Jarcode
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Posts posted by Jarcode
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Well, now that I have the L1 course out of the way, it's probably the end of the season for me. I got some really fun laps in with the WCRM again at the end of the day, but we were starting to get pooling water at the bottom of the lifts at Sun Peaks. Spotted one mystery hardbooter on my last chairlift ride up — tried to yell at him but he was focused on his riding. White boots and a wider alpine board... anyone from here?
@BlueB Nelson said hi, he's going to be up at Lake Louise later apparently. -
9 hours ago, BlueB said:
@Jarcode, Ah Nelson, the dredlock guy! Say hi, for me.
I told you it's easy
Dumb-down your riding, focus on teaching part and you'll be fine.
Snowing very wet, Cypress style, over here. I brought your AMT, but going out on a freeride board...
Actually, the teaching part is by far the easiest for me. The hardest is dumbing down my riding; I have to constantly tell myself to ride a certain way for demonstrations. The riding standard from day one was easy, but the type of skidded turns they want for actual lessons is something I have to actively think about, especially the neutral straight-ish posture. It's pretty alien to me since it has been about a decade since I rode at that level... everything I know feels innate.
Nelson is an excellent carver too. He actually gave me some higher-level feedback for my actual riding, which was a nice bonus.
Got two runs in before the course this morning with the WCRM, boy is the grooming something else at Sun Peaks. Swapping between the two on the other hand is still really awkward. Nelson insists the technique should be the same, but I'm a little apprehensive about his advice there. -
@BlueB different instructor than you expected, it's actually Nelson teaching it this time. You apparently know each other already.
This course is very easy. Thankfully I got some real runs in at lunch and some turns in during the more casual rides on the first day. The instructor made sure to show off his own carving to me, hahaha.
The freeride board is also growing on me again. It's really nice for mellow carving with plates. Lots of weird looks, though. Very wide gap in riding ability between the riders attending the course.
I definitely need to take the L2 course early next season.
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@BlueB I did make sure I was comfortable skidding around (and some bland tricks) without needing any upper body movement. I still prefer the extreme setback and locked mode even for that. I just want the ability to carve comfortably since I am weighing whether I could use a setup like this for teaching or softboots, plus taking the L2 course next season.
I would also be interested in buying those springs off you. -
On 3/18/2022 at 11:46 AM, Cousin of Beagle said:
Thursday morning report.
It was similar on Saturday morning at Cypress too. Snow was coming down fast in the morning and then suddenly stopped as soon as the lifts opened... cleared up into a really nice day. Easiest carving I've had all season after the snow packed out.
@BlueB I took your advice and experimented with my freeride board (K2 Turbo Dream). It's been three years since I have used anything other than an alpine snowboard, and it took me a couple runs just for my brain to remember the technique for riding at such low angles. Some things I found out:
- This board's "medium" flex with hardboots makes it feel like a noodle. I was playing around with loading my nose on skidded stops and felt like the board was going to break. It's pretty unsettling.
- The rocker profile surfs really well on the base on slush, but I couldn't carve a perfect turn until I adjusted my stance to bring my front foot all the way back. I realized the overall distance between inserts on this board are way too far apart for me, my "wide" stance on my WCRM is quite narrow when trying to copy it over to this freeride stick. Also, without completely maxing out the stance setback, my weight was far too forward.
- I seem to require my front foot to have a very high angle compared to the rear foot, and ended up settling with a 45 degree angle on the front, and 25 on the rear. I tried to start much lower like you said, but it made heel-side carves extremely unpleasant and caused a bunch of pain in my knees. I find I can drive my front knee on backside turns a lot better with the higher angle.
- I went flat on the front foot, which felt good, and went with a burton cant/lift plate for the rear. It actually felt pretty comfortable. I used the same forward lean options as I did on my alpine board, which also felt fine. Changing this led to body position issues, causing me to weight one foot too much. Riding unlocked wasn't possible. Even with the stiff 700Ts, I still prefer them locked on this board. I think springs are the only alternative for me.
Once I settled on a stance, I was carving perfect turns again. It's pretty fun, and I think I'm going to keep plates on this and use it as my slush/powder board. Should be good enough for next weekend at the L1 course. -
No carving at all? Damn, I hope there's some time to get some turns in around the course at least...
I'll try to make it up to Cypress on the 19th to screw around with my board to find something comfortable, then. My few attempts at riding my 700Ts unlocked felt extremely unresponsive. Haven't tried them in duck stance before, and I probably wouldn't like it with such a stiff boot.
The other option is just renting some softboots, it's not like I need much performance if I'm only going to be skidding all day. -
I might come up to Cypress for one last day on the 19th, if it doesn't look like it's going to rain. I will be riding from the 25th to the 27th on Sun Peaks, for my CASI L1. For the rest of the season I'm unlikely to head to the north shore mountains.
I'm hoping I can just stick with the WCRM for the course without too much pushback. Going to throw burton race plates on a wide freeride board in the event I need something that carves slower, but I really don't want to want to use that.
Next season I plan to go hunting for a very stiff pair of softboots for teaching in duck stance that is durable enough for my abuse. Maybe there's some recommendations on a thread somewhere in here that judges stuff from a hardbooting perspective... -
18 hours ago, BlueB said:
I do not think so. Their trainer and L4 evaluator is Jaren, I got my L3 from him.
Your main task for the course/exam would be to tone down your riding and, of course, just do exactly what evaluator asks. You'll be fine.
Another option is to place yourself on waiting lists for the upcoming exams at the local mountains.
Waiting lists? How would I go about getting on those? Cypress was booked even for the course running early in April... I have my doubts the season will last much longer.
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I might end up heading up to Sun Peaks to take the CASI level 1 course, just because they're all booked at the local mountains... @BlueB you think they would take issue with the hardboots there?
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I actually switched back to my WCRM after you left and found that I was still carving in slush better with it. I think I'm just more comfortable with carving at higher angles, although the Incline surfs a lot better than a ~19cm width race board. I went until 7:00, things really emptied out on Lion's Chair.
And yeah, that grooming was absolutely terrible. -
@BlueBare you going to be up this saturday?
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20 minutes ago, BlueB said:
Less then 3 seasons of riding. Got them NOS, though.
Wait, you saw it cracked while we were there?! I noticed only at home.
No, I mean just from the image. That certainly would have ended badly if you rode for another hour. -
I went until 5:30. The snowstorm got more intense and people started to flee... I enjoyed carving up the empty runs. Lots of snow was accumulating on the runs, the groom will be really nice tomorrow. I wish I could go.
@BlueB glad you could enjoy that board. I look forward to riding the Donek you traded me more... felt so stable with those low angles. I still think I want different bindings for it, though. And wow, your boot looked like it was about to crack further and fail while riding!
@Cousin of Beagle hopefully I didn't give you any PTSD from nearly plowing into you. -
Finally ran into another hardbooter at Cypress yesterday!
not a local, I wonder if he's on the forums here...
The snow was awesome, and only a moderate crowd on the Eagle chair. Seems like most people up today flocked to Lions and all funneled down Collins, looked like a circus over there.
Will be up Saturday to make sure I catch @BlueB. Hopefully the snow isn't too wet. -
I'll aim for next Saturday, then.
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7 hours ago, BlueB said:
A super weird day.
Apparently, the day tickets were sold out by 1am. I expected thousands of people... but nope! It was extremely quiet. From 11 to about 1pm there was literally no one in the Eagle and Sky lineups and not too many on Lions. My legs are shot, from the number of runs I did.
Conditions were OK. Some fresh in the am, but visibility on and off. Grooming close to non existent, as usual.
I brought the Incline 180 tank, that I wanted @Jarcode to try. Holly mackerel, the edge hold and stability of that thing, compared to the little freeride boards I ride most of the time, nowadays! I forgot how solid and fast it was.
As the snow got messier and my legs more tired, I switched to the Vertigo, to play in the moguls.
Patrick struggled with his half-healed ankle and left early.
I'll be up on Monday all day... hopefully it isn't an absolute mess with the crowds. Let me know if you're coming up and I'll make sure to bring my Coiler AMT.
The 180 sounds interesting. I'm open to anything that just has a stiffer flex, even if it has more of an SL sidecut, or even just stiffer bindings. I didn't think I would hate the burton race plates so much.
If you're open to trades, I am happy to toss in my ancient GS board as well. The 177cm WCRM board I got this season completely outclassed it for freecarving. -
@BlueB You going to be up this weekend?
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Manning Park today. Extremely good conditions, although the mountain was missing snow in some parts. Only peaked at 2C, although the sun made it feel a lot warmer. Mountain was nearly empty, zero lines the entire day, runs with nobody on them. Prime carving conditions.
some mediocre carving before the snow softened up:I got some footage of better riding but with some pretty terrible quality.
@BlueB three!? And I still haven't seen one! -
Yeah, I'm eyeballing the 19th or 20th. I don't have a season pass this year so it's hard to justify coming up on a weekend where the groom turns into garbage in only a couple hours.
Unless @BlueB wants to trade my Coiler for passes, heh. -
18 hours ago, BlueB said:
Nothing like slush moguls
and that's what your Coiler, paired with floppy bindings, should be perfect for.
You would think, but the lateral flex those bindings allow is enough to drive me insane. I thought it was just because I had them set a notch too loose, but bringing up the toe piece up once made the bindings extremely difficult to pull over the toe...
The whole board just feels generally muted compared to when I used it with the F2 race titanium bindings. And the flex of the board with the F2s was already excessive enough that I could ollie it like a freestyle board, which was nice for jumps, but a nightmare for any aggressive carving.
I'll leave it setup with the cant/lift plates that came with the Burton bindings for you to try. Won't be up for a while though. -
17 hours ago, Eastsiiiide said:
That's great to hear Jarcode, and I think it's worth asking how one actually adds padding to a boot to increase heel hold.
You're talking about adhering foam to the outside of the liner, like in this diagram, right?
Source: Salomon shop manual, 2006/7
The "shim to the top of the liner" remedy they suggest is interesting, though I'm not sure exactly where they mean for the placement.
And the last thing in the list, a heel lift, would be something like Adjust-A-Lift, a little soft wedge to go inside the liner. I believe heel lift = wedge in the previous comments.
The compounding factor I find with heel movement is that it makes one want to to crank down the instep buckle, which can help hold the heel down a bit, but creates new problems.
I actually have a hard wedge outside of the liner for heel lift. Got them from a ski shop, and although they don't run very long and probably worsen arch support for my foot, I am rather flat-footed to begin with. For padding, I addded some butterfly-shaped foam pads around the top of my foot and ankle... but I have rather small ankles and wanted an exceptionally tight fit. I go through a similar ritual of resolving heel lift issues in inline skates and soft snowboard boots.
I highly doubt the specific padding situation for my boot is going to be of relevance to other people, since I actually am riding without footbeds at the moment (any attempt to use one so far has caused extreme pain). Next season I intend to replace my liners and see if I can get custom footbeds with some built-in heel lift instead, but I'm probably sticking with the 700T shells.
7 hours ago, emptypie said:Thanks for all of the input, it is appreciated. I am an absolute beginner so I think I'll start with a heel shim/wedge/lift but I'm not opposed to upgrading boots in the future.
Interesting point about the technique, I did find that I eventually adjusted to the looseness when carving but it still felt sloppy when doing a stop or sideslip. Felt like catching an edge would be more likely with the vagueness.
Had the same issue the first couple days trying the boots. Personally, I've realized I prefer exceptionally stiff setups even in the hardbooting world, and no amount of technique would really mitigate how unpleasant it feels to have my foot move even the slightest in the liner.-
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I'm not so sure I will be up this upcoming Saturday considering the warm weather on the forecast. I don't like surfing on excessive amounts of slush.
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@BlueB It's not in particularly good shape. But if you want it, I'll keep bringing it up with me and hopefully I'll meet you.
Maybe post in advance for the next day you're going to be up at Cypress, if it's on a weekend. -
I had this issue on my 700Ts, fixed the issue with wedges and some extra padding around the ankle, nice and snug now.
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Hardboots on all mountain board
in All Mountain Hardbooting
Posted · Edited by Jarcode
really wide -> wide
I took @BlueB's advice and threw my soft plates on a freeride board and had a ton of fun. Duck stance requires a fairly soft boot though, and a forward stance feels a lot more natural for carving. I ride my wide board (26.6cm waist, ~31cm tail/nose) at +45/+25, with some rear inward cant and heel lift. It's a surprisingly versatile setup.