Jump to content

staples156

Member
  • Posts

    23
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

Everything posted by staples156

  1. It's a carving drill/training exercise: http://alpinesnowboarder.com/the-norm-part-i/
  2. Specs are in my profile, I don't know my stance width off hand. 194cm, about 95kg I didn't alter the flex, so it's whatever Sean thought it should be based on my input. No idea, I was too cheap to consider the secret construction at the time. When you try the 0° back foot angle, bring tools with you and don't be afraid to adjust it throughout the day. If 0° feels ok, in a few runs you could probably try +6° or something pretty easily.
  3. I'll add another vote for trying out a double positive, high binding angle stance on your current board and going from there. Probably a good idea to leave your front foot alone and just bring your back foot to a positive stance, get used to that, then start moving to high angles. This YouTube has some good information that may be helpful: If you're able to get used to a double positive stance, you won't need as wide of a board as badly. I have the roughly the same foot size as you and am a similar build and I've never booted out with my 29.7cm waist Flux, likely because my stance is +36/+30.
  4. No idea on the secret construction, the normal flux was a bit of a stretch in terms of price for me, so I didn't consider spending even more money.
  5. I'm about 194cm tall, although I don't think that has a huge effect on which board to ride (despite what most people told me 20 years ago). Sidecut radius is really more of a personal preference. I find that the 8.5-10m on my Flux is good most of the time, but occasionally I wish I had a bit bigger of a radius. But that's based on my riding style, skill, and local terrain. You may have very different needs. If you go to the link below, I think you can answer some questions and it'll direct you somewhat, then you can also use the contact form to talk to someone at Donek that can help you pick the specs for your needs. https://www.donek.com/get-started/
  6. Another vote for "whatever fits your head best" as the most important criteria. If you try helmets on in person, bring your goggles to make sure they fit together well. If you also need new goggles too, go to a store that sells a wide range of both and try on lots. It's generally easier to buy a helmet and goggles from the same company to help ensure a good match, but I'm sure you could find a mixed brand combo that would work as well.
  7. I'd recommend just contacting Donek directly, telling Sean what you're looking for in a board and seeing where he steers you. I did that originally thinking I'd get an Incline, but he said a Flux would be better for the kind of riding I do and also helped tweak the specs for me. Overall I love my Flux, it absolutely rips. Keep in mind that the Flux has a long effective edge relative to its length, so it'll ride like a longer board than it's length might imply. I have similar size feet to you and one thing to note is that my Flux should probably be wider in a perfect world, but it's the widest that Sean could make it at the time (I can't remember if I maxed out his equipment or just the blanks he had available at the time). Some of the other specs did affect that max waist width, so probably good to talk that kind of stuff over with Sean since he'll know what his limits are and what specs will affect the width. Having said that, I've never booted out with the Flux I have, so I can't complain. If you're curious, my board specs, boots, bindings, etc are on my profile.
  8. Yes, that's correct. That's assuming the loads and stance widths both stay the same. Also assumes that the inserts are centered on the board. My gut says that for most boards with only mild stance offset, it isn't worth correcting for, but you could technically do it (the math is just more annoying). If you're curious about the math, go here and scroll down to the "Simply Supported, Center Load" case and look at the formula for δ_max. It's not technically the right case, but the math is much simpler and therefore easier to understand the general trend, which is mostly what matters here. The E and I variables are the two related to stiffness and are technically what's of interest here. You could solve the equation for an E*I term and compare that between boards, but I wouldn't. Given that this is just an approximation, I think it makes more sense to just use the equation to spot that deflection varies with L^3 and then just use L^3 to normalize the deflection that you measure.
  9. My first thought was also to move the supports to the ends of the effective edge. If you do that, the deflection should scale with the cube of the distance between supports*. So if you rerun your tests with the supports at the ends of the effective edge, then divide the deflection by the distance between supports cubed (make sure to use the same units for all measurements), that will give you a number that should allow you to compare stiffnesses between boards of different effective edge lengths. This will be a very small number, so scientific or engineering notation will be your friend here. As with all mathematical models, it's relationship to reality is questionable, but hopefully the error is the same across all tests so you can at least use it to show the general trend and compare one board's stiffness relative to another one. *This is assuming the board acts as a simply supported beam with two point loads, and ignores quite a few complicating factors, so it probably won't be totally accurate.
  10. If I'm understanding right, you could add more forward lean to at least your front highback. I'd start there and just crank it to whatever the max setting is (it'll either work or then you'll know what too much forward lean is). The highback is what transfers pressure to the edge on a heelside carve, so gaps between your boot and highback will kill your heelside carve. The more forward lean you have, the more you can bend your knees and ankles and still maintain contact with the highback. Your boot may not immediately fit in the binding very easily, but I find that cranking the heel strap down, moving around a bit, then re-cranking the heel strap will seat the boot in the binding nicely.
  11. Get rid of the spin move and extend the ass carve and that was basically me
  12. Lift/Cant: it's about tilting the base of the binding at a slight angle to help with your stance. Lift is tilting in the heel/toe direction (raising or lowering the heel in relation to the toe), cant is tilting perpendicular to that (side to side). Sometimes the tilting of the binding base may just be referred to generally as cant and lift either won't be mentioned or will mean something else (probably how much the binding raises your foot above the board). Also, yeah the risers these days do seem to be expensive. Looks like Power Plates are being made again and they're $250. I paid $200 for mine about 8 years ago. At the time it was way cheaper than a new board (which I couldn't really afford), so that's the route I went to fix my bootout. I've since gotten a Donek Flux that's wide enough to not need the Power Plates and I much prefer that, but I get that the new board route is much more expensive.
  13. One thing that's helped my heelsides recently is to focus two things: getting my back hand more in front of me (and thus squaring my shoulders more to the front of the board), and bending at the waist more. The first is the classic touch your front knee/bootcuff with you back hand drill that somebody already mentioned. The second is about focusing on not reaching for the snow with my inside hand and keeping my shoulders level to the slope by bending at the waist more. The feeling is a bit like trying to pinch something between your hipbone and rib cage (on a heelside it'll be your back hip). Other than that, I'll just second all the advice about being a bit more dynamic, rotating your high backs to align better with the edges, and playing with forward lean (try cranking both bindings all the way forward and see how it feels). Oh, and if you're getting bootout on your current board, getting some form of risers can help. I'm not up on who's making what these days, but Bomber Power Plates give you a ton of extra height, plus some handy cant/lift adjustment. Downsides are that they're heavy as hell, expensive, and I think no longer made.
  14. Here's a little anecdote from right after transitioned from an old Atomic all mountain board to my Donek Flux. My old board could kind of carve on a good day if I wasn't going too fast and the trail wasn't too steep, but I was always struggling with it. On one of the first few days riding my Flux, I washed out a heelside turn (my fault) and soon after sliding down the hill on my butt, the edge hooked up and I made a clean carve across the hill, at speed, while still on my butt, without me even trying. The Flux wants just wants to make a carved turn.
  15. I bought some bomber power plates in 2015 since my old burton risers had cracked and at the time I booted out without some form of riser. The power plates worked well for eliminating bootout and were solidly built, but were also super heavy. The changeable inserts and cant adjustment was nifty, but I never tinkered with it much so I didn't find a huge benefit from it. Now I ride a 29.7 waist Donek Flux so I don't have to worry about bootout and use my board without power plates or any other kind of riser and I much prefer that setup.
  16. Where did you order these from? With a quick search I'm only seeing a few Yahoo shopping Japan sites. How well do they help add lateral stiffness to your softboots? I'm guessing that they stiffen up forward lean considerably.
  17. Last season I picked up a set of Strapins (I got 4 straps, 2 per boot) to help add extra support to my aging and worn out Salomon Malamute's since the speedlacing system was wearing out and loosening during carves. The Strapins worked really well and kept the boots nice and tight around my shins all day. I haven't tried them on newer boots yet to see if they make a difference there, but they can definitely help restore some of the support to older boots.
  18. I had similar desires (softboot carving on hard blues/easy blacks, regardless of conditions) and ended up with a custom Donek Flux (per Sean Martin's guidance). With the caveat that I didn't shop around or try other boards, I absolutely love it. The board just wants to carve and it handles varying conditions really well. I have an 8.5-10m sidecut radius and I do find my carves fall apart a bit on steeper slopes (headwalls on blacks mainly), but I'm pretty sure that's somewhat to be expected with a relatively small sidecut radius and my technique could almost certainly be improved. Also, I wear 30.5 MP (13 US) boots and found going with a custom width to be a game changer. I don't need riser plates and I no longer boot out with the 29.7 cm width I ordered.
  19. First off, I just watched your week 2 video and then the week 4 video back to back and you're doing way better. You look way more steady and those wobbly, less controlled movements are basically gone. Plus you're still making clean carves. One thing I'd suggest to try (assuming traffic allows*) is to hold your carves longer than in your week 4 video so you cut a bit more across the hill. That will give you more time to feel what's going on and focus on what's happening between edge transitions. As far as feeling like you're sitting down on heelsides, I think that mainly comes from using a cross over style where your legs are extended at the edge transition (unweighting the edge) and reach maximum bend mid turn. When you change edges, your body moves up and over (or across) the board, hence the name. This means you're basically standing up when you change edges and indeed sort of sitting into the turn. I don't think this is necessarily a bad technique early on and might even be easier to learn. The opposite of this would be cross under, where you're knees are at max bend when transitioning edges and mostly straighten out mid turn (keep some bend in them). When you start a turn it feels like using your legs to drive the board away from you and press the edge into the snow and then sucking it back underneath you when you change edges, pulling it away from the snow to unweight it at the transition. Here your body stays "stationary" and your board crossed underneath you, hence the name. There's also cross through, but I'm not even going to try and explain that in text form. As far as your last post about sensations to watch out for or target, I'll try and think about this if I get out riding this weekend. I haven't been out for a few weeks, so it's not too fresh in my mind. I know in the past I've focused on the side of my body that's getting compressed (so right side on a heelside turn if you're regular). The feeling I was targeting was almost as if I was trying to pinch something between my hip bone and rib cage, although that was for turns that were fairly cranked over, so it will be less extreme if you're not dragging a hip on the snow. *since you're still learning and likely to be distracted by the learning process, don't chance it; wait for an empty run.
  20. First off, you're doing a good job of getting the board to carve for being so new, so that's pretty rad. I'll also add that a few professional lessons never hurt, even if it isn't carving focused. Just getting comfortable riding and very proficient at linking skidded turns will help your carving (mainly by allowing you to focus solely on carving and not on staying upright and such). One thing that jumped out at me was your back hand, and by extension your shoulders, during your heelside carve. Notice how on toesides your back hand is somewhat forward and your shoulders are pointed towards the nose of the board at least somewhat, then on a heelside your back hand drops back and your shoulders become parallel with the board. Try to keep your shoulders more aligned with the front of the board on heelsides (focus on keeping that back hand forward). At a minimum they should be aligned with your feet, but play around to see if turning them even more towards the nose helps. Reading some of the stuff here (bomber technique articles) and here (Carver's almanac) might be of use. Some of it's old and all hardboot focused, but it's still worth a read for general things such as body positioning, drills, etc. Ryan Knapton's youtube channel is also good. As far as binding setup goes, I'd caution against reducing the forward lean on your highbacks. The highbacks are mainly what transfers the force from your leg to the board, so they need to be touching your boot before they can work. If the forward lean is relaxed, this force transfer can only really happen when your legs are upright, meaning your knees are straight, which will limit your riding eventually. If your highbacks are angled forward, then they allow you to pressure the edge while still keeping your knees bent in a nice, athletic stance. On a related note, it's a good idea to see if you can rotate your highbacks so that they are parallel to the edge of the board (they likely aren't based on your stance angles). Edit: Check to see if your boots/binding overhang the edge of your board. If they do, you'll need to fix that at some point down the road. A properly wide board is the best option, but riser plates can work ok too if they're high enough.
  21. They're great if you have a board that you currently boot out on (they're expensive, but cheaper than a new board). Riding up lifts with no footrests sucks though since they add a ton of weight. I didn't really need the cant adjustment, but it was nice to have. Having said that, I found a wider board to be much better than a narrow board with power plates. I finally bit the bullet on a Donek that's wide enough to not boot out on (29.7 cm waist for my 12.5 boots), ditched the power plates and haven't looked back.
  22. I'm at Shawnee most weekends and I'll be there this Friday too. Let me know if you want to meet up, or just say hi if you see me (red jacket on a black Donek Flux in soft boots).
  23. I run about +36/+29 with size 30.5 MP Salomon Malamutes, which probably give me a bit of extra leeway for higher angles. Leaving him at those angles until he starts to boot out makes sense. Then either start cranking the angles more, or get some Bomber power plates (they're absolutely fantastic for riding softies with big feet).
×
×
  • Create New...