Jack M

Dude! Take a pic of one of your cutting boards and have someone photoshop it and repeat it to the right size. And... I have to call you out for "Ladybutton Fabrics". :p

To answer the original question, sidecut radius is more important when deciding how a board will turn However Phil is on to something here. The equation: turn radius = sidecut radius * cos(edge angle) is a simplification. This would dictate that our boards take on a shape that is a "projection" (think: shadow) of the sidecut onto the snow when we tilt it up on edge. However that is impossible, because as Sean Martin once pointed out to me, our boards do not change length. The projected curve does change length. As a result, the nose and tail of our boards must "pinch" in by some amount. That is, the nose and tail are somewhere inside the projected curve. This is why our tracks left in the snow have some width to them. I would not be surprised if a longer board with the same sidecut radius as a shorter board produced more of this pinch effect.

That's awesome. Heh, well, in my 4 years of part-time instruction, I saw exactly *one* kid under 7 learn successfully. Your daughter is clearly exceptional (congrats again). Does falling leaf qualify as "snowboarding" though?

I guess they'll let anyone be an instructor there.

I find this incredibly rude to Sean. Your first course of action should be to contact the manufacturer, rather than blindsiding him by publicly airing his dirty laundry. I've seen broken boards from many manufacturers.

Why? I love my 16m Madd 180.

Yeah, light was very bright so a little tough, and what can I say, most of the time people wouldn't keep carving past me! That front binding is a Catek. John likey toe lift.

http://picasaweb.google.com/michaud.jack/Cannon <img src="http://i15.tinypic.com/4byf1gy.jpg" width=800> We scored a 10 on the weather. Too bad Cannon doesn't know how to groom right. Had a blast nevertheless.

I used to think I was a good snowboarder.

<a href="http://i10.tinypic.com/2j64938.jpg" target="top"><img src="http://i7.tinypic.com/2jflqgl.jpg"></a>

The latter. Toilet-sitting is when your butt is more inclinated than the board.

whoah!! I need one of those shirts! Feel better man.

yyyyyeah.... I didn't have that much splay on my Safari. Not since the Elite 150.

Carving heelside on a freeride board with softboots and low angles (relatively) is without a doubt, harder to do. Bending your knees deeply before you tilt the board up on edge is not going to help, contrary to what might seem intuitive, and to what some softboot instructors might say. You don't want your knees locked of course, but just bend them a little and lean the board over. Use your knees as shock absorbers, not just to "get low". Look where you want to go, and keep your trailing hand up where you can see it throughout the carve. Think about "feeding the dollar" - feed the board into the turn like feeding a dollar bill into a change machine. That is, start the carve on the front foot, and as the carve comes around, shift smoothly back and finish with about 2/3 of your weight on your back foot. All the while, remembering to not let that trailing hand get out of your sight. Board and body must rotate in space as one unit. Good luck!

They wanted to give one to Scorsese before he assumes room temperature. I'm still waiting for this, it will be a shoe-in for all kinds of awards. Talk about an all-star cast!

Personally, I put my toes and heels on the edges of the board. On my 19.5cm Prior Metal, that's like 55 degrees. On my 18cm Madd 158 it's like 66. That's just me, some people ride the same angles regardless of board width. Yeah, some people ride pigeon-toed. Mark Fawcett went through a phase of that. It's not for me. 8 degrees of splay is heeeuge, imo. Unless you're naturally more duckfoot than average, I don't think you'd need more than 5 degrees. Any more than that and your knees are going to be fighting each other. Feel free to experiment with lower angles. The toilet-sit only happens if you bend your knees too much and too early, and you rotate your hips towards the toeside edge. Avoid it by keeping those hips turned towards your boot toes or more, and lean in first, bend knees second. Like brother Ben here:

kunzjob, welcome, there's some starter info in the links below...

Can't wait Shred, it's been a drier than normal season without you here!

Hey, there's a big difference between political jokes and political arguments, snipes, attacks, etc. If someone gets offended by political jokes, well, that's their problem, imo. I just hope I can get those visions out of my head of female Bush and Clinton C5 posted so I can stop gagging.

http://www.alpineskituning.com/raysway.waxwhiz.htm this thing works great. recommended by the guru, Mike at PTC.

Yes, The Norm will get you going. I think you stumbled upon something good when you said you tried "pivoting" from the knees down. Edge changes are better when they start from the ground up - toes, ankles, knees, hips. No need to reach down with your hands or dive in with your shoulders. Good luck!

I've seen it. It's, well, (insert really politically incorrect slur here) btw, I'm right handed, goofy, shoot hockey lefty, golf righty, bat righty. I've tried golfing lefty, it does not work. My son throws righty, bats lefty.

This thing we have at work has turned me into a regular one-cup-a-weekday coffee drinker. I like the Green Mountain Dark Magic k-cups. Toasty!

I never did understand kids who pushed with their front foot. what's up with that??

http://www.bomberonline.com/VBulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=3 With a little luck, you could be into a full setup (board, boots, bindings) for $200.