SunSurfer

Forgiveness not required. The board is a Skwal USA Propaganda 167cm powder Skwal. See the website for special (specifications) and a picture. I got the chance to ride it properly on an indoor ski slope 2 days ago. F2 Intec bindings set at 90 front and about 75 rear on the outermost inserts and with the bindings slid as far apart as possible (measured C-to-C stance 44cm). 3 degrees out ward canting front and rear made the whole set up very comfortable from a stance point of view. Ski poles for the first few runs, then into HDPE hand armour. Leaning into the turns like on a bike and carving easily from the second run. And with the wider waist no boot out issues plus I could use standard hard boot bindings. Edge to edge transitions were very quick. I can confidently say that you don't need to go super narrow to ride skwal-style. I will be experimenting with skwal style riding on my standard waist snowboards. Now there's a heresy for you that might need forgiveness!

Just been reading about the ongoing concerns about lead contamination in water supply systems in both Flint and now other cities like Chicago. Also CDC advice for removing the same, which includes reverse osmosis water filtration. My apologies to Bob D for my speaking out of ignorance.

Enough! I'm going to ride my snowboard before I write something I'll really regret.

OIA.And my point was that if you'll buy "reverse osmosis" water to drink you'll buy just about anything. I'm very familiar with distilled, deionised water from laboratory work. Di/De water is not for drinking as your first reference points out. Secondly, reverse osmosis is a misnomer. Water will follow the net effect of solute or pressure gradients across a semi-permeable membrane. That is still osmosis. Standard water filter systems do not produce Di/De water. If Americans can be conned into thinking that, and that they need "reverse osmosis" water systems, well, a fool and his money are soon parted. As for your 4th reference, I hope you're not implying our friend with the blood pressure problem is an alcoholic!

About to step onto the narrow path to nirvana. Will be giving my Skwal USA 17cm waist, 167cm Propaganda (8m SCR) freeride/powder board a few turns on an indoor snow slope. A trial run last year on the beginners slope at Turoa was fun. Just need to get the stance set. I note that the waist on my Riot Supercarve 180cm is also 17cm (approx. 12m SCR). Once I've got the feel of the Propaganda, I may try the Riot skwal style when I head south to Otago in August (& lowrider, I may even leave the isocline plate on!). Update: Just been doing some carpet carving to work on those binding angles. The greater width has given me a wider range of options. I could even ride it the 65F 60R I ride my snowboards though that would be cheating. Will be riding it skwal style but some experimentation is planned.

Snow starting to fall in NZ. Central Otago fields now have enough cover to open at planned dates in early June if the cold temps stay. South westerly airflows with lots of cold fronts repeatedly coming through over the last week.

Reverse osmosis water......? Who didn't go to school on the day they did science? Can I sell you some pills that will remove the Higgs bosons from your butt so it doesn't sag as you get older? Losartan all by itself messes with the excretion of sodium and potassium and water in your urine, as just part of its' mechanism of action for lowering blood pressure.

Not if you want to lose weight. Too many calories in the lipid emulsion that solubilises the propofol. ;-)

Your poll suffers from selection and reporting bias. Your doc has all your relevant information and I am not going to give you any advice about what to do with your medications. Edit: (The last line sounds harsher than I intended. It is not good medicine for any doctor give you advice without all the relevant information.)

Michael Jackson's cardiologist thought the same thing.

NZ snow is just starting to fall. Earliest planned opening is early June, but a very warm autumn may delay things a bit.

Losartan is not recognised to cause, by it's mechanism of action, or be associated with weight gain. Likely to be coincidence rather than cause and effect. (wearing my anesthesiologist's hat)

News item here tonight. NZ rural fire-fighters sending care packages to the fire-fighters they fought fires alongside in Alberta last year. In Australasia fire-fighters in both Aussie and NZ support each other every year during fire season. Don't buy into media beatups. Canada has friends worldwide.

For all the irony, it shows how limited most hardbooters (self included) are in their conception of what can be done on alpine gear.

Slalom skateboarding and hard boot snowboarding have only superficial similarities. The differences are significant. Slalom skaters are attempting to both steer their board around the cones and pump the board to maintain, and/or increase, their speed. I have yet to see convincing evidence of effective pumping of a snowboard. If someone knows of a video showing a snowboarder propelling themselves on flat ground by the forces generated by their body and arms while their feet are held in the bindings please post it. Ice skaters, skiers skating their skis, slalom skateboarders pumping their board, and a sailboat sailing up wind all produce their forward motion with essentially the same forces in play. A force is applied lateral to the direction of motion, a mechanism exists that restricts the resulting movement sideways, and because the direction of motion is not at right angles to the lateral force, forward motion is generated as the skate/ski/yacht also moves sideways. With ice skaters and skiers it is the skate blade or edge of the ski that is pushed laterally but also acts to resist lateral movement. With a yacht the wind presses on the sails and the keel or centreboard resists lateral movement. On a skateboard the wheels grip while the bearings allow wheel rotation to allow forward movement. If the mechanism producing restriction of lateral movement is lost i.e. the skate or ski skids sideways, or the centreboard is pulled up, then the force maintaining forward motion is reduced or lost. Two other issues are important. 1/ Friction forces must be less than the forward motion forces generated in order for any initial forward motion to be maintained or increased in speed. 2/ A balanced position must be maintained otherwise the rider will fall, or the yacht capsize. On a skateboard, at low to medium speeds, all the rider has to do to steer and maintain lateral grip, is lean the board. The wheel material and the riders weight create the lateral grip and a steered, nonskidded, turn results. On a snowboard just leaning is not enough. The edge must be precisely engaged in order for it to grip and lateral movement (a skidded turn with a wide track) prevented. Expert slalom skateboarders will be using their upper limbs to both produce lateral force with the movement of their arms and upper body, and maintain their balance in response to the lateral forces being generated by their lower body. The more total lateral force they generate the faster they will go, within the limits of wheel adhesion to the road surface. In the absence of evidence of effective pumping of a snowboard, snowboarders can only be balancing and distributing bodyweight with the use of their arms and hands in order to engage the edge of the board and produce a carved turn.

Thanks Ryan, it makes not being there a little easier to bear. Looking forward to seeing your other videos from ATC 2016!

No leashes to see in the Epic TV video. I have leashes on my surfboards. But having seen the video I can understand how the original image is almost certainly unaltered. Still puzzled by the green dashes.

The green dashes leading to the front foot and the odd looking feet make me wonder if it's an unaltered image.

Plan is to try to ride them all this winter. Driving (& interisland ferry) to Central Otago, based in Wanaka, planned for Aug 14th to 27th 2016 so can take them all. Happy to catch up with other NZ carvers, contact me initially via e-mail on Bomber. L-R: Coiler NSR 180, Riot Supercarve 180, Coiler AM 177, Burton Factory Prime 173, Pale Spook 170, Rad-Air Pinkerman Extreme 169, Skwal USA 167, Oxygen Proton GS 164, Kessler slalom 162, Hot Blast 160, Burton PJ 163 asym (reg)

Will be riding Central Otago fields from Sunday 14th August to Saturday August 27th 2016. Thursday 18th to Saturday 20th are set aside for other activities, but otherwise I plan to ride Cardrona, TC and Remarkables. I've found Coronet to be crowded and slushy the last few years when I've been down at this time of year so have no plans to ride there. Will be driving down and bringing the full 11 board quiver down with me, and my collection of isocline plates. Planning to spend some time on them all as well as doing some experimentation with isocline plate axle distances and stance distance. Nigel C is often down in Central at this time of year. We've ridden together before. Happy to meet up with other riders and maybe loan some of the boards. Will have TD3 Intec (Burton & 4x4 discs), F2 Race Intec, & SnowPro Race bail bindings with me, If you're going to be around contact me via the Bomber e-mail system so we can share contact details and arrange to meet up. L-R: Coiler NSR 180, Riot Supercarve 180, Coiler AM 177, Burton Factory Prime 173, Pale Spook 170, Rad-Air Pinkerman Extreme 169, Skwal USA 167, Oxygen Proton GS 164, Kessler slalom 162, Hot Blast 160, Burton PJ 163 asym (reg)

Kesslers bend too! Javelin @ Buttermilk, SES 2015.

Look like bumpers to compensate for twist in the plate, able to be configured for either regular or goofy riders. The real problem with going so low is impingement with the cambered centre of the board while retaining the torsion box construction in the middle of the plate. Maybe plates need to get this kind of side profile. Flat part for bindings at either end, cambered in the middle to allow thickening for strength while allowing clearance for the board's camber.

The greater the interaxle distance the greater the bending forces on the plate from the riders weight, and downweighting, when in use. The counter to that is how strongly you believe in the value of being able to "pedal" (twist) the plate vs. the value of increasing the torsional stiffness of the snowboard between the axles. I am in the maximise torsional stiffness camp. I have a 4mm BBP to play with, but I'd love to play/modify with a 5mm BBP.

Fixed interaxle distance, with the axles at the plate end is a feature of the Allflex plate as well. If I dared to make cutouts in my BBP I could lower my design a further 3mm to 18mm plate height. I'm not going to go there!

The Apex Composites X-Plate http://www.apexsnowboard.com/x-plate.html Cutouts in the carbonfibre plate allow the plate to sit between the axles, while minimal plate overhang beyond the axles prevents impingement. The mounts on the board apply the turning forces closer to the edges than the Bomber plate. The metal in the hinge/hinge-slide mechanism is reduced to a minimum, compared to say the Bomber version. They state the plate top is just 15mm above the board and total weight 1500g. UPM & 4x4 mounts available. Axle diameter, whether solid/hollow, and bushings detail not available. There is something runnning diagonally under the plate under each set of binding inserts, attached by the 4 bolts that have no obvious purpose in attaching the plate to the mechanicals underneath. Guessing this is some kind of torsion resistance / reinforcement, but in the absence of photos showing what's actually there. Does anyone know, have photos? This is the way I would have loved to build an isocline plate. To my mind this design concept maximises the geometry to achieve isolation while minimising height.