Jack M

yup! But it wasn't a '98. The alp went back to being symetrical in about '95.

I think I remember your old avatar was a picture of you on skis. If she skis, just buy her a board and some plate bindings and have her use her ski boots. If not, sure, go ahead and throw her softies on an alpine deck. It sounds like you can't lose, because she sounds eager. If the softies don't cut the mustard, she'll probably be excited to try hardboots next. If she can carve turns on her existing setup, you're probably safe to go for a freecarve or used race board. However if she's never actually felt a real carve happen, the safe bet is to get an all-mtn carver. This will be more forgiving to allow her to slide when she wants to. My sister, wife, and father all ride them when they're not skiing, and they love the versatility.

Just because the ECES deadline has passed, doesn't mean that the whole mountain is sold out. You can still call 800-THE-LOAF and ask for the ECES deal, there might be space left.

There are classifieds here. For your foot size and ability level, I would say a freecarve board with a waist width no less than 19.5cm would be what you need. I'd look for something in the 164-171cm range. That Proton sounds perfect.

The only asym Burton made from '95 to '98 was a 160-something. 164 I think. In '98 it was red. The only wood-grain graphics asym they made was an Asym Air, in '94. It is a freeride board, not a freecarve board.

I think in that case, the person had parallel and perpendicular confused.

Absolutely not! He's totally angulated! How do you think he's able to keep his head up and his shoulders nearly level to the snow? Look at the line of his legs compared to the line of his spine - he is angulated at the hips. The guy in Digger's photo is probably not going quite as fast as Peter. I think if he were, he would look a lot like Peter. I think he looks great the way he is. His butt/hips are mostly over his board, and he is nicely angulated. On good snow, I think this is a matter of style and taste. Spine parallel to the angle of inclination would be an EC style carve. However on icier conditions using angulation (to achieve a vertical spine in your example) will put you in a more balanced position. -Jack

I don't think I've ever seen <i>anyone</i> here advocating riding with your shoulders <i>parallel</i> to your board. "Parallel" would mean one shoulder pointing towards the nose, and the other towards the tail - as if you were trying to hide behind a telephone pole. There are basically two popular schools of thought here - face your chest towards the nose of your board, or face your chest towards your binding angles. Either is fine, and the choice is a "whatever works for <i>you</i>" type thing, imo. Actually everyone should know how to do both and apply them appropriately. Seperating the knees is something that I wrote about back in the days when people were riding with narrow stances, with the big Burton "knock-knee" wedge cant device under their back foot, a flat front foot, and with their rear knee tucked in <i>behind</i> their front knee. Not a good way to achieve a stable and balanced stance. The point was that you shouldn't be trying to jam your knees together, just let them act independently and naturally. If that means there's only an inch of space between them that's fine. I'm not sure where your rant came from because it sounds like you ride with a similar style that I and many people here advocate. Trying to touch your bottom rib to your hip bone, or "pencil pinching" as it has been called, is a well known technique here. As for pictures that look like the rider is hanging their butt out, some people are, but I think sometimes it can be harder to tell when the carve is highly inclinated (high edge angle). As long as your butt/hips are mostly "on top of" the board, you're doing fine. By "on top of the board" I mean that if you were to view the board at such an angle that all you see is the topsheet, the rider's butt is mostly over the topsheet. Like cmc, here. Does this clear things up any? -Jack

sooner or later, the same putz who trademarked the name "boardercross" is going to come along and trademark "expression session".

Another picture of a great heelside carve. It appears to me that his hips <i>are</i> above his feet. I think the big thing that needs to be clarified is our frame of reference. When I say "above his feet" or "over the board" I mean <i>relative to the board</i>, not relative to the earth. He is "angulating" at the hips to maintain a more upright upper body. The opposite of this would be an EC style carve, where the upperbody is in-line with the lower body and there is little or no angulation. On hero or good snow, this is a matter of style. On ice, it is simply a fact of physics that an angulated body position will be easier to balance, because you are keeping your body closer to the board, and your head is upright. That is why you'll never see anyone EC'ing in an icy race course. (<i>this is not to say that either style is "better" than the other.</i>) -Jack

John, best of luck and speedy recovery pal. We'll miss you at the ECES. Let's not turn this into a teleboard bashing thread, lest we forget the way we were bashed when snowboards hit the slopes. There's no practical use for a snowboard either.

ohh f#@%.

I believe the vast majority of Burton carving decks were offset to the back about 15-25mm, depending on the model. -Jack

so who is the dude with the Madd? Bordy?

Did Mark change the picture after you posted this? Looks like he's got his right arm over the heelside edge just fine. I'd say this is another good heelside example. Shoulders level, butt over the board, hands driving into the carve, looking into the carve..... except... Mark, are you rockin' a ONE-PIECE?!?

I don't think so. Actually I was going to say what a nice heelside example it is. His butt is actually mostly over the board - meaning that if you draw a line from his heelside edge to his left hip, it is nearly perpendicular to the board. A carve like this may not hold on <i>ice</i>, but for this type of snow it's a fine carve. -Jack

Edge angle, edge inclination, I think we're talking about the same thing. It's just how high you tilt your board up relative to the snow.

Go ahead and experiment, but I don't think the toe lift is your problem. I don't believe ski boots can relax their forward lean as much as snowboard boots, so I think you'll need the toe lift in there for your mobility and comfort. Make sure you start each heelside with a solid move forward, to set the nose in the carve. Really dive into it and be comitted. Look where you want to go. Drive forward with your rear hand. Is there an echo in here??

I would forget about the back boot cuff thing, I don't think it's working for you. Your shoulders appear to be in-line with the board - you want your chest facing more forward. You're not comitting to the heelside carve. Try driving your rear hand forward and down over the nose at the beginning of your heelside carve and continue driving it forward for the duration of the carve. It should feel almost like you're pulling the carve around with your back hand. You want to be able to see your back hand out in front of you throughout the carve in your peripheral vision. Bend your knees, and weight your front foot more at the beginning of the carve. Other tricks are to grab the front of your front boot cuff with your back hand, or to touch your back elbow to the top of your front knee. Also, <i>look</i> where you want the carve to go - <b>NOT</b> just downhill. I also think you're going too fast, as evidenced by the near downhill-edge-catch in one of the movies. Those hurt. Bad. You have almost no edge angle on heelside, and consequently you make a broad turn which allows too much speed to build. Then you have to deal with it on toeside. Comitting to the carve, cranking up the edge angle, and making a rounder, shorter radius carves on both sides will control your speed. -Jack

get a reverse cut drill bit. drill into the screw head, and eventually the torque of the drill will overcome the torque of the screw, and presto. or there are devices for this called "EZ Out" I believe, but google found nothing.

I give you this assignment: mount the camera on your board's tail and have Patrice or Jacques follow you closely. I think that would be pretty damn cool.

Haven't had time to read through the whole thing, but I'm loving what I'm seeing so far. I've turned all the pages a couple times and read one of the articles. Air to snow ratio in the photography seems to be about 50/50, and content to ads ratio is way over half - bravo - maybe I'll do another "analysis". But bottom line is that it got me excited about a snowboarding magazine in a way that hasn't happened since Snowboard Life, or since TWS was 95 pages long. If it takes $12.50 (or $10 if you subscribe) to get a snowboarding magazine like this, I'll pay it. It would also serve a secondary purpose of giving a big kiss-off to TWS and their ilk - you know they're looking to see this mag fail. But I do hope the demand is there to lower the price next year. Had to sneak this $40 subscription under the radar. -Jack

Okay, what is the electro-ambient music in Stoked? (this one: http://www.okao.com/films/2003/wmv/stoked1.wmv) Who is it, what album? I like, I like.

I think that many people (including myself) can develop or lapse into a weaker toeside carve than heelside, once heelside carves have been mastered. This is because on toeside there is a natural tendency to want to bend over at the waist towards the snow off to the side of the board, and also to reach down for the snow with our hand(s). It is because our head thinks it is safer when it is closer to the snow, so it tries to get there first, before a properly balanced position can be assumed. This is a less balanced position because that usually means your butt is up in the air - high c.o.g. Many times, you can end up bent over at the waist more than what your edge angle would dictate. I can't think of any other sport where bending over at the waist is the preferred, more balanced stance. <i>(okay, keep it clean here folks)</i> The fix, I believe, is to drop your hips into the carve first. This stacks your upper body on top of your c.o.g., and your c.o.g. is in line with the edge angle of the board. Here is a nice toeside by Ken B. His hand is down just as a feeler, but notice that otherwise his right hip is down and his upper body is more upright. -Jack

downhill edge: carving or catching?? http://www.ruhtra.com/~ruhtra/photo/03110a/m110a30c.jpg