st_lupo

Lest we forget what happens when an industrial designer decides to make a snowboard...

Thanks for posting that video Barry! I had seen it once right when I was starting out in hard boots a few years back and have been looking for it ever since.

No EC stuff, my clothing budget won't allow it. I think my biggest issue is that this is the first time I've tried an SL board. It's kinda like having two unruly kids in the car: one unbuckles my seat belt, the other reclines the back rest; before I know it I'm waaaay in the back seat. Fingers crossed for getting the Kessler out tomorrow!

True! The Fat brigade is holding my other bikes captive! I was always skeptical but interested. My 20 year old winter commuter finaly died so I hopped on a really good deal. Absolutely love it, not just a fad and not as slow as I feared.

This... needs an explanation. Make it juicy.

I'll give you a couple reasons why this may hold true: First, like Corey indicated, people tend to alter their level-of-effort on the last run which can lead to catastrophic results.

Yeah Hirscher... I definitely don't want to learn bad habits from him! You don't happen to have any videos of Kristoffersen instead? I'm actually really glad you brought up the point about the feet and the core following different paths as I was planning on asking this but wasn't really sure how to describe it.

The official question in my family is, " Should we take a couple more runs? ". We later had to proceed to teach our daughters (who have English as a second language) that couple actually meant two.

Thanks for all of the great feedback! Yeah, I was pretty sure the board wasn't going to be a casual cruiser when I opted in. I definitely wanted some contrast to my Nirvanas. I can't wait to get back on that 162 but all of this damn white fluffy stuff keeps falling out of the sky and the local hill is way to soft. This friday is looking promising though, that'll be the second day on the 162... yikes! What I really enjoy about the board was how it helps me to start achieving a couple of things that have really been my goal since last season: getting consistent cross-under transitions and experiencing that "pop" that everybody talks about. I think most of that is just a by product of the physics involving the SL board's rapid fire turns and inertia of my upper body, but tonight I was definitely nailing cross-under turns on my NFC Energy the whole night. What I think is going to be pretty difficult is to minimize counter rotation and doing any kind of post-turn analysis. Things just happen so fast its hard to notice all the small things that go wrong. Gross errors show up pretty immediately, for example if I get my weight too far forward on the board, the back of the edge won't hookup and I wind up drifting the turns, or worst case, spinning out. On an interesting note, to me it felt like the hookup on the very first turn of each run was slightly more vague than what I'm used to on my Energy. But once I got that first carve going... Corey: Regarding your suggestion to try riding it a little slower... (and I mean the following seriously), How? Is it primarily selecting a less steep run or is there technique? The run that I was practicing on is definitely not the shallowest that we have locally, but there is rarely anybody on it (unless there is slalom training), and I know it better than the other runs. And like you mentioned the board winds up transitioning and turning before I even think about it. I might be thinking J-turns, but the boards is like phhhhtt, yeah right. And Tanglefoot: how much good money are we talking?

Thanks Ryan, that put a big smile on my face! ?

Last night I finally got to take out a newly acquired Kessler 162 out for a casual spin (is that other 162 drivers I hear sniggering?). To put it mildly I was pretty naive as to what I was expecting. Over the past two years I've been getting pretty comfortable in the solid slice-slice-slice of my Coiler NFC. It feels like I know to the centimeter how big my turns are going to be on the local hill and the rhythm is almost as familiar as a heartbeat; confident, powerful and solid. This Kessler though... my first slalom board, and at a diminutive 162 cm it about had me peeing my pants (in a good way). I felt a lot like when I first started hardbooting and experienced carrying a lot of speed while spending 50% of the time pointing at the trees at the side of the hill. It was a rodeo from start to finish. After the first run I was convinced I was going to chuck the board out the window of the car on the way home. I kept spinning out, couldn't keep a straight line and went over the "handlebars" a couple of times. I was right under the lift to and I looked the idiot. The second run I could grudgingly say that I made a couple of ok turns and started learning the rhythm of the board. On the third run my brain melted out of my ear-holes and I somehow wound up safe and blissed out in the lift line with a feeling like I was in high school and had actually gotten to second base with the board. With no input other than to just try to keep up with the board, it was rocketing into the air at every single transition! ...And it would land and carve off into the next hop. Freaking awesome as long as I stayed in the sweet-spot. That sweet-spot however was obviously a fraction of the size that I am used to on my Nirvanas. It was so damned fun it was ridiculous, but... ...I'm pretty sure this thing is going to be the death of me. On the last run of the night I got a bit behind during the rodeo and wound up shooting off into an embankment and bonking my noggin on some snow features. Once this board starts really biting into the turns it seems like the margin of error really diminishes. Any other SL drivers with tips on how to approach this thing? I read somewhere that SL boards are good for beginners, but I can't understand it, this board feels way to hyper for that?

Hey I'm going to be the cocky sophmore here who aks the stupid question: Are you sure you're fully angulating your body for the toe-side turn (not just resisting reaching for the ground but actively trying to angulate away like its lava)? Personally for each of my turning issues I can trace the real problem back to 1) hip rotation, 2) longitudinal weight distribution and 3) angulation of my upper body. Given the gobs of degrees of inclination you get from angulating well, I'm not sure that a few degrees of canting is much more than a bandaid which will likely cause an equal degredation of the opposite turn direction.* *These statements are opinion, and not verified fact. They are based on a very small sample population and while effective for one specific person they should not be generalized. In rare occasions where the rider experiences sore joints, painful muscle swelling, immobility, lack of range of motion or premature hair loss, changing binding settings and boot canting may improve performance and stamina. Failure to consult a Phd. of binding-ology prior to attempting to adjust all those screws and shims may result in insomnia, uncontrolled nasal discharge, waste of half the riding season, intestinal bleeding, swollen gums, and, in severe cases, impotance.

Allways perfect lighting conditions and few people. If its snowing the diffuse light is enough to ride in the trees. A big plus is that winter actually arrived in Kongsberg this year!

Jeez, at least that's not a monoski. (From one of the parents in the local ski racing team) Carving is great! I soo wanna be able to do what you do, but just on skis. And then in reference to carving boards being like the Ferraris of snowboards, another snowboarder replied: Ferraris are shit cars, mate.

Hey Pokkis! We're working on a mini Coilerlandia here in Norway. Current count (in Kongsberg): 5 (1 NFC Balance, 3 NFC Enegry, 1 Schtubby). I know of at least two more close to Drammen. We've got an awesome winter in Kongsberg (finally!), hope you all are getting dumped on too!

Gets on podium with lots of equations and colorful fluid dynamics plots to describe why this is not the case. Looks at audience’s threatening stares. Slowly backs away and exits stage left.

1. Wife calls to let me know dinner still isn't on the table and it isn't going to make itself. 2. Kids need bail money. Again. 3. Number of past-due notices > 5 4. Camel back is empty and I'm starting to get dizzy from sucking on snow mixed with flouro-wax. 5. Local park-rats and skiing team have teamed up and are chasing me with pitchforks.

This is the reason I decided to have children. Somebody has to operate the camera...

By this time tomorrow I'll be called the Bot King.

Maybe there should also be a category for wanting to look like the lone freak on the mountain?

Yeah, this.... It sounds like an exaggeration. It is not *sigh*

You know this question always seems to come up. Maybe the tech article section should include some reference material to outline a minimal hardware overview for absolute beginners?

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Ego and ambition makes me want to pick numero uno, but realistically I know that I'm never gonna race and that most people here would wipe the floor with me. So dos it is. Also the social aspect of BOL cannot be overestimated. There might be some contentious topics off and on, but I think that is just people talking about something they are truly passionate about, and it is no where near the crap slinging that goes on in some of the other snowboard forums.