WinterGold

It took me a while too to realise who I am talking (writing) to. It's a shame ... Willow 15, not much to read here, unfortunately ...

No alpine equipment available? - snowmatic, I think we can agree that alpine riding is a niche sport, but it is not really a problem to buy equipment. In my "town" there are two shops which sell a whole range of alpine equipment and you have several online dealers. You want me to name a dozen board brands? Ok - SG, Kessler, Oxess, Black Pearl, Sense, Apex, Pure Boarding, F2, Swoard, Virus, Donek, Coiler - do you want me to go on? There are several others. So saying that you cannot buy alpine boards anymore, is simply not true and misleading. Sponsors - LG has pulled out of the world cup and it seems that there is a new rule that only the FIS is responsible for sponsors and not the local ski area. This seems to make it more difficult to find places for a world cup race. Equipment - Of course there are certain limitations for each type of equipment, but I would say that a modern raceboard has a pretty wide area of usage compared to other alpine boards. About the plates - I am not sure what you are getting at.

Unfortunately I didn´t see the whole race, but the German commentators were a joke! They kept calling Takeuchi "Tamagotchi" and talking about Karl´s board the commentator said, "He rides a Red Bull branded board, but it is still a Kessler, just different graphics". It was really embarrassing. He also said that you can no longer buy any alpine boards and all the racers must order their boards directly from Kessler. At least he knows one brand ;-) ... Caroline Calve had some amazing carves! Who can stop Prommegger???

So now the plates are online :) ...

Tatoos, I must have been quicker than their computer system :D ... But don´t worry, the plates are there. You can either contact them or wait till after the weekend. Then the plates will definitely be online!

Finally, the mother of all carbon based isolation plates is available hassle-free in Austria :) ! The Hangloose Snowboard Shop (www.hangloose.com) just received their first shipment. The UPM version (ASIP version) and the new 4x4 version (native, not just an adapter) are available. And as the shop delivers to almost all other European countries without any shipping costs, all Europeans have access to it . If you have any questions just ask here or contact the shop directly. The season is near!!!

The famous skeleton graphics were from Mark Gale and used by Lib Tech in 1990. So Tex, we don´t have to disagree :)!

tex1230 - I am only talking about what was really available on the market. Not some customs or prototypes. If you are talking particularly about spring ´90, then maybe you are already talking about the boards from the 90/91 season. Remember that I wrote that from that season on almost all (!) alpine boards were asymmetrical. About Mistral - in 89/90 the raceboards from Mistral were called Inka and Aztec. And they were definitely symmetrical. But again, in 90/91 they also had asymmetrical boards - they were called Ecstasy. But I must admit that I don´t have a lot of information about the Lib Techs. Do you have any concrete facts? Model names? Photos? That would be highly interesting!!!

About Kemper - in 89/90 the Kemper boards were still symmetrical (like the Aggressor Comp or the Bullet). The Kemper Apex (160SL and 170GS) appeared in 90/91. By then almost all alpine companies had switched to asymmetrical race boards. In the 89/90 season only 4 companies offered asymmetrical alpine boards - Hooger Booger (several models!), Burton - the original PJ (170), Nidecker - the Magnum 166 and Hot - the first Logical (165). Of these 4 brands only the Hot Logical had an asymmetrical nose. A year before (the 88/89 season) Hooger Booger was the only company to offer asymmetrical alpine boards in production!

slopetool, this must be the earliest you have ever seen, because it is their very first board! It is from autumn 1982 and it was inspired by a picture of Tom Sims in the Skateboarder mag. But as the builder was a freestyle skier before, he used the Marker bindings and wash´t that interested in soft bindings.

tahoetrencher ;) If you think that the early prototypes are not "alpine" enough, here are two pictures from October and November 1986! The board on the second pictures has a sidecut of 54m ... for real men!!! ;-) (The white stickers are again from the court case)

I did a lot of research into the history of snowboarding and also alpine snowboarding. When it comes to alpine boards and asymmetrical boards, you definitely have to turn to Hooger Booger and Switzerland. There was even a court case about who built the first asymmetrical snowboards (sorry, I don´t know many details). The first picture is from 1982!!! Look at the plate bindings! The second picture is from May 1985! The white stickers were used in the court case and it was proven that Hooger Booger was the first company to build asymmetrical snowboards. The pictures are taken from this site - http://www.faesslerboys.ch/frame.htm. The site is very slow and only in German, but there are a lot of interesting pictures and facts. Hot Snowboards (from France) was famous for using deep sidecuts very early, but they brought their first asymmetricals only around 1988 (http://www.hammersnowboards.com/Archives/site2006_2007/products/hotsnowboards/before_94.php). Sims was a pioneer, but alpine snowboarding started in Europe.

Hi Jack, I must confess that I haven´t read the whole discussion here, but you know what is funny? Your initial quiver suggestion is exactly what some pros used this season. They use their SL and GS boards also for freecarving, but when they are out just for fun (and the conditions are good!), they also use a middle length non-metal board. At least some of the SG riders. Their quiver - - 2x SL - FullRace 163 - 2x GS - FullRace 185 - FullCarve 170 (sometimes even with plate ...)

So you are the kangaroo! ;-) But still you are all animals on the slope! :-) Way to go!!!

Mani, Respect!!! Some serious speed ;-) ... and now I understand why you call yourselves kangaroos :-) The opening scene is so nice! lonbordin - places - just what the banners say - Silvretta (Austria), Zinal (Switzerland) and Adelboden (Switzerland).

KingCrimson - so it is :). Gcarve - Thanks!!!

Thank you all for the positive comments! KingCrimson - outward canting is something rather special. I remember that I tried it a long time ago and I didn´t need/like it. I don´t think that any of the top guys in the world cup actually uses outward canting. With the plates it becomes even less important. About the knees - have you seen Benjamin Karl riding ;-)? But if it gives you a better feeling on the board, then that´s great!

This year the season was strange - lots of snow for a short time (mostly too soft for carving) and now it seems that the season is coming to an early end. So there is not much carving video material, but here is a short clip from this season. I´m using an SG FullRace ProTeam 185 2012 with a BBP 5mm and Sidewinders low assembly. It´s a pretty fast and fun setup! http://vimeo.com/38169465

The new catalog is now online - http://sgjapan.jp/12-13catalog.pdf

For me it just seems a question of money. If you are willing and able to pay the price of the Titan, then I would definitely go the Titan route. On the other hand, the FullCarve has the better value for money and some riders say that the FullCarve needs less strength, because it isn´t torsionally as stiff as the FullRace models. When the going gets tough (icy, ruts, etc.), you might lose a bit of edge grip and dampening in comparison to the FullRace models, but I guess you would only notice this in direct comparison.

So the 180 it is :) ... I can´t really comment on the FullCarve, although I hear that it is pretty close to the FullRace when it comes to riding performance. I only ride FullRace boards and they handle everything you throw at them really well. Because of the different camber line (decambered nose), these boards also drift very easily and you can also transition from carving to drifting very smoothly. This makes for a great handling! I remember somebody saying that the first time he stepped on a new school raceboard it felt like cheating :)! Less input, more performance.

NWboarder, with a Mondo 31 I would not recommend the 175 (also not for your weight ...). So coming from a 178 RennTiger, you could either go with a 170 (which would turn a bit tighter than your RennTiger, but it can also handle some serious speed!) or go with the 180 (you need some space for this machine, but it is a very nice carving stick!). So if you have enough space where you normally ride and you like speed and/or bigger turns, I would go with the 180. If you need to share your slopes with other people and/or you like tighter turns, you can go with the 170 (or even the 163 if you like SL type of turns). Compared to conventional shapes, the new shapes provide more edge grip, more stability on the edge, more control over the radius of your turns (more variable) and less body movement is required (you can stay in a centered, balanced position and the board still works great for a wide range of conditions). Is it worth it? Probably ...

A nice video for real equipment junkies ;) ! http://vimeo.com/36671963 TLN - do you need metal for an alpine snowboard? That is a question which will get you lots of different answers :) ... it depends on so many factors (how much are you willing to pay for a snowboard, what is your preferred terrain, which conditions do you usually ride in, what is your riding style, do you want to impress your riding buddies, does the board need to make a good impression in front of the restaurant, do you use your board also as decoration at home, etc., etc.). Pius, I´m really glad that you like the board!

No, not really. The 163 is the slalom weapon and the 170 is more of a recreational freecarver (although still a full on raceboard). They are both made for a similar weight range and they have the same waist width, but the supposed usage is different. But then, you could also see it your way ...

Hans, were you there? What are the colors for the UPZ RC10? Green and ? Are the "Kessler bindings" just F2s with a different logo?