SunSurfer
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Posts posted by SunSurfer
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Attached photos of Benjamin Karl's plate/hinge system. Does anyone have anything with more detail?
I've taken an interest in this because over our off-season I'm working on a home made decoupling plate which would attach to the conventional mount points on a snowboard. At present I'm working on a plate design similar to Karl's but using different materials. One option I had wondered about was making a one piece, cambered, relatively stiff, flexible plate to add a component of shock absorption to system, a little like a slalom skateboard deck in construction.
I'm still looking at hinge options, in either marine stainless steel or aluminium, while the parts that attach to the snowboard are UHMWPE for strength, flexibility and low friction.
SunSurfer
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It has always puzzled me why there has been little discussion of Benjamin Karl's plate system on the Bomber site. He has been using it with considerable success yet people seem fixated on the Vist & Hangl systems. He appears to be using a fairly hefty aluminium plates and rails combination to create a rigid binding plate.
From screenshots of the flv. file from the newspaper site, the Apex Composites plate appears to be a close to rigid carbon fibre plate.
Any kind of plate of this type (B Karl, Apex Comp) needs a hinge mechanism at both front and rear attachment points to the board to allow the board to flex underneath. It also needs at least one of those attachment points to be able to slide back and forth approx. 0.5 - 1cm to complete the process of decoupling the plate from the board.
As the Apex guys say in their Daily Planet appearance, the linkage to the snowboard is the key to the success (and strength and durability) of the design.
I haven't been able to find really detailed photos of the hinge/slide linkage on Benjamin Karl's board. Some detail from what I've been able to find is in the next post.
However, the Apex screen shots provide some interesting hints.
Firstly, whereas Karl has his heel & toe pieces directly fixed to the plate, Apex appears to have standard snowboard binding fixation points in it's plate, obscured by tape the pattern can be seen in the group shot around the board.
Secondly, the hinge and slide is likely to be in the sole of the carbon fibre plate, given the silhouette of the rear aluminium attachment point and plate.
Thirdly, I suspect that the plate is attached to the board by two long bolts running across the full width of the hinge mechanism. This would allow easy assembly/removal of the plate/hinge mechanism from the board.
Fourth, that the main adjustment required for different riders is appropriate placement of the hinge mechanism in relation to riders stance distance and binding angles.
I'm guessing now, but I suspect that the part of the Apex plate ahead of the front binding is primarily a billboard for the manufacturer. I can see no purpose for it to be there. If there was a functional purpose, why not a similar extension at the rear.
SunSurfer
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or look for photos here on the first search result page
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Larger view of new Canadian plate system here.
SunSurfer
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Benjamin Karl's name is not on the current team list. ???
SunSurfer
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New Zealand was hit by H1N1 during our winter, the U.S. summer just past.
We had no vaccine available at the time it came through. I work as an "anesthesiologist", so saw its impact on our major city tertiary hospital.
Quarantine measures i.e. if you had flu like symptoms you stayed away from work/school/whatever until you were either cleared of having the H1N1 virus or got better, limited the spread of the virus to a level below that expected for a virus that had not been around before.
Even healthy people who had it, noted the common symptom of a really nasty chest symptoms, phlegmy cough etc and were unwell for a week or more.
Most people who ended up in ICU had significant other medical problems before they got H1N1.
However, the virus seemed to hit particularly hard those who were significantly overweight, or pregnant. And there were a small but significant number of young, fit healthy people who got it and ended up in ICU.
The virus and the quarantine measures hit our hospital staffing hard. Services were reduced due to lack of staff at the peak of the outbreak.
ICUs around the country came close to being overwhelmed by the number of patients with H1N1 needing ventilator treatment. A significant number of patients needed extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation to get them through.
Although most people who get it will get by without hospital admission, a percentage of the total infected population will need hospital and or ICU care to survive. Vaccination will reduce the total number of people in your country who get the virus. As a result the absolute number of people needing hospital care will be reduced and the overall impact on your health system and the number of deaths will be reduced. Vaccination programmes work best when a high percentage of the population are covered.
No effective medical treatment is completely safe. Effective treatments help far more people than they harm. But if you treat enough people then there will be someone who is harmed.
By the time next winter comes to NZ I'll be lining up for my H1N1 shot.
SunSurfer
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Not sure how many people are aware of this site.
http://www.fissnowboardworldcup.com/
Hosts race results, and even full race videos of World Cup events.
Watching 2009 World Championships PSL at Gangwon as I write this.
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As a 50yr old ex-skier, & learner carver (Aug 2008 at the beginning of the season I was struggling to get down gentle slopes without falling) I was faced with the same kind of decision. I had a 167cm all mountain board, which was relatively wide vs. a 180cm long, 19cm waist, Riot Supercarve (stiff) which I had bought but never ridden.
I struggled for a few days on the all mountain board then screwed up my courage to try the Riot. It was a revelation, so quick from edge to edge, and my riding just took off.
IMHO try the Volkl.
SunSurfer
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Source photo & S Grabner board detail. Grabner seems to have some kind of grooved damping material under his plates but its colour makes it hard to see detail.
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These photos of Benjamin Karl from last season show more detail. Looks like the front and rear plates are linked by the aluminimum extrusion bar running above the board surface. Compare with the Vist, where the linkage is by plastic plates sliding on the board surface. As far as I can see, it seems to be a system used only by the SG team. The source photo for the detail of the plate shows Grabner using a similar top plate, but without the linking arms between front & rear. See next post.
SunSurfer
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Thanks for posting this. It cleared up a lot of questions I had about how a Vist Plate is constructed and works.
SunSurfer
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Found this video browsing about. Linked by permission.
Shot just 2 weeks ago on Turoa (too-rower) ski field on Mt Ruapehu (roo-a-pay-who) in New Zealand and posted on YouTube.
Just a frisson of excitement here. Ruapehu erupted in 1995, without warning, just after the skifields had closed for the day. A skier at Turoa took this photo of the eruption as it began.
http://www.sisson.co.nz/ArticlesBlog/blog/Mt+Ruapehu+Eruption+Tongariro+National+Park.html
(and on the next page it gets more exciting.
SunSurfer
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Sounds like Paul's having a typical Kiwi experience. NZers are forever having to sit by politicians on planes, after a while it almost spoils the trip!
August was the warmest it has ever been since records began, so while normally August is the best month for a snow trip, this year the snow was all slushy and soft when I was in Queenstown 10 days ago. Glad the Furious Fifties are turning on a good southerly blast for you to dump more snow.
NZ is not the good old US of A. It is a place of very different values. Our gun laws, amongst other things, make it a relatively safe place to be a politician, hence you get to sit beside them on planes (a mixed blessing).
Apropos the healthcare debate in the States at present, in NZ "socialised" health care and a healthy private healthcare sector exist side by side. Public hospitals are our best hospitals, where our sickest and most complex patients are treated. The private hospitals have better "hotel" services, and if you can afford it, non urgent surgical treatment can be bought more quickly, but the quality is not significantly better, or worse.
NZers can't sue for personal injury compensation. A government administered system (not perfect) provides medical care and is aimed at rehabilitation and return to participation in society. There is no incentive to maximise the extent of your injury to maximise your payout. The lawyers hated it when it first came in!!
If Paul was injured on a ski field while he was here, no matter how seriously, the scheme would automatically cover his medical care in NZ's "public" hospital system.
To quote from the Accident Compensation Corporation website -
Why does ACC help tourists?
ACC’s legislation covers the medical treatment of overseas visitors who are injured while in New Zealand.
However, they cannot get compensation for lost overseas income and their cover does not continue once they leave New Zealand. In the case of serious injuries, ACC will assist them only to the point where they are able to safely return home. There are other exclusions as well.
It is important to note that tourists often pay some form of ACC levy. For example, those who hire rental vehicles pay an ACC levy when they buy petrol, so they do pay towards any road-accident related treatment.
Those who legally worked while in New Zealand paid levies through their wages.
It is important to appreciate that in return for this cover, overseas visitors – like New Zealanders – forgo the right to sue if they are injured here.
If they were allowed to sue, the cost to New Zealand would be significantly more than what ACC pay to cover their treatment. Individual New Zealanders could also have been sued; something that with ACC cover, cannot happen.
Finally, it is most likely that recovering the cost of tourists’ medical treatment from the visitors themselves, or their insurance companies, would be expensive.
Have a great time while you're here, pinot noir is Central Otago's best grape, and a midwinter river dunk bungy jump from the Kawarau Gorge site is probably the best way to clear your head!
SunSurfer
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When you know the real answer when a skier calls out "What the f... is that!!?" as you walk past on the way to lunch.
When you spot only one other person on hard boots & carver at a ski resort on your latest trip, and immediately go up to him, shake his hand and start comparing boards etc. (Riot vs. Prior WCR) as if you were long lost friends, to the complete bemusement of his wife!
(Both from last week in NZ)
SunSurfer
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Don't get many gun shot wounds in NZ so ballistics knowledge is not a strong point in our medical training.
My thanks to those who've increased my knowledge, and kept this thread polite and thoughtful despite the diversity of views expressed.
SunSurfer
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My understanding is that the AR-15 shoots high velocity rounds. I don't know what kind of ordinance was in Fin's weapon.
A few years ago I spent some time in East Timor with the Australian Defence Force on UN peacekeeping duty as an intensive care doc. The medical unit's commanding officer told me their rifle's high velocity bullets were lethal if they hit the target anywhere between the elbows and the knees because of the extensive tissue damage caused by the shockwave of the bullet as it passed through.
I'm not sure you can shoot an AR-15 to reliably just "wound" somebody.
In New Zealand, we have special armed police squads to deal with violent and armed offenders. The ultimate sanction society has is to take the life of the criminal. Although NZ courts do not impose the death penalty, our police occasionally shoot dead violent offenders who attempt to harm police or other members of society. They shoot to kill.
Our police will chase people speeding on the roads, but have a well publicised policy to give up the chase if speeds get too high or the chase is judged too dangerous. The result is that some chases are ended and the speeder escapes. The policy is there because a significant number of chases have ended in serious crashes and death to both the speeder and innocent road users.
Essentially, our police only carry weapons when they are prepared to use them to kill.
By picking up a rifle Fin acted in a way that can be interpreted as that he was prepared to kill to protect his property.
SunSurfer
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Yes, Fin was protecting his property.
But how much is a human life worth?
Seriously, how many people here would really have been willing to pull the trigger, and in all likelihood kill the thief?
Any responses might be best in a separate "Off Topic" thread.
SunSurfer
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Hi Paul K,
NZ Winter Games will have just ended as you arrive.
http://www.wintergamesnz.com/programme.php
Should be a bit of space. Plenty of Aussies across this winter cause of the good snow and the recession keeping them closer to home.
http://www.nzski.com/mountain.jsp?site=coronetpeak
http://www.treblecone.com/Default.asp
Check out the websites for the local field's conditions / webcams etc. Remarkables website is on the same site as Coronet.
I'll have been on Cardrona, TC and Coronet the week before the Games start.
Have a great trip! Remember that carving is not big in NZ so spares will be hard/impossible to come by.
SunSurfer
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No doubt about it. It's winter here in New Zealand. Was up carving at Turoa on Mt Ruapehu just over a week ago. Still early season here with snow base still rising. Even saw a couple of other carving boards in use amongst all the jibbers and skiers.
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Found this site while fossicking around for videos of race technique by Googling "Thedo Remmelink". While it's got good a range of good videos, I'm not going to tell you which vid features a carver in a pink bikini top!
Enjoy
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If the suspended plate moves up and down then there must be some friction on the contact surfaces. This up and down movement will presumably happen with every turn. Given that those parts are both aluminium alloy, is the wear at this point going to be a problem?
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Sorothane? Did you mean Sorbothane?
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There are a range of these out on the web.
This is a fairly impressive one, purely mechanical.
http://www.diycamera.com/stabiliser/index.html
The principles could probably applied to make one suitable for a GoPro video camera. The final combination could be seriously light but effective.
SunSurfer
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Cardrona, TC & Coronet between Aug 16th and 23rd. PM & Night boarding at Coronet on Sat 22nd August.
SunSurfer
Look what's on the front page of the Toronto Star
in Carving Central
Posted
Watching the Tyler Jewell race & training videos, I see that the Tinkler plate he is using also has a forward extension. That argues against my billboard hypothesis. It is unlikely that the feature would be there in two independent designs, and from what I've seen of other Tinkler designs, function overrides form.
I still think that the length of the extensions is probably too short to act as an effective damper for all but the most extreme nose burying scenarios. The snowboard would still bend in a curve initially and for the snowboard top surface to engage the plate tip, the tip of the board would need to have risen an extraordinary distance.
Evidence to support the snowboard nose damping hypothesis would only be found in photos showing the board plate relationship deep in a hard turn. Either that, or evidence of scuff marks on the board topsheet just under the tip of the plate extension.
SunSurfer