Jack M

1995 - "tire tread" pattern 1996 - silver 1997 - metallic blue fleck 2001 - black with some <i>very</i> minimal graphics (barely any)

This and other practice drills are discussed here.

because I can't fly one of these:

Waist down looks good, but the shoulders are dipped too much. Ideally, they should be more level. Here is an excellent example of a textbook toeside: www.bomberonline.com/JackM/cktoeside.jpg (Chris Karol) and heelside www.bomberonline.com/JackM/snwbrder.jpg (unknown racer)

case in point: http://ojankaivajat.1g.fi/kuvat/Zinal+2005/P1020214.JPG/full twelve demerits. I personally think that Patrice and Jacques pull off the EC style with exceptional grace and really make it look good. The way they do it is anything but cheesy. However it should be noted well that they are VERY experienced and that most of the time they are not reaching for the snow, the snow is coming up to them. (get it?) EC style can lead to many bad habits when attempted by the newby, namely, reaching for the snow, and bending over at the waist (see above). But when the cord is just right, you may find yourself someday with your armpit on the snow too.

Scott, these stories are great. I'm psyched you are learning from everyone here and are having fun. It sounds like you're railing some good carves on your familiar soft gear, but you're not quite there on the hard gear yet, yes? If so, you would probably benefit from getting back to basics with The Norm. Before long, your butt will only be a few inches off the ground! :D

3 degree discs are a good place to start. and yes, there is a 2nd board kit. read this: http://www.bomberonline.com/articles/TD2_setup.cfm

I'm not familiar with F2 bindings, but for general binding mounting info, check out this article: http://www.bomberonline.com//articles/setup.cfm

Extreme carving - The style of laid out carving on wider carving boards evangelized by Patrice Fivat, Jacques Rilliet, Nils Degremont and other Europeans at www.extremecarving.com Pureboarding - Another crew of Europeans. They advocate asym carving technique on asym boards of their own design. Unlike "Extreme Carving", Pureboarding is the brand name of their boards. www.pureboarding.com Eurocarving - The late 80's/early 90's name American snowboarding magazines like Transworld gave to the style of laid out carves pioneered by Europeans like Peter Bauer, Jean Nerva, Serge Vitelli, and others. Alpine carving - "Alpine" snowboarding is the generic name for the sport of snowboarding in hardboots with the goal of making nice carves. Encompasses all of the above and pretty much every other style of riding in hardboots - including the use of all-mountain carving boards like the Prior 4WD for mixing up carving and riding everywhere in hardboots. Also the URL of a handy reference-style website dedicated to the sport, run by Scott Firestone - www.alpinecarving.com

I love this one http://www.pureboarding.com/gallery/images/133/img/DSC00192.jpg

Sure, I can be a butt-head :) However I didn't say an asym would be harder to learn on, I said I (strongly) believe that most people in general can progress further on a symetrical board and the techniques used to ride one. IMO, heel-to-toe snowboard carving is a thing of the past. I also disagree that sym-board technique is somehow more asym and less natural than asym-board technique. Kamran, to answer your earlier question, my article was original work, with influence from the guy who I worked for as an instructor for four years.

I am not saying that Pureboarding should stop what they're doing and "get with the program". I've been saying all along if asyms work for you and you enjoy them then great. However for the NEWBY carver, it is important to steer them towards a symmetrical board for their first purchase. The simple fact is that the odds are much better that they will do better with it in the long run. If they reach a certain level and feel like the board is holding them back, then fine, they can try an asym. Asyms are kind of like the old Nava softboot system for skiing. The skiing industry has tried it and moved on. Some people loved it, some people still use it. Nothing wrong with that. But you wouldn't put a new skier on it. Believe me, I loved asyms. I thought they made sense, and I thought I was a real ace at riding them. I bought a 1994 PJ6 when my friends were buying the new symmetrical Stats because I was so sure asym was better...... until I tried a sym and a new technique. I sold the PJ at the end of the season.

No. I don't think that picture looks better or worse than me, so that's not my issue. All I'm saying is that the paradigm shift from sym --> asym --> sym was a result of people searching for better ways to carve on ice and in race courses. If you don't usually have to deal with ice, then an asym technique and an asym board are all you need if that's your preference, and that's fine. But if you're waiting for asyms to make any kind of renaissance, you're going to be waiting forever, and it's not simply due to the economic difficulties of asyms. If you'd rather believe it was an industry-wide conspiracy to kill off asyms, well, I don't believe that. The rebirth of syms happened at a time when many more snowboard companies were still in alpine. It had much more to do with the emergence of guys like Fawcett, Jacoby, Kildevaald, Anderson and others who started kicking butt on syms.

Joerg, Click the "www" button below for my background. Based on the pictures referenced above, it looks like you guys don't waste any time riding ice - I'm jealous. I'm not saying asyms ride poorly - I rode an asym for 4 years and had a lot of fun. Fun is the bottom line, if you enjoy riding asyms then keep doing it. But symmetrical boards are simply better. Once I got back on a symmetrical board, the door opened to a new level. Syms have rendered asyms obsolete. It would appear that the entire FIS squad (people who can have any kind of board made for them) agrees with me. Why are syms better? To boil down the many reasons enumerated in my article, quite simply, the best technique for changing edges (cross through) is a quick symmetrical maneuver. Also, it is important to pressure the nose when you start each carve - on both toeside and heelside. The pressure is not somehow concentrated 5 or 7 or x centimeters back on heelside. Check out the videos of the EC guys. You won't see them making any asymmetrical movements. But whatever. If you ride in a place where conditions are typically as good as those pictures, it doesn't really matter if your sidecuts are shifted a little. Have fun.

oops, never saw that post....

only by those ignorant of both history and technique.

Actually that's the beauty of Sugarloaf and having Sunday River down the road - weekends at Sugarloaf are actually carveable. There's a few choice weekends that are more of a challenge, but I always have fun at the loaf. and thanks jp1.

If you're going to make the drive to Saddleback, you may as well go to the loaf. Sugarloaf has 10 times the carving terrain, and is the least spoiled ASC resort I think. Sunday River serves as a buffer to skim off most of the jeans-wearers and other riff raff. Generally only people who appreciate the mountain make the longer drive to Sugarloaf.

I did it to send a message and I think it worked. The sign is gone. They also had another one that read: "The best snow conditions on any day can be found at an ASC resort". Puh-leezz! I believe that sign is gone too. I don't feel bad about it because it was only once. And heck, they were giving out vouchers to other unsatisfied customers, why not me too? I agree giving day-ticket vouchers to season pass holders is probably unrealistic, but if they're going to guarantee their conditions and make preposterous claims about them, I think they need to be fair about it. I actually called up my phone company once and said hey, I see these freebies all the time for people who switch to your service, what do you do for your loyal customers? They were happy to give me the going promotion at the time, which was something like a month of free long distance. Of course I see the mountain's side, but I just hate being a loyal customer and being taken for granted.

Oh I agree with everything you said aside from me being wrong - my complaint was not merely that conditions were bad, it was that joe daytripper gets the red carpet treatment while the loyal $1100 season pass holder gets the shaft, and that they had the audacity to make such a stupid claim. BTW, that sign has since been removed. The way I see it, they said they had a guarantee, so I called them on it. Nothing wrong about that.

That thread about getting stranded on a chairlift made me think of this. At most mountains it seems, if you buy a day ticket you can ski for an hour and if conditions aren't to your liking you can exchange the ticket for a voucher to be used at a later date. Some places even give you a full refund. However if you have a season pass, you're kinda screwed. One day a few years ago at Sugarloaf (back when I had a pass) conditions were miserable. I also felt like they could have been better with smarter grooming/snowmaking - it wasn't purely mother nature - but that's not my point. Bad conditions happen, fine, I accept that. However I was discouraged and grumpy and then I noticed the sign on the chairlift tower: "Snow so good it's guaranteed!" That just pissed me off. It was precisely the <i>wrong</i> sign to show me right at that moment. What arrogance. Yeah, I know it was just referring to the fact that you can get a voucher, but that wording implies that they have control over the conditions at all times. They must think I'm a moron if they expect me to believe that. How condescending. It got me dwelling on my theory of how ASC was trying to turn Skiing into McSkiing - all homogenized, sanitized, and wrapped up in a tidy package falsely advertized as "safe" and always good. It's no wonder people sue ski resorts when the idiots who manage them tell people that sliding down a snowy mountain at great speed is a safe thing to do, and that they will always provide good conditions when they know damn well they can't. It takes the responsibility for the individual's safety off the individual and places it on the resort. So in a huff I went down to guest services and demanded to know how they were going to fulfill their guarantee to me, a loyal season pass holder. They looked at me like I had two heads, and didn't have an answer. So I demanded a voucher. They wanted to know what I would do with it, and I asked what difference does it make? They suspected I would sell it in the parking lot. I pointed out the guarantee again, and that it wasn't really any of their business, but I planned on giving it to a friend. They just couldn't get their head around this concept. Eventually I walked out of there with a voucher, but they really thought I was being an a-hole. I know I can be sometimes (well, I'd like to think it was a college phase that I'm beyond now), but I just don't think I was in the wrong that time. Anyone else see it my way?

this poll was the last thing I needed to try to figure out the morning after the superbowl. where's the hung-over emoticon?

quote of the month!

such is married life.

What's the difference?