i agree with kleb. i'm not even 100% convinced alpine boards are faster than good FR boards. local softie rider here regularly goes 45+, maxed at 54mph, has big cojones and just bombs runs. those speeds may not be overly fast out west, but considering how small the local mtns. are and the amount of people usually on them, it's enough to find trouble here if you're not riding aware of your surroundings. riding on edge, to me, at least feels much faster, maybe it's b/c of our body positioning, steeper angles, etc (or eve than lots of alpiners are higher on edge) i don't know. interesting topic though.