philfell

I've been out of the AASI loop for quite some time, but to add some history I passed my level 1 in '97 in soft boots, passed my level 2 in '97 entirely in hardboots, and passed my level 3 in '98 half in hardboots and half in soft boots.

The only time I have seen them are at the World Cups. I have not even actually touched one yet.

Umm looks to me from reading you second post you have Bruce winning in most formats?

Bordy is trying to work with the resort to have some sort of metal exemption clause, so everyone on a newer metal board will still be able to enjoy their favroite resort, but those who ride old school locked in chatter boxes will either have to upgrde or go to softies.

Sorry to say this, but I'm at pretty much all the races and Bordy would beat Bruce in any race format. Especially now that Billy is coaching Park City full time and spends a fair amount of time still running a course, while Bruce rides when he has time, which is rare. And yes I have seen and raced against Bruce.

The Fire shell needs to be slightly modified if you were to bring them back. They had cracking issues due to buckle placement. One spot over the instep and another spot over the toe of the boot. Overall pretty easy fixes, but they need to be done.

Vic was out this season with an injury. He will be back with a vengance next year.

Zac Kay Loves his new boots. The model name is "Hot Dogger"

Being the top Americans Chris Klug and Lindsay Lloyd will take the National Titles for PGS for the US.

The results are slow to be posted on the FIS site because the CSF uses out dated software and all the info must be entered by a person. Most countries use software which auto synches with the timing software and you can send the results directly to FIS for them to upload, but the CSF does it a bit old school.

Shouldn't you be working on the ARK with the others?

Those are the same as the old Burton MegaFlex, just with a modified top buckle. UPS made the MegaFlex for Burton in the early 90's. They cause bone spurs on many of riders. Feedback.....museum peices?

Thanks for the insight Bruce.

I hear what you are saying. I'll take a pic of the Kessler I'm working on this week tomorrow after riding. I haven't looked at the tail while it's on a flat surface, but eyeing down it there is some decamber in the tail, not nearly as much as the nose, but there is some.

They are pushing it in my opinion as far as shape goes. I think the Black Pearls are too squared. But with the mounting position and current technique there isn't a ton of pressure on the nose so it dosen't bash into stuff, but rather tracks over things. Have you taken a look closely at the coiler's tail? Is it's camber profile similar to the nose?

No bindings or plate on the board at the time of the pic.

I thought I would post a few pics to go alone with Jack's these two pics are of a Black Toped Kessler built less than a month ago for a female world cup rider. Pic #1-Board laying flat on the ground, no binding or weight on the board. Pic #2-Board is weighted to take the camber out so that the inbetween the bindings is on the ground.

I agree with you Carvedog, Bacca is probably the best in the business. When Seth won the World Cup in Arosa this year he paid out of his own pocket to bring Bacca along with him. Bacca is also the only person Nate will have do his boards for the X-Games, which has the most gliding of any SBX race of the season. Our program is actually thinking sending our athlete's board to Bacca to have him do the grinds on them for next season. If you could see the job he did on Johnathon Cheevers Battalon you would be amazed. The Battalon has a "triple base" which will make any tech go nuts trying to grind it properly.

Put your race stock skies base to base, use a strap to tie them together in the middle so the bases are actually touching and I'm sure you'll see that you can start to see space between the bases far before where you would consider the actual "tip".

One thing I'd like to add. On why these boards ride better then a traditional nose profile. Notice on Jacks pics of the decambered nose, especially the one where he is standing in the middle of the board. See how smooth and gradual the shape of the nose is it kind of just blends past the contact point of the effective edge and sidecut. Now look at the MADD, see how abrupt the raduis is from where the side cut ends to the tip of the board. Think about riding in packed powder snow. It is common to have your board dig in an inch into the snow. When the board is burried this far in the snow an old school nose profile will want to catch and make the arc tighter. So builders had to make the nose of the board stiffer so it wouldn't catch and try to force a tighter turn. This is what most people falsley call "folding the nose". The nose profile radius actually grabs the snow and forces the board to dig in more or to hook up on a super tight arc that throws the rider over the bars. With a decambered nose, when the board digs into the snow it does not want to tighten the turn. So builder can now make the boards softer and more forgivable without comprimising ridability.

Good write up Jack. I'm sure it helped a lot of people here understand the concept better.

There should be a step between master freecarver and world cup/olympian. There is a big differance there. Actually there should be a few steps.

Last time I checked Hardbooter doesen't sell SG or Kessler.

We can actually coach all the start practice from our hottub.