Gabe T

My first thought was this was an old school fibreglass board from 2008 based on the 08 in the identifier. Not sure what RCT stands for but RC was a RaceCarve and I know 180 was standard length for that board as I have one myself. I'm wondering what people were thinking this board was. Curious as to what the market is like for old glass boards as I have a couple that are being neglected. (In good shape but haven't been used in a long time}

Pulled, yanked, pried and eventually hacked off the broken piece with a pen knife at the risk of losing a finger. I'm thinking maybe a soldering iron/hot knife would have worked well to cut it off. For reinstalling, we actually did use the water technique and then used some pliers to push it into place. Just seems like it's designed to make this difficult.

From a few seasons ago. When you can feel your camera guy's breath, that's usually a sign he's following too close. : )

Anyone ever replace top boot straps on track 700 / Suzuka boots? There are no screws for installing. There is a squarish piece that snaps in. Curious how you removed and reinstalled. I just witnessed a replacement and it wasn't exactly pretty. :)

I have a similar setup. The beauty with this is that you can optionally have an Intec on the front which serves as a constant backup in case of failure on the mountain. Might come in handy when going on vacation. You would just need a cable routing on both sides of the rear boot. Easy swap of heels without having to mess around with cables and inner housing parts. I've always wondered why Intec cables and boots were designed to fit on the outside instead of the inside. Seems like a much more natural position to release with downward boot pressure pulling a cable positioned on the inside of the boot with the lead hand.

Why do you need a bag of clips? Are they getting chewed up when disassembling? They should be reusable if properly removed. I take the shaft of a screwdriver and push it against the side of the clip where the cable is exposed. This starts the process of pushing it out. Many might be inclined to pry from the opposite side which will tends to mangle the plastic. Once the piece is pushed out slightly, use the flathead tip of the screwdriver to push out even further. Select a screwdriver with a tip that is the appropriate size. At this point, it should be pushed out far enough that the clip can be pulled out from the other side fairly easily.

Sorry to hear the news. Hope the community here can stick together through this. If things are as grim as it's starting to sound, Bomber's online store status did cross my mind. I'm not sure if it is currently capable of accepting payments, but it does appear like the store is up and running. As outsiders, I'm sure there is a lot of information we don't know. If the reality gets to the point where incoming orders are unlikely to be fulfilled, wouldn't it be reasonable to expect that the store would be shut down on the site?

Thanks for the comments everyone. This version of the Angrry (3mm) dates back a few years. I’m sure that there have been some iterations of this design since with some tweaks here and there. In general, I have found the finish of turns on Angrrys to be less pronounced. I think this is a result of the combination of sidecuts used (In the case of the 170, it transitions from around 10.5 to close to 13 in the mid). Definitely a less hooky feel; throw in some taper and that also adds to the effect. There’s no arguing that lengthening out the carve will slow you down. On that run, under ideal conditions, you could probably do one extreme carve and still have enough speed to keep riding. 2 full extreme carves and you’d probably come close to a complete stop. Technically, I’m not sure the place was ever a dump site, although the whopping 550 ft vertical may seem kind of "dumpy" ! I had heard it was built up with landfill but I think they actually just moved dirt to the top to give it some added height. 2 more turns... yeah! :) Unfortunately that's what we've got to carve out our fun with. Last year in particular was not great in terms of conditions. Snowfall was ok but of course that made it too soft for decent carving and the fluctuating temps didn’t really allow the snow to set firmly for extended periods. Don’t think I had any video of myself shot last season. Sub par conditions mixed in with all day crowds due to the addition of night skiing made for few opportunities for shooting. If you saw how busy that hill can get sometimes on the weekend, you'd be horrified! Although the fact that it is short and fairly wide in spots somehow makes it less scary ... If you ride fast, the horror show only last about a minute! I’m not sure what’s in the cards this year, but it would be great to ride with you again. Your are definitely one of the most enthusiastic riders I have ever met! You’ve got the happy carver’s perma-smile going on 24-7! (I’m assuming you smile in your sleep dreaming about carving) p.s. I saw those pics of you from late last year and you’re looking good!

It has 3 variable sidecuts which average out to just under 12m. 18.5 wide, 5mm taper.

After taking up longboarding in recent years, I picked up a used Carver setup from a local guy last year. Didn't spend too much time on it until this past summer. It took a while to get used to it as the setup is a lot higher than I had been accustomed to. Just standing on it the first time felt very wobbly with the loose feeling of the trucks. Eventually, I started to mix in some regular stance riding. (I’m a natural goofy foot). I recall a thread a few years ago about trying to carve your opposite / mirrored stance on an alpine board. The Carver is actually a pretty ideal tool to learn this as I found the motion of bigger turns quite similar to alpine riding. When I first tried riding regular, it felt every bit as awkward as when I experimented on a carving board for the first time. The nice thing on the board is that you have the benefit of hopping off and switching back any time you want. : ) I hadn’t quite nailed down the motion of quicker pumping with a regular stance here but have since made some improvements. Here’s a longboard video from a couple years ago. I learned some longboard dancing and some basic slides and pivot tricks. (Took a lot of board time to cautiously figure things out!)

Just put this together with some shots from a couple of seasons ago.

The medium should fit a 28 upz. I have a set of medium step-ins that fit my Deeluxe AF Series size 27 shells which I believe have a larger sole length than a 28 upz. I stepped into my friend's setup (he uses a 28 UPZ) and it wouldn't fit. Binding length was set up too small for me. Another friend has a size 26 track 700 T and they set up to be about the same size as the 28 UPZs

Hey Kurt, Nice! It was great riding with you. Yes, that carving run is one of the best I've been on in terms of width, length and lack of people. Gabe

Hey Geoff, During application, was the fabric flat? When I used shoe goo in the past on my butt/hip area, I used to place a pillow underneath to form a more natural contour. The knees on your pants looked kind of contoured so was wondering if that formed more naturally with use since the plastic dip seems more pliable. Based on my riding and wear patterns on the gorilla tape on my butt/hip, I would need a bit more protection towards my heel side hip pocket compared with your example. I see you have it on both sides too but I'm guessing the symmetrical application is more for aesthetics. Is that a full zip up the butt? Looks handy in case you need to take an emergency dump on the mountain! : ) Gabe

Cool. I didn't know Bruce was now into making cheese. : )

Not sure if anyone has ever tried longboard dancing but I found learning the moves very challenging. Lots of fun too. Yes, lots of balance required as well as timing of movements as you need to keep the board carving at the same time. Came across some vids about 5 years ago which got me into longboarding and learned a few tricks along the way. Yes, haven't quite seen longboard dancing with such dramatic flair before! I'm sure he could manage the same footwork with his hands behind his back though. : )

Great stuff! ‘Carving Clip’ sounds rather understated for what this is. I wish you had a camera guy to do some quality chase shots. It would be cool to see you incorporate those into a film. Wondering how you got the helmet cam to do a 360?

My interpretation of Beckmann’s comments was that the arms do not move in isolation and drive what the rest of your body does. When you see Sigi’s hands move while carving, there are simultaneously movements in his core as well. Visually, the hand and arm movements are easier to detect. Movements that occur in the core are more subtle. If one can agree that movement in the core and hands/arms happen at the same time, then what is leading what? In retrospect, a description of movements in my earlier post was probably poorly worded. My core/shoulder positioning does not necessarily ‘follow’ my hands, which may be interpreted as isolated movements at different times, but the movements are happening in concert with one another.

Here’s a video I came across in the past related to the topic of hands. For me, the emphasis on ‘hand over the nose’ referenced in the vid plays more of a role during turn initiation and edge transitions. I find it helps with an early engagement of the edge while maximizing initial edge pressure. I recall struggles with late heel side initiation in the past and I found this really helped me. (Watching some of those Japanese carving vids helped me figure this out.) I don’t find that my hands necessarily stay over the nose all the time though. I don't quite “ ...park it there all the time no matter what ... “ as the narrator suggests. For the majority of my turns, my hands start to move to the side in the middle of the turn, coming back toward the board when setting up for the next turn. As mentioned earlier, turn radius will factor into this as well; my hand will tend to stay over the nose more so when making quick tight turns. I did chuckle a bit at some of the examples noted in the vid. 1:53, Hand over the nose? Hmm, sure looks like a double hand drag on a toe-side : ) I saw some of John’s footage from his 2015 SES videos which inspired me to give it a try a couple of seasons ago. Dug up the footage and put a couple of clips together. It’s an interesting drill. Without the aid of ones hands, you really need to concentrate on your core and torso positions being over the board, especially as the board tips up higher on edge. On toe-side, my focus is on angulation at the waist and leveling the shoulders. Can’t cheat with dropping the inside shoulder on a toe-side or you'll be eating some snow! : ) On heel-side, my main focus is on my leading shoulder just prior to initiation. When my hands are free and moving over the nose preparing for a heel-side initiation, my leading shoulder follows with an inward rotation so that's the position I concentrate on replicating.

The ultimate goal is to replicate (or exceed) the feel and performance of proven .3 builds using the thicker metal. I’m not sure that building a board with .4 metal with no other adjustments would be advancing that cause; probably would just mean one extra proto to build! : ) As mentioned in my post, one of the adjustments made in the original proto was a reduction to the core thickness as a means to offset the added stiffness from the thicker metal.

I’m not sure I’m interpreting your question correctly. Are you suggesting a board be built with .4 tiitanal with an identical mix of other composite materials from a proven .3 build? I did mention that Bruce did do a stiffness measurement against a .3 Nirvana and they measured up pretty close to each other. Not sure about the weight differences though. Also, didn’t quite get your comment about “2/3rds ... added”. Is it not 1/3rd? ... adding another 0.2 to what was 0.6.

I headed off on vacation shortly after the test ride so I’m a bit late with this. The .4mm test board was a Nirvana Energy 174. I also had a similar Nirvana in a 172 length (.3 mm) to do some back to back comparisons with. Snow conditions were a bit on the soft side. Comparatively, the .4mm felt stiffer. I sensed a feeling of stiffness in the front and a slower initiation compared with the .3. The sensation of stiffness did not persist through the turn; once the edge was engaged, it gripped up nicely and felt very stable. It also felt damper compared with the .3mm with less than the usual pop. I wasn’t quite sure what was causing that feeling of stiffness and thought it may have something to do with the added torsion from the thicker metal. Interestingly, Bruce mentioned that from a bench test, it measured up at about the same stiffness as a standard model. In comparison, the .3 felt smoother and more responsive in the early phase of the turn. A fellow rider that tried it after me did note that he felt a significant improvement with the initiation upon adjusting his bindings to a more forward position. Bruce did not try the board until the following day. There was a warm up overnight so conditions got real soft. ‘Miserable’ as he put it so not optimal test conditions. His initial thoughts were that the board’s mid section was a bit too soft such that there was not enough resistance to transfer sufficient bend to the nose. Note that in order to offset the stiffness from the added metal, the core thickness was reduced in the middle and then proportionately through the rest of the core. I’m guessing some tweaking of the core profile is in order for the next build. Given that all materials work in concert to deliver the overall flex characteristics of the board, other adjustments will likely come into play to achieve the desired effect. Will leave that up to Bruce to work out, but I didn’t get the sense it was too far off from where it needs to be. We can only hope! Here is some video from one of my last runs on the board.

Agreed. Ride the style that you find most enjoyable. For me, it was the exploration of different styles that really made things interesting. There’s a certain level of excitement that comes with learning something new; those light bulb moments when you start to figure things out is what really motivates you to get back on the hill. Much of my riding is directly influenced by what I’ve seen on videos, especially since the youtube era began. The style shown by SIgi is probably similar to the one I emulate the most often these days. (I would say it's also not indicative of my style during my first 15 years of carving!) I first took note of this style through the Japanese carving videos. (I believe the Sigi footage is related to those same productions as he’s appeared in a few of the Installer series of vids. ) Smooth and fluid. Fast clean lines. Minimal upper body contact with the snow. For many years prior, I rode a different style; low (but not extended like EC) with lots of hip, forearm and hand contact with the snow. Still do that time to time for a change of pace but it really kills the feeling of speed especially when the snow is soft. Not to mention being rough on the apparel! Dabbled in a bit of EC riding too. First introduction to the style was through the Swoard/Extreme Carving vids from the late 90s I believe. Never seen anything like it at the time and thought it was pretty cool. Seemed like it took a few years before you saw anyone else replicating that style well (at least on video). More recently, EC vids started popping up like the Russian ones showing some nice progression; lots of guys doing it very well. I would even say perhaps exceeding the levels shown by the pioneers of the style. (Advances in equipment probably had something to with it). I thought the instruction vids were very well done too. One thing I realized from the video was that you didn’t necessarily need steep terrain to learn the technique. So I took to the vids a couple of seasons ago and tried to figured it out. Again, the learning aspect was really fun. Unfortunately, under the best of conditions at my hill, I'm barely able to eke out 2 fully linked EC turns before coming to a screeching halt! Not much EC riding since that season but I would definitely do more if I were on a bigger mountain with some smooth terrain. The feeling of a long laid out heel side was really fun! Shout out to CasperCarver as well. Another inspiration for finding fun things to do on a snowboard. : )

In past conversations with Bruce, he said that most started out development with .4 and that Kessler was the first to custom order the .3; I would assume that's what they are currently using.

Hey Peter. Had a bit of a mishap with the vids I took. I watched them later that day; put the SD card on my work computer for viewing. As I usually do, I renamed the file for easy reference later. I was about to send you a dropbox link to download the file but then I noticed I could not open it on my home computer. I discovered later that when I renamed the files on my work computer it ended up encrypting the files! Basically the file can only be opened up on a work computer now. Anyways, I played the vid on the computer and recorded it on my phone. Won't be the best quality but at least you can see the action. I think I have your email; last name Stewart from Osler invite?