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SunSurfer

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Posts posted by SunSurfer

  1. Yeah, Pureboarding style needs inward cant on the rear and ideally a sloppy laterally binding tension together with a soft rear boot for the knee drive. Joerg is dismissive of Intec heels for the reason they are too tight laterally. Pureboarding is visually more spectacular with the body drags etc. while a narrow board lends itself to a clean minimalist pencil line carve style, appreciated by those in the know. Both are entirely valid ways of having an absolute great time on the mountain. Glad you found the video helpful in understanding your setup. 👍

  2. 1 hour ago, Señor Chuggs said:

    Awsome..  my setup has limited cant/lift options.  I feel it most on toeside I think at first, but then I think it could also be a slop in mid-to-late heelside turn that inhibits finishiation.

    I want my back heel up, canted ever slightly inward if at all, and ankle hinged tighter --but with movement.  Front foot is pretty flat and feels fine.

    my board has that damn 3 hole insert pattern (love it though).  Next big equipment purchase will probably be a used modern carving board + bindings, but not this season.

    anyway, my start at a solution: I got some UPZ boot shells. I think ill try and see if the internal ramp and flex on my new back boot is enough with a flat binding.  If so Ill try the burton cant wedge under the front binding to counter the ramp on the front UPZ boot.

    if the back foot needs more lift or the front doesn't feel "flat", I'll wear my AT boot on the front foot that has less cuff hinge, and is probably less ramp.

    I don't really have a question I'm just trying to think what stance options I have to try.  My turns are starting to get more consistent, in that it no longer takes days of riding to finally click.  I am riding good now until Im on slopes/conditions outside my comfort, or I get tired.  I'm getting tired very quick.  I stop to sit on the sides a lot during a session to catch my breath and rest my legs.  I'm thinking theirs a stance adjustment out there that will conserve a lot more of my energy

    UPZ boots have some features you can take advantage of.

    Preset position for cuff - try setting the front boot cuff as upright as possible and the rear boot cuff as flexed forward as possible.

    Springs: adjust the springs so the front is moderately tight, but the rear as free moving as possible.

    Cuff canting: Ideally your boot cuffs are set so that standing in your boots with your feet straight below your hips the soles are flat on the floor. But you can produce the leg alignment effect of a couple of degrees of canting by deliberately tilting the boot that way.

    Your stance should be in proportion to your physique as was pointed out at the beginning of this thread. Flat bindings will shorten the stance distance you will feel comfortable riding.

    Technique for putting the board on edge and absorbing bumps is incredibly important for rider fatigue. I rode once with someone who was better than me when I started out and gave me lots of tips. But by now I'd improved a little. Halfway down he stopped by the side of the run to catch his breath. He grumbled "You're making more turns than me, better turns than me, and with less effort!"

    Knees are the best joints for absorbing bumps. Putting the board on edge by putting your weight on the right or left sides of both of your feet frees up your knees to do the fore and aft balance adjustments and absorb the bumps. That style of riding is easier with higher binding angles, 55 degrees and higher. Between 50 and 65 degrees binding angles you are unlikely to need any canting (long explanation available on YouTube).

     

    • Like 1
  3. 1 hour ago, rjnakata said:

    Cancelled...this makes me sad and I wasn't even going! 😢

    Echo.

    Sad for Dave and Kristen. Sad for all those who were planning to go. Sad for the people of Libby who welcome attendees and who ride Turner through its season.

    • Like 2
  4. 14 hours ago, Rob Stevens said:

    … a zero degree or slightly negative back foot wouldn’t preclude carving on steeps in a speed controlled and “stylish” manner. The ability to mimic the angle of your front foot, or to be even more “open” to your direction of travel is more a function of hip, knee and ankle mobility. I’m at about -3 which has the inside of my binding at 0, but have no trouble being open. Very mobile pals of mine ride rather shocking rearward angles, carve steeps, but have excellent flexibility allowing that to happen.

    Flexibility in ankles, knees, hips and lumbar spine required to get that "open" or "+" stance with the line of the shoulders across a softboot board with low binding angles. Core muscle strength (abdominals and paraspinal muscles) also essential.

    Yoga / Pilates /similar, cardio, and leg strength training combined would be useful preparation to then follow @crackaddict technique.

    Older, stiffer people (like me, about to turn 65) just move to gradually steeper angles and hardboots with stepin bindings to keep feeding our carve addiction.

  5. The Skwal USA bindings you have have lift but no lateral tilt. With one foot in front of the other that aligns your legs below the knees but places stresses the knee joint. You may find that canting the cuffs of your ski boots outwards reduces that stress and makes for more comfort and helps with increasing your stance length.

    Your rear leg needs a bit more range of movement than your front when moving your centre of mass up and down, so buckling your rear boot cuff a little looser than the front may be helpful.

    I have a Skwal USA Powder Skwal and ride it at the max stance its inserts allow, around 47cm binding centre to binding centre. For comparison I'm 182cm tall and legs maybe 2cm longer than average for that height.  The board is wider than a standard Skwal and I ride it regular stance with bindings at 85 front and 80 degrees rear.

    When I first started riding it I used ski poles for a while to help me get the feel of things. Leaning into the turns like I was riding a motorbike soon had me carving highly inclined carves.

    • Like 1
  6. 24 minutes ago, BlueB said:

    We just had a mini ice age over here. 

    Thought to be caused by overall global heating destabilising the flow of the Arctic jet stream. How long it stays cold for you in North America after the recent cold snap is another matter.

     

     

  7. From having made a couple of instruction videos of my own, I know only too well how much effort and time goes into these.

    40+ minutes is a long time. An alternative would be to break the subject up into shorter sections, perhaps focused on a single component that an aspiring carver could work on. Then a final one putting the components together.

    More focused segments also allows tighter scripting. Shorter shots edited together means you have less to remember to say and don't need to refer to your script as you were towards the end.

    Creating a video plan beforehand, of each individual shot and exactly what it will contain helps to tighten things up nicely.

    Typo check: Extention or extension?

    Loved the lecture aid of the slot cut in deep snow! Adds to your cred that you live in a place with so much snow.

    Thanks so much for taking the time to pass on your knowledge.

     

    • Like 2
  8. 15 hours ago, Aracan said:

    Note that the steeper the angles, the more important lift tends to become. Conversely, cant will come into play more with lower angles.

    Your stance will effectively end up putting one foot in front of the other. Lift helps you deal with that.

    Your stance may also effectively put you feet closer together, or further apart than they were when you get your boot cuffs canted to get the soles flat on the floor. Closer together or further apart moves your legs sideways and laterally tilts the boot sole. Canting, which can be either direction and in varying amounts helps to deal with that sideways leg tilt.

     

  9. Jack's instructions above are a simple and reasonable start point.

    Binding angles are generally aimed to get the toe and heel of your boots as close to the edge of the board as possible, but without the overhang referred to above. That allows you to more easily get the board onto either edge, but not have your boot toe or heel drag in the snow as you arc through a carved turn with your board high on its edge.

    Bindings usually are adjustable for the position of both the toe and heel, and depending on how your boot sits in the binding, you may want to move the boot either forward or back in the binding in order to get both the toe and heel as close as possible to the edge.

    Because your front binding should be angled slightly more along the length of the board the front boot toe and heel won't necessarily be as close to the edge as the rear.

    I'd also recommend you get the canting of your boot cuffs sorted so that your boot soles are flat when you stand upright. Lots of YouTube videos demonstrate the process for ski boots. The aim is exactly the same for hard snowboard boots. Because hard snowboard boots are HARD, getting everything aligned correctly is essential for comfortable and functional riding.

    A good stance for you is first of all comfortable to stand in. It should allow you to effectively balance on either edge. It should allow you to move your centre of mass both up and down, and forward and back.

     

     

    • Like 1
  10. A pleasure to watch.

    You look like you are riding a conventional Skwal stance, and by that I mean compared to a current hardboot snowboard stance, the centre to centre stance length is relatively short, the bindings have no canting to accommodate the fact that the legs are one behind the other, and you might not be using any front toe lift or rear foot heel lift. Experimenting with canting and lift may allow you to lengthen your stance and increase the size of your base of support, making your position more stable and powerful.

    Hardboot snowboarding started out with shorter stances than are used today, lots of canting and the riders knees locked together. A better understanding of the way stances and body shape interact has led to that stance evolving. To my mind that development process hasn't really happened for skwals.

     

    • Like 1
  11. IMHO the only place for straight lining is a cordoned off downhill course. I can understand the thrill of speed for a skier or boarder over terrain features, but to do it where other mountain users are riding and at speeds where you cannot stop within the visible distance ahead reveals a sense of personal entitlement and lack of general consideration for others.

    Maybe ski area signage about the code should remind users about their local liability under civil tort law e.g. Colorado Ski Safety Act which uses the code as the standard and assigns liability for civil damages to the rider who is judged more than 50% responsible for the collision.

     

  12. 8 hours ago, DMKW said:

    Last year the road had sections of compact snow and ice.  Portions were completely free of gravel...a nice glossy white.  IMHO in such conditions it is easy to lose traction without winter tires regardless of AWD, FWD, RWD. But with chains handy, I wouldn't be concerned.  

    Yeah it was pretty tense driving for me (se post above) and just trying to keep it all very smooth.

    As a NZer I was stunned at how expensive hire vehicles were, and that vehicles being hired out in Montana in midwinter were not able to be adequately equipped for the conditions. None of Hertz, Avis, National etc would allow chains nor guarantee snow tyres. In NZ in winter, chains are routinely offered for winter hires in parts of the country were snow can be expected.

  13. Your SnowPro Race bindings are an old but solid design, and those look like the version with 6mm thick bails. They have built in 3 degree lateral tilt (cant) which is not appropriate at the the angles needed to ride this, or indeed most alpine snowboards. The bindings can be adjusted for up to 3 degrees of lift and the inbuilt cant can be removed but this requires home made wedges and new appropriate length screws to hold the toe and heel pieces to the metal base. SnowPros cannot be set to angles higher than approx. 60-65 degrees. They are a relatively limited adjustment design. Some people still happily ride this design, but not many.

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