CarvCanada

??? at my mountains, all the "good" skiers are carving when they are skiing the groomers. of course, their carving is basically bombing the fall line and maybe getting an inclination of 40 degrees at most, with their arms spread out and REALLY ugly in my opinion. there's no flow at all. some skiers can have a flow while carving, but it's hard when you've got poles and everything. the body positioning isnt pretty. one stick better than 2 sticks. A ski instructor once saw some aggressive low long radius turns, and commented at the bottom how my "short radius" carves were nice. Flying down the fall line carving a massive radius inclinated at less than 40 degrees, I can't see how you get pumped up on that, and it's ugly! :) skis really shine when there's chop though, the kind of refrozen thaw chop on top of super hardpack that is unfortunatly not extremely rare in the east. They plow through it and don't lose their edges, I guess mainly because their quite soft, and if one ski is chattering on choppy hardpack, you always have the other cleanly carving. They also shine in that they aren't nearly as specialized as snowboards in my opinion. A powder ski will still carve, you could take it in the terrain park and be competent. A slalom ski you could take through moguls, you could go in the woods, you could go in the terrain park. With snowboards, they are heavily specialized. Skis can do it all decently, a particular design is only biased towards some type of riding. Snowboards can do what they are designed to do, better! :)

is the hook on the highback simply to prevent it from constantly wanting to drop down while putting your boot in to strap in?

Why aren't there more 3strap bindings!? Maybe the top strap could be elastic at a point?

A farmer can't explain why his chickens aren't producing eggs, so he enlists a biologist, an engineer and a businessman to investigate the problem. The biologist and businessman go to the barn to check out the problem, while the engineer starts scribbling away. Two months later, the engineer appears at the door of the farmer and claims "I have found the problem! I'm afraid it only works for frictionless chickens in a vacuum though... "

from an engineering professor: Definition of an Engineer "An ENGINEER is one who passes as an exacting expert on the strength of being able to turn out, with prolific fortitude, strings of incomprehensible formulae calculated with micrometric precision from extremely vague assumptions which are based on debatable figures acquired from inconclusive tests and quite incomplete experiments, carried out with instruments of problematic accuracy by persons of doubtful reliability and rather dubious mentality. "

Flats, narrow steep trails with random trees everywhere, bumped up everywhere.

it's almost May and there is still decent hardpack? Aren't the temps above freezing even in the alpine? I MUCH prefer softies and an all-mountainish board on soft snow / harpack topped with a bit of powder / corn. If the snow is soft, good luck being aggressive with a slalom board on it! Going over the nose no fun!

It would be great to have an entire snowboard industry standard... but yeah what happens when the board is stiff in the tail and nose, but not in the waist? My 186 "feels" softer than my 171, but I'm sure it takes more force to decamber. A number could give you an idea of how stiff a board is, but the board's shape, structure and "raison d'etre" would give you a better idea. I'm doing a project for college linking the physics of technique of carving to the board's structure/shape... it fit perfectly into the class material :) I have to start thinking like this now . Oh well it's raining outside and 3 degrees!

in the second clip I can see you doing some of that. It looks great. Your body was travelling in a straight line at the end of the clip, while the board was alternating from side to side, which is cross under. To get the rotation in that quickly, an idea is to do this (link to rider CMC's video at ... I guess Derf's website now :)) http://derf.dyndns.org/~derf/snowboard/ver1.wmv you can get super quick cross unders but I find it's ugly :) I prefer to keep my arms by my side and if I get low, to just let them brush the snow by my waist, or if I get really low, to just double arm the slope near just in front of my chest. I SOOO need that Colorado snow!!!

lookin good :) it's solid, but seems not too aggressive. Get lower (maybe a wider stance, with more forward lean), and I'd say concentrate on extending in the apex of the turn, and sucking in your knees on the transition, while rotating chest towards the next turn. I'd say rotate heavily your chest in the direction of the next carve in your transition to whip the board underneath. Also, try something cool: just before the transition, as your releasing your angulation, drop your rear knee towards the ground to keep the boards inclination and keep the board turning tight, and it will WHIP underneath you I NEED SNOW I'm getting outta here (Quebec) soon man I NEED it. Colorado or Utah

love their style from the videos and pictures that I saw

they definately look like they have fun! I would definately find that stance uncomfortable, but the technique linked with their boards looks great, really versatile on soft snow. I'd bet it wouldn't work great out on HARDpacked snow but if I move out west, I'll be riding similar boards (maybe something an All Mountain, or an INCA CAMO, Incline 168 or something like that) with softboots at angles like that, something like 40/35 hope to meet em if I get to SES

Do you have the option for Demerol? I don't know much about drugs, but demerol is nice.... MUCH nicer than morphine and other pain scheisse. I can't stand pills

It's in northern Maine I think? Close to Quebec City... interesting :) is the "loaf" on top of the mountain genuine alpine... above the tree level? In the summer it's just a field of grass and brush? They groom trails through it, but do they leave a "bowl" for powder/moguls? how much vertical does the alpine have? I've never been above alpine on a ski resort; some non-ski resort mountaintops in Charlevoix (Quebec) are in the alpine... but probably just because of high wind, I'd guess their only 3000ft above sea level at summit.

hehe Derf, just got back from Mount Royal for mountain biking... and noticed that half the trails are now "zones de re-naturalisation" While I would respect those signs if it were a real mountain in REAL nature... I think I'll still be using those trails, there are some decent ones up there! I guess if they start planting trees I'll stop shredding the trails, but I don't think that's happening. Somehow I don't think I'm harming the local squirrel population :) they seem to not fear humans at all! Sometimes they even throw stuff from their trees at you if you stop to rest. There are also some tame groundhogs that seem to enjoy watching people mountain bike :) conditions are great in the morning, when the snow is packed and there are little "ice dunes". it gets slushy by afternoon

If I have University March Break then.. then FOR SURE!

not if it's comfortable for you... Hardly anyone does it, but if your physiology makes it so you have more control and are more comfortable like that, then of course! maybe first try different cant and lift to get comfortable?

"going into surg" you're getting a metal rod? I have one of those :) from a tib-fib last season no problems with it at all, and I had almost completely recovered after about 6 months. it doesn't even activate metal detectors :)

Sure. I'll send pics as soon as I can. I posted my thoughts here since I figured it was something that happened over time to boards with woven topsheets. I'm sure that it's in no way a product defect! That board is my favorite board to date, and besides... it looks pretty cool :)

das ist die pureboarding! :)

I've got a question I have about 30 days on a Donek Freecarve, about 2/3 of them on quality hardpack where I was able to carve really aggressively. The board ROCKS and still rocks, it seems like its broken in and as solid as it will ever be I rarely fold the nose, never to the point of cartwheeling, and only in soft snow. I've only augered the nose once (ouch! :) ) at low speed. I've noticed some visual change in the topsheet that seems to have slowly progressed over time. Just ahead of the front binding, and just behind the rear binding, there is a semi-circle of topsheet area (i have a metallic weave topsheet) where the weave has spaced out, leaving a brown tint from the underlying core, and another larger circle hugging the brownish one, where the topsheet has "compressed" and become a darker shade of blue... the weave is tight and compressed in that area. There is also a horizontal line (parallel to the waist axis) halfway between the nose's tip and the front binding, where the topsheet has spaced out and has a brownish tint. The board rides extremely well as it always has... stable, hooks into carves, lots of feedback and plenty of pop. Is this just a result of flexing the board hard? I was thinking maybe Catek Disks are so rigid that they force the board to flex in a slightly different pattern just ahead and behind the front and rear bindings? just curious

they really do flex smoothly and progressively! Compared to other boots I've ridden, the other boots made plastic grinding noises if flexed hard.

hehe pretty old school, look at that tail in the side profile ! :) should be fun though

link laid out turns... on skis?!

QUOTE James Ong: "I'm outta here , you guys obviously don't have the sense of history to appreciate carving. leaving still without any past/present/future proof of linking laid out turns>" proof? www.extremecarving.com ???! aren't you from Tahoe, don't you see it all the time with the Tahoecarvers!?