dgCarve

Were is carvers love?

I wonder if anyone has picture of nice tracks in bad conditions, bumpy + icy + steep. Living nice tracks on nicely groomed runs feels like a cheating ... P.S. Yes, am jealous - 85% of my riding happens in very bad conditions....

4WD is not stiff board, WCRM too. And both boards are easy to decamber. But take into account that I am tall and fit guy with 205lb weight . Construction wide boards are very different, and comparing stiffness of this boards without context is like oranges to apples. WCRM has more liner stiffness as you continue to bend it, 4WD has stiffness which grows more exponentially as you bend it. When I push the WCRM with the same or less effort than 4WD, I get same turn sizes, however 4WD has 2m smaller SCR. But if I do not push the boards and just "park and ride" - simply letting SRCs do the work, then WCRM will do bigger turns. I find that stiff board does not guarantee best edge hold. From my experience in harder snow/ice softer flex holds edge better (of cause if it is damp enough). Foe example my custom Donek FC Secret Construction is much stiffer board than WCRM, but it does not hold edge on ice as good. However in soft snow it can be dangerous to ride too soft flex .

I see. Actually I find that 4WD is stiffer than WCRM. It is easier (not that big difference, but still) to bend/decamber WCRM that 4WD. With the same effort I do smaller turns on my WCRM board (even though WCRM has bigger SCR). For true "all mountain" I just ride regular board with hardboots. Plus I have ordered wide Coiler Contra. Cant wait to try it...

When I bake my liners I just use a big toe cap that I made from hard foam. It makes lots of room for my toes and there is no need to cut the liner.

Just in case you do not have experience with Prior boards, I just want to share mine… I own two: 4WD 174W, WCRM 173W. 4WD is not as versatile as it sounds from website description. 4WD has a bigger nose, which should help in some variable conditions. However I found WCRM can do all the same terrain as 4WD. For me 4WD is more fun in softer snow preferably with good grooming. It has lots of tail pop. It can launch you far and high between the turns :-). Super fun. WCRM does not have that much pop (very typical for metal boards). But can carve in the same conditions as 4WD plus on icy and very bumpy terrain. 4WD just has too strong vibrations in such conditions. Not fun. Depending on what you want, any of these boards can be a great choice. I mostly ride in bad conditions and I choose WCRM more often than 4WD.

I am sure some good riders give you more detailed answers... I want to point one thing. To me it looks like you do angulation at heel edge but on toe edge you do inclination. On toe edge try to push knees down first rest of the body follows. Try to keep body more vertical.

My experience is that new equipment sometimes even makes you wonder how board even turns (metal, VSC, different flex patters, sophisticated board profile, etc). And sometimes this actually can degrade your technique. Older boards usually respond to your inputs in very predictable manner without any surprises from advanced new tech. I almost feel that if you want to perfect your technique, you have to ride from time to time older boards. I do ride my Burton Alp quite often...

I worked mostly on this type of carving before I started to work on racing technique. Physically it is super challenging! And am physically very strong, and do lots of different sports... If you work really hard, you may need to go home after few runs :-). It is not a style what you can use to ride all day. But it looks very impressive, and makes skiers very confused, when they see snowboarder scraping the slope in every turn :-). I still try to ride this style from time to time... P.S. And this style requires lots of pairs of gloves... LOL

If you want to carve at lower speed I think options are: 1) Do big arks, and have relaxed stance. On steep slopes it is not an option. 2) Do small arks, and have very compact low stance. Physically very hard. Example: 3) Do small arks by doing lots of vertical work, push and pull technique. Physically much easier that 2). 4) On steep slopes you can do EC, this is just next step from 3). Requires very good technique. But it is easier to achieve than good racing technique, I think.... (am I not great at EC, do not like that style to be honest... ))

Actually in the video there is no skidding, maybe a bit of drift in gates at steep section, but not much. Racers use drift only when gates are too close, or slope is very steep. When he was free carving there was 0 skidding and no drifting. Racing technique is different from free carving and works amazing for tight crowded resorts. Speed is controlled by pressuring the board. No closed arcs. No forward directional stance, squared to bindings (forward stance slows downs edge switching and does not allow you to pressure the board as efficiently). High dynamic pressure almost required if you ride SL board, for GS boards not as important, as speeds are much higher. Good example of racing technique applied for free carving is Sigi's videos and Blue Plug-In 6. In Blue Plug in you may see some wide tracks - they are not skidding. Guys just put super high pressure on board at extreme angles. Sometimes softer snow on top simply can not handle it...

Sometime ago I switched to very stiff boot setup with locked lean. I found that this forces me to remove lots of unneeded and completely unless motions from my riding. EC style of riding is close to impossible with such setup...

Burton Driver X Snowboard Boots. Size 12 US. Great Condition. Used only few times. Few very minor normal usage marks. Almost new. No Damage. Very stiff boots for "soft" boots :-). Price $200 + shipping SOLD

I never raced, never even have tried to ride gates. Are there any snowboarding events in PNW for such noob racers?

Very interesting. So I looks like Bruce somehow magically combines 5 different radiuses from 9.5m to 16m to somehow create something approximately equal to 10.5m . I have asked Bruce to build an all mountain board which I could carve on chopped up runs, ride moguls, and occasional powder. He recommended to consider this Contra board. I am exited to see how this magical combination of 5 SRCs will work .

Used Burton Alpine Bindings with Cant disc and hardware. Price $50 + shipping.

New UPZ Flo Liners size US 10.5. All stock pads included. Price $50 + shipping.

That's a reason why I finally decided not to go with rotobrushes . I use big oval hand brushes - makes it a bit easier: Very Corse Stiff Steel - deoxidation, only if needed Soft Steel - general cleaning, pre wax Very Fine Soft Steel - for deep cleaning, pores opening, only if needed Brass - post scraping Fine Nylon - soft wax polishing Horse Hair - hard wax polishing

@1xsculler is from Crystal mountain. Runs are quite narrow and often very crowdy. Even if you use small SCR you have only two options: 1) go low and very compact (means burn quads) 2) Be dynamic and pressure the board in every turn (much less quad burn as load is not static). The third option just relax and and let board do the turn (even riding 10m SRC) could be used only in very limited cases. It is too slow, too wide, too little control (no fast edge change in case it is needed). It is just not an option at Crystal most of the time, especially after introduction of Icon Pass - it is just too crowded and narrow.

+1 I had bad quad burn till 1) I really played with my stance and found what works for me. 2) stoped going unnecessary super low and compact all the time. 3) When possible use more dynamic carving, actively pressuring the board, without statically "sitting" in the same position during long carve turn. I am very fit, but my quads where done in two hours before, now I can carve all day.

I got a contact of one witness. There is place in papers to put names of the witnesses. In papers there was a place to write description of an accident and additional place to draw a scheme of accident. Ski patrol just collects different information (your ability level, how many runs you had that day, do you wear glasses, did you drink alcohol, etc), they do not officially determine who is at fault.

In my case I spend about 1.5 hours in medical room with that skier. They have checked my knee. I have filled several papers, provided my personal info and description of accident. The skier did the same. I have all his contacts, In case there will be medical bills, I'll ask the skier to pay. Otherwise will not have a choice other then go to a lawyer...

Yesterday, at Crystal mountain, I was hit from behind by skier bombing down the hill. I was doing fall line carving – so, no wide closed turns. Trail was very wide and there were only two other people in front of me. Not even sure how the skier managed to hit me at this wide empty slope. He was almost as high as me at 6’+ feet, and looked much heavier than me, and I am about ~200lb. As you understand it was quite bad collision. I sustained knee injury. Yesterday I still could walk, today I can’t. If it will not become better tomorrow, will have to go to doctor… In best case this means no carving for me for at least a week, in worst… I do not want even to think about it… P.S. Explanation from the skier how it happened was: "I am only 14 years old". It was hard to believe considering how big he was... 2 weeks ago, I witnessed another incident. Skier was bombing down, almost hit me, and few seconds later, at full speed hit a child ~8-10 years old. It looked very serious… In my experience 95% off all close calls or collision what I saw were caused by skiers bombing down the hill almost at straight line, very often they were members of local ski teams. Great example was at Sun Peaks resort in December, several ski teams were practicing their full speed carving on crowded green slope in slow speed zone!

Thank You! This is my only second season on alpine setup. But I ride a lot - 4-6 times per week :-). In rear occasions I ride regular boards, but I still use hardboots. Ride everything on such setup from double black diamonds, to moguls and some jumps in the park (I am not park rat by any means :-)). And of cause I do not miss any chance to carve . So much more control I have with hardboots, even comparing to my very stiff softboot setup (Ride Insano / Driver X + Bent Metal Solution / Ride NX2 - GT). Have not used my softboot setup for a while...

Hi @1xsculler, I think I have seen you at Crystal mountain few times, that’s why decided to write my first post here… I can share my experience. I have started riding alpine setup not a very long time ago. My experience may help you. This is not by any means something what is “right”, but something what helped me. I had similar problems as you: burning my quads, not enough space on the slope, too crowdy slopes, bad conditions of the slope. As a result I used to do lots of sliding instead of carving. 1. Playing with my stance solved half of the burning legs problem. Found that even couple degrees of lift or canting can make a huge different. 2. I stoped following just one “school” of carving. And found that using different techniques makes my riding more fun, adaptable to situation, safe, and not too exhausting - much easier on my legs. I ride 75% racing style, 10% bomber/cmc, 15% “mild” EC/rotational push and pull :-). 3. I have tried to ride "low and compact“ all the time. And "low/compact“ means that my chest was resting on my knees sometimes during heel side turn. My quads were not happy. And it was dangerous at Crystal, where runs are narrow, with lots of people. Too high chance that somebody will hit you (had few close calls). Always using directional stance and sitting “compact”, controlling your speed by closed turns (means going slow downhill) is very limiting and not always needed. And requires lots of space. 4. I rode often and I increased my confidence. I started to ride faster and started to use more of racing technique (see Midweighting on YouTube). Now I rarely go super “low/compact”. Look at racers, they never go super compact, even during free carving - like Sigi. Same goes to some amazing carvers from Korea and Japan. However I can make my turns much smaller than before, as I can use my legs to really pressure the board. I can speed up or slowdown by pressuring the board differently during the turn (another tool in addition to angulation). Surprisingly I found that I can control my speed more efficiently than just using extended “closed” carves, and I use much less space. I am riding faster than before so it is not as dangerous (less chances to be hit by others). I do not have to wait for big gaps between other riders to drop in. Plus now I carve much better when runs at Crystal are really copped up. I just have more stability and agility now - I can change my directions much faster in case of “emergency” comparing to “forward facing” bomber style. 5. Surpassingly I found that faster and higher G turns, without scraping the slope (mostly - as you still will touch slope with your hips and knees if you want and/or need), are super fun too! 6. At steeper, narrow and crowded places (like steep section of Downhill run at Crystal) I (try to) use drifting racing technique. It is not sliding and is very fun. Requires little space and every turn still ends with a carve :-). 7. When I ride, I often repeat in my head: “heaps, knees, heaps, knees, …” (check Galmarini Gillette video on YouTube). Rest of the body just follows. This simple thing somehow improved my angulation a lot. Made my turns much more compact. P.S. Again, this is not necessary “right” or will work for everyone. It just worked for me :-).