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pmorita

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Posts posted by pmorita

  4. Growth in our sport?

    in Carving Central

    Posted

    I'll take the opposite side on this.  I've been trying to find a board for my kid, but have boots and should have bindings soon.  If anyone wants to borrow something to let their kid or friends try, I have the following.  Just send me a shipping label and return it a week later.

    Raichle something or others in size 22.5 and 25.  

    If all goes well I'll have a full setup with size 11 boots and a 160 ish board.

    Whatever it takes to get more people to have a taste.  We all want the same thing here so let's make it easier.

  6. Growth in our sport?

    in Carving Central

    Posted

    18 minutes ago, xy9ine said:

    this old(er) guy concurs. there are a few stiff boot & binding setups available, but the freecarve board spectrum is still relatively sparse. 

    A few years ago I struggled to find camber boards without going custom.  At least now there are some better options.  Granted they have weird cutouts, nose/tail shapes that look like can openers, strange graphics and funky model names (Hot Knife, Black Snowboard of Death????).  I consider it a step in the right direction as I can't do anything on a rocker board. 

  8. Growth in our sport?

    in Carving Central

    Posted

    I worked in a few windsurfing shops in the 80s and saw the same issues that made it hard for people to enter the sport.

    - Very few places to learn and get past the beginner stage.  It's no secret that there is a steep learning curve for alpine, less so for windsurfing.  You need people that can teach, a place to learn and enough people looking to commit to a painful process to enjoy the sport.

    - The cost of getting started is high.  Just getting to the mountain is expensive.  Investing in gear on top of that is a lot to ask.  Rentals are nor available as they need to be.  I know Okemo had a few rental setups, including boots, but there were no takers - partially because of no instruction?  It's all for sale for half price.

    - No focus on kids and getting people involved early.  There are three or four threads this year on people looking for kids gear.  I'm struggling to find small boots and a short board for my kid who is starting to ask.  Again, the prior bullet points feed into this issue and I have to give credit to Burton for trying to solve this with their kid specific gear, Riglet program and directly sponsoring school programs to get kids snowboarding in grade school.

    I'm sure there are many other reasons and no easy answers.  I'd love to see this go a different way, but near term it would be great to see more beginners and younger people on the green trails.  Near term, guess we need to introduce a skier or soft booter to carving.   I'm mounting some small bindings on a soft boot board for my kid and keeping an extra setup for friends and family.  If anyone knows of a mountain that is offering instruction, spread the word.  Maybe a learn to ride morning during the next carving convention?   

    Let's keep sharing ideas so we can fill more chairs with carvers.

    • Like 1

  17. Kids on hardboots

    in Carving Central

    Posted

    Hi JNG,

    I don't have any personal tales, but I do have a 10 year old who asked if he could give carving a go.  I saw at Camelback in PA that they have a serious racing program filled with little kids on carving boards.  Their coach might bed a good resource as I know that his son and two daughters race and ride on hard boots.

     

    • Like 1
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