gdboytyler

I'm going on Sat. No, I don't have a radio. Just specify a lift and a time and I'll be there. My Proton showed up today! So, I'll be starting out on that board.

Bump

Yes there is, see it right here http://www.bomberonline.com/VBulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1401

Still available. Make me an offer. If you're in the So Cal area, you can demo it on Saturday!

Oldvolvosrule, sorry I can't give you a ride. I'm already taking 2 friends. 3 people + boards and skiis fills up my Subaru Impreza. I bought the 164 Oxygen Proton GS from EBay. I should get the board on Thursday. I can't wait to try it out.

Anybody going to Snow Summit on Sun.(2-21)? I'll probably start out at Snow Summit and move over to Bear after lunch. It would be fun to meet up with some fellow carvers. I'll be the Asian guy riding either a royal blue Donek Incline or an Oxygen Proton GS (which should arrive on Thurs). You may also notice a couple of my soft-booter friends in my wake. For whoever wants to meet-up, we could set the meeting place at chair 1 (East Mtn Express) between 9:30-10:00. I plan on starting out at chair 1 right around 8:00, then move over to chair 7 & 10 until meeting time. GdBoyTyler

Here's another freecarving video. I'm pretty sure the guys are on Virus snowboards, these are super narrow boards. Virus carvers

Currently own: Donek Incline 160 Burton Balance 152 Burton Supermodel 161 Burton Alp 157 On the way: Oxygen Proton GS 164 - just bought it on EBay and hopefully, I'll be riding it this weekend. For the past two seasons, I was only riding the Donek(hard boots) for all mountain and the Balance (softboots) for the pipe/park. The Alp was just gathering dust and the Supermodel was my loaner/powder/rock board. I bought the Proton for its 13m sidecut radius for doing Eurocarves. For a guy that only averages 12 days per season, 5 boards is definately excessive. If I can sell my Alp and trim the quiver down to 4, that will be just the right size.

What year are the boards and what is the waist width?

Summit Run gets so crowded early, I avoid it like the plague! Surf is suppose to pickup for the weekend, so I probably won't go snowboarding. Have some good runs. GdBoyTyler

At the apex of a laid out carve, the styles of Jacques/Patrice and CMC look like they have a lot of similarities. Its the set up to the turn that I see the biggest difference. You don't see any top surfers setting up a carve with their arms extended at their sides like airlplane wings. Now here's a real surf style turn from one of the new guys (and current world champion)

Yeah, when I started the thread about "riding steeps". I was thinking Corbet Couloir steepness, but WITHOUT the 15 foot drop to start the run. The steepest run I've done has been Climax, at the top of Mammoth. The start of the run was all kick turns for me.

Jacques & Patrice seem to only rotate their shoulders as part of a big carve, where as CMC seems to always have his shoulders turned. So, having my shoulders parallel to the board between big carves, just feels more natural. No, the terrain is not crazy steep. But, from the view at the beginning of the video, it looks steep enough that I would be skidding a lot of turns. All the other videos I’ve seen of people carving , the slopes look like easy cruisers.

I saw 2 carvers doing down, when I was going up on my first chair in the morning (just after 8:00). But after that, I never saw those two. The snow stayed good all day and the crowd was light (at least away from Miracle Mile), so I ended up spending the whole day at Summit. That day was the first time in several years that I spent the whole day carving and no time in the snowboard park. Next time I go locally, I'll post sooner and give you guys more time to respond. I was waiting to see if the surf was going to be good, before I made the decision to snowboard. I made the right call, surf was bad last Sunday. GdBoyTyler

When riding a slope that is too steep to carve and you have to do jump turns, what type of board/boot/binding setup would you prefer to use? So far for steeps, I've only used a Burton Supermodel 161 and a Donek Incline 160. I prefered the Donek because of the better edge hold. I also preferred using hardboots for the steeps. In a soft setup, I got too much heel lift on the jump turns. I haven't tried an alpine board on steeps yet. GdBoyTyler

From the videos I've seen, the guys from extremecarving.com and CMC look to be the best carvers around, and they've got totally different styles. Extremecarving style = shoulders parallel to the board, like a surfer. CMC = shoulders perpendicular to the board, like a skier. I believe CMC’s style is the style backed by the technique articles here on Bomber. It is also the style taught by the coach who gave me my only snowboarding lesson ever. Coming from a surfing background, I think the extremecarving style looks better and feels more natural. It is now the way I ride, even when I’m not trying Eurocarves. The latest video from extremecarving.com shows them carving on a pretty steep slope. Probably the steepest slope I’ve seen someone linking carved turns that wasn’t a powder run. Is there a video of someone using CMC’s style to carve on a comparably steep slope? Anyone know what size/model board that CMC is using in the videos?

For sale: Burton Alp 157, asym model, regular foot, $50 plus shipping. Board is well used but still in good condition. Some scrapes on the nose and on the base. I will email additional photos if you are interested. <A HREF="http://members.cox.net/gdboytyler/alp%20top.jpg"><IMG SRC="http://members.cox.net/gdboytyler/alp%20top.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="180" align="left" <FONT SIZE="1">Alp top (click to enlarge photos)</FONT><BR clear="all"></P></A> <A HREF="http://members.cox.net/gdboytyler/alp%20bottom.jpg"><IMG SRC="http://members.cox.net/gdboytyler/alp%20bottom.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="180" align="left" <FONT SIZE="1">Alp bottom (click to enlarge photos)</FONT><BR clear="all"></P></A>

Here's a good article comparing snowcats and helicopters for backcountry riding: http://www.firsttracksonline.com/helivscat.htm

Anybody going to Bear Mtn/Snow Summit on Sun.(2-8)? I'll probably start out at Snow Summit and move over to Bear later in the morning or after lunch. It would be fun to meet up with some fellow carvers. I'll be riding a royal blue Donek Incline. I might also try out my Burton Alp. I haven't ridden that Alp in a couple of years. GdBoyTyler

Has anyone snowboarded at a snowcat operation? I'm thinking about going to Baldface in BC, Canada next year. I would like to go this season, but it looks like they are booked until late March. If I don't go to Baldface for a multi-day trip, I might hit up Steamboat Powder Cats when I visit my brother in CO next season. From the promo videos, the terrain accessed by the snow cats look as good as the terrain accessed by helicopters, but cheaper and less likely to get skunked due to weather. Any info/advice will be appreciated. GdBoyTyler

The extremecarving.com site has the easiest to understand "how to" instructions that I've read, plus video clips to go with the text. Since I surf, I started out carving with the shoulders parallel to the board style. I rode that way for over a decade, but I could never pull off a laid-out Eurocarve. I then took a carving lesson from a coach on hard boots. He taught me the shoulders facing the nose style. At the time, I was riding a Burton Alp 157. My carving did get better from the lesson, but I still couldn't do the Eurocarve. My coach could carve lower than me, but he couldn't do Eurocarves either. Last season, after reading the tips at extremecarving.com, I went back to the shoulders parallel to the board style. My carving improved and felt more natural. But I still couldn't Eurocarve. I then bought a Donek Incline. The first day on the board, I pulled off a completely laid-out frontside Eurocarve and linked it into a deep backside carve (but not laid out). It seems the instructors that post at Bomber don't advocate the techniques at extremecarving.com. So my guess is you'll have a hard time finding an instructor that will teach the Eurocarving style. The only videos I've seen of people linking completely laid-out Eurocarves are at extremecarving.com or riders who use the same technique. In short, get a board that can hold a really good edge and follow the instruction at extremecarving.com.

I used to ride a Burton Supermodel 161 and now a Donek Incline 160, in plates and hard boots. Both boards are freeride/all mountain models and I like riding both boards with the hard setup. Even with the freeride boards I was tiring easily with the hardboots when the snow got all chopped up and I had to do skid turns instead of carves. The problem turned out to be the forward lean in my hardboots. My previous boots were Nordica SBH’s which had some forward lean built in, but no forward lean adjustment. I replaced the Nordicas with Kneissl Rail ski boots. The Kniessl’s have very little forward lean. Now, I find it easier to ride all snow conditions with hard boots rather than a soft setup. So my recommendation for lasting all day in chopped up snow, go with a stiff freeride board, hard setup and minimize the forward lean in your boots.

Instead of buying skiis, you should get a Donek Incline and ride it with hard boots. It has a small enough sidecut radius (around 9m) for those quick turns and it carves excellent.

I switch to my freestyle setup and go to the snowboard park.

Hey bboyd, I ride my Donek Incline 160 exclusively with plate bindings and hardboots. I got my Incline towards the end of last season. The board carves way better than my previous carving board – a Burton Alp 157. Since it sounds like you’re not doing much freestyle, I would recommend going to a hard setup with the Incline. I just got back from a 2 day trip to Mammoth and I used the Incline with the hard setup all over the mountain. Everything from Eurocarves on the intermediate runs to bumps on diamond runs to some double-black chutes that had some good wind-blown powder. I haven’t used my Incline in a deep powder day yet. Hopefully soon. I’m 5’7”, 130 lb with size 7 boots (25 mondo), so I can use moderate angles and not get any boot overhang. My setup is 19” stance, 39 deg front, 33 deg back. My stance is centered on the contact length. I use Burton step-in race plates and Kniessl Rail ski boots. You’d probably have to go with a wider stance and steeper angles to avoid boot overhang.