SunSurfer

Corey, I checked the pivots at both ends when I discovered the damage, everything working and pivoting perfectly and the slide has about 2cm available travel, way beyond anything that should be needed without having the NSR bent up around my ears! No possibility of plate impingement causing a lock up either. Note that the crimp has occurred through the insert line, not at the edge of the UHMWPE block that the hinge mechanism was mounted in. Lowrider, the incident has left me weighing the myriad compromises in making a snowboard and in its' subsequent performance. Bruce has said he probably won't be making boards for too many more years. 0.3mm Titanal may well not be available to makers like him any more and so a future Nirvana may not quite hit the same sweet spot across multiple compromises that is a current Nirvana. This may be the last of Bruce's works of art that I get to buy. I would like it to ride it for as long as possible. My wife knows me well. When I told her what had happened she suggested I keep the NSR as wall art and that I buy a replacement. Hopefully, one day, a long time from now, the Nirvana will join it.

A word of caution around UPM inserts (and by extension Allflex inserts as well). This photo shows my now mortally wounded Coiler NSR 182, a custom build for me in 2013. It was fitted with standard UPM inserts, and at my request Bruce added an extra insert set 4cm beyond that. I have posted in the past the setup that utilised those extra inserts allowing me an interaxle distance around 72 cm and a total plate height (with a Bomber 4mm plate) of approx. 21mm. When I rode it I found myself effortlessly carving at up to 70km/hr (post event tracker app data) without actually trying to go fast. The laminate failure shown goes right through the front heelside extra and outermost insert. I suspect this was caused by riding that plate setup in lumpy end of the day snow conditions. The plate allowed me to carve in those conditions, but it also allowed me to exert forces that were beyond the capabilities of the NSR's construction with those inserts. On the same trip I had ridden old, stiffer, more heavily constructed boards with self added UPM inserts (Riot Supercarve 180cm, Pale Spook 174cm, Hot Blast Slalom 160cm-Red) without them failing. They don't have that beautifully smooth initiation of the turn that a recent Coiler provides, but an isolation plate makes them all remarkably good rides even in late day cut-up snow. I've done a post-mortem via e-mail with Bruce, and he commented that he doesn't like putting UPM inserts into boards, that each extra insert creates a further weak point, and that he has had a number of boards fail like this. As I contemplate a replacement for the NSR (heading towards a 180cm Nirvana Energy - Torsion Plus, with a spot reserved on the Coiler 0.3mm Titanal build list) I have been weighing up asking for UPM inserts given my well known preference for riding with a plate, but now balanced by Bruce's comments above. I suspect I will go with no extra inserts and ride the coming Nirvana without a plate. The farther out from the centre the plate inserts go (Allflex are a long way out) the thinner the board core at that point, and the weaker it becomes. The farther the inserts go out the greater the torsional resistance effect added by a stiff plate and the better the edge hold. Plates allow us to hold a carve in marginal conditions and clearly even though they allow the whole board to flex in response to bumps beneath us, they also allow us to place enormous forces on the board. It may well be that boards optimised for use with plates need to be of significantly heavier construction to minimise this risk of failure and that may be at the expense of the silky smooth feel that Bruce is able to create for his non-plated recreational boards. It strikes me that this may well be a reason why plates may only be really suitable for heavily built race boards.

Just truncated a planned 2 week trip to Ruapehu. The weather is very warm for this time of year, and we have late spring conditions that would normally be seen in October at the beginning of September i.e. rain soaked slush. Of note also, Ruapehu Alpine Lifts (RAL) the skifield operator on both Turoa & Whakapapa sides have removed all the snow-making guns from the mountain, I'm told because they view it as a "waste of money". It looked odd to see a carpark full of snow guns when I visited Whakapapa on Saturday 3rd September. My suspicion is that it's been too warm for them to be used with any frequency. I'm mulling over whether this will be the last year that I buy a Ruapehu season pass. This year they have had only about 5 weeks of reasonably cold temperatures which is too short for me to get value out of the pass.

Pinkerman = RadAir Pinkerman Extreme 1994, 169cm & 25cm waist, a RadAir Obsession 171 with a black top sheet and the tail trimmed. In the right light I can see the swirls of the original Obsession pattern underneath the black. Nice in Japanese powder, but doesn't initiate a carve well compared to my other carving boards. The leverage issue is a matter of style and practice. Riding skwal style feels different because a whole lot of muscles are under different tensions and body positions. Like I said, I create edge pressure out of the side of my boots riding alpine snowboards normally so the change is not great for me. I can usually tell who is creating edge pressure out of their heel and toe by looking at the direction of the persons pelvis on their heelside turn. If a line drawn between both hip joints is more along the board then they're a heel/toe rider. If the line of the hips is more across the board then there will be at least some weighting out of the side of the boots. I happily carved my 25cm width Avalanche (before it died) and my 17cm width Riot with exactly the same binding angles.

Down in Central Otago and in an experimenting mood. Why you might ask? Just to find out what's possible. Over the last two days have ridden various width snowboards skwal style while experimenting with stance and angles. More binding angle experiments on the way since the FIS say a snowboard has its' bindings mounted across the board whereas a ski has the binding mounted in line with the ski. My normal snowboard stance has been (more experimentation underway) Regular, 50cm C-to-C, Front foot 65 degrees & 3 degree toe rise, Rear foot 60 degrees and 6 degree heel rise. No canting needed. I ride out of the sides of my boots normally, with the front boot forward flex very stiff, and the rear boot forward flex very soft. I've ridden 3 boards with a skwal style stance, Oxygen Proton GS 164 (19.5cm waist), Coiler AM WC 177 W (21cm waist) with an isocline plate, and a RadAir Pinkerman Extreme 169 (25cm waist). Binding angles have been - Front foot 90 degrees, 3 degree toe rise, 2 degree outward cant (i.e. tilt foot to left). Rear foot 75 and then 80 degrees, 6 degree heel lift, 2 degree outward cant (tilt foot to right). Having ridden the Propaganda at 44cm, I've tried C-to-C stance distances of 47 and 51cm, and found 51cm is a step too far for me, while going back to 47cm was sweet. With this kind of extended skwal stance the riding style changes. Skwals are clearly ridden out of the sides of the boot with neither a toe side or heelside. When I rode the Skwal USA Propaganda the key was cornering it like a motorbike, as described for the classic narrow skwal stance and leaning the whole body into the turn. With the extended stance, the rear knee can bend far more, the centre of mass can be brought lower and suddenly the sweet spot is for the upper body to hold a stance like a GS or slalom skier, much like the ski racers I saw practicing without ski poles today. The rear knee tucks in behind the front knee and as long as the weight is kept slightly forward the boards arc from carve to carve with the edge marks overlapping at transition from one edge to the other. Well, the Pinkerman can be persuaded to carve but it's more of a struggle, I suspect because it's just not as good a carving board generally as the other two. When I was carving this way it was noticeable how much more still my upper body and arms were compared to normal, and that all the edging action was happening below the hips The boards could all have their tails skidded to either side, even with the plate on the Coiler, and hockey stops were not a problem. Handling some gentle moguls was bit trickier but I'm still finding my feet with in-line snowboarding. It is equally hard on the quads as riding an alpine snowboard normally. Ah well. I have done some normal alpine boarding, I haven't become a confirmed heretic ( yet ;) ).

Alan Mc, Send me a personal message via my profile here on the Bomber site. I'm Wellington area and have a range of gear that may be of interest to you. I am away in Wanaka between 13 & 28 Aug, then at Ruapehu between 3rd & 18 Sept.

The boy in the meat grinder that Jack thinks will frighten children has an hallucinatory quality descending into Maddness.

Tomahawking. Brings back some unpleasant memories. I recognise the phenomenon from personal experience, now I have name for it! Last time I did that I broke a rib.

Tomahawking? Sorry, not a term I know or understand. Can you explain/expand what you mean?

Thanks B2 for the message re Scott and an e-mail contact address! I've forwarded it onto Nigel C who will be down in Otago before I get there. I had Googled Scott and he has serious credibility as a soft boot instructor. His PSIA profile would be the envy of many. All the stuff I can find about him online relates to soft boot riding and soft boot carving, apart from an image from many years ago showing him in the background with some other riders who are wearing hard boots. He is involved with an Apple app called GoSnow, and via that website is advertising a coaching trip in Central Otago this winter.

Nigel C and I will both be visiting Central Otago over the coming weeks. Scott Anfang is an instructor at Coronet Peak, alternating at Steamboat, who has been mentioned as a possible carving instructor. He isn't on the list of carving instructors on the Bomber site currently. His Steamboat YouTube profile shows him only on softs. Any comments, experiences, inside knowledge in the Bomber community about his ability to teach hard booters?

Been dumping snow the last week, and more to come. Whiteout conditions reported this afternoon. Base on Ruapehu now ready for rding both sides with the rocks well covered. Weather permitting, planning to ride Whakapapa Saturday 6th August and Turoa Sunday 7th.

Looks like you now need to learn to drive VirtualDub's video Deshaker filter. Either that, or I use your vid's for training my eyes for our next earthquake here in the Shakey Isles.

He's loving that heel side carve on the wakeboard!

Mobile skin? How much weight have you lost this off season with your training & diet. I'm having visions of bingo wings :-)

Just been reviewing 2015-6 Fis equipment regulations. Skiers are encouraged to wear protective equipment and alpine ski racers gloves can have plastic shields that slide over them. For snowboarders there is no regulation about gloves at all, while there are specific regulations for alpine, freestyle and ski jump skiers gloves. Hand armour may actually be race permissible in 2016.

Next iteration mods hmm.... ;) 1/ Light sabre 2/ Whisky/vodka/martini (shaken, not stirred)/antifreeze of choice compartment 3/ Bling (mirrored finish externally) 4/ Turn indicators 5/ Paintball cannon 6/ Smoke flares 7/ Jet assist for cattracks 8/ Hand warmer elements in the handles etc. Suggestions welcomed.

Female: http://skiracing.nastar.com/index.jsp?year=2016&source=selectrankings2&pagename=viewrankings&overallsnowboard=Y&female=Y Male: http://skiracing.nastar.com/index.jsp?year=2016&source=selectrankings2&pagename=viewrankings&overallsnowboard=Y&male=Y A few familiar names pop up. Must be a reason for 4 of the top 5 male riders, and 2 of the top 5 female riders, making their best runs at Roundtop.

To embed as above , just remove the s from the https.

Hi Nextcarve, Thanks for your thoughts. :) In previous posts I've noted that I try not to touch the snow, and that these are primarily hand "helmets". In 2 years of use, and crashes, I've not had the problems you anticipate. I've not tried to EC with them, and have no plans to do so. At 57, I ride to carve but stay intact, and I've read too many tales of people's shoulder and arm injuries from attempts at EC.

Nice bike, nextcarve. Yours? You're clearly "too cool", just as I said. My hands and brain are my livelihood. I cannot afford another hand injury that would have me off some aspects of my work for 3+ months

The original Ligety training video, stabilised in VirtualDub Deshaker, then the frame rate increased from 24 to 60fps and the intervening frames built with the "flux" function, then finally slowed to half speed, all in GoPro Studio. Now you can see the detail of Ted's technique.

1st to 3rd iteration photos - left to right The profile of the third iteration is much more like a ski tip than the relatively sharp curve of 1 & 2. Construction details for 3 The original HDPE garden spray pot diameter was 125mm, anything in the range 120-130mm is big enough to take a gloved hand holding the ski pole handle. I've a size 7 & 1/2 hand when it comes to medical gloves, kind of average male size. The ski poles were a standard adult sized Gipron model with alloy poles. The thread on the top of the pot was cut off and a flat piece of HDPE welded to cover the gap using my soldering iron. Exterior plywood inserts were made for the top and bottom. The top one had the shape of the ski pole handle inset to hold the pole firmly. The bottom was drilled to take the alloy pole stub. Then the ply was coated in epoxy resin and allowed to dry. The whole unit was then assembled and checked, before a masking tape dam was applied and epoxy resin was poured around the top insert to set it firmly in place. The dam allowed the resin to be higher than the HDPE cut edge as can be seen in the photos. Note that they are different for R & L hands as were the previous versions. My riding has continued to progress. I now use them primarily as armour, and only touch down rarely. However, when I do touch down they slide beautifully and there is no strain on the arm or shoulder. No longer is there any need to turn them side on to avoid the catch. I've been using one version or another for the last 2 years and had many falls during that time. My hands and arms and shoulders are much less stressed by the impacts than when I was wearing wrist guards. I don't worry about touching the snow any more, nor do I wear out expensive gloves. Reaction from others has been varied. Most people "get it" as soon as I explain. Some thing it's brilliant, some of the young ones think it's cool. The reaction from other carvers has been interesting. Most behave as if they're too cool to try them. I had just one person at SES 2015 ask to give them a trial and had a Japanese snowboard instructor in NZ ask to try the 1st version.

http://forums.bomberonline.com/index.php?/topic/37883-alpine-snowboarders-hand-armour/ I broke a finger, requiring 3 screws to fix it, a couple of years ago. The cause of the injury was hyperextension against the edge of a wrist guard in an over the nose fall in a NASTAR course. The hand armour thread above was my response to the injury. I no longer wear wrist guards. The 3rd iteration of the wrist guard has just been tested and has much improved touch down characteristics, the more gradual curve of the leading edge resulting a no"catch" as the guard touches the snow. The earlier versions tended to catch and pull the arm/shoulder and make me a little off balance. In a crash the round shape first absorbs the shock, then the HDPE slides, dissipating the impact forces gradually. Yes, it's like Boone Lennon's Sliders, and slalom skiers gate punch guards. The photos of the third iteration will be posted within the next hour or so in the Hand Armour thread.

The video belongs in the thread on what the hands do when carving.;-)