philfell

Yeah Billy. I can't beleive someone questioned your passion and comitment to the sport. You probably have the most passion for hardboot snowboarding and racing than anyone I have ever met. I know that if you felt you could juggle the kid, daycare, Christi's schedule, putting food in your kids mouth (well that's more Christi's job for now), ect. you would without thinking twice about it. But passion for the sport only goes so far when the loved ones around you have to make big sacrafices for your passion. And your right coaching end up costing the coach a lot of money out of their own pocket, more so then most professional jobs that require you to travel. If the athletes knew what the take home was, and what we have to spend out of pocket to make it happen for them, then compare that to a traveling soap salesman they would probably stop complaining about lack of funding for them and see that most of us are probably have less funding to pay bills and to live on then they do. Sorry got off on a tangent there. It's a touchy subject for anyone who has coached, I'm sure. Good luck with the kid. Remember that sometimes you kid will need a parent, not just a playmate......ah that will be Christi's job also....Good cop/Bad cop so to speak.

Cool I hope Fairchild does it. He would be a great person for the job.

Well I guess Palmer does not know how to set up his board properly and you know more about what's good for his set up then you. First it's SBX, you should be riding that high of an edge angle. If you are you are not going to be on the podium. Second Palmer knows what he's doing. At the last World Cup he was the second fastest US guy in qualifing. Please translate you last sentense?? Are you saying that when you boot out it puts you into a "high tilt/angle carve"???? Yes in PGS you would want a different set up. Not one tool works for all. But this thread shifted to SBX set ups. And you were proven wrong on your assesment of Palmers set up, then you go and say it isn't good. And state it's bad for GS....Well of course it's bad for GS, it's SBX. A good GS stance will be bad for SBX. Dude you need to know when to say enough is enough and stop digging your self a deeper hole.

That's funny this year in South America we set a GS in the slush and let it berm up just like that. I was sweet and all the riders had a blast, both hard and soft booters. One problem I see with doing it on a public area and letting it stay is the grooming issue. It would be a pain for the cat driver to work around the course on a daily basis if the course were in a park like you suggested. And another problem is to get berms like that you need good riders setting the line the first day and soft snow, a combination that isn't always to be had.

For Kesslers you will need to go through Bola at All Boards Sports. Going directly through Kessler will probably get you no where. That guy is so busy that unless you are on the world cup you probably won't get a decent reply and things will be very frustrating. Educating about wax and board prep is important, but remember that it's all about the riding. Yes there are no absolutes, but Palmers stance is typical of what you would see at an SBX World Cup, yes there are exceptions, but not many. I would suggest you start close to what he is riding and go from there. Also pay attention to stance width. My guess is that since your son is also a park rider and used to riding duck his stance may be too wide. I can't say for sure from here, but it's a hunch. And the banter that was going back and forth was awesome to witness.

Remember everyone it's snowboard coaching. We do it more out of the love of the sport than the paycheck. The paycheck comes mostly from the athletes pockets, and we all know how well they funded. When I work construction in the summer, I usually take home double than what I make coaching. If your looking for a job that you can put away for retirement keep looking. If you love the sport and want to be active in it, this is a good way to do it.

Marketing-shamarkiting.... You can go and make turns that's all I was saying. I would not suggest someone book tickets to come out and ride, but if you live here and have a pass you can make some turns.....buying a lift ticket is probably not worth it since passes are so cheap anyways.

Ask why??? Do we need to go over that again??? We know the answer. It was a great way to start the season, and I'm super impressed with Vic's result!!! Too bad none of the ladies made it in both of them have the potential to make the top 16 there. But unfortunatly PSL does not count towards Olympic Team Selection or Olympic Quota spots.

Just wanted to let everyone know that the Tahoe guys can start making turns at Boreal. Not much there one run, one lift, but they are open.....For now at least.

Before people can give you a valid suggestion, you should let us know your riding level, and your riding goals. And I echo what Tex said, edge hold has more to do with proper technique. You can't handicap poor technique with a sweet board. If your technique is poor you probably won't be able to feel the differance between boards anyway. But with proper technique you will be able to do things on a "top shelf" board you wouldn't be able to do on a lesser board. And everyone is going to have their own opinion here. Not all are going to be the same.

A World Cup SBX board, such as an Oxess, SG, Kessler, ect. Look at what the pros choose to buy and that will tell you the best board to carve on with softies. For production boards Volkl Coal, and Palmer Crown.

They have been around for a while. They were one of the first companines that I saw make the switch to titinal construction after Kessler. The laides on their boards have been doing very well on the world cup for the past few season, but so far none of the guy has had much sucess in alpine on them. I don't think this has to do with the boards, I feel it has more to do with the riders who are one them, they seem to be just behind the top guys. I saw some of thier newer SBX boards in South America this year and they also look great. Personally I would not hesitate to get one. I feel they can compete with a Kessler, Oxess, or SG.

Pass on the Nidecker for what you want to do with it. You will NOT be able to compete SBX on it at USASA events, FIS would be OK though. But I would suggest you NOT run any SBX on a race focused board, it's just asking for injury. The only people who run SBX in hardboots are those who grew up riding hardboots and don't feel comfortable racing SBX in soft boots because they do not have the milage in softies. Your son already knows how to ride softies so don't make him race SBX in hardboots. For your son look for a board with at least a 20cm waist width 20.5 would be even better. Dave glad you edited out your comment about Palmers stance...As someone who helped prep his board for the last World Cup in South America I can say that he does not ride a stance like you suggested. He is one of the best softboot carvers out there, but in a legit PGS race against legit PGS races he would get his but kicked, same with anyone on the US SBX Team if they were to ride their SBX set up. Graham and Hale could get on a hard boot set up and be competitive with little effort on thier part though.

Think of exercises as tools to build your "house" of fitness. Lots of people here are saying biking, biking, biking. Or promoting other things. ONE exersise is NOT going to get you in shape. It may get you in shape for that exersise, but you will have gaps and weakness in your overall fitness. You can't build a house with one tool, you can't get true fitness with one exersise. Varity is key. It takes many "tools" to get the job done. Yes some tools get used more often when building a house like a hammer and a saw, like biking and stretching. But sometimes you need a table saw, nail gun, drill, ect. just like sometimes you will need to do lunges, squats, cable machines, ect..... Basically what I'm trying to say is that unlike what you see on late night TV, there is no do one thing and have amazing results. Hard work, picking at your personal weakness, and keeping varity is key to starting the season strong.

Most "real" racers put PGS in the box, because they understand that Kessler knows far more about board building and design then the racers. They don't care if the number is 2 or 152.543685......they just want it to turn a PGS sized turn. The real numbers they care about is width and giving Kessler an accurate weight so the board flexes properly for them. The racers don't get caught up in trying to design the board for Kessler, they want Kessler to design a board for them....

The reason why the bindings inserts are set back further on modern race boards is because the amount of taper. When boards have that much taper the center of the sidecut is more rearward. So the inserts are set back so that you are still fairly close to being center on the side cut even though it apears that you are fairly far back, but in reality when factoring in some nose decamber you are not as far back on the board as it appears. I hope you can follow what I'm trying to say above. If not I'm sure someone will come along and word it more clearly.

Turning the cleanest line in the snow is the ultimate point in free carving AND racing. If you never "force" a turn you are never riding the board to it's limit. Everyone has different opinions and reason why they ride hardboots and that is part of what makes the sport awesome. I've just seen many guys who label themselves as freecarvers, and ride what I would consider a stance too narrow from them. At some point they end up in the woods or have a bad collision because they are so locked in the turn that they can't get out of the turn. This is because they are riding the same stance they rode on thier 162 from 1998. It's cool you are going to try a wider stance 18.5 is by no means extreme in width and will give you a ton more control and take away very little in terms of your ability to carve clean lines in the snow.

Bruce puts his inserts in the place he put them for a reason. It's funny, Bruce makes great boards that are VERY well thought out. They seem to get praise by everyone who rides them, and it's hard to find anyone here who has had a bad experience with one......So you are trying to set up your board against the recommendations of both the BINDING manufacture and the BOARD builder because you can't fit the stance YOU want on it......It seems to me that the boards inserts are not the issue. You should probably re-look at your set up and question why you feel you should be going so far to an extreme that you need to set stuff up wrong so that your set up can be "right" in your mind. Pretty much every girl I've coached runs a wider stance than 17.25, and some of them are much shorter then 5' 6". Go out to at LEAST 18.5. With a board that big and a stance that narrow it's very hard to control the size of the turn. You are basically just tipping the board on edge and letting the side cut take you around.....You are not controlling the board it is controlling you at that point.

Pretty cool way to start the season. We have 9 World Cup spots, and we had 9 athletes qualify to the finals, and 2 ended up on the podium. Telluride WILL be THE event to watch. So much on the line going into the Olympics. Anyone who has any vacation time should plan to come and watch Telluride PGS and SBX World Cup in an Olympic year!!!!!!!!!! Just like the Olympics, but better.

I also echo much of what Ink said. If your son is competiting in PGS and PSL for fun there is no need to push him into hardboots, unless he wants to try it out. If he wants to win at PGS and PSL then he will need to get on hard boots at some point. The fastest softbooter can't even come close to a mid-pack hard boot racer. Real life example.....Bobby Minghini US B Team SBX athlete, X-Games competitor, finished 8th in the Sunday River World Cup SBX. We had him and some of our other SBX riders race the Copper Race to the Cup last season. He finished pretty far back after having a solid run. Many of the Jr. riders beat him. As far as wide boards being slow edge to edge......Well that's a hell of a lot better then booting out all the time. Plus one of the most common problems for novice racers is setting the edge too early then having to back off the pressure, most call this double turning. I don't see much of an issue with a board that slows down a transition, when most are double turning anyways.

Keep in mind that PGS, SBX, and freestyle events require different set ups. At the low levels the differance in set ups sometimes are simply a change in stance. At the highest levels it's totally different equipment. Remember there is not a once size fits all when it comes to competition. Most boards are made for riders with a foot size of 10 or under. With the size of foot your kid has, he will more than likely require a custom made board. I'd first try to change up his stance a bit. Many of our SBX riders run 24/9, very few SBXers ride with a duck stance. Start with a stance change, then look into getting a custom built board that is wider.

Varity is key. We do a lot of stuff based off of "Core Performance". Google it if you don't know. Also setting up a slack line and spending some time on that is a great way to refine balance, and work all the stabilizer muscles in your legs, hips, and core. Plus it's easy to get into a stance similar to one you would be riding alpine with. Yoga is good also. National teams are getting away from pure strength training and favoring funtional training instead.

Someone's got to have some old US Open Super-G stuff laying around......

The Kessler SBX boards and the Oxess boards are actually very different. Some of our guys liked the Oxess' over the Kessler, others liked the Kesslers better. But for sure they all said that they were quite different. As far as that radius being too big for SBX and if he can handle it or not....It's kind of course dependant. For Copper it maybe be a bit big. But for the Boreal course it would have ruled. Actually I can think of a few courses last season where I wish most of our guys had larger boards, Hood and the Ontario Nor-Am come to mind (both events our were won by our guys though). Ross Powers is probably going to be on Oxess next season. We are working on getting him on their 163's some built with 12m and some built with 14 meter radius. JJ Tomlison is also going Oxess though he will be on the 163 with 12 meter radius. Cleve will probably also be on Oxess next year. I'd say ride it early season. The first event you will be in is probably in mid-Jan. If by mid-Dec you feel it is too big see about getting the 163 with a 12m radius. We had great feedback after our riders tried out these boards. You will not be dissapointed, even if it is a little big. WAY better then the Palmers, just ask Cleve.

Yeah a donation in March would essentially be put toward the 2011 season. To make a differance this year donations would have to be before January or earlier. The season for these guys has really already started. Klug and Zac did a camp at Hood together, their entire crew will be there training at teh end of Aug. Then the first World Cup is in early Oct. in Landgraaf.