Puddy Tat

Me - "It's a snow skate." [In reference to my 185cm NSR with AF plate]

Great seeing everyone again. This is a weekend I look forward to every year. It's awesome to see the improvements in everyone's riding from year-to-year. Dave

+1 to what to Steve said. It was great to see you again Alex. You were killing it on the new Proteus and RC-10s. Super smooth looking. Dave

+1

My NSR (185/14-17m/20cm) instantly made me a better carver. I put a Donek AF plate on it to see what the fuss was and notched a couple of levels up again. It's my go to board when I want to rip cord on wide open steep runs. It loves it when you jump on it's nose and tell it to rail. Like Corey said somewhere else, it doesn't like skidding around, but when I ask it to carve, it tears into groom at much higher speeds than I'm comfortable riding. Dave

I'll be getting to Nakiska just before 9. See you guys there. Dave

Thank god I've already got one. These are amazing boards. Dave

BTW looks like 4-5 hardbooters coming down from Edmonton this year. Stoked! Dave

I'll be staying at the Banff Boundary Lodge. I can pick you up most mornings. Friday for sure. Saturday I might head to Steve's after riding then coming back to Canmore much later that evening. Sunday I'll be heading for back for Edmonton once my legs give out. So it's your call on Saturday and you'll have to find another ride for Sunday. If I can help out PM me. I could probably meet you at the Tim Horton's while I grab a tea and biscuity thing for breakfast. My plan is to leave Timmie's by 7:40 to be rolling into Nakiska by 8:30-8:45. Dave

After Nakiska sold season passes for ~$200 ish this year I expect most weekends will have the potential be a gong show. I'll be up on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Look forward to riding with you guys. Dave

Shotgun!

The sign would indicate that house break-ins are a problem in Idaho? Dave

For purely carving in the Banff/Calgary area none of the mountains around here beat Nakiska, nice wide and steep groomers. Dave

While mines not for sale Donek Inclines are the sh!t. I have a 171cm with TD3 plates. It kills it everywhere. I started with a 163 and was folding the nose in heelsides. Dave

Pass was so cheap, I bought a family pass there as well as one at Sunshine. Crazy good deal. "We now return you to your summer scheduled bowl skating..." Dave

Thanks Neil. I'll check it out. I'm not quite qualifying for the group yet. But just about. Dave

Ok this is my new summer carve filler. I started hanging out with a group of guys 9who know how to ride bowls) about 5 weeks ago and riding down tiny ramps. As of last weekend I'd graduated to rolling in on 5' transitions and carving around in a bowl to the point where I am 5' up the walls. I even managed to roll out of the bowl after riding around in it a bit. The surfy carvey feeling is incredible. Last weekend I came around a corner frontside and then was riding across the wall and thinking I was about to fall backwards into the bowl when I hit the next corner and felt the pump and the g's of taking the corner hold me up. What a crazy rush. Seriously enjoyable. Still trying to get kickturns on transition walls and drop-ins before I can call myself even remotely competent. Dave Anyone else doing this for a summer fix?

Well, the AF plate certainly isolated me from stuff I was hitting this included tearing through late afternoon western crud/chop. It let me go faster in better control, with less shock and fatigue to my legs. I could jump on the nose or ride laid back and surfy. Definitely an improvement over riding the deck naked (2014 185cm NSR). OTOH I didn't get the sense of disconnectedness from the board, or the requirement to ride the board differently that you guys seem to talk about. Honestly the ride was so much better with it that I haven't taken it off since it went on. Given that the front end of an AF plate mechanism is a slider and the rear is fixed, I'm not totally clear how this doesn't provide the same "style" of isolation as an axle system. My understanding is that the AF plate "hinge" effectively only rotates in one direction, therefore rider inputs to the board are direct, while board inputs to the rider are damped or isolated. This is also my experience from riding it. All this being said I haven't ridden a low-resistance axle-based isolating plate such as you describe. Anyways back to learning to skate bowls. Dave

...or - just buy a Donek AF plate, - attach it to the only mounting location on your board, - attach your TD3s in your desired stance width, - go rip some turns. Dave

Man up. At -40C you lose a couple of fingers and suddenly everything is a mitt :-p Dave

.... and let the tweaking commence. Love LDP. Have ridden my less this summer because I strangely decided to try riding bowls at 44 (facepalm). So much fun. OTOH I seem to be up to three skateboards all of a sudden. Dave

Got a link? And cost? Dave

Longboard (Downhill or Freeride) - Has a nice carvey feeling broken up by hiking. LDP - Ditto on the carvey feeling. Feels like doing cross under carves all day long. Though this is dependent on how your board is set-up (surfy or wiggly) Bowl/Pool Skating - I just got into this about a week ago. I can roll in and pump corners. Sh!tloads of fun so far. There is an awesome feeling of acceleration pumping and carving through corners. Dave BTW these are listed in the order I got into them to get a summer fix.

+1. Dave

Is is carving? Yes. Do they appear to be pretty much at the limit of performance for their equipment/stance choices? Also Yes. As much as I appreciate people who can carve the snot out of a softboot set-up I'm also a "right tool for the job" kind of a guy. OT. I'd like to try a noboard sometime. That looks like a hoot. Dave