Coldrider

and heli boarding.

Most days. <UL><LI>Mid-October to June: Colorado.</LI> <LI>July to Mid-September: New Zealand.</LI> <LI>November to present: Colorado.</LI></UL> The riding at Breck was sweet this weekend. 8" of fresh, windblown powder hiking above the lifts on Peak 8. The Basin will be going strong through mid-May, at the very least. Powder 8s at Breckenridge yesterday:

It was a pleasure to arrange travel through SkyAuction. They were quick, cordial, and totally professional. I flew with Air Tahiti Nui, which I also highly recommend. Air Tahiti provided outstanding service and surprisingly good food, spankin' new Airbus planes (the ones with the personal video monitors in each seat). They cheerfully accomodated my request for a bulkhead seat and a last-minute, unscheduled change in my travel dates at no additional charge (Frontier airlines charged me 1/3 the price of my flight for a similar adjustment). And, best of all, you can choose an extended stopover in Tahiti. Good medicine for winterized riders.

I arranged airfare to NZ through Sky Auction last summer and will do it again this year. New Zealand offers great exchange rates, beautiful country, adventuresome people, and affordable heliboarding. As a bonus, you can do a stopover in Tahiti, Fiji, Cook Islands, or Hawaii. Is the riding epic? Sometimes. Is it worth a trip? Definitely! Bring all of your own hardboot gear as it's nearly impossible to find alpine gear (and parts) in NZ.

Thanks, PSR, for the answer. It still seems a bit odd to me that what seems to be an important alignment issue isn't addressed through a single mechanism, rather than by a combination of two (or three if you count footbeds) which are located in different places. After all, when I adjust the seat in my car, I use a single mechanism, rather than one for big adjustments and one for fine tuning. Is this because most bindings only allow canting in fairly large (i.e. 3 degree) increments? Is there some resouce available that can help me to better understand the arcane science (or black art) of dialing in alignment on a hard boot board? Thanks. Cheers, COLDrider

Is there a difference between addressing bowleggedness using the cuff cant on the boot or through canting the binding?

That would likely be John Calkins.

Tognar may have what you're looking for.

As the purpose of canting and lifting is to align the boots so they perfectly match the profile of the lower legs and feet, outward cant works best for me because my hips are wider than many of the boards I ride (The narrowest are 18cm waist which require stance angles of 60-70 degrees). My legs approach the board from the outside, and the outward cant fits the boot to that angle. Of course, that angle changes as stance angle/width changes, as does lift. IMO, addressing alignment is critically important. I've seen many riders experience instant, and dramatic, improvement simply by adjusting lift/cant (and also by bootfitting). I wonder sometimes that more people might be riding hardboots if alignment issues were the first thing that was addressed. It's hard to ride when your're fighting your equipment.

I gots big feet and ride narrow boards at high stance angles (60-70 degrees). It's worked best for me to cant slightly <I>outwards</I> (typically 1-3 degrees depending on stance angle) to allow the shaft of the boot to cradle my leg without being over/underedged toeside or heelside. I've been using some delrin shims that burton once made as an aftermarket item, which have allowed me to experiment adjusting lift and cant in small (approx 1 degree) increments. Just picked up the TD-2 with 3 degree, and don't yet feel that I've yet got the alignment as dialed as I do on the Burton setup. I'm going to keep experimenting with it, but right now it feels like I want to go flatter in front.

If you got your A-Game on, Tuckerman Ravine on Mt Washington is an awesome spring backcountry experience. Defintely worth a trip!

This looks promising. COLDrider

(At the risk of making waaaay too much of a very small technical point): OK, but I don't think it's too complicated to say to a newbie that when making an edge change, it helps to have the tip of the board pointed in the direction it is traveling. It's simple, and technically correct to boot. FWIW, COLDrider

Good point, Phil, but one I think needs a bit of clarification. I think what you mean to say is that the board must be pointed in the direction that IT is moving. I can, for example, make short radius carved turns where my body is traveling down the fall line, but my board is not pointed in this direction when I change edges. In fact, the very act of changing edges requires me to move <I>across</I> the board, and thus in every carved transition (and in every turn) my cm is <B>not</B> moving in exactly the same direction as my board. It is only when my board is pointed in the direction that <I>its</I> CM is moving that I can smoothly transition to a clean carved arc. This is a small but important difference. I saw this very concept in a recent AASI article, with the same small technical error. While this mis-statement may be 'good enough for government work', I think that the readers of this forum are tech savvy enough to appreciate the difference. My 2 centavos.

Not the photo. That looks good to me. I was asking about the video link. That also looks good to me. Is there some debate among instructors, freeriders, and racers as to what is good technique?

I'm confused. Is the rider in the video NOT making good carved turns? I'd be happy to ride like that.

Cool photo! Is there any place that hosts more of the same...slalom/GS in particular? It helps me to see movements that happen too fast form my eye to pick up when watching live or watching video.