StrangeFuture808

Compression fracture of my L1 at 24 means Sacroiliitis for life either way. Funny enough its way worse in the summer than winter and the more engaged I am with work and riding the less I get any sciatic nerve type pain. I definitely try and keep it from touching down hard (keeping it off the snow has been a huge focus this year) but that little corridor leaves less room for the ideal standard.

Lower lift line at MCC yesterday. Not my cleanest work but there's always next year

Tatsu is awesome! It's him and others from his crew like Char Huger that motivated me to order a Donek Saber this year and I love it. Most of the japanese & Korean riders with that style are riding the Grey Deseperado TypeR (I know Tatsu rides Kessler but I'm almost certain the Grey is loads cheaper and very comparable) https://sbn.japaho.com/en/2122_gray_desperado_ti_typer/ I'm kinda bias as I am an ambassador for Donek and love all my boards from them but the Saber seems to really give me that serious acceleration out of a properly done carve and shoot me across the fall line like you see Tatsu do so smoothly. You could send the specs sheet from the Desperado TypeR or Tatsu's Kessler over to Sean and ask him to make you a Saber that resembles it. One thing to note is that Donek Saber and Incline are the most popular models sold by Donek's Korean distributor and because Koreans are so into ground tricks they like them a bit softer than what Tatsu and other riders of this type who are into pure carving would like. I ordered my Saber a bit stiffer than a Knapton Twin and after a few days or riding and breaking it in it really is the perfect board for this style. Here's a reel from day 2 riding the Donek Saber and if ever you are interested in that model feel free to tell Sean to look up Jordan Michon's Saber for stiffness rating etc. https://www.instagram.com/reel/CmxIAFJKNO7/?igshid=MWI4MTIyMDE=

Donek makes wide boards and sleeves so I'd try and grab one from them.

Had been wanting to record this drill for a while and this talk about rotation and hips had me thinking about what skills would open you up to more freedom to be creative in your style. Obviously pitch, speed and corridor are going to effect how liberal you can be with self expression but if from your knees down you are doing the right things and you're stacked and mobile over and across your board I think you should be able to get away with a lot of style things like counter rotating on the toeside without enormous consequences. Anyways, this is a little exercise I love to do from time to time to keep my lower body steering on point. If anyone gets a chance to try it let me know how it goes for you.

Talk to Sean at Donek. Donek is distributed in Korea as well where tons of riders of this style order the Saber and the Incline. Over the years Sean has kinda dialed in the different wants of BX users of the Saber and the Korean/Japanese style that incorporates some ground tricks. Too stiff and it makes the ground tricks very hard. Generally the Saber isn't an overly stiff board to begin with but when I ordered a Saber this year I used the Knapton Twin I ordered from them previously as a stiffness reference and Sean nailed it. If you have ground trick ambitions getting it made a bit softer than a Knapton might be helpful though. From what I've seen of the Contra its not super well suited to that style of carving but I could be wrong.

I also tried to get you to do a toeside carve touching nothing to the snow but your edge and helmet. You should know by now I cant be taken seriously out there

Not really what I said or meant, I was speaking for myself and how I feel looking back critically on videos of my own riding from last season. I destroyed a couple of pairs of snow pants shredding the pocket because I got comfortable with my ass sliding on the ground on my heelside carves and this winter I wanted to use my leg strength more. I solved the pant shredding problem by having a seamstress sew vinyl on the lead hip/butt of my pants but even that was getting a bit chewed up. I admit riding like that with the butt slide felt smooth and the board tracked straight without chatter but I definitely felt like I was sitting my way through turns. A properly executed layed out EC heelside is nothing like what I was doing and I didn't associate what I said with that style. I wasn't laying it out on my heelside I was doing a angulated fairly standard carve with only my hand ass and edge on snow and when I look back at my own footage like this carving segment at the beginning of this video I feel like I was cheating by having my ass on the snow for too long. Good news, January is almost over and I haven't even scuffed any outerwear yet this season

Damn thats huge! What was the width of your previous board? . Assuming by the way you're riding that thing this isn't your first Knapton Twin lol.

The poke/reach at the end of that toeside looks great and I love how it feels when that results in a burst of speed across the fall line! Nice turns! Totally what I was talking about.

Agreed I ride 2 boards +27+12 (this is my first year riding ++) and 2 boards +27-9 and that counter rotated toeside feels way more dramatic when riding duck and ++ makes rotation on my heelside feel much more efficient. I'll never go full ++ but its hard not to see it as the most efficient stance for carving. Your current turn is usually only as good as your last turn and your ability to return to a neutral stance between carves is kinda your only defence against your own consequences.

I'm going to say something I know wont sit well with a lot of people but most of the best riders I see carving rotate on their heelside driving with their hips and then counter rotate on their toeside (to a varying degree) by putting their hand down further forward on the snow than their lead shoulder. The trickle down effect of that hand down is going to fairly mild at the hips but the motion of driving your rear knee down towards the snow also contributes to the communication to your board that you are counter rotating. I've played around with this a fair amount on the mountain in the last few weeks and found that mild counter-rotation in your toeside carves like in this main image of this video has great effects. If you watch videos of Japanese "mustard" riders you'll see they initiate the toeside turn with their front arm almost behind their back and sweep it forward as the turn progresses bringing them from a heavily counter rotated initiation to a more rotated position at the end of that toeside carve, then they do the same sweep on their heelside with their back arm from back to front. The super aggressive ones will make this sweep almost look like a punch. It's unfortunate that carving on that level is an afterthought to the governing bodies of instruction/coaching in North America so we're left guessing, debating and playing around finding out what works best for us. At least they got something right, "there are no wrongs in snowboarding just consequences".... aka #^(K around and find out.

I don't know the runs that well and really dislike Sunshine so I never bothered to learn them. I was mistaken about the chair name though this is under Great Divide Chair. The one that takes you to Delirium.

Caught a couple laps on an empty Delerium at Sunshine Village this morning. Riding a 160 Donek Nomad Goofy with +27+9 stance 29.5cm waist width

I second this. Dan Richards @icecoastcarver and Marisa Mckellar @marisamckellar are in your area and both great knowledgeable carvers.