SunSurfer
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Posts posted by SunSurfer
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Used the hand armour for real at SES 2015.
Comments & questions from almost everyone I rode the chair with. The "jugs" caused quite a stir!
Thanks to Steve Recsky for the photos of them in use, for my riding style was transformed by a combination of Joergs' Pureboarding clinic and Richard's Steeps Clinic. I now happily "touch down" especially when it's steep. The photos were taken on the last day of the session, on Javelin & Ruthies, runs that intimidated me in the past.
These photos show the second pair I made, no protuding pole tip at the bottom, and a GoPro mount on top of the right hand.
The best way I found to use them is shown clearly in the toeside turn, hand in front of the body with the long axis of the hand armour across the direction of movement. Using the long axis in the line of travel makes it more likely to catch a little and push the hand/arm back.
The little protusions are best heat welded smoothly to blend into the contour of the end of the HDPE pressure vessel the hand armour is made from.
Thanks to OhD for the video @ Buttermilk
Just being worn near the beginning, then around 3:10 shows version 2 getting a harder workout. Some of the video was shot from the GoPro mount on my right hand armour.
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PGS & PSL videos have been reprocessed using VirtualDub and GoPro Studio to reduce size but maintain reasonable quality.
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BxOLZ1CjGcj4UHNldXpvdGs4bEk&usp=sharing
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Home from SES and doing some further processing of the original Sochi finals files to reduce file size prior to reuploading to Google Drive. Will post when files are available.
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My bad!
Houseparty video now set to unlisted.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl6YJJzR1h4&feature=youtu.be
The video can ony be accessed via this link.
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SES at Highlands today, 2nd ride up Exhibition chair, about 0845hrs!
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I have a similar area of reduced sensation on the top of my left foot that came on during SES 2012. The sensation has still not recovered to normal. The nerves (branches of the superficial and deep peroneal nerves) that supply that area run just under the skin on the top of the foot and have been squeezed, and in my case apparently permanently damaged.
I no longer crank the two buckles over the foot on my Head Stratos Pros up tight, merely enough to hold the buckle shut, and my right foot has had no problems, and the left has not got any worse.
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Starting off with the after party Day 1 @ Bumps
http://s1283.photobucket.com/user/AlanMcKenzieNZ/library/SES%202015
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I'll be riding at Snowmass and ready for riding buddies from about 1pm. Got some NASTAR runs to make in the am.
Who else is around tomorrow and ready to ride?
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Thursday: Clear skies and sunshine, temp topping out high 40's at Village Express Base, 42 at Sam's Knob, but snow holding up reasonably well.
Saw a couple of carvers from the chairs, but never caught up with them, or them me.
Rode Elk Camp, Alpine Springs, Sheer Bliss, and the Express today, finishing off with some steeps practice on Moonshine and Ute Shute. Coverage generally better than Tuesday, yesterday's little bit of snow has made a difference.
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Wednesday,
Snowmass: Small amount of snow fell off and on during the day, only enough to obliterate yesterdays tracks at the edge of the runs and the more obvious brown spots. Now (9:15 pm) no snow falling.
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Sunsurfer,
Yesterday my internet service crashed before I could finish my post
If I may, I would like to suggest that you use ALL the times at a particular resort; including skiers, due to the fact that there are too few boarders at any single resort to create a sample large enough to statistically eliminate variations in rider talent from resort to resort. I.e. a few really fast snowboard racers could skew a difficult course to a lower handicap. For this purpose, the difference between skiers snowboarders is not significant.
Since that would be a LOT of data to enter by hand, perhaps NASTAR would be amenable to giving you a copy of the data for each year, by resort, in a spreadsheet format so you could begin handicapping the courses at various resorts. Or not.
Or . . . maybe if you pitched your project to NASTAR they will see the merit in it, and make it part of their handicapping system.
Not me,
theboarderdude is the thread originator.
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Tuesday,
Ran into Adas and we carved Wandering Jesse and Naked Lady. A few flakes of snow this am but no significant snow. Lots more brown patches appearing, and by late afternoon the run in area to the Village express chair was no longer ice but slush.
Adas' opinion - Buttermilk and Highlands are the places to go currently, fewer people and better snow. With the conference I'm attending here at Snowmass I have commitments to attend to here tomorrow, and I want to work on my NASTAR skills before SES starts.
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^By 'skin crease', are you talking the interspace between first met distal/first phalange proximal?
Yes, the skin crease on the sole of the foot underneath the joint between the distal 1st metatarsal and the 1st proximal phalanx.
Just trying not to use technical language, but still be unambiguous.
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Picture of this hand armor?
http://forums.bomberonline.com/index.php?/topic/37883-alpine-snowboarders-hand-armour/
Have made a second pair, same basic concept, neater construction, but 1/ no ski tip projecting from the bottom and 2/ no flat face below the shell. 3/ GoPro mount for either selfies or videoing riding partners on top of the the Right hand shell.
I tried riding without them today. My hands felt naked and vulnerable, and I was much less confident in my riding. As soon as they were on again I was happily throwing myself into turns and feeling better balanced. Not sure if this is all psychological, or, if the act of holding them and tensing the muscles in my arms is making my neuromuscular balance system more sensitive from a proprioception (position sense) point of view. Whatever, I ride better with them on. And I have a generally no touch riding style, I don't "pat the dog".
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does it recover its camber if you take all the hardware off? you could always have a new one made with the same topsheet as current, and then claim you just had it glossed to keep the snow off.
It's had 48 hours rest, now board alone, laid on a polished flat desktop, has 2mm of camber left! My 180 NSR with a plate and TD3s on has 5-6mm gap under the midsection.
It takes me time to process thoughts and after a day of pondering I have come to the conclusion that you are suffering snow blindness. Coiler has a core shaped with camber before the board is assembled. In order for it to loose it's camber it would either have to have weight compressing it ( heavy bindings and plate etc. ) or has been stored in some fashion which has caused it to warp. Not likely since you take good care of your equip. Is it possible someone has sabotaged your toys in order to get more of your attention. Maybe your dizzy from watching the water spin the other way around ?
The board has been modified to have a set of UPM inserts, but that's all. What camber remains appears smoothly distributed along the length when I look down the edge with it laid on the desktop. I had the same understanding about how Coiler cores were constructed which is why I had thought stress micro-fractures in the wood fibres were the only realistic explanation, and my resulting concern about board failure in use.
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It's having "a cup of tea and a lie down" in the board bag as I write!
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Have had the chance to run the UPM+ version back to back with my previous "best so far" standard UPM setup.
Conclusion: a plate can be too long for my liking.
I prefer the solid feel I get with the fixed axle essentially under the skin crease at the base of my big toe, between the two major sites humans use to apply balancing forces with their feet, the ball of the foot and the big toe (the smaller toes are much less important but this setup gets them roughly over the axle as well). They allow the use of the lower leg and foot muscles to let you rock back and forward. Try maintaining your balance only standing on your heels if you want a contrast.
I've got a 29cm foot. From tip big toe to the skin crease is 6.5 cm. That means the crease is 8cm in front of the middle of my foot. At the 65 degree binding angle I use, the centre of my binding needs to be approx. 7cm from the line of the axle to place the crease over the axle.
The shock absorption is still very good with the front axle fixed, I've been happily carving through the late afternoon lumps at Snowmass. Remember, the mechanicals isolate the flex of the board from the plate, and the whole board flexes along its' length when it hits a lump.
Edited for typos and extra detail:
Stance 50cm C-to-C, 65F , 60R, axles at the max. 62cm apart, axles bosses in the standard holes on 4mm Bomber Boiler Plate.
Straightforward with UPM inserts, but also my Kessler slalom board has enough inserts to achieve it with a 4x4 plate mounting kit.
Overall effect is about 1cm setback of the bindings relative to the plate centre.
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I was changing bindings over in my room at the Snowmass Inn when I noticed that my beloved Coiler AM WC 177 had lost pretty much all it's camber. It just sat on the carpet the whole way along, looking tired.
I hadn't noticed anything while riding it (with a 4mm UPM BBP on), it was still an awful lot of fun!
So I'm thinking that the loss of camber reflects multiple small tears in the wood core from essentially wood fatigue. The plate is still providing lots of torsional stiffness through the midsection, which may be why I didn't notice anything very much. Either that, or I'm just too poor a rider to notice (rhetorical statement, no confirmatory comments required!).
So a board that's lost it's camber is perceived to be worn out, from what I've read on the board. You wouldn't on sell it to someone unless they wanted to make a wall decoration.
My question is
Do I significantly risk a catastrophic failure of the board by continuing to ride it?
While the opportunity to demo a range of boards to potentially replace it awaits me at SES next week (drool!, Note to self: must try a Nirvana) I already have way too many boards in the stash at home, and this favourite is still carving beautifully! Does it absolutely have to be retired and replaced?
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A "bad" day at Aspen is better than the vast majority of days I get back home.
Day @ Snowmass started cold with high cloud, and a few flakes of snow, but no significant fall. Cleared by mid morning but remained cool with the snow remaining in good condition throughout the day. I spotted what looked like tracks of another carver but never laid eyes on them.
Good carving to be had, but I needed to keep my eyes peeled for the thin patches and hard pack.
Getting a board waxed at a shop in the mall another customer said "Oh it's you! We were having fun watching you from the chair."
Lots of locals know about SES from previous years and I think I may have managed to convinced a couple of interested guys in their 20s to come and demo some stuff when it gets underway.
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Handicaps for the Aspen group of mountains need to be interpreted with care.
Having run all 3 courses in their previous versions -
Snowmass is unchanged.
Aspen Highlands, previously the easiest of the three, is not open to the public at present.
Aspen Ajax has changed significantly. Still on the same slope, it has moved to the left hand side of that run. The start is now in shade, and drops away quite steeply for the first 2-4 gates before getting gradually less steep as the course progresses. The line of the course is now straight, so all the gates are visible from the start, previously it curved away to the right behind trees and the finish was not visible from the start. My initial impression is that it is now more challenging to get a fast time than previously, even though the steep start potentially gets you up to speed quicker. It had me on the brakes for the first few turns on my first runs yesterday.
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I've found a way to distract attention from my board. Riding lifts with my hand armour gets a question pretty much every time. The commonest follow up question after the explanation is "Are you going to patent it?" Then there was the Aspen teenager who just thought it was "Totally badass!"
I have a spare set with me for anyone who would like to have a try during SES.
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Wireless internet at the Snowmass Inn has been down for about 36 hours but is now back. Sunday dawned cold with high cloud, clearing off mid morning to blue skies. Great riding on the groomed fresh few inches of snow from Saturday. By the end of the day the hardback/ ice showing through in a few patches but the day had remained cold and the snow was not slushy at all, not like the previous 2 days. I rode Aspen all day, saw J Callen waft past below me on Ruthies, reminding me of all I have to learn! Rode a lift with a local who had torn the metal edge off of one ski when he hit a rock in a deepish mogul well, he'd been home for another pair of skis when I spoke to him. But overall a great day, good light for the first time on this trip.
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Agree with Adas. Rode Snowmass today after a decent sleep after arriving from NZ yesterday. (Anesthesia conference starts Sunday)
With the temperature here in Snowmass it reminds me of home (NZ). The lower slopes are a soft/slushy by the end of the day, and there will be a refreeze tonight so tomorrows groom may well initially be quite crispy! Under the top few cm of snow is hardpack, so bring your best edging technique. Bit thin in places with a bit of grass and the odd rock showing through (Bull Run @ Elk Camp particularly). Light was flat today with high overcast, and a few tiny flakes of snow drifting out of the clouds on the uppermost part of the mountain. Not a bad first day, having eased out of condition muscles in the spa pool between the Pokolodi & Snowmass Inn. Forecast last night was for a moderate amount of snow for Colorado generally over the next 48 hours as a depression from the South bearing moist air and a cold front from the North meet.
Will post daily updates.
Sochi Olympics videos
in Carving Central
Posted
Thanks for the info Michael. Not sure what the "error" is due to. Will keep working on it and post when I think it's sorted.