gdboytyler

A board in the 160 to 170cm range would probably be a good starting point. 158 is on the short side for carving. I've never ridden a F2 Speedcross, but it sounds like a boardercross board (wide + small sidecut radius). I would bet that a Donek FC would carve better than the Speedcross. And I happen to have a Donek FCII 163 for sale. And because it happens to be the end of the season, I will drop the price to $350 + shipping. Check out this link for pics and more info: http://www.bomberonline.com/VBulletin/showthread.php?t=10421 The Donek FCII will be good for learning how to carve and it will hold it's own as you get better.

Avalanche at Mammoth occurred on Monday. No one killed or injured. Scan of L.A. Times article

If you had done some Kegel excercises, you could have pinched off the pee stream and saved your helmet.

That would be Mt. Brighton. Mt Brighton has chairlifts, a half-pipe and snowboard park. The place is actually pretty fun for 300 ft of vertical. Mt Brighton also has night skiing 7-days a week during the season. It's better than nothing.

The grooming at Mammoth sucks. The terrain variety is good. But the crowds really suck on the weekends. It's fairly uncrowded on the weekdays, except after a big powder dump and good weather is forecasted. Then plenty of people from So Cal will take the day off. I've never seen an uncrowded powder day at Mammoth. June is great for carving, but I wouldn't recommend it for a 2 month vacation. Not enough variety, plus June is only suppose to operate 4 days a week next season. I'd vote for CO. Plenty of variety and much less crowded than Mammoth.

Luckily for me, no one actually notices the nose until I point it out. So it's very subtle. I've already gotten 7 days of riding on my custom. I like the board so much, I don't even notice the nose anymore So far the only conditions that I don't like riding my custom in is in deep snow and ice. Not enough float and too stiff for deep snow. I don't like the big sidecut radius for ice because I can't carve small enough turns to control my speed and end up having to skid. I've ridden it in small, soft moguls and it rode well. But haven't taken it into deep or hard moguls.

Actually, I'm more interested in a 170cm with a 12m sidecut.

I bought a custom Donek that was also inspired by the Swoard. It's 165cm long, 20.6cm waist and 13m scr. I would expect the G-Force board to have a similar ride. Here's the post on my custom. http://www.bomberonline.com/VBulletin/showthread.php?t=10782 Remember, it's not just a wide board, it's a wide board (at least for alpine) with a big sidecut radius and torsionally stiff. I don't think a person that rides a lot of icy conditions will like the wide board+big sidecut radius concept. For icy conditions, I like a narrow board with small sidecut radius so you can make small carves, with fast edge to edge transitions. This makes it easier to control your speed in icier conditions. Now for all-mountain riding, I think there is a general consensus that wider is better (Axxess, 4WD, Coil, Alp, etc.). But those boards are wide+small sidecut and I would guess torsionally less stiff than full carving boards. I haven't tried my custom Donek in deep moguls yet. But I have ridden a Swoard in deep moguls and didn't like it. I think it was too stiff torsionally. So I would guess that my custom Donek and the G-Force boards wouldn't be the choice for doing moguls either. For moguls I prefer an Axxess, Alp or Coil. I would like to try an all-mountain alpine board with a bigger sidecut radius.

I remember my Sims Blade 1610. It was a very good board for it's time. I couldn't find a photo of the Sims Blade. But I did find a photo of the old G-Force cartoon series that I liked as a kid:

Other than the graphics (or shipping if you live in Greece), what is the advantage of buying the board from G-Force vs buying direct from Donek? The board looks like a modified version of the FCII (same nose profile). Also, from the website description of the board, it seems like the G-Force board is using the standard Donek construction instead of using the Olympic upgrade.

Here’s some video from Sunday afternoon, with me, GaryJ and Tim K. The run is Deer Bowl at June. Next year, we’ll get the video crew out a lot earlier.

Neil now has some pull with the grooming crew over at June. On Saturday, the grooming on Deer Bowl (blue/black run) was horrendous. Afterwards Neil talked to the head of the grooming crew. They promised better grooming for the SNES crew for Sunday and they delivered. The groomers hit Deer Bowl and Shatz (?) last. The last of the groomers were finishing early Sunday morning. Deer Bowl and Shatz (my favorites at June) were very good early, while it was boilerplate everywhere else.

At 215 lb, I think you're at the high end of the recommended weight range. Check http://www.oxygensnowboards.com/# ,the website will have recommended weight range. I can't access that website from work, or I would paste the specs in the post.

I demo'd the Madd 158 (F1 flex) at the SNES at June Mountain. I'm 5'7", 132 lb, 24mondo boots. I rode the board early in the morning to specifically test it out in boilerplate conditions. The board had great edge hold, it even made riding on boilerplate fun. It's definitely the best board I've ridden under 160cm. I normally ride boards with waist widths ranging from 19.5cm to 21.5cm. So I thought I might have a problem riding the skinnier Madd. But my transition to the Madd was almost seamless. I rode with angles of approximately 63f and 57b. I was doing hip to hip carves by my third run. It felt like an easy board to ride. The only problem I had was having my back knee occasionally hitting the snow. Because I was carving the board so quickly from edge to edge on laid-out carves, I didn’t have time to extend my legs through the turn like I normally would. I had to consciously think about tucking my back knee behind my front knee to get it out of the way. Now about the high-speed stability of the Madd. Maybe I expected too much because of what I heard and read about. I expected it to be as stable as my boards with 13m sidecut radius. It didn’t feel that way to me. I could ride the board faster than my stock Donek FC2, with a 10m sidecut, but I couldn’t approach the speeds that I ride on my custom Donek or my Oxygen Proton 164 (both 13m sidecuts). At higher speeds it started feeling “squirly”. Yes, that’s a scientific term. A few of the Madd boards in the SNES demo fleet did have jacked-up inserts. I’m pretty sure they were brass inserts. None of the Doneks in the demo fleet had bad inserts. The Madd website does say you have a choice of brass or stainless steel inserts for new boards. I would recommend going with stainless. Anybody know of any reasons for going with brass inserts?

I think Rob means Jay (his fellow Swoard rider) and girlfriend. I had a great time at SNES. The cameraderie between all the riders was awesome, the weather was great, snow conditions was fun and carvable. I even had fun on the early morning boiler plate when I was demoing the Madd 158. Thanks again to Neil and Jackie for putting the event together Erwin

I'm back from a great 3 days of riding at SNES. Oldvolvosrule, thanks for informing the potential buyers about my reason for not replying. Dragonrider, I agree with the other posters that said the Proton 164 GS is NOT a beginner board. Because of the bigger sidecut radius, you have to have some speed before the board will carve. Diveburt, when you say you want to "progress to extreme carves" are you talking about the kind of turns shown on extremecarving.com? If you are already carving nice round turns, then yes the Proton GS can help you get better at laid-out carves. The bigger sidecut radius (13m) will allow you to get into the laid-out carve at higher speed, carve a bigger turn and exit the laid-out carve at a higher speed. When I do laid-out carves on boards with 10m sidecut radius (or smaller), I almost come to a stop at the end of the carve.

I just got some second hand news that 3 ski patrollers died at Mammoth today while trying to clear out the volcanic vent by Chair #3. Two of the patrollers fell in, then a third went in to try the save the first 2 and he might have been overcome by the volcanic fumes. It has been a deadly season at Mammoth.

According to the Mammoth website, the top did not get opened on Thursday. Neil, is that info correct? If that's true, then Friday could be another great pow day, assuming the top gets opened. And it could also be hero snow for carving on Friday. So do I pull out the carving board or the O-Sin for Friday? Ahhh, screw carving. I'm breaking out the O-Sin and going to the top for some deep pow! Then jump on the carving board after all the powder gets tracked out by 10:00.

In a previous thread, Tex1230 says this about your skills on ice "I must now say that EC style carving may look cool on videos, but I have never seen it before in person. I don't care what anyone else says about touching snow being bad form, sliding your body being not true carving etc... That boy can carve! he leaves deeper cleaner trenches on the snow than most "bobmber style" carvers I've seen..and he can do it on crap ungroomed ice that left me & my GS board chattering and skidding down the hill." http://www.bomberonline.com/VBulletin/showthread.php?t=10914 According to the thread, you were riding the Swoard that day. So what's the truth? Is the Swoard really not good on ice? Was Tex1230 exaggerating the icyness of the day? I've got a custom Donek with a 20.6cm waist and 13m sidecut. It works great for EC, bumpy/chopped up snow, and it's manageable in the half-pipe. On icy, blue runs it also held a good edge. On icy, black diamond runs, it was too hard to carve and control my speed -I'm pretty sure that was due to the large sidecut radius. On icy, steep runs, I prefer a snowboard with a smaller sidecut radius (8 to 10m) to make smaller carves at slower speeds. Straightlining an icy, steep run is not my idea of fun.

I rode a friend's Swoard for a few days and liked it a lot. Easy to ride, great edge hold, and makes it easier to EC. Instead of buying a Swoard, I went with a custom Donek with Oympic construction, which ends up more expensive than the Swoard, but definately worth the extra money. Custom Donek Review For a poor man's Swoard, you could also check out the Burton UltraPrime 168. It has a 20 cm waist and 12.2m scr. Another poor man's Swoard is the Oxygen Proton, which I just happen to have for sale: http://www.bomberonline.com/VBulletin/showthread.php?t=10826

No man, it's real. My credit card got charged.

Actually, that's Phillip Schoch. Klug was only a bronze medalist.

I've got a 185 with 14m sidecut on pre-order. I should get it before next Christmas.

Sometimes, there's nothing wrong with touching the snow. Even Olympic gold medalists do it on occasion.

Yes, there really was hero snow in So Cal in late March The conditions at Bear on Thurs. from 8:30 am to 10:30 am were great. Excellent grooming, very light crowd. By noon it was slush city.