Jack M

Length: 185cm, waist: 20.5cm. Sidecut: ???. You fill out a form when ordering a Kessler and they ask for your desired "approximate" sidecut, so I put 16m. Who knows what the final multi-radius shape is. Reviewing all those boards would be cool, but that would take me all season. I have a lot of work cut out for me as it is. Prior, Coiler, and Donek are the most accessible high end boards for freecarvers here in North America. Also, race boards have always been the ultimate weapon for expert level freecarving. However race technology has made a quantum leap over the last 5+ years, with Kessler leading the way and the North American boards all but disappearing from the World Cup scene. Now that the North American mfrs are catching up, the idea here is to see how they stack up against the benchmark of racing from a freecarving point of view. Well, not completely, I'm not made of that kind of money. It started with me ordering one board, and then wanting to see how it compares to a Kessler. I mean, at this stage in the game I should know these things, right? However it was hard to get a hold of them so I sort of gave up on that idea. Then Bola stepped up and offered to broker that purchase. So I ordered that too figuring I'd sell one after trying them. Then I figured I'd invite the other two to send demos for review. Thankfully they've agreed and I think this experiment will provide some good data for everyone.

Naw, it's just the layers of materials underneath causing ever so slight rises in the topsheet. The board is lit from the side in the photo, so they stand out. You can't even see them in person from most angles. Dan.... you wish!

Watch for my review next season: Kessler vs. Coiler vs. Donek vs. Prior

Anyone got a spare 85 mil? http://www.boston.com/travel/blog/2009/05/aig_puts_stowe.html

That second shot above makes me hurt for that board! There is also some pretty crazy board flex going on here, look closely:

you said "ream", huh huh huh.

Arclite: 1, Dad: 0 :D

is there anything preventing the metal main plate from colliding with the topsheet of the board? can the suspension "bottom out"?

I think this would simply be more of a good thing, but... Vibrations originating from the snow impacting the board have to travel from the board to the rider in an upward direction. They have to compress the elastomer to get through to the foot. That is why the TD2-3 works. If what you said was true, there would be no difference in feel between the TD1 and the 2-3. That's not the same scenario as say, hitting the top of the board with a hammer, which would pull down on the center disk, which would pull down on the cant disk. In that case there is no elastomer in the middle of the force path.

I think you should install one of those main plates in your WRX in place of the steering wheel. You know, Kitt style.

"You can have it good, fast, cheap. Pick two."

Can we get a youtube of the End Mill in action? Can that main plate double as a flat-screen tv wall mount?

umm, why didn't you ask Bomber first??

It depends on how often the magazine is published. Once a year? $30. Four times a year? $10 each. IMO.

I'm not really comfortable answering that Pat. If I understand your situation I want to say you might actually be better served by inward cant, but I'm not going to say that for certain because I'm not sure I understand your knee issue. I think you're just going to have to figure it out empirically.

Of course. The default starting position should be cant discs aligned with your binding angles for toe lift on the front foot and heel lift on the back foot, and no cant. Try that first and experiment from there. http://www.bomberonline.com/articles/canting.cfm http://www.bomberonline.com/articles/TD2_setup.cfm

Grazing your hand on the snow is not an issue if you have "let the snow come to you" and your center of mass is that low anyway. The problem is with breaking at the waist and bending over which if usually caused by reaching down for the snow. I like to use my hands like a motorcycle racer uses their knees. It's just a feeler to gauge how far over I am. I would say if you're riding at 9/10ths or more and you're on the brink and you're busy thinking about whether your hand is on the snow or off, you're probably going to lose the turn.

www.doihaveswineflu.org

That board will be coming to me for testing next season against my 2007 Madd 158 f3. Bruce revised my initial suggestion for specs. Sidecut is VSR (avg 9.5m), waist is 19cm. Length is 160.

Chunk thinned out!

Not sure, all I can tell you is that I was riding a Madd 180, which is a ~16m board, so you have to be moving to lean it over that far. Switch carving does nothing for me. The beauty of alpine is that it's always a fun challenge to ride at your best, and do so with consistency and grace on the steepest stuff you can handle. Also that carving is an absolute blast from the moment you feel that first unsteered railed turn happen and the lightbulb comes on. There have been several plateaus in my riding, and they all seem to be surpassed by either coaching or equipment. When I was instructing ('93-'97) I was getting some great coaching. And with every new board, boot, binding would come another wave of learning. Some waves were bigger than others. They haven't stopped either. I anticipate another one next year after I take delivery of my new school race boards. Of course as you get better the waves become more subtle and not so much like quantum leaps, maybe not even noticeable to an observer, but I'll tell you what I'm never bored. Every day I wake up to fresh cord is like a powder day to anyone else.

Got a bottle of Tommy Bahama Golden Sun. It's good. Sippable. But not as good as Cruzan Single Barrel, Appleton V/X, or Pusser's which are all cheaper. Save your money. Yeah Tex.... on the beach, happy hour starts at 10am. And why the hell not.

We did have a great season, but that pic was taken on March 2 after a 6" storm. I only had to bring out the 158 once this year! Thanks Phil.

Haha, yeah Bruce. Nice turn Alex! I think you're splitting hairs with the arm analysis, my arm can look like that too. Although my arms have gotten quieter on metal, and I feel more relaxed in general on the new boards. That pic of me is 3 years old now. Here is my favorite toeside pic from this year, taken by Shred Gruumer. Nice comparison. Goofy footers rule!

Oh yeah... Bruins sweep the Canadiens.