philfell

After some thinking about this imangine this: Screw a one inch high "L" bracket on top of your board near the edge. Now try to tilt the board on edge using this "L" bracket, it would require quite a bit of effort. Now screw this same "L" bracket on a riser plate, it would now be easier to put the board on edge because although you are using the same size bracket you have increased you "LEVERAGE". Does this jive with your science class?

Kex there is more than one lever on a snowboard. The high back is a lever, when you push against the high back this levers the board on edge. The further away from the fulcrom (ie edge in this case) the more "leverage" you have. Plates do this, same is true for toeside, but the lever is a bit more complicated. As far as guys using Burton bindings, most everyone purchases theirs, not many get them for free. Guys use these instead of the cateks for pretty much the same reason the racers us F2's instead of TD2's. And Cindy are you trying to say that Lindsay is a lesbian??? If so this is so not true.

Burton Co2's followed by the Burton c 60

Are you?

Those Shock Palmer Plates are pretty much the standard. The Elevators work to lift, but don't add any dampening, as do the lower end Palmer plates. But I feel it's worth the extra money to get the good Palmer plates, they work better and they last long enough not to worry about needing to replace them anytime soon. One hint when mounting them, you only need to screw the inserts in finger tight, because when you tighten the binding screws this snugs up the insert screws......Don't worry about understanding this now, it will make sense if you get the plate and see how they set-up. I haven't played around with the S-Flex first hand so I can't comment on that, but I haven't seen any high end riders on them so my interest hasn't been caught by these. Plus the Plamer Plates work well and are so simple.

Finally they changed their graphics. The old ones were getting.....well a little old.

We are not talking Hangle plates or vist plates. The Palmer plates are made for soft boots and YES most of the top guys on the World Cup are on them. They are pretty much considered standard SBX equipment. Since you are so in tune with the FISSNOWBOARDWORLDCUP.com site watch the Sunday River World cup videos, Graham is on Palmer Plates as Ross is also on a riser plate system. Bobby Minghini who placed 8th is on Palmer plates. Pretty much all the US Team that I know of are on the plates except for some of the girls.

Most of the top guys are running around 27 degrees in the front foot and 9 degrees in the rear. Booting out in an SBX course is rare, because of the banks you never get too high of an edge angle. Soft boots just don't provide the lateral support to run the high angles that you are running. SBX is more about gliding than being able to rail a GS type of carve. Lower angles and soft boots allow you to glide through uneven terrain much better than high angles and hardboots. Definatly get some Palmer plates. Trust me if Graham is skidding it's for an intended purpose, not to avoid booting out.

One option, I'm free on the 8th. I'm too busy with setting up other things right now. But if you find a place to set gates I provide the gates and the coaching for a reasonable amount depending on how many people you think will be showing up.

No X Box either. The latest concussion reasearch studies have shown study groups who play video games take longer to reach their normal baseline after a head injury, than those who "rest their brain". Goggle second impact syndrome and you will find a ton of stuff on how serious head injuries are.

Swix Race Pro Files, the absolute best you will ever use. Will last multiple seasons, these cut so smooth you hardly need to use a stone afterwards. A couple passes with the medium, then the fine, lightly stone and your done. http://www.swixsport.com/eway/default.aspx?pid=278&trg=MainPage_6117&MainContent_6179=6117:0:24,2744&5463=6118:2&MainPage_6117=6138:44987::0:6118:32:::0:0 No need for a true bar, you can tell when you wax if your base is flat or not. I use the beast base bevel guide. and just the economy Swix side edge file guide. You should have a course and x-course diamond stone (medium if you have the budget, but not mandatory to start with), gummy stone, sidewall planner, metal scraper, plastic scraper, scraper sharpener (or make one), panzer file (a long one, many uses comes in very handy), clamp for the file guide. Get an iron produced by a wax company, they cost more for a reason. I use pretty much all Swix products. Swix has won more World Cup medals than any other wax company because their stuff tends to be the best.

Kelowna!? We were just there a few weeks ago for a Nor-Am SBX event. Your best bet is to contact Mark Ballard. He is a race coach in Calgary, he may know of some older boards from some of his female athletes. He's member name here is MJB, or you can contact him through his Club, just google Calgary Snowboard Club and you can get his contact that way. Your second best bet is to search the classifieds here.

Kex read the first line of what he wrote. That is a question.

Why ask this question if you are not able to tolerate peoples responses?

I started when I was 13 or 14, can't quite remember, must be getting old now. Come to USASA Nationals you will see plenty of kids your age riding hard boots.

Yes there are different grinds for different snow. The people who actually need different grinds for different snow have multiple boards, ie a cold snow board and a wet snow board ect. For every little bit your base is high it's adding perceived base bevel. Most riders I know run between a .5 and a 1 degree base bevel, that isn't allowing much room to be base high and not have it negatively effect the handleing of your board, even if you know your base is high and compensate with the edge bevels. Most boards have about 4-5 grinds in them if you are changing your grind every time the snow changes your board won't last one season. Plus every time you grind your board it is actually slower and takes time and work to get it fast again. For everyone here one good multi-purpose grind, if take care of should last a few season for the majority of members here. Keep in mind that most of the members here are weekenders and have multiple boards so their most favorite board still sees very limited use, compared to a full time snowboarder. If I'm so wrong and know so little about teching and servicing boards Dirk I ask you this.....When was the last time an athlete you teched for made it to the podium of a major international race? Because athletes our program techs for have been on podiums at everything from USASA events to World Cups and litterally everything inbetween THIS season. You site PTC's supreme end all knowledge, but again I ask you this who was the last person on the Snowboard World Cup to send their boards to him? I bet no SBX athletes do. In SBX your base prep is much more important than in Alpine.

Ha!!! A few years ago Graham Watanabe showed up at Park City with on of those to give it a chance. I have never witnessed a high level world cup rider ride so poorly. Two runs and that was all it lasted.

You board is either flat or not. If it is base high it will be squirrly riding flat and in the transitions. A flat board that can not be ground is better than a none flat board that can be ground later. Why intentionally handicape your boards performance because you want to grind it again in the future? If you take care of your equipment you can get many seasons out of one grind. Stay away from rocks, and keep it waxed to avoid base burn. If this is common with their product it shows a lack of craftmanship and quality control.

Boreal wasn't a good example of a course built for that level of riding. Pretty much all the guys I talked to before the event, some of these guys made it to the podium, said they were concerned that the course was too easy. What made them concerned it that when course lack anything technical, there is nothing to seperate the top riders from the mid-pack riders. Some of these mid-pack riders will do anything in order to make their make and prove their worthyness (even if they are not there yet riding-wise), this mentality can lead to injuries. The past few years the Grand Prix's have been much more technical, but this year Boreal didn't really have much snow to work with and they just kind of threw together something that would work with the snow they had. Keep in mind that in Tahoe it was steadily in the 50's and 60's for two weeks leading up to the event.

I was not at Cypress or Stoneham so I couldn't say. The Sunday River course was very fast, but there were two 90 degree hip jumps that were far from "glidey". There is a pretty good video clip of the Sunday River course on www.fissnowboardworldcup.com

Your right Mark, I should have fact checked a bit more I thought FIS would be able to get it right though.....http://fissnowboardworldcup.com/fis_snowboard/?option=com_content&view=article&id=381&catid=1&Itemid=53. Ross did do a few SBX World Cups about 10 years ago. Ross and Bobby are both training with us. Ross part-time, mainly at events, and Bobby full time. It is a sport where anyone can win on any given day. It makes it that much more impressive when you see riders consistantly near the top. It really shows how good they are to always be at the top despite all the variables.

I know a few of you guys are interested in the SBX scene. Right now the US has so much depth in SBX it seems like there are more than ten guys who can pull a podium at any time. This was proven by the fact that Ross Powers....yes that Ross Powers placed 3rd in his first ever World Cup SBX event. Also to note that Bobby Minghini made it all the way through to the small finals placing 8th. This makes things real interesting going into next season when the Olympics are on the line. The US will take World Cup results to feild their team for the Olympics, that way they can get the best international riders on the team. The problem with this is the max number of country spots a nation can earn is 8, right now we have 10 riders in the top 30 so that technically should earn us 11 spots. And if Bobby does well at World Cup finals he will move into the top 30 (with only two World Cup starts this season). That would put the number at 12. So next season we could have 4 guys in the top 30 in the World Cup points who will not even be able to go to the events to qualify them for the Olympics.......... Plus on top of that Cholene Miller (Bode's brother) has been killing it, our Jrs. are riding super fast and a few of them could compete at the World Cup level (if not now very soon), Cleve Johnson and Jarod Minghini have been stepping it up as well. I only wish we had these problems on the alpine side, where we left quota spots unfilled in the PGS because we didn't have enough riders with the minimum amount of FIS points to compete.

I haven't seen anyone on the world cup run cateks. Burtons are pretty much the standard. Easy to get parts for if something breaks, padding under the feet, they fit the boot shape much better than pretty much all other bindings, provide good feel.