michael.a

Yea, thats a good deal actually. If you've got money to burn and willing to have that board wait in the closet for a couple of years than grab it.

If its a newish board, like 2-3 years sure thats a good deal. Otherwise forget it. Better stuff on ebay.de. I wouldnt go anywhere near a 183 board as a beginner. Start with a too short GS board. In our group we recommend going two sizes down. So from 183 go to a very low 170 or high 160.

That's insane how much was deleted. From what I know instead of outright deleting, Wikipedia gives a little warning that the article needs reference and clean-up. This guy obviously has an axe to grind.

The wiki page for alpine snowboarding is destitute: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpine_snowboarding I mean look at it, my uncle's wiki is 10x bigger!!! Its subsection in the Snowboarding wiki is far more detailed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowboarding#Alpine_Snowboarding I just cleaned it up a few minutes ago but it needs the support of the alpine community, there's so much history and equipment and technique info that could be added. I'm going to read more about how to cite stuff on wikipedia as I'm clueless, but hope to at least provide more links in terms of the bomber and extremecarving forums and alpine carving. While alpinearving.com is the gold standard for almost everything on hardbooting, if you type in "alpine carving" the wiki is the first hit and probably last stop for the uninformed. Thankfully bomberonline shows ups next :)

10000x squats + deadlifts

Was this resolved?

No way, wait for the winter. January or from mid March are the best periods.

I think there was a thread asking the same question a couple of months ago, and my answer from then hasnt changed: 200cm Tanker Crown However, id never give up owning a quiver of boards.

When I moved to Europe I had to get accustomed to downsized - everything! No more family size, toilet paper packs of 4, one liter of anything was the largest size, not including the cars, concept of personal space, and of course apartments. Just to give you an idea, 600-700 sq ft is a typical apartment in the ol' EU and considered normal for a family of four. A 1000 sq ft apartment is considered luxury. It's kind of funny, while living in the US I wanted to emulate the compact and more minimal approach to life like Europeans, but now over here I'd love to have a big ass pickup truck, huge house and huge lawn with a tractor lawn mower, and a Costco a few blocks over...

Hey Neil. Completely agree, so to be more precise, my 'decent level' is akin to expert, it includes riding in almost any conditions (including death cookie crust or powder - trees and even chutes) at any pitch with correct technique, knowledge and ability to replicate different riding styles, and technical knowledge of various factors such as board and boot construction and tuning information and how they affect the rider or the ride. I think the 10000 rule has been discredited (Gladwell lifted that number from a study that just randomly guessed how many hours are needed), but I remember Erik Beckmann once succinctly pointed out what it means to attain proficiency in anything really and what framework is involved. My time is limited at the moment so I can't go searching, but it was a couple of months ago.

You've joined an elite sport. A sport that has a steep learning curve, demands a high level of athletic prowess, has high startup costs, and is full of paradoxes and conundrums. And it's incredibly personal, what may work for someone as a individual may just as well as be aliens poking your body. I know why you bought a Swoard. You saw the videos and you wanted to do the same. While a wide board might just be the ticket for some, that just not might be the case for you. Nonetheless, now thatyou have bit the bullet you have to soldier on or decide you just can't cut it. Just to giveyou a heads up, it took me four years of 40-50 days a year to attain a decent level.

There is nothing wrong in my eyes with having an upright front leg. I'd say getting that front leg to bend more is more of a case of technique, such as shifting your body (weight) to the front of the board (i.e., you are riding in the backseat). Go back to the settings you were comfortable with. But to gain some insight, I think your problem with the current setup may be tied in with your stance. What is your body height and inseam length (you can also measure the distance between the ground to the center of your knee when barefoot)?

Red skier is at fault. He/she must be travelling at a higher rate of speed, but not fast enough to overtake the blue skier, which in this regard is the downhill skier and therefore has the right of way. While I hate straight liners as much as the next person, you can go straight as much as you want. There is no way it can be considered "out of control".

How'd you rip up your gloves so bad after a few rides? But evidently there's some problems with John getting back to customers in a timely manner.

Dammit, I keep all my reviews and first impressions on my iphone but have been unable to find em, in fact all my notes are gone except for some beer reviews :) But please go by what Bart wrote in that review I linked and what was said above. I am in complete agreement with what Rob wrote, I myself have become biased towards LONGER boards (not just wider) but with smaller SCRs for all mountain riding BTW, have you considered a Tanker?

Irregardless of the obvious benefits of getting a custom board built by Donek or Prior, I've a bit of experience riding on the Swoard Dual boards and can heartily recommend as I see few people tried em out in the states. Bart, a good friend, wrote a nice review comparing it vis-a-vis with a Voelkl Coal http://megustasport.com/swoard-dual-vs-voelkl-coal/ which pretty sums up my own perspective. I do know the latest wares from Stepchild, Ride and newcomer Nobile (for now in the EU only) have some really good stuff but I'm more hardbooter than anything. I can sum up my and other test notes if you're interested, papers scattered everwhere.

Used doesn't mean damaged!!!! In the detailing word the saying is if you can run your fingernail over the scratch and it doesnt catch, you can buff it out. A rotary buffer with with a wool pad and some rubbing compound should clean everything up nicely. Start with a less agressive approach and if that doesn't work out then consider wet sanding, but 1000 grit is far too aggressive. Look at 2000 or 1500 grit first. I like Meguiar's Unigrit. BTW, those scratches look like they came from something rubbing on the board, like during the car ride home.

All the best Michelle, it was so nice to meet you once when I dropped by to pick up some of the TD3 Thunderbolt stickers :) Good luck in Pagosa!!! - Michael from Poland

Ditto for what Brian said, structure structure structure. Structure can be more important than wax sometimes. Especially on sintered bases, which supposedly build up heat faster and are even more sensitive to structure. Get a coarse grind, in fact a sign of a good shop is if you can talk shop with what kind of grind they recommend for your snow conditions.

Excarver, you guys have the longest lay downs in the history of snowboarding!!! And it's so smooth. Keep posting your videos!

Vitelli was a rider from HOT snowboards AFAIK who popularized this kind of turn (yea, elbow dragging and all). Quite honestly I don't like either of these names, both "Vitelli turn" and "Eurocarving" sound very old school, the only time I've heard someone mention a Vitelli turn was 50+ and the name Eurocarving in particular makes my teeth grate... I dunno, for me it's simply carving, you can add adjectives such as low, hand-dragging, etc. You could make the argument that 'carving' has been pushed so far out the mainstream that most people now qualify carving as anytime the board is 'on edge' regardless of the line left behind. So sure, maybe a new word could better define this type of riding with carving having lost its true meaning whereas extremecarving it's not (no mixup here, you need to be fully laid out). One surprising fact is the negative connotation of carving/extremecaring, every time I saw it brought up online there's a hefty backlash calling it boring, pointless, and dangerous while touting off-piste and big-air riding. So there's also that...

Rad Air Tanker 200. I ride in hardboots with some slight changes and while I acknowledge it may be a handicap to really surf the snow, I feel its 10x better than any 'freeride' softboot comparative. I gave up taking two different pairs of boots/bindings (soft/hard) with me a long time ago, and I hope I don't want to start skiing again anytime soon...

Reused some scraped off wax a couple of times, the base has to be 100% clean and the shavings have to fall onto something clean (not a dirty workbench) otherwise you're gonna iron in bits of dirt, dust, and metal shavings into the base. I dunno, wasn't worth the hassle. Never had any problems cleaning up though, nowhere near a carpet and use the shop vac.. if I used the nice home carpet vacuum I'd probably get shot. If you want to save on the wax/scrape/wax/scrape, one thing I do is rewax my bases, so I wax normally, place the board on the radiator to let it slowly cool, and then again run the iron over the base.

Please do, next season I need to replace mine and these liners are at the top of my list!

Do not ride in walk mode, at least on the front foot. In an accident you can seriously injure your ankles... ask me how I know...