Bruce Varsava

My sander does OK with different level tops so no real worries there. Lots of other stuff to make decisions on first. I have a 158 but it was a later version and not an original. No butterfly on it as I tossed that out a while back during a shop clean up. However, the butterfly will have to work in conjunction with the core thickness which is now what I am trying to decide on. Can't bring myself to copy it as close as possible as I rode an original and didn't like pressuring the nose that much. The core I have looks like its about 6mm all through the middle right up to 10" of the ends and then it tapers down. Looks like they just used a 1/4" core and tapered only those last 10" as it is perfectly same thickness in the mid right up to that point. Some of the boards I have checked out had the butterfly 6 or 7" off the nose and 4" off tail. Sound about right? Still a long way to go and surely first one will be a bit whacky but you have to start somewhere. While testing boards a few days ago on real hard ice under an inch or two of softer stuff, I found the boards which worked best were either: Real short effective with tight sidecuts ( my Angrry worked best on that day) or Longer boards with sidecuts in the 14+ range. Seems the mid length tighter sidecut models would bounce on the ice as tip and tail being longer needed more pressuring to settle them down which you could not do on the harder sections of snow/ice So methinks short is the way to go, hell, hockey skates grip like crazy on ice and they're pretty short;) Any idea what the preferred butterfly construction is? BV

Oh if I only had the time! Actually on my to do list to make up a BX ish board as I have data to support the build already in place. I agree that going too high on the sidecut (like 14ish )which I have heard is what the top riders use would be a bit much for a normal days riding. I would assume on the BX course you inspect it and you know there will be no surprises so its full speed ahead. Not typically what you get on your local hill. I would think something in the 10.5 to 12m range max and VSR would be a good test. Anyone want to try one:biggthump Lets sort out some solid dimensions and I may have time to get a test board made up With no metal in stock, you may see a 158 Madd tribute in glass by next week. Complete with carbon Bfly!! Currently working on a higher camber press base to get it to proper spec BV My metal supply is just leaving Austria so I should be back to building in about a weeks time.

I just rode it and it was covered in snow so I didn't take too long of a look at it. Both sides are hinged and the one I saw had the slide mechanism at the rear. Without taking it apart, you can't see all the details

It pretty much looks the same as the video you can see here http://www.thestar.com/videozone/747896

So I finally got to ride the Apex plate last weekend. One of the early protos for the cdn team. Definitely has potential for race and freecarve but as expected, weight and cost need to come down. Chatting with some of the developers, it did actually make bad boards good, to a certain degree. Most unique feel was the clean line the board will cut while not affected by what your feet are doing. I haven't ridden hangls in a while but I recall they really isolated the feel whereas the Apex let me feel what the edge was doing a bit more. This is a unique situation as opposed to the Hangl ( complex extrusions) as it won't take too much work for all the home brew versions to start popping up. At the race, I saw numerous versions already in use so lots of fun yet to come! Most common are guys using broken boards as the plate and making up the hardware underneath. The games are over but let the games begin:biggthump Here is a message I just got from Apex Composites on Monday 8th Hi Bruce, Yes we will be releasing some plates soon. We will be selling them in the next couple of weeks. The insert pattern is exactly the same as the latest hangl pattern. If you don’t have it, I’m sure I can send you a DXF with the lay-out. Also, we are working on an adaptor plate that will allow it to be attached to any board through the standard bindings holes. We anticipate a slight degradation in performance, but something only the elite world cup athlete would probably feel. We’re working out some details this week and I should be able to get back to you soon. Gerry Kavanaugh Apex Composites Inc. 3375 North Service Road A1-2 Burlington, Ontario L7N 3G2

OOOOPS! Sorry but all I do are Titanal boards but control the flex/rebound by the amount of glass/carbon I use along with it. Have not built a pure glass board in about 2 years. Looks like your bank account is safe:lol:

OK so I better say something in regards to sizing etc as most of this stuff is now worked out. The history of these models goes back to developing BX boards with Jasey where we first tried a 177 with similar sidecut to my NSRs. Super fun but not very turny at slower speeds or off the tail. Pokkis liked his NSR so much he wanted a smaller version for his wife so I decided to massage the dimensions he gave me a bit and created the first VSR ( variable sidecut radius) as it has 3 sidecuts instead of the 2 on NSRs and Monsters. The 3rd sidecut in the tail and slight softening in that section allows the board to turn off the tail a bit more and feel a bit more like a traditional board. They still maintain a slight stiffer mid and tail which works nice with the metal feel to give a fair amount of energy at the end of the turn and maintains the feel we like from the more race oriented models. First one built was the tightversion of 9.9/12/7/12m. My wife tested it pre top install and told me to sell her other boards. Funny thing is she was giving me the feedback I tried to design into it and she is normally not one to go into the details! From there other sidecuts were developed so the range with approx turning radius is as follow Angrry approx 9.5m Xtra Tight approx 10.5m Tight approx 11.5m Medium approx 13m Medium + approx 14m Long approx 16m Have done sizes from 160 to 180 so far with most popular sizes of 164 168 173 177 These are mostly done in a carbon/glass construction and have and recently experimented with full carbon which we called "turbo" The 77 VSR medium+ at SES was a Turbo, also Mike Ts new 168. Testing the 77 Turbo head to head with Johns medium with carbon glass you could definitely notice it to be a bit more energtic but also it seemed bit more nervous on harder snow. They take that bit more input to ride so its not a better or worse thing, just different flavors. No doubt these have been my best sellers this season despite being quite new. Currently have plenty of previous info on these to adjust to almost any needs. BV

I'm in. May have a few demos but not a whole bunch as many are already ses bound. Spouse is unconfirmed Also please add Wojtek Ziolkowski

I upgraded to the mast track that has the tightening knob and it still works fine. Funny tidbit of info in regards to windsurfing. Upon graduating high school, my grandmother gave each of the kids in our family $ 1000.00 to do with it as we pleased. I ended up buying the orig Windsurfer and while learning rail rides, cracked the daggerboard . Then looked into my " the wind is free" book and saw that you needed to use epoxy to do the repair. So that was my first workings with epoxy and was truly the start of my current career. So I kept the trend going and gave each of my nieces and nephews the same. Of course with inflation I got off a lot easier

You are that old:lol: If you want to put down your kites I can let you take a spin on my original windsurfer vintage 1981 model. No teak boom though I think they just went to Alu at that time. I have your new board

Well IMO it is my turn to comment as the owner asked for an opinion and I do have more experience than most who have never even seen the inside of a snowboard. So far he has looked and it appears not to be an insert issue but then states you mentioned it was probably started by a crack from a previous owner? I would think that a crack would cause a fracture in that immediate area and not allow a big piece of the top to peel off. To me that would appear to now be a bonding issue. Just my 2.5 cents as I have been building boards for only half as long as you.

Its a pretty easy autopsy as you just have to cut it open ( sawzall works well as the blades seem to handle edges best) and take a peek around the inserts or any signs of the wood cracking and distorting. Frank didn't mention anything in regards to reinforcing but so you can look to see if there is any type of fiber reinforcement that the inserts are pushed through as this is a very effective way to eliminate insert pulls. If no sign of injury appears around the inserts, the top lamination just let go as it must have hit its life cycle and there are a ton of factors that influence that and many I am surely not even aware of. Do this and you are a good way to becoming a certified board disassembler. The putting together part is a bit more tricky;)

Just stating facts fellas. I am not calling out anyone and just took the info given and applied my knowledge. If bindings are ripping out of boards is somewhat of a safety issue and knowing the facts can help to reduce the problem. Sure it was an older board but there are lots of old boards out there and if there is a compatibility concern, it should be addressed. I'd be the first to recommend that any of my boards form the 90s were not reinforced enough to be reliable with stiff bindings. It was the evolution period for binding and board compatability. Frank, I have no hesitation about utilizing proven designs even if I did not come up with it first. Its more fun for me and my customers. Certain things work well and if they do why not use them? Mr Kessler is one guy I fully respect and would love to meet him someday. He seems to understand board dynamics more than anyone else that I have dealt with. You are also correct that I did work in a Hospital until I finally decided to do the boards full time. I was at a huge disadvantage only being able to do it part time so please bear with me until I get caught up with all the latest and then maybe, just maybe could come up with an original idea or maybe a successful race design to compete with the big guys.

That type of break looks like it was caused by the inserts pulling up through the core and then ripping the top off. If you cut the board open it would give you a good idea of whats up. A lot of boards I have opened up with that type of damage just have the inserts put right into the wood with no additional reinforcement. This is usually a recipe for disappointment in the long run as the wood will only take so much. Its a very good time saver to do it that way but it does not hold up in the long run with stiff bindings. If you think about wanting to build a tool to pull inserts out of a board, you would support it on the perimeter and then put a big nut in the middle to pull up on the inserts to see how strong they are, get the picture;) My glass and metal boards all have reinforcement and for heavy dudes or stiff bindings I even add more to help protect. I am totally unaware of how that board was built but opening it up would give you some idea as to whats up. Its just a combination of the small things that usually add up to failure and eliminating as many of them as possible is the best cure. Yes I am still alive

Just got to Hatteras and already a great 9m kite session. May have to quit building boards and just hang out down here:biggthump Oh yeah, have to take a load of peoples deposits first. HAHA! BV

Definitely a better arm position as it is closer to his crotch and he is so relaxed he just finished scratching his cajones:lol: Thats why he has that happy look on his face:) I'm finally on vacation for 2 weeks so take that!

The first proto is out in Tahoe this weekend for testing so more info to come. When I tested it on day 2 , I kinda blew it as I softened the tail a bit and the pop was not as noticeable for my 185 lbs, however a lighter rider was now loving it. Good to know this anyways as it gives me design parameters to work off of. Proto # 2 gets assembled this week and tested soon after. Won't change much as I really liked the original, just play with the stiffness and amount of carbon a bit. Won't get to do a 170 till early next season but it'll be a breeze to sort out as we already tested boards with the longer sidecut so its just a matter of putting it in a different configuration of a 170 Angrry. Had an equipment failure while riding it though. It was railing real nice as I could lean as hard on it as I wanted to so I actually wore out the string on my leash from the bale scraping the real hard snow we were riding. After the day I noticed the frayed ends of the leash just hanging there:biggthump That thing is a great leg workout BV

My mistake as you are correct . However it was intended for your big clumsy feet with hard boots. The 56 I did was not designed for all mountain use as much as for carving in softies. Methinks that metal has a good future in that application BV

I built a 156 x23.5 with 9m for a lightweight softboot rider who tested while out at Bachelor. Super good feedback but I'm too busy with Alpine stuff to take it any farther at this time . Since it was my first effort and was really liked by those who tested it, no doubt the materials somewhat overcame any first design deficiencies so I would say there is definitely goodness to be had. Will get long term feedback soon. BV

Bob Dea is dead on with the flex issue. While testing there are some boards which just don't chatter and others which you cannot stop( usually way too stiff) with boards that are close in regards to flex, I adjust my technique from Euro to race style to see if the added edge pressure slows down bouncing and it usually does. Boards that are too soft I find will not bounce as much as wash out, somewhat of a different feeling . If its an SL board, the speed needs to be really kept under control as you can get above the designed speed range quickly on tighter sidecuts, then they won't set properly. Metal is a definite help but stiffness is still a big factor. Riding with a guy last Fri and he was on a 172ish F2 and you could see he had solid technique but the board was continually bouncing. Got him on a softer metal 177 and life was good, very good!! The flex on some of those glass boards is very lively due to hi camber and stiffness which can make matters worse. My recent designs compensate for sidecut and the amount the boards must bend by utilizing different carbon/glass ratios to allow for an easier bend in tighter sidecuts where you give up a bit of rebound to gain quietness. My feelings are if an entire line of boards use the same wood, laminations etc, some of them are going to work better than others in certain conditions. With longer sidecuts you need more life from the materials as the boards just do not get it from actively bending as much in most situations. If you go to a hi rebound lamination in tight sidecuts, the boards need to be longitudinally softer so they will still get to bend into the desired arc. BV

The 158 is average 9m which is pretty much identical to my new effort. I laid out the sidecuts the way I wanted to, checked them against a 158 and said "F it" so close may as well just make them the same:biggthump Jack, I was also testing SCR near 11 average but the Angrry is a much more unique feel( like the original) and FUN. Will do a board to your specs if you like. The first one goes out to Tahoe today for testing later this week. Can't wait for the findings! BV

By far the best of the three movies:biggthump

9.5 is nice on the 160. Eventually I will do a 170 with something closer to 11 or 12 m average. Don't forget these are averages of 3 sidecuts so if I did my job the board will work a bit on either end of those #s. Tested a 168 VSR FC with 12m average today and that is probably going to be the best all around sidecut for medium speed FC duties. The 9.5 is a real leg burner as it grips plenty good ,you can get down using up a very small portion of hill space and link a crazy amount of turns. BV

Hard to believe we never met up as we were on snow all morning. Had a blast and really got good feel for the new boards on the real hard snow. The Angrry was a real leg burner and I wish I counted the # of turns I could do on that thing down the pitch. I would think about 25 or so!! I was railing hard enough to wear the safety leash rope right through on the front bale of my F2s:):) My gloves are looking pretty sad though. Nice way to end it off, now onto the kites!

I'll be there at opening for sure. Lookin good!! BV