Corran

I sent you a phone text message -get it?

Hey I have this demo that you're welcome to grab anytime. it has plate bindings on it, but you can pull them off and stick soft boots if you like. The 179 has an effective edge much like a 155 race board would have (depending on the board). Its wider and softer of course and its intended use as a carver is more for mixed conditions, or crowded slopes, than full on high speed trench digging. The Cafe Carver will handle powder as well as it'll take on groomer... so it's very versatile. It's also not a bad boarder cross board. Let me know if you want to take it for a spin\ Corran

I currently only have the 185 here in Montreal, and then the cafe carver 179. My 161 sample is out west and I don't have a 175 sample currently. If you want to try one of the other two, let me know.

Sorry my bad - I read Cafe Carver lol - cafe RACER ... OK so where are you located?

where are you located? This board (the Cafe Carver) is available only in 179 length right now. We have the Pitch Wing in 150, 155 and 161 lengths. Corran

Two ways to ride the Cafe Carver... Soft boot, or hard boot Isn't that nice

Finally my first 179 carving boards have arrived!!! This is the “trailer trash” graphic Its like christmas. Oh. Wait. Of course we have the classic graphic and the adrenaline junky graphics too

My thoughts exactly. This is exactly what I've found and I agree 100% with his technical assessment. He's described to a T what I'm doing and why. I like his shape. I've given mine a little more surf nose so it'll ride up and out of the snow on edge, and I have a little more radius to the sidecut, but the concepts are the same.

Thats epic.

Hey Rob All good stuff that and by and large we are in agreement. I see "no board" or Yukiita riding as something much lower key - hiking up little trails on the side of highways and possibly dropping some bowls or treelines from a sled. Beyond that, unless you're guaranteed fresh powder everywhere you go, in easy terrain, and for the most part are riding with other people who are bindingless, I agree that it is not the ideal "first choice" for all the sound reasons you've given. These are in fact things I addressed specifically with this shape exactly for the reasons of what you say. It has steel edges end to end. It has binding inserts. It has a tapered tail, even if it's always convex in shape. With bindings and edges, you can slide down cornices, run through some chopped up snow, and even move along a cat track. You're not carving up hard pack like a ginsu, but you can do it and get where you need to go. Bindings give you the option of making hop turns in tight chutes, recovering from errors, pulling the nose up when needed and so much more. To me, for a shape like this to be practical beyond those "one off days" you get 3x a year, it has to be versatile, and that boils down to edges and bindings for the most part. So with traditional edges and bindings, you can now take this as your only board on a heli day (assuming that the majority of the day is fresh soft powder - if its not, take a sidecut board!), or any kind of "mostly powder" day. This will never be your stock go-to board. No way. But I will take this board to resorts after a big dump and ride the first hour or two in powder, still be able to ride trails back to the lift (without much style mind you as they just feel funny on hard pack), and repeat until it starts to get tracked out. Then I'm grabbing a more traditional surf style snowboard for the rest of the day!

dedication

bingo That's still a concave outline - of which there are 4 million 900 thousand and 62 varieties out there

There are plenty of places where a surf shape will be awesome fun, but you're going to need it to at least be able to "get through" mixed terrain. For that you'll need bindings. So you have the option of studs and ride no bindings, or throw bindings on. Different but the same. The reason snow surfing doesn't look as good to you is because it doesn't look the same, and this is because a board with sidecut is going to turn differently than one with convex curve. Don't get me wrong - concave sidecut is the way to go for most people most of the time... no question. But if you're the sort of person that has a quiver and you're happy to grab a board a few times a year for specific conditions... then a board that will literally turn on snow like a wave is pretty fun. I've added a less traditional graphic option too:

It’s a niche markwt foe sure. But there are plenty of people who hike, cat, or heli into powder and for this a true surfboard shape is a game changer Yes this is the normal way to go. Almost all the boards in our lineup are likw this. Surf influenced but still snowboards in that they have sidecut, camber etc. This for most people most of the time is the way to go. But if youre in deep powder and really want to SURF, you need a surfboard.

Yes I know these boards. Very cool. Still different from what I've done although they do have convex outlines, he has a lot less outside curve than I do. His has flat camber (or flat center section) and then kick ends is still much more reminiscent of a traditional snowboard than a surfboard. I know it's a great board. I'd stick it somewhere in the middle between what I'm doing and a traditional "surf inspired" snowboard shape. It still has some "traditional" concave to the outline in the very tail, and 4cm less overall width. You can see in the attached overlay image how different the shapes ultimately are. Can you still get them? Lots of cool stuff happening out there.

I thought this might interest some of you https://www.theinertia.com/surf/why-this-snowboard-designer-believes-hes-made-the-perfect-powder-surfer/?fbclid=IwAR2kEKnfYLuBbgJlGKlXTxtyMvkKBr24PPCKguGhrwzgrE0najrU2HHrpbw Corran

The new surf style boards are a lot of fun no doubt. You don’t have to go short - there are different ways of skinning the same cat. You could just as well be on a 150 as a 160 and make it work for you - it comes down to how you want to ride really. But it I can’t auggest more strongly to look at the snow surfing style. It’s truly a sensation revolution. I make bowrds so im biased we have two that might interest you. Our pitch wing 161cm which make long drawn out powder turns when putting minimal pressure into the turn, but because of the long split tail, you can shorten that turn into something resembling a 152-155 just by compressing and bending the tail. https://www.soulwaterman.com/collections/snowboards/products/pitchwing Alternately we have a 150cm called the Scrambler It’s less responsive to tail compression than the pitch wing, but it’s a slightly more normal feeling board while still remaining firmly in the “snow surfing style” One is not better than the other just slightly different ways of getting to the same place and same feelings on the snow if you have any questions shoot me an email corran Here is a video of the pitch wing operating on groomer. I don’t have a powder video but it’s even better in powder than it is on groomer Sorry I forgot the link to the Scrambler https://www.soulwaterman.com/collections/snowboards/products/scrambler

Here you go: https://www.soulwaterman.com/collections/snowboards/products/softcarve the split tail allows you to vary the radius of the turn more easily by compressing the tail through turn exit, without the use of hard boots which provide far more force and leverage than even the hardest soft boots. I found the swallow tail really lets you make minute radius adjustments on the fly effortlessly and with amazing stability.

Nice.... they make them for guys too?

Since everyone is on the soft side.....

I was given a bunch of crap because I designed a soft and/or hard boot all mountain carving board that was 179cm (but has an edge length about 20cm shorter than an equivalent length race board, and much softer flex), and I got emails from several women saying "hey, what about us". Good point. My apologies... so here is our woman's version - 159cm - a modern take on the all mountain "freecarve" style board.

Selling my Moss Wing Swallow 149. I bought it in March last year, and have ridden it about a half dozen times. My company has started to make boards, so I'm just not going to ride it anymore. here is a video of it in action: I'm asking $700. The whitish looking discoloration on the base is wax I put on for summer storage to protect the base and edges. I paid $1000 for this, plus shipping, so this is a deal. Corran