philfell

I were Burton boots and they fit my feet great. The 24.5 and the 25.0 are actually the same boot shell, they use slightly more padding in the liner in the 24.5 to make it feel smaller. I were a 7.5 street shoe and were a 25.5 Burton Fire. I'd go for the 25.0, you won't feel much if any differance (I didn't when I used a 26.0 a few times). They probably will fit small out of the box but beleive me that they will pack out and get bigger fast, usually about a 1/2+ size in about four days.

The biggest mistake that I see from snowboarder just getting into raceing is that they go too straight rom gate to gate. Most people their first few times in a course don't set-up their turn. As we all know a snowboard makes a round turn, so you must look at a course and think in arcs. If try to turn right at the gate your inerta will carry you past the gate causing you to go wide and you'll be forced to jam on your edge in order to get acrossed the hill to the next gate. Look at the line you will be takeing with that in mind. Also make 70% of your turn above the gate so if you do make a mistake you can have time to correct. Another thing to keep in mind when you are comfortable with the proper line is that most NASTAR type courses are usually flat, try to only use enough pressure on your board to get the turn done. Any extra pressure will cause you to slow down, you want just enough to get the shape of the turn but no more (one the other hand no less either)

Anton Pogue still races with Raichle ski boots.

If you are refering to a "split tail" the way I interpet it F2 never made a split tail board. Also split tails were a G.S. board design, you probably never will find one in a 156, unless it was totally custom made for someone.

The stuff that was in the Warren Miller film was an idea by Boone Lennon, he made up all these excersises and gizmos to help cross over skiiers get into carving, the system was called "Quick Carve". It didn't take off very well, it taught people to carve very quickly but didn't teach them any control, people would get locked on edge and not be able to avoid people.

You are comparing a G.S. specific board with a Slalom specific board. I'd make a bet that if you could get your fp 157 through a slalom course you could ride the 178 fine, it really isn't all that stiff. (I don't weigh that much more than you and I find that the stock 178's are too turny for most G.S. courses. It's not about weight, it's about technique.)

What is your current set-up? Bindings need to work as part of a larger system ie. if you have a super stiff board, you will loose performance with a softer binding, like wise if you have a softer board you might not want a real stiff binding because you might have too much leverage, etc....

Oxygen made a board with reverse taper (actually called flare) a long time ago, it didn't work out too well.

Steamboat update. I just got back from there, the snow was great for carving and you could still find some pow in the trees if you wanted. I'd bring what you normally ride the most.

Here is a different take on on of Jakes tips. On your toe side edge try touching your front hand to your front heel. On yours heel side try touching you rear hand to you rear toe. One mistake with doing this is that you DON'T want to bend at the waist to touch. You want to keep you spine vertical and bend you knees to create the angles nessary to touch. One side note is that I'm a huge advocate of riding inline with your binding angles, and this drill is focused with this style in mind.

Off the top of my head riding with you hands on your hips can sometimes be used to calm down unneeded upper body rotation. If you have a problem with rotating your upper body to start you turn make some turns with you hand on you hips and focus on statring you turn by using you knees.

Here is my take on the subject. It's dumping in Utah and I rode waist deep pow yester day with my slalom set up, and another day of waist deep today with my soft powder set up. With that beining said I prefer my soft set up but not by a whole lot. Some reasons for this are, flex. Yeah you can flip a switch on a hard boot and loosen the cuff, but you only get a piviot point at the ankle, a soft boot flexes through out the whole boot including the sole. Another is on a soft set up you are much closer to the board with you feet this help get more feel and less leverage; in pow you are using more subtle movement with your ankles and a soft boot is better for this than a soft hard boot. Because you can get so much leverage on a hard boot set up I useally over edge in pow, not so in my soft boots. This is why I prefer to ride pow in soft boots, even though my hard boots fit better and are way more comfortable after a day of riding in them. But if I didn't have the luxary of having many different set-ups I would pick hard boots for every thing.

Actually, Mr. fly Jones, Pete rides Doneks. As for Jaggers weight check out what Donek and Coiler has, sometimes they have odd boards that are too stiff for the costumer that they were originally made for, these might work out great for you. If not my node will always go for F2s for me they ride supreme.

Billy could you ask santa if I can have my F2 and my extra fires back. I'm heading out of town next week and might need extra stuff.

"comfort of soft boots"?, I've never experienced that, my hard boot are way more comfortable than any soft boot I've ridden in.

I have a problem with old school skiers getting out on their new equipment. They finally feel a carve for the first time and they do these stupid slow carves along all the cat tracks and traverses, on top of taking up the whole cat way they usually have a helmet on for the first time and for some reason they can't hear you letting them know you are passing them. Then they give you the look and verbalize how they are the downhill skier and they have the right of way. Yeah you have the right of way but be aware of your surrondings and leave a lane to pass!

With an 11.5 meter side cut you should be able to do some short turns with that board. In order to make quick turns on a longer board you have to be even more dynamic than if you are doing a longer turn on the same board. Try getting a high edge angle earlier in the turn and drive you hips towards the nose of the board in order to bend the tip into the turn quicker. Some time you can also slightly slide the initiation of the turn with your feet then, hook up the edge through the apex ( this is really hard to explain on paper). Hope this helps.

I haven't read everyones responses so I might be repeating what someone else has already said, but here is my take. Go for the G.S. board you actually have more room for error on a G.S. board. Slalom board are really twitchy and are easy to get thrown around on. Since a G.S. is somewhat longer the sweet spot is bigger so your pressure dosen't have to be as spot on, what I mean is you can move more for/aft and play around with different body positions without the board throwing you off. And since the turns are longer you have more time in each turn to think about how you should be positioned, but with this longer turn comes more speed so watch out for the woods.

The PGS is free to watch and it's actually on the 17th.

It sounds like the footage I shoot!! Before the Olympics Fawcett came down to get some extra training on the Olympic run, and one day a TV show from Canada came down to film him for a day they had me trail behind him with a camera for a few runs. If you can see the nose of my board and it's a grey F2 with a U.S. Snowboard Team sticker on the tip, it's what I shoot. I never got to see any of the finished product so if you guys track it sown I'd love to get a copy of it, if it's the stuff I'm thinking of.

The 30 min video is good is has some great behind the sceanes footage of the olympics both freestyle and racing and is has some great race footage leading up to the event also (Jeff Greenwood, who made the film was also one of the U.S. Olympic racers).

Those of you looking for carving clips check out Straightlines.com