the tip or tail. Kinda makes you symmetrical board a bit asymmetrical! Its only a small differnce and may be more a mantal thing but thats all it takes sometimes to perform better. This season I started putting different color plastic in the nose and tail than is on the sidewall so you have a distinct point to know where the contact surface ends and an easy to see reference point for detuning. Gee, that ought to make the board at least twice as fast!!! Cheers, Bruce Varsava

There are only 2 steps on the boards that I don't do. The graphics and the base finishing. Just can't afford a $40,000 stone grinder. The bases should be pretty flat when you get them and the edges are most likely in the 89 degree range. Depends on the mood of the grinder that day! You should just consider a slight base bevel to make the board a bit more friendly by being less likely to catch. I don't have them do it as you can't put it back once its off for those who like it flat. The edges are done with an abrasive wheel so you won't be winning any races on them but they are pretty sharp. Honing would be a good idea. Wax, Wax and more wax. I only put on one coat and you should slap on at least a couple more to really start to get it loaded up. Then you can go out and have some fun. I still wish I had a quiver of boards like that! Bruce Varsava

Mr Grumer: Your board is in the same batch as Mr Buggs. However I forgot to mention in my previous babble that those weirdo boards usually take a bit longer as they require too much thinking which I am usually greatly opposed to. The heat from my brain sets the epoxy off too quickly! Howz dat for un scientific responz. It will be laminated in the next week approximately. BV

Oops, I just drilled the inserts for your board and it looks like you'll have to attach your bindings to the bottom of the board Hope it isn't a problem, reverse camber, maybe thats something worth exploring. Hmmmm. Actually your board is about 5 to 7 days away from being under the knife and/or squeegee. BV

Not me eh! Then how do I know you ordered a board not shorter than 174 but not longer than 176. That long message means its now late and I'm tired so your board surely will come out warped. I heard you're kinda warped so things should cancel out ( or double ). BV

In order to keep my mysterious reputation I try to avoid contact as much as possible. Either that or when you do all the work yourself, its tough to keep things going unless you set aside certain times for administration and do it as quickly as possible. Email works best as I can collect and reply during the slow times of the day. The way my scheduling works is at the beginning of the season I take the orders and leave a few spots open for several reasons. Mainly racing issues as sometimes things need to be changed to get the desired results . There is no real set rules for this other than I try to get any rider the most suitable board and sometimes things need to be changed especially at the higher levels where the small details really matter. Since the season starts in Sept for some of these riders I concentrate on getting those out first to get feedback on performance and durability of any new designs. Then I get to the long list of orders and yes, people do like to contact me to try to speed things up , naturally everyone wants their boards asap. There are two points of view here also. The riders point of view is" he said it would be ready in Dec so maybe it'll be ready in Nov!" The builders point of view. "Holy s**t I've got a lot of work here, I hope I get the Dec boards out before Jan" This season I took on too much in Oct but when I realized it, I adjusted by taking on a light Nov so by Dec I should be pretty close to being on schedule. When doing a batch I can get certain boards out first and try to do this on an as needed basis. If some rider sold all his boards so he could get a new custom and has nothing but boots to ride, naturally he may get a little sympathy and get his out near the top of the batch. This is only a matter of a week or two difference the way things are scheduled though. Of course people try to "grease" the deal on occasion and I don't hold it against anyone but I will not move people up the list for that reason. Certainly most people realize I try to build the best boards I can and the reason I try to keep them cheap is so all riders can have a chance at getting top equipment and don't have to be held back by financial reasons. If I had a buck for every time someone told me to raise my price, I'd be driving a much nicer car right now and if I wanted to make real money I would be working in the financial sector. Since I have different goals, I'm going to stick with building the boards for the next while anyways. The address on the website is my home address and I wonder how many guys drove past hoping to see a factory(-: I have a small area to work in that I borrow from an associate for pretty much no charge other than a few favours so I can't beat that deal. At this point I still have several other income sources that keep me away from board building all year. I kind of want to keep it that way as even over the 7 or 8 months I build it gets real tiring as the way I assemble boards is very hands on and quite physically demanding day after day. The summers off ( partially now) really do wonders for my mental health and kiteboarding skills so you won't get me to part with that setup! So if anyone really wants to know whatsup they can contact me at info@coiler.com or leave me a message as I do get back to people but sometimes it takes a bit. Lets not pray for snow so I have more time;)