LeGogoussier

This picture just in from Chile. He must have run out of gates to go fast around.

Here is a timely update on this 2009 thread ;-) Jules is now 22 and still at it, fully dedicated to our sport. He made it to the big leagues (the racing shot was taken in Cortina last December). Of the original young carvers who were mentioned above he has raced the Winters several times (Cody and Billy). Are any of the others still active -- Arclite, KingCrimson, spil, aactis?

Jules en a acheté un de 195cm cet été à la boutique de ski Austrian sur Monkland à Montréal. 180$

Robin (v3rse) l'a fait l'an dernier. C'est habituellement une seule piste qui part du sommet (Beauvallon), qui suit un tracé pas très large entre des clôtures et qui aboutit à la télécabine. Pas vraiment une place pour carver. Difficile de prévoir les conditions pour la mi-décembre. En 2012 c'était ok. Il y a 2-3 ans c'était vraiment limite; de la neige transportée pour tracer une "piste" de 4m de large par endroits.

21h03 jeudi soir: ils approchent de Sault-Ste-Marie après 10 heures de route. En auto. Il en reste autant. Quelle passion! C'est déjà un exploit de s'y rendre. Amusez-vous bien; on surveillera ça http://www.live-timing.com/race2.php?r=43614 Louis-G

Interested in the TD2 bindings (both sets). Email sent.

I bought a Swoard Extremecarver 175H last November to complement a quiver that consists mostly of SG Full Race T boards (both with and without plates). After a few runs of getting accustomed to the added width I got totally addicted to the Swoard. Agile, predictable, stable at speed and with superb edge hold on ice and hard pack. It even cuts through crud quite nicely. It loves to be ridden EC style, works great for BOL-style freecarving, and I had a lot of fun racing it through various GS courses (without plates it was no match for a heavily rutted course, though). So far this year I had about 45 days on snow, each time bringing 2-3 boards with me - ready to ride. Overall, I ended up spending the most time on my Swoard having a ball. Swoard configurations that did not work for me: Donek plate, TD suspension kit, zero lift. I have zero powder experience to share. Cheers, Louis

Je seconde Stéphane: Stratton Tes critères me rappellent que le Che aurait dit: 'Soyons réalistes; exigeons l'impossible'

BOLsheviks ? (Those riding plates would be BOLsheVists)

Très intéressant Cabby mais attention: pente savonneuse. Je crains qu'un post comme ça puisse t'attirer des ennuis de ton employeur. L-G

You get a good peek at the plate system on that video from 0:58 to 1:44 http://www.rds.ca/ski/chroniques/326869.html

Email sent.

...even junior racers won't leave home without plates on their SL board. This was last month in Chile.

My experience is that jams happen only in wet snow when it packs up under my toes. It makes it impossible to lower the heel flush and latch the pins. The problem is more acute with Cateks than TDs as the Catek toe block has more surface and no void in the center.

I acquired, viewed and appreciated "Carved" as a work of art. And I still love it. I never thought of calculating how many pennies per second it sells for (silly me). Maybe Jonas Rejman had to figure it out when he created that film on a shoestring budget.

Il semble que les terrains du "Domaine du Cerf" soient situés au Massif du Sud, à 100km de là... http://www.massifdusud.net/doc/Village_de_montagne_Massif_du_Sud.pdf

Just the Alu plates ? I have. PM me. Louis-G

...and today a junior riding the home built contraption depicted in post #764 above won the U15 race at Owl's Head to finish the Coupe Québec season #1 in that category. In rain and fog on a course that got rutted almost knee deep in a hurry.

In the original post Michelle asked: "How can we get this kind of crowd for ANY hard boot event?" I ask: Why should we hope it be otherwise ? I see only advantages in practicing a relatively confidential sport away from media hype and public attention. At race events I have access to the best athletes in their sports: Olympians, World Cup professionals, World champions. I can watch them perform their art very up close; even get to ride along with some of them. The rest of the time when I meet and join recreational carvers I am almost sure that they will be fine, adrenalin addicted people that I can relate with. On top of that I DO appreciate the attention I get at times from being unconventional (nobody EVER asked me about my hockey skates nor my soccer shin pads...).

You're right Blueb. Bad choice of words in that example. I stand corrected. I should not have extrapolated beyond the fact that the longer board will bend to the same effective radius as the shorter one when the edge in contact with the snow. BTW the thread I was referring to is: "Longer board, same sidecut?" at http://www.bomberonline.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=33723

The short answer to the original post is yes, with a VSR the pressure is enough to decamber and bend the board so that it assumes a shape with an effective radius that is very significantly smaller than the specified VSR. The sidecut radius of a board (be it fixed, progressive or variable) is just a nominal specification that describes its geometry when it lays flat on a carpet. Tilting and bending the board to ride it will obviously distorts it very significantly in 3D, and not necessarily linearly from tip to tail. If ridden properly for the conditions the edge that carves through the snow then assumes a radius that appropriate for a clean trajectory (which is much smaller than the specified SCR/VSR). Tinkering with miniature cardboard cutouts is very enlightnening. For example (in reference to another thread) if you mock up two little boards with the same SCR and different lengths and tilt them on a table you immediately see that the longer board will be turnier and less stable.

Actually, I made these Frankenbindings from Cateks FR2s and Flows XLTs. The only fabrication that was required was for 4 alu plates. The cables broke after a few weeks so I replaced them with 3/16 in braided steel cables. Aluminum crimps didn't work too well to secure the cables. They slipped and failed so I resorted to using mini U-Bolts. I have not used them this year, having converted to HB. Now I get to tinker with Frankenplates: http://www.bomberonline.com/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=339177&postcount=764

Here is a Frankenplate that I put together in just a couple of hours. It's safe, sturdy and really effective! My son has used it in gate practice and forerunning a Noram/FIS race at Le Relais last week. It worked like the real thing. Ingredients: - A Sigi Full Race Titanal board with a smashed nose; - A set of Hangl plates; - A race board with Hangl inserts; Setup: The Hangl rails are installed side by side; not offset. Two skinny sliding nylon bushings in front. Two fat bushings at the back (fixed, but acting as a hinge). The four innermost bushings and their pins are omitted (to avoid flatspotting). The top plate is screwed to the Hangl rails with 8 screws (4 at both ends, 4 inner ones omitted). The Hangl aluminum plates are not used. No need to alter or destroy the Hangles - you can revert to the original setup. Coincidentally, someone from Down Under posted a picture of my FlowTek Frankenbindings a few days ago: http://www.bomberonline.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=33497 (I no longer use them, having finally converted to HB). Enjoy, L-G

Par ordre de préférence: Au Camp-Boule: Lavoie et Simard (la Bouchard aussi, selon la largeur damée) Il y a rarement de l'attente de ce côté-là et les conditions s'y dégradent beaucoup moins vite. Côté Cap-Maillard: la Fénomène jusqu'à la station intermédiaire (si un bout de la Charlevoix est ouvert - ce qui est rare - c'est assez malade aussi) Au centre: la Petite-Rivière (droite, large, longue mais mal fréquentée...) la Richard et la Gagnon. Louis-G

Solutions were posted here based on mini bungees, surgical rubber hose, electrical tape...