TimW

Maybe my advice is a little out of tune, but a key factor in anyones riding is fatigue. If you are tired, your riding will suffer and you are much more likely to fall. So I recommend anyone to ride in a stance that is relaxed for you. Yes more flexed is good to absorb bumps and for balance, but not if it is too streneous, then your legs will just collapse. Just find out what works for you.

Depends very much on the boot how rideable walk mode is. E.g. I ride my deeluxe always in walk mode, but they have decent stiffness in walk mode and a limit on forward flex. You need support from the cuff to pressure your edge(unless at very high angles), so you need something with sufficient forward stiffness. It seems you want to ride upright rather than in walk mode, which is perfecrly possible. I rode in upright rear entry ski boots for a few years late 80's. I suggest getting a spring system and adjust that to an upright position. That would still allow carving nice, even deep, turns with a very relaxed ride. The drawback is that you need good conditions. Bump absoprtion would suffer a lot. But cruising down nice wide groomers will be wonderful.

I get the impression I am the only one not doing any specific exercise for snowboarding? Last year I picked up a bit of (trail)running after getting bored with cycling, and I was surprised that it seemed actually a good preparation for snowboarding. Before that, with cycling I did a lot more, was in quite decent shape and did the occasional mtb marathon, and even developed a bit of leg muscle. Now with running I do far less, maybe 15k/ week average at an easy pace, but for boarding it seems better. My guess is it has to do with targeting specific muscles with cycling vs. more allround training with trailrunning. I agree with the others that technique is key for carving endurance. Rotation helps to minimise the energy needed to keep the board on its edge. And of course coffee breaks (with cake!) and a hefeweizen for recovery afterwards are vital....

Beautiful boards! But the 140 eff edge seems a little exaggerated ..... more like 120cm

https://en.1994snowboard.com/ I didn't know these

I am thinking about making a spring system for my Deeluxe boots. My idea is to make it very compact with the forward and backward spring parallel to eachother instead of on the same axis. (so far I have always ridden them in walk mode, OK with that, but bit of experimenting never hurts) Does anybody have a number on the spring stiffnesses are commonly used for these systems? Load at max compression or stiffness in N/mm, or lbs/inch (or whatever is used in imperical units), all would be helpful.

Not mine. On a Dutch online marketplace. The catch is that you have to take the proto (free) as well. And that it is in the Netherlands. But may be interesting for fellow Europeans. https://www.marktplaats.nl/a/sport-en-fitness/snowboarden/m1540787692-f2-silberpfeil-162-cm.html

Best investment, that you will never regret, is definitely more snowboards.

The f2 will be quite a different ride with much bigger sidecut radius, but if you want longer deeper carves it might be just the board for you. The best thing would be to try a few boards to find out what you like. However, if a board is very different you may need dome time to understand &appreciate it since you only know one board. E.g the f2 will definitely demand more active riding than the Airwalk (and reward it) If the F2 is a good deal it may be a good idea just to buy it. You can always sell it again at a small loss if you don't like it. It is good for your riding to have multiple boards. But be aware, quivers tend to expand....

Is there really a decline in alpine carving? Over the 30 years that I am carving, it has always been a niche. Yes, hardboots were big(here in europe), but the number of people really carving has always been very very small. In my perception the main difference is that the skidders moved to softboots, and the overall % of snowboarders has decreased. We are simply on one extreme of the spectrum and will always be a niche. I actually think the alpine snowboard market is pretty healthy, enough small manufacturers that are dedicated and make very good boards. That's better than a big manufacturer throwing in an alpine board to fill the catalogue. Even the hardboot options are ok with 4 or 5 shells on the market. Biggest risk to carving is crowds, I can fully understand that waiting for a gap to appear, to lay down some carves, is not appealing. Even ski schools are moving away promoting/teaching (ski) carving because the crowds are simply limiting.

I'd settle for 1/4th of that. Johnasmo, seems that data is not you only OCD. I guess buying board and snowboarding must be OCDs as well!

Have a live stream of the event, so all of us who cannot attend can envy the participants even more...

89° side, 1° base if I do the base. I sharpen them when I think it is been a while, guess every 7-10 days of riding. To be honest I have never noticed a difference with different angles. It has to be pretty rock hard to distinct a perfectly sharp edge from a not-too-blunt edge anyway. I prioritize sharpening technique over sharpening edges ( I wish). But an isolation plate, that makes a difference!

I take off the bindings (have more boards than bindings anyway, so I mount them when needed), no wax or anything. Nowadays I store them vertically. I used to stack them horizontally and that never gave problems (with boards of decent build quality), but with the stack increasing in size there is a lot of weight on the lower boards, and I got a bit worried on noses deforming over time. Bit less organized than the others

Normally you run the top laminate over the inserts and drill the laminate afterwards. Makes a lot of sense not to drill inserts yet if it is not sure they will be used, as there is a significant strength benefit. Bit weird tough that the locations are not marked then by Kessler

A PJ7? So how does that compare to a current board?

It could also be thermoplastic matrix instead of epoxy, which would allow quite a bit of distortion.

But it feels a bit uneasy to lay down carves behind a kicker.....

hardboots / ski boots was pretty much the default option late 80's in europe, Took a few years to discover carving. Just freecarving, never been interested in doing any sport competitive.

Shocked to read your story Ladia, wish you all the best for your recovery. It is crazy how some (many) bomb down the mountains these days, without paying attention. Even if you a laying down carves consistently, many skiers seem unable to anticipate your next turn.

The axles forward of the center is definitely not helping, as it softens the tail relatively to the nose. On top of that your setup seem far back on the board, even relative to the already setback position of the inserts. Underslung heel puts you back even further. My suspicion is that you ride a bit backfooted. Directly mounted, your boots working the board would counteract that a bit, but with a plate the full edge is more evenly engaged.

With bails, the rubber soles of your boot provide lateral flex, the bails itself as well. Gets better when you set them tighter. That is why people tighten them to the point that bails and boots start breaking. Before Intec existed I rode Burton reactors with Burton race plates, and these were lateral noodles. I replaced the heel bail with a steel pin through the boot which engaged some hooks on the plate, made a dramatic difference to stiffness and to edge hold. I guess the reason Bombers got popular is the much stiffer bails and thus better lateral stiffness. With Intec, there is no noticeable difference in stiffness between F2's and TD2s. I prefer the TD2 because of the smaller and symmetric board interface, allowing more board flex.

Look, a real snowboarder! (From a skier) Some people in Europe still understand it.

Hard to judge without visual, but it sounds like you are trying too much to get low/lean over. If you lean your upper body (reach for the snow) at the initiation of the turn...you will not initiate the turn. You should initiate the turn(edge the board) with your lower body, upper body upright. Get those mellow carves going and when your turns get more agressive, your lean angle will increase automatically.

Skier: That is antique! The board was new