MarkJeangerard

I love watching this guy ride.His economy of motion is inspiring. So quiet and accurate. Somehow I get the impression I wouldn't be able to string together 3 of those gates at that speed no matter how much I flailed around.

No doubt. I was harking back to conversations in 2006. After reading your comment I googled and realized how over confident I am in the equipment i use regularly.

I was never in mountain operations, but I remember them talking about that (backloading?) happening. So scary. But yes, there are supposed to be failsafes. A friend of mine managed a Russian run Bulgarian ski area while he was in the peace corps. Some of the stories he told me... I am not surprised by this in any way.

I've never seen your videos before. Love all the moves. Super fun!

Holy smokes you guys know how to hurt yourselves.

29.5 here. While I have a history of stance angles between 12 and 67 degrees, and have always been comfortable switching between, even run to run, it has been a few years since I've ridden in that window. I'll probably be mounting the board at 70 or so. Yip. I'm one of those guys. Nope, never ridden a Skwal or monoski. And only ever skied just to try something that would put me back to day one. I just like carving with steep angles. I have no ACLs, I wonder if that has something to do with it.

The single most precious thing in my life is snowboarding. I've got a mind full of memories - stories of epic days on epic days. Riding in waist deep champagne powder, our wakes blowing 20 feet into the air in front of us, off our thighs and chests. Only able to see where we were going for a brief moment as we leaned out at the beginning of each turn. Porpoising through a sea of little hollow tubes of ice 1" thick and 5" long that tinkled like shattered glass as we slashed through golden aspen under a platinum sky. Raging air to transfers over freshly corded Paymaster rollers in a group of 15 hardbooters who found the Keystone mountain engineers grooming in the middle of the afternoon. The single most precious thing in my snowboarding is my Madd snowboards. Because those memories are just that. Gone by. But my Madds give me that epic feeling every time without fail. Other snowboards need the proper conditions to come through. If I don't find a machinist in town who has utter confidence before starting I will find a proper home for the 170. There's a reason I haven't let anyone have a go yet, even though I've talked to 3 separate people. It is, in my opinion, a perfect snowboard.

I typically won't buy anything I don't demo. But I really trust this forum. Ya'll speak a language I understand and I've seen a few of you ride. Based on what is written here I would have ordered the MK if I were in my 40s. But I turn 57 in a few weeks... I thought maybe something slightly less turny. So I called Sean and asked him if I would like the MK or your board better. Based on my weight and fitness level we decided I would be very happy with your board. Sean said changing the waist to 18cm won't change the ride significantly. Thanks for pioneering the cut, good sir. And thanks for lending it to Jack so that he could as his assessment to yours. I've always wanted a Donek with a green Swift topsheet. :)

@charliechocolate Lee Canyon wed, and thur this week. Usually Brian Head every wed and Eagle Point if it dumps. Unless it REALLY dumps then back to Lee. @ellisdeez bump... sorry. :)

That's pretty much the thought process I was going through yesterday when I ordered my Custom 172 from Sean. So I guess my new plan is to ride that first then think about what I want to do with the Madd. Plus, I'm going to concentrate on hitting a couple of demo days next season.

Carving on skis is ridiculously easy. Any one of you hardbooters could be making perfect linked half circle crossunder carves within an hour or two. You may not know how to stop the dang things, but if you run out of hill you'll live long enough to go up again. It's just two snowboards. Tilt. Those downhill skiers "get" carving snowboarding in the same way. (Provided they give it a go.) The thing that surprises me most, as a behind-the-scenes entertainment professional is that Ester is sponsored by ROBE. Your typical winter sports fan probably isn't in the market for 1700 watt robotic spot light. https://www.robe.cz/

Where do you live? What are the conditions like? I spent my first year in soft boots and the next 7 or 8 after that in hard boots exclusively on a wide variety of boards. It worked for me because we got more groomer days than powder days on the average. While I can and will go into steep, deep, and trees with hard boots, over the last 30 years I've decided that center stance, duck mounted soft boots on a twin tip board gives one far more options in all types of riding except carving. A stiffer camber soft boot board will be a smoother transition, allow you to explore creating movement below the knees, and give you more options given the weather. A hard boot carving setup will dictate your focus more towards groomers and upper body alignment. I say you should have both... and since you already have the rocker... Right? There are formulas that those who know, know. Your physical make up can be accommodated through board selection. This is the right place to find help with that, I'm just not the best guy to answer that and will leave it to those more practiced.

This has been a focus of mine for the last 20 years. As such I have been paying careful attention to riding trends on the hill. (Whether I want to or not - at some point I always end up on a lift.) More and more, back foot scrapers are becoming less and less the norm. I've noticed that it can be characteristic of a community or region. Some hills have mostly all excellent riders and a few have mostly all stinkers trying to kick back on their rear foot with their shoulders squared off down hill like the local cool guy they are trying to imitate. I really believe that, for the most part, the latter are a dying breed. I really wanted to be a good instructor and so I tried to incorporate responsible and effective philosophies into my work model. Such as never using "crutch" methods to achieve performance in a lesson. I try to teach things that will be useful or valid to the highest levels of riding. Things that don't need to be unlearned at some point. I teach what the sidecut is and how it works on day one. Before the student even steps on the snowboard on snow. I show the curves in the toeside and heelside edges, get on my knees, tilt the board up to show the tip and tail in the snow and the air gap at the waist, then apply pressure between the bindings with my foot or hand until the board bends and the waist hits the snow. Then I slide it back and forth a few inches. It cuts a nice curve in the snow. I don't remember anyone not understanding that demonstration. (When it comes time, I introduce the idea that it takes almost imperceptible amounts of tilt to make the snowboard turn.) The description goes something like: "Snowboards are made to turn all by themselves. If we tilt a snowboard with a weight in the middle it will make a perfect turn. Today we are going to work on being a weight in the middle." On day one nearly every exercise I suggest reinforces either what it feels like to be right in the magic middle position with a relaxed posture over the riding edge or what it feels like to not be there. (Because... nollies!) I make sure each student exercises patience when getting those first turns. Wait for the snowboard, I might say. Once we feel what it can do then we can know what it will do. On day one I teach turn shape for speed control. (Speed control means going faster as well as slower.) Twisting and skidding, weighting and unweighting, spinning and pivoting, all with a focus on being the weight in the middle and over the edge that we are riding on. (Mostly the uphill edge, day one.) Because a snowboard will turn if you let it. The only time one of my day one students kicks the rear of her snowboard around is when she's doing it because she wants to and knows that it's not the only way to change direction. And that knowledge will last for the rest of her snowboarding days. The important thing is that the tail is following the nose. And once a rider gets to the blues, no matter if they are skidding, if they are controlling speed with turn shape and pressure they are only a few minutes of focus away from their first carved turn. And all you need to do is lay out a big, hooked up, knees in the snow, toeside carve that shoots you right back uphill at them to get their attention. Oh yeah, I had a point... I didn't come up with these thoughts in a vacuum. My understanding of the process is somewhat in line with the evolution of snowboarding instruction worldwide. I think it's better than it's ever been, and I think it's getting better every day. Full turn, linked, edge to edge softboot carves over an entire run are not only the most basic thing you can do on a snowboard and super fun, but are also becoming more recognized as "another thing you can do" on a snowboard by the masses. I see the trenches every day. Clean heelsides too. :) Plus, learning to carve is also the only way you're ever going to blast 15 feet out of the superpipe.

You know, now that you mention it, you've just added two more traits that I love about my Madds. The 180 is extremely versatile. And I don't just mean size. I have always been able to change turn shape at any phase of the turn. Scrub the nose? Feather the tail? Flat slip for a second in the middle of a turn then punch back into a trench? It's all cake. I ride extremely confidently on that board knowing that if I get in over my head I've got a library of outs. It's definitely softer than any other 180 I've ridden but it was the board that replaced my Prior WCR185 and I remember the Madd being more stable at speed then. (Haven't gone really fast in a while.) That's the 180 in my icon picture in 10" of over night fresh and snow falling so fast my lines disappeared every other run. The 170 has all the characteristics That people are ascribing to the MK albeit, necessarily slower and larger I would think. It was (is) literally violent at turn in, lightning quick edge to edge, could hang on to full weight light bulb changers without losing speed, and most of all it had that Madd comfort factor: quiet, stable, predictable, willing, and readable to the smallest degree. Ok. Maybe I'll fix that first and ride it. See what I think then.

If you're back all the way in your binding mount options it's certainly a riding thing. I would think that on most carving boards the mounting options are for stance width more than front/rear set. The position of the groups dictates what the designer intended for a centered stance. That being said, too much or not enough forward lean on the rear boot or binding could inhibit your shifting weight to the rear quickly or effectively. If the board feels good at turn in and mid carve try pushing down and pulling up on your rear toe throughout the carve. A very slight gas pedaling action should produce dramatic results given your set up and alignments are in place. This is a quick way to create the twist in the board that Beull was referring to. If you get results, then find you are constantly cranking down or up on your toe a whole bunch for long segments of a carve it's time to go back and look at your body alignments and binding/stance/boot setup.

Skis and snowboards are identical from the base down. A champion is a champion. I just happened to be walking by a TV when I saw her ride. My stoke went up 100%. I was both inspired to ride, and know that events like this increase harmony on the hill. Great year. More snow would be nice. :)

@Sherlock er.... @Beckmann AG Thank you for the honest and very helpful reply. I brought the 170 to the local SB shop tuning guru and he refused to touch it. Saying that there was no way to tap it without destroying the board. I am going to take your instructions to local machinists until I find one comfortable with the procedure, I think... I might have gotten lucky with both of those boards in that they have, in my experience at least, decent camber. The 170 has just over 3/4" right in front of the rear foot. And while both exhibit sloppy epoxy work, neither has delammed yet. That 180 has seen many long, energetic days on the snow. @lowrider I was about to tell you to, "get stuffed" when it occurred to me that I will be buying a Donek very soon. I will not touch the Madd until I have ridden the Donek, which may not be until next year. If the Doenk is everything I think it is going to be you will be first in line for the 170. It is a very special board. I let it loose a couple days at one of the ES events. Good carvers were spooked by it's aggressive turn in. @Jack Michaud Jack, thank you for your input. Yeah, in the facebook conversation it seemed like the person who responded had a chip on his shoulder. I had read an inkling in the MK thread about a longer version, but I missed the thread you linked. My only concern with the MK was that it might be a little too tight for my enjoyment. I am also 5'10" and 190lbs and I like my tight board to allow light bulb changers when the mood strikes. I will hopefully demo an MK next year but I'm buying the 172 without hesitation. If you click my profile, Sean built that twin tip Incline last year, or the year before. It is decambered out near the ends.... whooo boy.... it holds like (crazy?) on hard pack, and chop doesn't even exist in my world. (Cheap phone picture edited in MSPaint. The board is actually gorgeous.) Thanks everyone. Had I not come here I would have put off finding a machinist for another year and never have known about the MK. Sometimes I isolate myself too much. How I had let this community slip out of my mind, I'll never know.

Hello Bomber Online Forums! It's been a while. So much so that I don't even know which internet provider was registered to my old BOL account. So, new me... here... I've read Fin's posts and am so sorry to hear about the situation with Bomber. Before last month I hadn't carved in 6 years or so. Living in Vegas for several reasons - it's been a good choice except for the carving - the local hill is fun, but not big enough for my single running Madd 180. I met a snowboard collector who took me to Brian Head for the first time at the end of the season last year. 3 hours from the house, wide open trails, low crowds. Perfect. A few weeks ago I dusted off the Madd and buckled up the Suzuka's to see if the mold still fit. On my first day I rode 6 hours straight, I was so stoked. Took half a week to recover. But I could not understand how carving dropped out of my life. Regardless, I need to make up for lost time. The thing is, our local hill is very narrow. The 180 is just too much depending on conditions and traffic. I wish my trusty old 170 were working, it would be perfect. Alas, I let too many people try it out and the inserts have failed. So, I asked my friend the collector if he could find one. He posted a picture of me on face book with the board and got a response that read along the lines of, "That's a reissue. It sucks." I asked him to ask the person who responded to clarify with what, specifically, the differences were. The person responded with, "Reissues suck." That wasn't exactly the answer I was looking for so I decided to bring my questions here. I had intended to ask only what the differences were between the original and the reissue because, quite frankly, that 170 is the best snowboard I've ever ridden. By a long shot. So, if I am to consider purchasing an original Madd at twice the price of the reissue then I need to know if it will be something I will like. If they are that much different perhaps I want the Suck board and not whatever the Not Suck board is. But then it dawned on me that the Original Madd is what, 20+ years old? The reissue 10+ by now? Maybe, just maybe, snowboards have gotten better. I read the Madd Killer thread. From it I gleaned some pertinent bits of information: Still no answers on the original vs. reissue other than the base material was superior on the original. Looking at the images I posted - that Madd 170 with the single binding there in the picture? Every single thing that every single person said about the Donek MK is, for real, exactly applicable to that there Madd 170. I'm not kidding. That's how that thing rides. No exaggeration. I expect that it's possible that everything except the tail spring could be deemphasized on the Madd, but every characteristic I read about could certainly and accurately be applied to that board. I'll be talking to Sean about binding options with the MK tomorrow. So... Questions... What are the primary differences in between the original and reissue Madds? Is it even worth investigating the differences in the Madd vintages, or should I just move on? Can the inserts be reconditioned? That board is in pristine condition. I would love to ride it again. Does anybody know what that 170 is? Shaggy, are you still around here? You told me once that it had some outstanding features, but I have forgotten. PS - I let a friend who worked at a snowboard shop talk me into letting him try a steel fiber reinforced epoxy "thread filler" on the bindings of the 170. It detached upon landing 15 or 20 feet of flat air after crossing the catwalk separating upper and lower Parachute at Santa Fe. I don't remember how I brought that thing to a smooth(ish) stop without hurting myself, but I did. I do remember thinking that had I been airing an edge transfer, as I had been known to do there, I could have sustained real and possibly debilitating damage.

We used to use squirt guns. When it got really cold their little seams and seals would fail and there would be food coloring everywhere.