michael.a

Apex Geckos?

I'm moving back to NJ next year and will be quite close to Mountain Creek but it just looks like a better bet is to head over to Hunter or Windham for the weekends. Any experience with my old haunts like Shawnee or Camelbak?

Just wondering how things are holding at MC at this time of year

Standard operating procedure, the 180 GS in the morning on the empty cord and then switch over to my oversized slalom board when the crowds hit and conditions worsen.

I can vouch for slapos if there are any qualms about buying a board overseas, stand up guy that takes v good care of his equipment.

The thing is, I hear the exact same thing about hardbooting by sooftbooters. Im surprised that even in our ultra niche sport theres enough room to question the existence of various... riding styles. Might as well get salty over binding angles or baggy vs fitted jackets and just finish up in bigoted land questioning etnicity or why wont them uppity females leave the big boy sports alone. One poster already brought up nationality for some reason in some kind of troll comment. For what its worth, EC is what got me and a lot of friends interested in alpine snowboarding and I think it led the development of wider and easier to ride boards, let alone spawned other riding styles and improvements in alpine technique. Thouhh I agree it made a lot us reach for the snow when we shouldnt have :)

Not wanting to jump on the bangwagon but fully agree. Snark on. Reads like mega hangover copy after a marathon youtube session. The 10-15 year old pictures are tits. You literally have to go out of your way to find such relevant graphics. Kudos.

Boot stiffness is one of the most important issues when starting. I dont know how stiff those boots are, maybe someone has some experience and can chime in. But there is no need to buy newer equipment if what you have works. I see youre from Slovenia, there are a couple of European based forums out there if you speak German or Italian, Im unaware of a Slovenian hardbooting forumthough. The 124s should be just slightly less stiffer than the 325s, no?

I had just watched it and with Zone's great idea I just had to trumpify my own little schpiel :) Kudos to Zone btw, and it works so well with out sport. Lets make carving great again...

Folks, most of the media is not gonna tell you how much we carve except for the fine people at Fox. They are so dishonest. They, with the softboot companies, are taking our jobs, our people, and sending them down to Mexico where there is no snow. No snow folks. How can they make our snowboards, that carve, in Mexico. Or China. You cant, and they know it. They know it. We won with carving, but nobody mentions how Hillary took carving away. Its all fake news folks. Every word. Im the most carving person in the world. I think that carving, folks know this. It, nobody calls it what it really is. Radical carving terrorism. They go after women, and children, and innocent, not those that carve. And this is an American problem. Not American, but big league. Global. Global. Folks, carving is, we're going to fix carving. We have great deals coming, great deals.

I agree with Ursle, while maybe at the beginning you can feel some sort of elitism particularly when looking at the majority of skiers and snowboarders just sliding around (big fish in a little pond), set your sights a bit higher or attend a carve event and you quickly become humbled. Seeing a pro hardbooter or racer do their thing in front of your eyes is way different from watching videos. And even if you do approach elite status, in such a niche sport no one really cares or notices any way. Most dont even look at others riding. And the ones that do, since snark and hate are in, are more likely to react negatively - falling over every single turn on that freak board with ski boots, that idiot is taking up the whole slope again, he's cutting up the slope they should ban him, that guy is not riding in his lane, look he cut off that person behind him doesnt he know any better... etc etc.

This is really important. Figure out a baseline setup that is relatively neutral and does not have a multiple of confounding factors, so dont worry about the power plates for now. You may immediately feel something needs adjusting but do one thing at a time. Like it was said above, dont use parallel angles. You can start with 15/0 but Im one of those that recommend a strong directional stance from the beginning if you want to carve, so something like 30/15 but obviously everything depends on any boot overhang. In my case even with downsized Driver Xs (28cm) and a relatively wide softboot board I have to run 40/30. Stance, if you've been riding duck you're probably already quite wide so drop it by a few cm. Multiple you pants inseam length by 0.607 and tack on an inch as a start.

Wonder how many carving videos do the same thing, just one or two nice turns that came out well and cut!

Thermofit or thermoflex?

Like Erik said, rear boot unlocked is acceptable. However, front book unlocked can lead to serious injury. Dont ask how I know...

Oh man, like I met him a couple of times but not like I know him. I'll have to refresh my memory but PM me as I don't feel comfortable talking about someone out in the open like this, the internet's become a dangerous place.

I thought he was from Stuttgart, but Lothar aka under the nick McFussel (I think hes even registered here) is one of the co-organizers of Carving Masters and helped co-found the German equivalent of the Bomber forums, frozen-backside.de. Very positive guy.

The race tongues are very stiff, I found them overkill for everyday carving so went back to the originals. Only after I added a spring system did I use the race tongues.

Solden is the only place I think in Europe you can expect to share a chairlift with another random hardbooter or walk into a sports shop and find all sorts of alpine gear. Bond fever has unfortunately made it a bit over-priced and overcrowded, but I would still recommend checking it out.

Any back to back comparisons between Darn Tough and Smartwool?

The only thing that works for me are socks with a high % of merino wool, everything else gets cold, wet, stinky. Unfortunately there are a lot of "merino wool socks" out there that don't even have 20% of the stuff. That said, for now I've settled on the Smartwool Phd range of various thicknesses. Boots were molded in my thinnest pair so my toes are slightly squished when I put on the thick ones. Unfortunately the % of merino wool is steadily decreasing in Smartwools (used to be 76%, then dropped to the 60s and now its in the high 50s) so will be looking for alternatives.

I wish I was :( Maybe next year :)

Locked front leg, bend the front knee forward. May be hampered by boot and binding setup. Hips frequently are not rotated leading to toilet sitting, not allowing you to tilt the board even higher on edge. Practice angulation exercises. That back knee is something I and others have a problem with. Literally when riding push your knees apart with your hands. You immediately feel from pressure shift from the front binding to across the whole board, bumps up the power big time.

Brand new Burton Wind boots developed a crack after a couple days of riding. Head Stratos Pros cracked at the heel after 4 years of 40 days per season. Currently in Deeluxes from 2002/03 that are holding up fine but my spidey sense that says its time for new boots.

Thats just awesome, two new boots in one year. I hope Deeluxe takes on the competition and offers something new as well.