carlito

Jeez 3 sets of bails. 41 Euros shipping

OOOH! Going to order a few myself, and endure folks laughing at my vintage gear for years!

Jeez James! Looking good, considering you can't see shit riding in those conditions.... Thanks for posting this and making me look like I know something about what I'm doing! Can't wait to see an edit with both turns, linked though! ha ha. Looking over my notes, James reiterated: I have alpine boards, and I have powder boards so I don't want one of those that is just wider/stiffer, I don't want any overhang and want something to use in 8 to 10 cm over groomed. Make it stiff enough. The comparison to Donek's SRT should only be considered to a slight extent. The Double-Wide benefits from "standing on the shoulders of giants" in that I kinda already knew what James had ridden, and what he wanted to get changed. This was a fun board to build! I don't know if it is cool to do this, but am happy to answer questions concerning design choices vs. materials vs. trying to get the design envelope to where the customer wants it. Been farting around on wider stuff this year test riding a bunch of soft boot protos in my hard boots (angles both positive, around 35/25 fr/rear) It's funny, it starts off feeling really slow, edge to edge, but you suddenly find yourself switching plenty quick, and carving as deep as you want to.... It's just, well, different. Not worse, just different. The most surprising thing is that they (wider than 27) seem at their worst (that does not make them bad, just not as good as...) on blues. Greens, well who cares, but they are really quite good at carving blacks, where I thought (wrongly!) they would be hampered by their widths and consequent edge to edge slowness. Hmmmm... The biggest problems seem to be the sidecuts being a little too tight (small radius numbers). Traditional softboot sidecut geometries are not happy at the edge angles/speeds carving steeps tends to generate, and the wise carver keeps carving and maintains a "happy" speed. James' Double-Wide does not have this problem! ha ha! Thanks for posting James!

OH. MY. GOD. This is money. Cash money. I have been coaching a ton of youth basketball in the last couple of years. Seeing a lot of scrawny 10 to 13 year olds trying to heave up "step back jumpers" Sigh. Beckmann nailed it. A constant source of frustration/stagnation/depression comes from assuming this and behaving accordingly.

Depends what you mean by "flickable". Or lighter, for that matter. Responses so far have seemed to head in a couple directions.... 1: Shorter slalom-y sort of carve specific boards, without a plate. This kinda makes sense to me if you are just wanting to do more, quicker, turns, and the grooming is good. These racy sort of boards come with all the caveats that narrow, stiff, high grip rides usually do. Not particularly "easy", kinda demanding, very rewarding when ridden properly. The MK seems to be the prototypical go-to in this camp, with a nod towards metalized/rubberized boards to take the intensity down a notch, maybe.... 2: Shorter, wider, more sidecut, maybe capable of being ridden off piste a bit boards. I think these sorts of things are the unsung heroes of the carving world. These things are starting to show up in the back corners of catalogs and websites of many companies. Most often they are the "softboot carving" kinda thing. Maybe the nicest thing that's easily available in North America is Mig Fullbag's Diamond Blade. It's probably a little wide for someone coming from hardboot-carving though.... That F2 looks pretty sweet. Kinda familiar too. Been riding this girl a little more this season. Rode it to a first place in the local banked slalom last spring (Masters/old-guys! Won a really cool coffee cup!) so it easily slides into turns, and effortlessly carves when the edge is engaged. It is a little short at 170 for me, but nice to ride along on. With a 24 cm waist I can run relaxed (45/38 degree)angles and not have boot out with 28.5 shells. The edge contact is 138, the sidecut radius is a modified 10 meters, it runs a little decamber, tip and tail zones, with a healthy 8 mm of camber centered underfoot. Weighs about 3.8 kilos. The wake-up call is that despite the relaxed angles and shorter edge contact it is so easy to carve on. Just roll onto the edge and it comes around. Boards in this sort of sidecut/length category are pretty comfortable up to kinda gettin' scary speeds, but prefer to finish off their turns while carving so that speeds don't go crazy. It's a little soft for me, and I can feel the end of the performance envelope approaching when carving on steeper, harder terrain (I ride at Kicking Horse, so this is usually pretty steep....). But the limit is pretty easy to feel and can be dealt with by simply finishing the turn and bringing the speed/loads back into line. Those small radius numbers mean that you can do full on c-shaped carves in 4 to 5 cat widths. And you can ride it in bumps. Or trees. The longer nose/shovel combined with 3 cm of offset makes it powder friendly. These sorts of "all mountain" carving boards should be looked at more by more folks. The downside: like any sleeper, they are sort of boring. They really don't jump out at you like swallowtails, asyms, boards with pointy corners, and hammer-head super short shovels....

I do a fair amount of repairs seeing as Kicking Horse has lots of teeth! This is definitely in the "intermediate" as opposed to beginner repair category... Sounds like two delams/repairs.... The big one with the sidewall that is out, and the smaller one with the "credit card" thickness delamination. Couple notes on epoxies. I tend to be a system three guy, they make an "equivalent" product to the west G-Flex stuff called Gel-magic. it is really good for stuff like bonding in the sidewalls - especially if you have the ability to do some sort of elevated temperature cure (an electric blanket....). The problem with those products is that they tend to be "thickened' so that they don't run out of the joints or can be used on vertical surfaces.... The core to face bond in the photo of the core without the sidewall in place shows a delamination there. you need thin resin to get it into that space. So, a bit of laminating resin is pretty sweet for that part of the repair. any of the big marine epoxy products will be fine. just ensure to get the ratio right. Basic approach: Flex the shit outta the board. see if it opens up anywhere: especially where the top facing and core are bonded. I would attack the small delam first. put the board so that the delam is facing up. Now, like painting, prep is everything. apply masking tape to the topsheet and base, flush with the edge. then, set up your clamps and clamping blocks. I recommend using packing tape applied on chunks of 3/4 inch plywood, the nicer the finish on the wood the better, and the packing tape won't stick to the epoxy. test clamp the whole assembly, making sure the wood goes well beyond the crack (a couple of inches, either end). once you are happy with the fit of the clamping assembly, apply enough masking tape onto one side (top or bottom) of the board such that the tape can be folded over the sidewall and against the other surface. This will help to keep the epoxy in the repair, and not jjust running all over your clamps, table, workbench etc. Jam an awl, finishing nails, or what works surprisingly well, a couple/few of drywall screws between the sidewall and the edge. turn the drywall screws into the gap. the gap will open up. don't be shy. its toast now, the biggest problem is that people are shy about getting the crack opened up. once you have a pretty good gap ( 1.5 to 3 mm) you can introduce epoxy into the gap. use a hair dryer/heat gun on low to warm up the board. you should see some bubbles come farting out of the pool of epoxy between the sidewall and the base/edge facing. The heat will thin the epoxy allowing better penetration. Further, the heat will expand any air bubbles at the bottom of the repair and encourage them to come to the surface. Wiggle and jiggle things a bit. remove the screws. epoxy will ooze out of the much smaller (now) gap. Fold over the tape and clamp that bad boy up tight. wait for however long the resin instructions say. The sidewall repair is a little trickier. It looks like the top facing is delaminated from the core in the middle of the image posted. This is no big deal, and sort of expected. Again Prep, prep, prep. tape the top and bottom of the board. Get clamp blocks that will span the repair zone, and enough clamps to get one on every couple of inches. Sand up the sidewall piece with some 40 grit paper. should be rough. you can look into corona/flame treating if you want to go down the rabbit hole.... If you are concerned with contamination, (especially wax) you can do a good solvent wipe. followed by a solvent wet sand. followed by the coarse grit sand, while wearing gloves. Once the surfaces are clean and sanded you have to test assemble the pieces for fit. The sidewall should fit nicely, hopefully without catching/bulging/popping out of the hole. Now some planning is required. How will side pressure to the sidewall be applied? this isn't trivial. If you have access to a couple (at least) banding clamps use those! They are weird looking c-clamp type thingys that have a third screw pushing into the side of the "C" to provide some side force. You will need another piece of bendy wood to clamp onto the sidewall. expect a fight when clamping time comes. the bendy piece of wood wants to squirt off of the sidewall, glue drips, grrr. Grrr. you can "profile" the sidewall clampy bit to fit between the top and bottom clamp blocks (that are applied overhanging the sidewall) and then use the banding clamps to push that into the gap , thus holding the sidewall into its hole. I prefer (when doing a nice job....) to do the following. Screw a bendy piece of wood (3/4X3/4 batten) to one clamping block such that it matches the sidecut radius of the board. use about 5 pretty small screws. Remember to pre-drill or shit will split. I usually use this piece on the "base" side of the board. other clamp block can be normal, for the top. I then cover the surfaces that will touch epoxy with the packing tape. Position the board so the bad edge is up again. open up the crack in the bottom of the repair (core to facing delam) with an awl. Fill with epoxy. use the heat gun again. I usually add a bonus step here, cutting out a piece of fiberglass cloth (about 4 oz/sq yard) about 1.5 inches wide as long as the gap, with fibers running at +/- 45 degrees. If you don't have it, skip it! Pour in a bit of epoxy, shove it around with a popsicle stick. put the cloth into the gap (if you are using it). once it is wet out, push in the sidewall. Now. I usually fold over the cloth ends and apply pieces of masking tape, under a little pressure/tension "over" the sidewall material. basically, stick the tape to the topsheet, pull gently and go over the repaired/sidewall stuff, and stick it to the base side. do a few of those - you are trying to tack the pieces into place while you assemble the clamp bits. If you are using clamps and loose bendy sticks to hold the sidewall into place. Good luck. You will need it. If you are using the bent stick/clamp block assembly then apply that with one clamp at each end, just tight enough to hold in place. It should be pushing a little bit against the sidewall of the repair. grab a quick-clamp (one of those clamps that slides then uses a trigger pull thingy to close it up) and apply it across the board so that you can reef the clamping block with the sidewall retention stick screwed to it against/into the board. tighten up this clamp a bit. Those first two clamps should be loose enough to allow the assembly to slip sideways. tap with a rubber/soft mallet. Tighten up clamps, and install the other clamps. Wait recommended amount of time Removing clamps and cleaning up. The clamping jigs usually just need a little persuasion to come loose. then comes the cleanup. This basic approach leaves only minor epoxy overflows onto the topsheet. The better you do at taping the better. There will be significant epoxy flash on the sidewall. I prefer a farriers file to clean off epoxy/flash. those bad boys are really sharp and take lots of material of quickly. They also handle hitting the steel of the edge quite nicely. I file at 45 degrees to the topsheet of the board on the top until the topsheet is just showing, then clean up the edge surface of the sidewall at 90 degrees to the base until the edge shows. HOPEFULLY the edge is where it is supposed to be! How good a job you did with you clamping and positioning will show now! I use a cabinet scraper lots at this stage, they clean up epoxy off the sidewalls nice, will shave the sidewall if it is proud, will take epoxy off the topsheet (careful!) and easily remove excess epoxy from the base. Well, beer is done, and foot is Iced! Good luck. I am putting a couple of videos together to show repair techniques. Any interest?

My Bad, I totally meant to mention Mig's line of stuff. He rocks! Was sort of thinking the Diamond Blade, but it might be getting into the "softboot carver" zone. Though it looks like it would handle most all mountain duties pretty effectively if you are used to a longer contact length. Quick question for Mig: I always sort of thought the Supernaut was a smaller Blunt, but looking at the specs, it is a different sort of beast, isn't it? You going to make a 160ish version (Super-Dupernaut hahaha! Sorry, that was kinda bad...)? Back to the stiffness thing: We hardboot guys sort of have a bit of a bias towards stiffer gear, maybe to our detriment. That and the fact that the lack of any sort of stiffness index that is cross manufacturer referenced makes us a little reluctant to go softer. How stiff is my favorite board, compared to some 7/10 rating by a company's board i have never tried? Hard to tell. An old friend of mine did pretty high level ski coaching and we had these sort of "theory" discussions all the time. He invented a sort of "thought experiment ski (or board!)". This impossible in the real world thing has no longitudinal stiffness, and infinite torsional stiffness. Ie. it won't twist, but will follow perfectly the line of the sidecut at a given board:snow angle without any effort. The implication here is that you would be best served by something with as little lengthwise stiffness as you can get away with! Always thought this was a pretty neat concept. It has really come home to roost in the last couple years where I have been building increasing numbers of soft boot boards that people want to be able to carve. When I get the opportunity to pry one of those boards out of their handa and try these boards out i almost always am a little surprised by how "soft" compared to my personal builds are. But once I sort of "center" my riding, and reduce the tip to tail pressure shifting that hard-boots/stiff boards encourage/reward i am invariably stunned by how easy and effective carving still is. Makes all mountain riding way easier.... Now, it is not that i would like to have my own board that soft, but maybe softer.... The trick is: How much? Hard to tell, but it is probably softer than the average hard-boot rider is used to, and stiffer than the typical softboot rider is used to . Probably right around where Mig's Fullbag line is ("stiffer than most boards of their type") or Jones' flagships (really nice boards, but I personally can't stand the spoon-nose tail thing), or my stuff! Well, that was lunch...

My opinion: boards that are going to be used with soft boots can be significantly softer that with hard boots. The lack of sideways stiffness in the boots will limit how much fore-aft stiffness you will need. The wider stances will allow you to balance a little more deftly from front to back as well. You don't want to go too far down this road, as there are lots of boards you will find pretty easy to "push" the nose and understeer the front of the board leading to a pretty surprising lowside stuff. The boards mentioned are in the "stiffer" zone of the softboot world. The carbon Flagship is stiff, but probably you would not find it too crazy, coming from hardboot boards, but you don't have to go there. Remember, you are riding different stuff, and the old ideas are going to shift a bit.... Attaching a photo of a 163 all mountain board, 26.5 cm waist. Really nice ride for softboots as is. I tried it out last spring and even though it is pretty soft (for my 100 kilo fat ass) it carves lovely turns, and is easy in the bumps and trees, soft and hard snow. I make em in all sorts of lengths, (usually about 5cm increments: 158; 163; 168; 173; 178; etc.) and do whatever width you want. Flexes are adjusted to your weight/riding style. Feel free to use with plates or softies - the board has all the binding zone reinforcements included.

I think boardguru is getting at the Rossi Undertaker (I think) that is under Keith's feet at the start of the video. Interestingly, he rode a big, semi custom Nomad (Donek)for most of those days, I think...

Hey Y'all Snowed a bit overnight, and I am trying to learn how to do video editing and that sort of stuff. Used a bunch of John's footage from the second day of MCC last year. I like to think that it shows that hardboots and plates are compatible with powder riding. Now, how do I attach this video....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd9PBpQeSnk

I might add the concept of "stalling", as a sort of metaphor linked to aviation/aeronautics where at a certain (lack of) speed the wing stalls and stability is lost. In powder, you need enough speed to get the board to provide enough lift to, well, lift. Kinda like the idea that powder riding is like flying! After that, everything neanderthal said makes way more sense: in order to bounce, you need to be going fast enough to get the board to counterflex, then there is something to "push" (react to) aginst. An interesting thing is how most powder newbies, even in chopped resort powder, don't go fast enough. There is so much friction. A quick look at my own tracks at MCC (where there was lots of powder...) shows just how little deviation there is in the actual downhill trajectory taken - I felt like I was turning up a storm, but the tracks are pretty much just downhill wiggles.... This is a result of having to maintain a certain minimum "stall speed" in that high friction context. Just the snow slows you down, even in a straight line. Turning, again in a manner similar to aircraft, increases the stall speed, and slows you down! If you are going to turn, it had better be steeper than you think! "Stalling" leads to something we are all familiar with: the board knifes to whichever side we are pressuring even just a teeny bit more, and starts to sink. More "powder friendly" boards, fundamentally, just lower the stall speed, and make the stall more predictable and easier to recover from/avoid. A quick mental inventory can't bring to mind any time. None. Where I had a bad situation manifest itself by going too fast in powder (well, maybe one). The opposite is quite common (this could just be me...) The difficulty is that it takes a while to "calibrate" your internal speedo to take that friction into account: "Just go straight? ill go so fast i wont be able to turn!" Actually you'll be lucky to make it across to the groomed pass.... it is so different from riding hard groomers where nothing slows you down enough. In short: Point it until the board floats/get light. Stay centered once floating. Turn gently but deftly Everything you do will slow you down - so do only what needs to be done. Embrace the chaotic freedom of movement in three dimensions that comes with the speed and accompanying flight Enjoy the ride. Thank your riding partners/buddies and get back on the lift. Those days are precious and fleeting.

Rode with Dave and Crack on Friday at RMR. Sweet hill! There was a bit of fluff over some nice grooming. Crackaddict showed us around before he had to go down to take care of some life details. Got separated from Dave, and actually found him again! (not a small achievement as Revelstoke's hill is huge.) Crackaddict recommended "Pitch Black" a top to bottom sort of linked up black diamond cruiser that had mostly been groomed in totality. Delivered as promised steep and long (something like 5000 vertical feet no cat roads). Decided to take a kick at the can when I got separated from Dave and managed to do the whole thing with only one real fiasco to disturb my relaxed carving state - it got a little flat lighted in a cloud where the run splits around a tree island. Totally did not see the moguls between the groomed passes around the island. Managed the rest with only 3 huffing and puffing breathing stops! Well before I got lost. Rode my latest creation: a 193 all mountain board with 158 ee, 23.8 wide, 11 meter (averaged) sidecut radius. Worked really well especially as the little bit of fluff soon became push-piles.... It'll be available for demo at the MCC. Photos soon...It's the one on the left.