bigwavedave

Cory, Bobble and I are heading to Indianhead tomorrow. Just heard from Al and he'll be there in the morning too!

Some of our early work on Gandy, still there when we left the hill. Rode 10-4. Rough ice base under a surface groom and scattered slush piles. Made you think about plating up and thankful for boards that don't mind a bit of ice.

A video of a demo ride on the 175 Superconductor. This is an unedited clip with flat light (not the best quality image or riding (carrying a 5' stick with a camera on the end with poor lighting kinda cramps my style)). Also, it's slowed to ½ speed to see what the board is doing. Fast forward 5 yrs, same run with my now 5yr old custom Superconductor. Just as lively now as the first season. This board is so sure footed and smooth it makes this 70 yr old guy feel like superman. Just look in the direction you want to go and it goes. Feels more like an extension of my body rather than riding a board. It's always there with you, it never falters.

I got to demo a Superconductor WARP 7 for the better part of Sunday afternoon at Indianhead, compliments of Mark (Thirst snowboards) and @Algunderfoot 175cm, 19cm waist, 11.3m toeside scr, and 12m heelside scr (sidecut is offset for regular rider). Glass fiber? with wood core, no metal. I don't know for sure, it's all top secret. Conditions were firm late-day groom, a bit rutted up with some icy patches, but mostly good to excellent carving conditions, except for the flat light. This board has a noticeably softer flex than any of my other boards. It's also 1.5cm narrower than boards I've been riding lately. According to Al, the WARP design concept involves a unique core construction that helps produce a continuous flex (no flat spots under the bindings), sort of like what an isolation plate does, with the goal of producing smoother carves. So, some of the benefits of a plate, but without the loss of snow feel. This board has a noticeably different feel─every carve feels super smooth─slippery fast/silky smooth (like a Kessler, but it likes to complete turns)─all with no chatter or pumping motion during any carves at all. Very secure edge hold, fairly damp and seems to hook up into a turn quickly (might be because it's narrower than my boards). I never really got bounced around by the late day ruts. Once in a steep carve I felt it slip on ice, but immediately reconnect with the carve. Afterwards, looking at some video I made, I could see that I had some boot drag when way up on edge. I like that the board likes to complete turns so I can bleed off speed on steeps before going into the next turn─easy to vary the size of the carve without changing the quality of the smoothness and edge hold. Despite being a fairly soft flexing board, I was surprised that I could push as hard as I wanted in a turn and it never let go of its edge. Rode for 3 hours and had a chance to get pretty comfortable with this board. I found myself doing things I might have hesitated to do before, feeling almost... ...invincible. ...and then thinking I didn't want to give the board back─but I knew Al would track me down, and with the rugged terrain in da UP, my remains wouldn't be found for years. Check out the crazy flex profile on this board! Whatever Mark is doing, he's really onto something, and it's working. Apparently the result of decades of building boards in the wilds of northern Idaho. I'd put this board right up there with the best of the best carving boards. Superconductor=super clean, secure solid carves. tail view: from nose: We should all feel fortunate to have such passionate board builders (and binding and boot makers) experimenting and innovating and making our small sport of carving more and more amazing and fun.

Demoed a Thirst BX 171? with about a 22cm waist and guessing about 11m scr. Rented it from BSO in Bessemer, MI and rode at Indianhead. Rode hardboots with sidewinders on firm groom with scattered icy patches. I don't have a lot to say, as I only took 3 runs and could tell I was gonna have more fun on one of my carving sticks (or the Superconductor). Still, the BX carves really well. Felt very similar to one of my Inclines. Mark (from Thirst) said the one I rode, was meant to be a "crossover" board for soft booter to hard. My impression is it would be a great all-Mt carver for any hardbooter, and suspect it would be a good choice for riding on several inches of fresh on groom (and the leftover crud), soft 1st day groom, spring slush, or whenever it's too soft to drive an all-out carving stick as hard as you like without burying it.

Thanks for the demo Al. I loved the Superconductor. One of the best carving boards I've been on. I didn't want to give it back! I rented the Thirst BX from Ben at BSO on Monday (173cm , 23.4 waist, 9m average scr). Only took 3 runs on it, not because I didn't like it, but I knew one of my carving sticks was gonna be more fun on the firm snow. Having the Super would have been even more better. Mark told me later that this BX was built as a crossover board for softbooters to try hardbooting and not be too intimidating.

That's the right attitude There should be plenty of snow on the hill and we're only just entering the spring melt, and may be transitioning into some soft spring conditions by Saturday. At least there are clear skies in the forecast. I'm planning to come up Thursday and Friday (who knows, maybe Saturday too). Russ was mumbling something about coming out Thursday morning before he leaves town. Are you thinking of coming up? You, Randy and Trent? When, Saturday? Could turn into a mini SES (SpiritExpressionSession). All we need now is to conjol @Algunderfoot to bring over some Thirst demos from Indianhead!

Had a great couple of days at Indianhead. First day was overcast with peeks of sun, but I got to ride some orange sunshine (Thirst WARP Superconductor) compliments of @Algunderfoot and Thirst snowboards @BLOODTYPEZX10R. A phenomenal board, unlike anything I've ridden before (more on that later). Next day was bluebird with some picturesque cumulus clouds and a wind that got you in a tuck occasionally. Wishing I could have ridden the Superconductor another day, so I stopped by BSO in Bessemer and borrowed the Thirst BX to see if it had some of the same magic as the WARP design (more on that later). Snow was great for carving. @rwmaron layin into a big carve on the upper steep of FIS right under the chairTurns that make heads turn Riding @jolson's 183 Prior wcrm. Good luck getting that back Jim. You'll have to pry it out his cold dead hands!

Yes, thought of it after seeing the result of this experiment with a simple upright mount and then rotating the view in the computer afterwards. I've found that I have have a proclivity for making "headless" rider shotsof myself─probably some deep-rooted psychological issues I'm not ready to explore

How's Don doing on the Generics SL?

Is this a custom board? The 9-11-10scr seems like more of a "recreational" sidecut radius, more willing to complete turns, compared to a race scr?

Couple of interesting shots (vsnaps) from a tail-mounted gopro yesterday at Buck Hill, MN, first run on near purrfect groom...

Waist width? If custom, what wt rider is it made for? Inserts pattern?

Got a couple of nice pics from my 1st run this morning using the boardcam...interesting perspective...vsnaps from a gopro.

Minnesota (extra?) firm─good carving─firm, grippy, and fast. About 1 outta every 3 or 4 runs I'd make contact with the rough substrate and get all shook up. I'm gonna guess @bobble was peeking at the webcam too and came over early to see who was poaching on his territory. It was me and Karl, BobD was there too. Some tracks on Olympic: Top to bottom:Karl, me, Bob

Thanks for the report, might do the earlybird tomorrow.

Hey, I wonder if the cool kids (or at least one of them) would want to join us at Indianhead Monday? ¿ @khoward? I guess Spirit could have used some of that recent snow to freshen things up.

Looks like Indianhead is getting a few inches of lake effect snow over the next few days. Thinking of going up Sun & Mon.

So you were at Buck yesterday? If it was light and fluffy, maybe they groomed it in to keep it from blowing away? Should've seen the snow at my house!─very heavy and wet, worst I've seen in years, and once compressed, very solid! I'll be interested to hear how it is today. Looks nice on the webcam.

I remember hearing from racers that one of the things they liked about the old yellow boots was that the flex/stiffness of the plastic was relatively unaffected by changes in temperature compared to other boots. Anyone noticed this with the new version? My UPZ10's are definitely stiffer in cold temps and softer in warm temps, almost enough to make think about switching springs to suit the weather.

SCR?

Ouch! So conditions must have deteriorated quite a bit before this snow?. I have Thursday off and trying to decide if I go north to where there was no new snow (but maybe less melting), or south to fresh snow. Maybe it will be better after a couple of grooming cycles.? You'll have to go out tomorrow and file a report

Spirit didn't get more than a dusting from this storm(according to their website). Website also says they're opening both the express and Gandy lifts for passholders at 8am this Saturday. (Midwest masters racing on Gandy) I wonder how the snow is at Spirit after the warm weather?

Powder? More like Sierra cement (Minnesota mush?). Nice if you get the first turns. Once tracked out in an hour or 2, wet push-piles would solidify. Not so fun. Maybe not a such a bad call to groom. How was it? Did you get about 7" new snow?

Nice report, thanks. Might get up there one day. From looking at snowfall reports, it appears they have had less than normal this year. Were there many people there?─room to carve? Only open 4 days/week, Th-Fri. USD/CAD exchange helps make it attractive.