snowlove

Hi Nekdut, any plans to have another noon groom/gear swap at June this year? Been riding an old Burton from the 90s and hope to try a new carver before dropping the $. Thanks

sick turn, yea that's what I'm going for. you look pretty glued in despite what to me is possibly slightly more weight forward than I've been working on. so donek softy is the way to go huh? Thank you!!

Thank you all for your thoughtful input. I hope I haven't wasted anyones time but I have not actually tried a modern carve board. I have an M6 asym and nitro scorpion. both those boards have significant camber. My current Arbor element with soft boots has rocker and is fun but not as carvy so I am moving towards purchase of a new set up and always loved the asym but have not been able to find any newer ones (aside from the virus made in europe) I sincerely appreciate all the technical input from everyone. (particularly RCrobar and Beckman, Kieran and lowrider) I love the loading an unloading feeling and I do like to weight forward and attack my turns with speed so maybe I'm off base with my memory of the asym and new boards are much better. I just want to get all the info possible before spending $1000 + on a new board. May try to make it to Colorado in Feb to demo some boards first. I have not tried a VSR, but hope to. When I see some of the videos online, I realize I have a long way to go and perhaps it is in fact my poor technique that is keeping me from laying out my heelside turns and not the board.

Sorry for the delay in responding. I appreciate everyone's input, particularly the tom curren video from RCrobar and the thoughtful insight from Beckman AG. Perhaps this is all a technique thing and I need so more carve mentors around -since there aren't too many in California. The focus here in on making heelside carves more powerful and laid out. I am going to start with a responses - then propose my philosophy. Quote Within reason, certainly. Unless the chosen 'style' predisposes one to injury. Have you found a board close to what you are looking for? A: no - not yet Quote Drastic fore/aft weighting of that nature shouldn't be necessary unless the board you ride is too stiff for your weight. Or if your bindings are in the wrong place, or your feet are too far apart. A: my current all mountain board is not stiff, perhaps my feet are too wide apart- I always thought wider stance helped me open my hips. I will try closer. Quote Do you prefer then to: A. 'slash' (kick) the tail from side to side in deeper snow, or B. to bend the tail and let it rebound the board out of one turn and into the next? Answer: not a slasher! A carver (bend the board) unless there is a cornice or somthing fun to 'Hit' (ala surfing top turn vs cut back) Quote Not that there is anything wrong with an asym, but it sounds more like an approach/technique change, in conjunction with a particular board flex/geometry might get you to where you want to be. A: perhaps - I will continue on until I find the feeling I'm looking for (a stickier laid out healside carve that I can lay all the way into) Look at all the alpine snow marketing pics - almost always toeside extended turns with bodies flat agains the snow- no reason healside extended shouldn't be just as common Quote The rail to rail distance conjecture is mostly distraction. That principle really only applies if one is simply 'toppling' from one edge to the other on a fairly long radius turn. Once rebound comes into play, it's more about hitting a target that 'moves' versus hitting a target that doesn't. Quite often, what takes place in that little time gap between turns, determines the overall quality/impression/feel of the turn itself. Time management (dilation, compression) is an area often overlooked in the quest for better performance. A: I agree - please read below In surfing, like snowboardinf there is technique and style. The most effective and efficient techniques make the biggest gouges which are also usually the most graceful and powerful and when done with ease - stylish. (same in surfing) In surfing most surfers choose a different board based on conditions. I'd say 3 boards is a minumum - step up, step down and performance everyday. (same in snowboarding - powder or groomers - for me its a 2 set up minimum) Ok - everyone who is interested in what I'm trying to explain please stand up. Get in your stance. Now try to emulate your healside carve. Ok good. now do the same thing except don't bend your front knee as much and feel how you can open your hips up into your carve more. (your hips will also come back slightly - suggesting a further back sidecut on the healside makes sense - toeside carve you hips are right over your board/toes/sidecut with all your force right in place to mazimize the rail of the board through length of the carve. Kelly Slater (y'all know him right?) is big on hip postion over board. His words here: (so germaine to snowboarding, some not) Legs: As you set a turn, you are compressed and coiled. Think of the compression in your legs like shock absorbers—catching the energy by compressing and then pushing back energy by extending. How much you can push back is the true source and test of power. Shoulders: Rotation is your shoulder turn when compared to your hips and lower body. This is what creates extra power to release through your turn. In general, I like to keep the shoulders just ahead of the line of the board, with the rear shoulder dropped lower than the front shoulder. At the apex of a turn, the shoulders move further ahead of the board and should be basically rotated as far as you think the board is going to rotate by the end of the turn. The more speed you have, the less you need to turn your shoulders to create extra resistance and the more you cancan concentrate on just compressing. The tighter the arc of your turn, the more your shoulders are going to rotate—but this is where your hips also come into play. Hips: I like to feel the hips “lead” into the turn and stay ahead of my front shoulder instead of the front shoulder being out in front of the hip. I think this is the real key to flowing from turn to turn. If your shoulders get in front of your hips, you can’t open to the direction you are turning and too much pressure/weight gets forward on your board, pushing into the nose and rocker of the board and, in effect, slowing you down and digging the front rail. Your arms also then have to counterbalance as the weight gets too far forward. To draw out a longer turn, your hips stay further forward. The tighter the turn, the further back your hips stay on the board and under your body to shorten the radius of your turns. Some of this may sound like a mouthful and a little bit too much info at once; so just take one idea at a time and work through it consciously. Only after years of thinking about these things did it make sense to actually verbalize it to myself, and I’m not sure if those translations will come out right to everyone else. I am trying to articulate the biomechanics that happen without the mind or words getting in the way. I once took a golf lesson, and the guy told me to be a scientist on the range and an athlete on the course. In other words, work on things specifically to improve your results in practice, but when you’re either competing or just enjoying yourself, don’t think about any of it and just see and do without thinking anything in between. Go by feel. Once you get comfortable with the principles of breaking things down to smaller elements, you can probably get to a point where you can actively apply a tip or different mechanics on the fly without needing to do it over and over again. It should be noted that surfers position and reposition their feet regularly based on the turn they want to do, and usually keep their back knee tucked - but not to the degree of in snowboarding. Which brings me to my final point. Why should the sidecut be symmetrical when our hips and knees are not aligned the same way over our feet for toeside and healside turns. Can't whe utilize the force in our rear legs more on a healside turn more by moving the sidecut back and being able to push harder? Thanks to everyone for their time and reading this long post. may you draw the lines you dream of.

Hey Everyone. New to this forum and first post on any forum ever - reason I joined: over 40 Snowboarding since 1990 Surf background. (asym to me means heelside curve set farther down the rail line than on the toeside) I am writing to solicit input about asym boards from the advanced carvers and racers out there. My mission is to find a board that feels a certain way, not to beat anyone in a race or any other reason. I talked to Michele at Bomberonline and she encouraged me to put this out there: Since we are mostly seeking a certain feel: shouldn't we adapt our boards to our style rather than vice-versa? I am referring to the need to shift my hips forward on heel side carves and weight over my front leg. I prefer my hips back and weight over my back leg - I like that sensation of kicking more through the turn a bit. (like a surf carve - hips over feet) Does anyone else out there recognize the value of asym in this specific situation? I know about the whole mas shift side to side arguement and the fact the its a shortest distance rail to rail is on a symetrical board, but what does time matter if spend so little time in transition and the majority of time on edge... thanks in advance oh and anyone have a regular foot asym board they want to unload?