Corey

Absolutely! It was a total breakthrough day in many regards. This technique does scrub lots of speed, I couldn't use it on my usual ski hill as I'll come to a stop. ;) I also over-exagerated my body angulation to see at what point it stops helping. I didn't find that point before I ran out of flexibility! More angulation = more edge grip. :D Granted, this was all on hero snow on a nice steep blue run but the principles should apply on our usual crap.

I played quite a bit with this over the weekend. Too much fun! I was all compressed about 1/3rd of the way through the turn and then did a big leg press through the final stages - that really scrubs speed well! I then sucked the board up and under me to do a quick cross-under to head into the next turn. It obviously draws attention too as I've never had so many random people making positive comments about my riding, including a whole bunch of the provincial ski team that were training on the next run over. I was brushing my hip on the heelsides and my thigh/knee on the toesides. Wow! I spent most of the day Saturday on my Volkl 178 GS, Sunday I switched to my Donek 171 FC to play with tighter radius turns. I've never had more fun. :D

This was in big canuck's "Toeside initiation" thread, I didn't want to muck up that thread with this off-topic diversion. I'm very intrigued by the last part. (emphasis is my doing) Are you saying that compressing through the first half of the turn and then extending through the last half will help to scrub speed? I definitely tend to do the opposite, more like the push-pull/extreme carve school of thought where you start the turn compressed and extend the legs outward towards the apex and then suck them back under you in the latter part. My experience so far in hard conditions says that extending past the apex is more likely to break the edge free of the carve due to the added pressure, but that could be from something entirely different that I'm doing wrong. Doesn't being fully extended at the end of the turn lead to a big slow crossover-type of transition? Please offer any suggestions you may have, I would like to learn both styles.

That's the back foot. I had the camera right near the tail of the board.

Phew, I thought this was going to be a description of how you broke your leg/arm/head in 18 places in some epic crash. Glad that's not the case! Bummer Scott. I recommend not even coming on Bomber until you get the urge again in the fall. It tears my heart out to see all these stories and photos after our hills close in mid to late March. I'd be really bummed to put my boards away in February. :(

That'll get you close, but because the boot has some width this formula will give you lower angles than are acheivable without overhang. The math gets ugly REAL quick for this. The absolute quickest way is to draw two parallel lines on paper that are the width of the desired board's waist. Then see what angle your boot will fit in there completely. You can get a tiny bit more angle than this in real life due to the flaring of the sidecut, but that'll just be a degree or two.

It's not online, it was shown at the banquet.

Cool videos! Pokkis, your video was the one that inspired me to do this. I was hoping to get shots of the board decambering heavily through the turns but I didn't have the confidence on that first run to really drive it. Scott, cool stuff! Max, that video is absolutely awesome! :D

Someone here suggested that you should just barely be able to close the clip with one hand in a standing position, and easily with two. I had a release at a lower tension than that and no further releases after I bumped it up to that criteria.

This is going to be more fun than a 4-page long discussion about rockered boards! Yippee! ;) I got the "is that more fun that snowboarding?" question from a beginner yesterday. I politely informed him that it's just another kind of snowboarding and wished him luck in his learning process.

I wanted it far back so that you could see the board decamber through the turn, but I certainly wasn't bending the board much in that run. I hope to try a bunch of different angles on a day when the suction cups stick better. I figured I'd put the Bomber name front and center in the video. The sticker didn't last much longer than the third run though. My wife asked what a "Bomberuxe" was... :P

I tried a unique camera setup today. Basically a bullet cam mounted to a home-made suction cup mount on the tail of the board facing forward. This first video is just stepping in and then wiggling my leg hard to check that the FinTec pins are engaged. Wow, that's a lot of flex! <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctMdcS6y4ZA&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctMdcS6y4ZA&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> Second video is my first run of the day. The lens got covered in snow pretty quickly, causing it to lose focus. The snow that looked really good but I think they just dragged whatever makes the corduroy pattern over yesterday's ice without chewing up the sub-surface... :( <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Knu6d3JB5JQ&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Knu6d3JB5JQ&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> Unfortunately one of the suction cups popped off part way down that first run and got a bunch of snow under it, I couldn't get it re-stuck. :( I'll try again on a warmer day. I tossed the Volkl in the car shortly after and had a surprisingly fun/challenging day on an F2 163 SL at slower speeds on the hard surface.

One more vote for putting that up on Youtube or wherever. 100% hilarious!

Full face helmets do squat for facial warmth. A snowmobile helmet sucks, the visor fogs up real quick with any aerobic activity. I layer various face covering based on temp. I was out in -30F with a -45F windchill earlier this year. That required two fleece facemasks and putting my mitts in front of my face on the lift to keep my face warm. Let the facemasks freeze, the ice also provides a windbreak. ;) The real trick is getting your breath out of the facemask - otherwise it sneaks into your goggles and fogs them instantly. You need a wide open path for your breath to get in and out, but yet it has to convoluted enough that the wind can't get through and freeze your skin. I also tape over the vents on the top of goggle lenses on cold days. They let in too much cold air, causing fogging on the inner layer of the lens.

Honestly, my goal on this perfect run would be to do all of them within the same run. Each style is fun in it's own way, a really good rider could do anything they want at any time. I'd want to add a near-EC style in there, where you get low but don't quite touch the snow with anything but your edge. On a shallow pitch I go for the slalom style. On a typical blue I go for as much lean as I can until I start losing the edge. On a black I usually do the same as on blue runs but chicken out and slide to scrub speed. On first tracks at Ajax on Friday morning I just folded the nose in the soft stuff and slid out on the hard stuff. :) Both resulting in fairly fast belly/back/shoulder slides. :D

2, 3, and 4, depending how I'm feeling and how steep/wide the slope is. Though I can't do anything approaching an EC turn, I do love the rush of turning hard and feeling the slope brush my hands/knees/hips when things are all going perfectly. Most of the people I rode with at SES did a bit of everything, again dependent on how steep the slope was.

The word 'depression' may be a little harsh for me, but I'm definitely bummed that I'm back to the little local hills with no one to ride with. I'm still going to make the 2.5-hour trek to that jewel on the prairies this weekend though! It'll still be fun, but not as much so. I do go from being just another anonymous carver to "what the heck is that, did you see that guy on the skiboard?!?" That's a mixed blessing though as I'm definitely a target for the straightliners.

Nice solution! That's the safest option possible.

Good discussion! That's a major bummer Beth (and all)! I'd like to think that most of the Burton and board length jokes were in jest, but maybe not. :( I experience a similar issue in trying to grow our local car racing program. 95% of the people there are ecstatic to see new people out and will do almost anything to help them (until they start beating the old 'pros', then the advice stops flowing so freely ;)). But that 5% that is indifferent or discouraging is what sticks in peoples' minds because it can be hurtful. A friend's wife heard someone mention something stupid at a race about another beginner female participant. Even after Mr. Stupid quit racing it still affected my friend's wife to the point that she avoided racing for 3 years. Last year she regained the courage to try and had a great first season. Hang in there, forget the bad 5% that you may have interacted with. :D

LOL! It's certainly not the SWS (Summit Wallflower Session)! Seriously though: if you would like some awesome instruction, any of the instructors listed in the local ride boards or Sean at Snowperformance would be exactly the ticket. I took 2 or 3 runs with Sean last year during his clininc and it changed my whole approach to the sport. Get out there, ask for help. You'll likely be pleasantly overwhelmed with the response.

Someone on here self-published a short book about high-level carving, can't recall who it was now though. Sean's clinic at last year's SES was targeted directly at the beginning carver, though a bunch of intermediates showed up with one beginner. Sean ran an intermediate clinic for the group and then a long lesson for the single beginner. There are more examples but my point is that it isn't some secret sanctum that's hard to break into. Carving is just so small that no one is willing to risk footing the publishing costs for something that may only sell 20 copies. Heck, Donek's calendar isn't moving as well as expected and it's freaking awesome. A book would have an even harder time making a profit or breaking even.

Watch an of the 80's/90's snowboard films, this attitude/lifestyle has been promoted for a very long time! Punks will be punks, the main difference is that most adults don't have the balls to stand up to kids anymore with the risk of silly lawsuits.

I'm an intermediate carver that weighs 205 lbs. My absolute favorite board was the 20cm wide Coiler Monster 185 (it might have been the 182, I'm not sure) with the starry night graphics, it was made for a 180 lb rider. It just held an edge through anything I encountered with the long running length and whatever mojo Bruce has worked with the flex pattern. I was able to bend it into darn near any radius that I wanted just by bending it in the middle. It had amazing edge hold on the few ice patches I could find. Like Allee said, the board came with a free can of rockstar juice. I chugged it and it was good! I went to SES wanting a short slalom board for ice, but this Monster was so much fun even on ice that I want one now. A close second was any of the Prior WCR metals (pick your size). Similar edge hold on ice and chop but a little less 'engaging' to ride. Not really in a bad way, but just different.

What a week! A huge thanks to Bomber for organizing this, and especially all the companies that bring demo equipment for us nuts to play with. SES has a fun/family vibe that I've never really seen before. It's very infecting, I just can't stop smiling when I'm here. If you're even thinking about it, start saving money now - you won't be disappointed.

Left a message on your cell. We're coming by there earlier than you'd like though... Emailed you my contact info.