gdboytyler

I think you need an accompanying poll with questions like: *I can do a laid out frontside turn. *I can do linked laid out turns. *I can do linked laid out turns, but it's lame, so I don't. Phil, are you the same Phil that will be coaching in Chile with Anton Pogue? Too bad my budget doesn't allow spending a week or so in a summer race clinic.

I've got the 168 version. I'm the one trying to talk Gary into getting the bigger O-Sin. I've also been trying to talk another buddy that's 200+lb into getting the bigger version of my board. I’ve checked and have not seen any 178’s on EBay recently. I got some spring like conditions this past weekend at the lower runs at Mammoth. The board handles fine in the soft/almost slushy snow. But I didn't feel it had any advantages over any other decent all mountain board for slush riding. I would also recommend using hardboots. Another buddy of mine got the 168 version and rode it in softboots. He said his toes were hurting from riding the O-Sin. I assume it was because the O-Sin was wider than his normal free-ride board, so he had to lean over more to get the board to turn. Personally, I’ve never tried the O-Sin with soft boots.

My theory is that Mammoth started grooming Scotty's to relieve some of the traffic at Cornice. So I would bet it will get groomed regularly. So unless you get a powder day, you'll probably get to ride a groomed out Scotty's. If it is groomed, I'd recommend one warm-up run, then hit Scotty's or Cornice. Because even if it starts out groomed, it gets bumped up fast. I have heard some people gripe about Cornice getting groomed. The complaint being, with a groomed steep run, too many people get on the run that really shouldn't be there. On further review of my close call with Gary, I did start out following Gary's line. So maybe he was slightly downhill. Either way, Gary's a hell of alot bigger, so I gave him a much wider cushion the rest of the trip.

Bordy, how about some links or video titles? I remember a Burton video that had Jean Nerva and Peter Bauer carving at (maybe) Buttermilk. They were doing laid-out carves, but, I don't remember any linked laid-out carves. They were also carving circles around a tree. That's still the best 360 deg carve that I've seen. That video made me want to get an alpine board and hardboots. I also remember an old Snowboard magazine article that said "Eurocarve = Stupid Carve". That was maybe 10 years ago? This style debate has been going on for a loooong time. And it's still interesting:D

This past weekend was also the first time I've seen Scotty's groomed. Carving real black diamond runs are a blast and a challenge. I lost an edge while trying a frontside eurocarve on Cornice and slid on my belly for around 100 yards. My other eurocarves on Cornice turned out a lot better. We were both getting a lot of hoots and compliments that day. We also got a lot of questions about the carving gear. A lot more than normal. We made good carving ambassodors and didn't give any smartass answers to questions like "is that a snowboard?":D Oh yeah, the closest I came to a collison was when Gary almost T-boned me in front of a demo group:eek:

Bordy is probably right, but the only people that have video of laid out turns that look as good as Patrice and Jacques of extremecarving.com are Patrice and Jacques. I would think that if any riders had video of them doing the EC style turns as well as J&P, it would have been posted. A frontside EC style turn is fairly easy. Linking frontside and backside is hard. I can consistently pull off the frontside EC on black diamond runs, specifically Cornice at Mammoth when it was groomed this past weekend. But I can't link backside and frontside EC turns on any type of run. If a race course were easily accessible and local clinics available, I would practice the race style a lot more. When the local resorts had “pay to race” courses setup, I’d pay my $2 and run the gates. But now the “pay to race” courses have given way to snowboard parks. I’m too cheap to enter Nastar races and too impatient to wait my turn. The extremecarving.com website has good how-to instructions on the push/pull (flexion/extention) method with shoulders parallel to the bindings style. I find that style works well with all-around riding, not just the laid-out carves. I don’t have to change my style of riding when switching from alpine board to freestyle board. Personally, I like laid out carves, racing and freestyle. Racing has too big of a time/money commitment. I do the medium size jumps in the park and ride the superpipes, but I’m too old/wimpy to learn rodeo flips, 720’s, etc. But, whenever I get a well groomed run with some steepness to it, I’ll be trying the EC style carves.

I second the motion for going into the snowboard park during slushy conditions -- on a freestyle board and soft boots.

According to this recent report, Zinal, the Extremecarving.com resort of choice, has East Coast like conditions: http://www.tahoecarvers.com/riders/forum/read_TC.php?f=1&i=4957&t=4957

From the replys, it sounds like the Midwest snow conditions are very similar to East Coast conditions. The biggest difference is the size of the resort. Mt. Brighton and Alpine Valley in MI, that are by my parent's house has around 300ft of vertical. Mt. Brighton should be sued for false advertisement for using Mt. in their title. Still, riding around a tiny hill is better than watching TV during the occasional holiday visit.

If I ever end up at an East Coast ski resort for a couple days, I think I would actually wish for the stereotypical ice coast day. Just to see what all the hype is about. I've had around 20 days/nights of snowboarding in MI and the snow gets super hard. People would call it icy, but it wasn't ice. Only one night did I see an actual patch of ice on the run that was of considerable size. It was about 20 yards wide and 100 yards long. It looked like it was caused by a snow gun malfunction. Some crazy skiers were traversing the ice patch at high speed, but no one was taking the fall line down the ice patch. So when people say you need ice skates for an "icy" day on the east coast, I just take that as an exaggeration.

I got married back in March 14, 1991. Now going through the divorce procecss. The soon-to-be ex-wife planned everything for the wedding. I planned the honeymoon - one week in St. Moritz, Switzerland. I've taken down the wedding photos, but the snowboarding photos from the honeymoon are still hanging on my walls. The five days of snowboarding in St. Moritz is still one of the best snowboard trips I ever had. No carving board at the time, but I got a couple of killer powder days. Not too many people at St. Moritz liked going off the groomed runs. The new bride was taking skiing lessons while I boarded. St. Mortiz has great runs and great snow, but the T-bars really suck.

I'd recommend the Econo Lodge Wildwood Inn. It's around $100/night. But that's about the cheapest you'll find within 5 miles of Mammoth. If you find something cheaper, and it's not a rathole, post the info here. Sometimes Mammoth has a "Stay and Ski for Free" deal. For $75/person/night, you get to stay at Mammoth Mountain Inn and get a free lift ticket.

I think this thread is definitely becoming East vs West. The best riders (not just carving) I've met were all from the West. The best riders that I've personally seen were the locals at Mammoth and Jackson Hole. Of course, the East Coast riders I've met were tourists, just like me, so I wouldn't expect to meet the best the east coast had to offer unless there was some sort of contest or convention. I'm sure an East Coast carver that gets the same amount of snow days as me would be better on icy conditions. But then, I would be better than that same East Coast carver on a deep powder day on a double black diamond run. I'll take powder days and hero snow over hardpack/ice skills anyday. I do this stuff for fun. Does anyone really consider riding ice/boiler plate fun? To get the thread really argumentive, the guys that were at the SES should post which group of riders were better, the East or West contingent. To be more scientific, does someone have the demographics of the US ski/snowboard team members? What’s the split between East and West? I would guess that the maniacs in the snowboard videos or Warren Miller films that were jumping cliffs and outrunning avalanches got their skills from riding resorts in the West.

I'd like to see some good snowboard bump action! One of the times I've seen good bump riding was in the old video "Snowboarder's in Exile" and they profiled a Euro boarder that specialized in bumps. He was banging throught the bumps like a skier, but the run didn't look very steep. The other one was in the Pureboarding video in some powdery bumps. I have fun on powdery moguls on blue runs. But hard moguls on a double black is just plain work.

Considering I haven't seen ANYONE (in video or in person) linking good turns on ANY kind of snowboard on a steep bump run and I've seen only 2 people link totally stylish, laid out turns on steep runs - good technique on steep bumps must be harder. As for a clean GS run, a lot riders can do that, at least on good conditions. Once it gets rutted out or you get a tough course, then that's what really separates the good from the great.

I only hit Summit/Bear on the weekends, unless the snow is really good or on my B-day. The next time I go to Summit/Bear will probably be 3-19 or 3-20.

If it gets too soft/slushy and the Proton is no longer the optimal board, I'm heading over to the park with my freestyle board to join all the baggy-pants-teenagers. Or maybe work the moguls with the O-Sin.

I'd recommend getting the Oxygen Proton 149. I'm 5'7", 130 lb, fairly aggressive rider and the 149 works great for me. It doesn't feel overly stiff, so I think it would be fine as your first alpine board. It's also a good enough board that it won't hold you back when you get better. The board has really good edge hold and is a very quick turner. And it so happens, that my 149 just became available for purchase. I've got a Proton 156 on the way. I wanted to go a little longer to get more stability at higher speeds. My Proton 149 is a newer model than the one on EBay. I'll sell it to you for $75 + shipping. If you're interested, I can post some photos or email them to you directly.

Here's a 7mb video of my 4 year old nephew riding a Burton Chopper 95. This is his first season of snowboarding and he's been riding at least once a week since Nov. I think the video was taken shortly after Christmas. At that time, my nephew could only do a half-day of riding. When I visited him in Feb., he was able to ride with me and my brother for the entire day. He even made it down some steeper blues. The Chopper 95 is a hand-me-down from my daughter. I also got by daughter started when she was around 4. http://members.cox.net/morfeeg1/my%204%20year%20old%20nephew.mov

If you're talking about Patrice from the Extremecarving website, he follows the Swiss style. The Swiss style has the shoulder parallel to the bindings. The French style is chest pointed towards the nose. Here's an explanation of the difference between the two. http://club-ski.web.cern.ch/club-ski/snowboard/tutor/frswiss.html I don't know what style this is called, but is seems to be followed by a lot of BOL riders, including Bakai. http://srino.com/stoked/clips/skiers.mov I prefer the Swiss/Extremecarving style, because I can use the same style of riding on my alpine and freestyle boards. On a freestyle board with shallow angles, it would be hard to use any of the chest-facing-the-nose styles.

Damn, it looks just like yours. Now I have to get a different one:D

Bored as hell, so I'm reviving this old post. And I've revamped my quiver this season. Donek Freecarve II 163 O-Sin 4807 168 Oxygen Proton 164 GS Oxygen Proton 149 SL

If you plan on snowboarding, you'll need to scratch Alta off the list. Last I heard, Alta still bans snowboards.

Truth be told, most carvers are ripping up the blues and greens and skidding turns on the steep stuff. From what I remember of TWS and snowboard videos, some of the young guys that are hucking big air are also the ones doing sick lines in AK. I wouldn't subscribe to a mag that was all shots of carving on groomed and World Cup race results. Of course I preferred Snowboard Life over TWS. But Snowboard Life only had some carving shots and a lot of backcountry.

I've been snowboarding since around 1989 and run the gamut on boot choices. Started on soft boots, progressively got stiffer soft boots because the soft, soft boots hurt my feet. Even rode the old Burton M5 carving board in soft boots. When I switched to hard boots (crappy Nordica SBH), I tried riding everything in hardboots, including the half-pipe and park, like Damien Sanders. That didn't work for me, I'm just not flexible enough. My freestyle/freeride board was a Burton SuperModel 161. When I got Flow bindings, I started thinking like Jtslalom and thought I could carve almost as well on my freestyle board as I could on my carving board. But that was because I was riding a Burton Alp 157. When I got better hardboots, plate bindings and carving boards, my carving skills on my soft setup were nowhere near my carving skills on my hard setup. Now, for powder, moguls, etc. I ditch the carving deck and ride an all mountain board in plates and hard boots. Currently, my all mountain board is an O-Sin 4807. Using softboots to ride moguls just kills my feet. Now, the only time I use soft boots is for the park and pipe. So Jt, I know exactly where you're coming from.