NTwoO

I'm looking for one. Based in the Netherlands.

I have level super pipe gloves with the palms and fingers covered with shoe goo. They have been going for quite some time...

My son would've loved it! Most definitely. From the time his fontanel started to close, I would throw him as high as I possibly could. He loved it. I would dearly loved to do this with him, but would not dare it. I do do other things that parents say "you're crazy"...

Maybe you can try a tandem board. One of the blokes in our club has a tandem.

My point about the back protector is that most of us ride with one not planning to use it. If you do fall on your back, it takes a pretty punch. Mine has taken a few heavy knocks, that is for sure!

There are plenty of good back protectors on the market. You don't have to use your child for that purpose. ...

Like my sister says to her husband: "I'm married to you. It is my right not to listen to you." the closer you are, the more openly you disagree. With my son now I'll ask him if he wants to do an exercise or just play. If he wants to do an exercise, I'll think up something within his ability. If he says he only wants to play, then we play.

With friends and family it is best to say no. If you see something you think you can suggest, start with the question: "can I give you a tip?" if they say no, then accept it and leave it. My son was skiing for some years before trying the snowboard for the first time. He said he doesn't want any lessons. I always remained close by and helped him when he fell (was only six then) but left him to explore himself. I did start him off with falling leaf heelside and toeside. Sometimes my friends with instructor certificates will give him a few tips but most of the time he just plays. Due to injury on my wife's side and too many other sports he has not been on the snow that often the last year and a half, but when we do go he will do pirouettes and will try to find the edge from time to time. Regarding the stance, the phrase I use with him is "stand like an ape" that gets the knees, arms and torso in the good position.

From what I understand, the cult is narrower and stiffer than the soul (aka all mountain) the exact specs will require some digging.

I second an SG. I have a 169 all mountain. They have a batch recently made. The pin tail rides very neutral in powder and it holds a nice line on hard pack. The 169 offers plenty of float with my 250lb ++. The high nose is a bit floaty on mogully pistes.

Well, the dampening is different. the FRT has carbon that is a very good spring that is then dampened with titanal and rubber. This is very taught and sinewy. The FC has glass that is less of a springy and more dampened by itself. I did not check whether it has rubber in as well, but it will not surprise me if it does not. It is a bit like it is running on 60 profile instead of the 40 profile that is under the FRT. The other possible comparison I could give is with the Golf II GTI. They were brought out with an 8 valve and a 16 valve motor. The 16 valve motor had more kilowatt, but you needed to rev the motor to get to the power. The 8 valve had less kilowatt, but more torque low down that resulted in a more supple drive. It was not as fast with top speed, but for driving in town, it was more comfortable. In Dutch I said that it was "smeuïg" that unfortunately has no suitable translation to English (don't trust the online translations) but means something like juicy/creamy/fatty/tasty.

The non metal SG (Full Carve) is a fantastic board. I own a titanal 163 from 2011. It is noticeable at high angles the Full Carve has less torsional stiffness. For my perception, the Full Carve is around 90% of the performance of the Full Race Titan. It does get going at lower speeds than the FRT, which means that it produces a pleasant ride at lower speeds. Subjectively I would say that the Full Carve is more juicy. I would strongly consider to get the Full Carve next time round, irrespective of the price.

Hi all, I organised some SG test boards for the NL region for the coming couple of weeks. Like myself, most people here ride Swoards, but there might be people that want to see how these boards compare. For those that have not ridden an SG or Kessler yet, they are not as nail hard as one might think. In general very forgiving. The following dates boards could be made available for testing: Zoetermeer: 19 April 21 April 23 April 26 April 7 May 10 May Tignes 28 April-5 May (part of the www.familyjam.nl) If you want to come on this holiday with your kids, check out the website. There will be a total of at least 8 hardbooters. If you do decide to join, could you drop me a PM please? Landgraaf 12-13 May Available boards 1x FULL CARVE 163 1x FULL CARVE 170 1x each FULL RACE TITAN 163 and 185 1x FREE SOLO 167 1x FORCE FAT 165 1x ALL MOUNTAIN WIDE 169 Do you want to try one of these boards, send me a PM and we can arrange something.

Never got round to riding it at our carving camp, but the Kessler all mountain looked very scrumptious. Got to be a possibility... Although they are a little more expensive new...

Adding to the review of the SG Full race pro team, here are my experiences. Similar to some of my other reviews comparing the behaviour to cars. The SG Full Race SL is closest to a go kart. The board is ridiculously reliable at insane G's. I can not find the aggressiveness that so many people mention when referring to its behaviour. Just like a go-kart it is very reliable, predictable and docile at the limit. It has to be. If you are in the middle of a race and an axe murder suddenly appears, you will not be able to produce the win. The cambered nose does make it want to choose a side. On choosing a side, the build up is very nice and predictable. The board is softer than one would think with the nose showing quite a bit of flex. The nose seems to be softer than the tail. Quite a bit at that. This board I can best compare to a border collie dog. It is playful and loyal, but wants to play. Don't expect it to be leisurely. For that it is far too spritely.

After posting a response to one of the questions posted on the forum, I realised that the post can just as well be a review. Here goes: The Swoard is a very nice board to ride. Think of it as a long wheel base BMW or Bentley. That a Swoard wants to go fast is not my experience. It is most definitely not a race board Through the softer construction (and you can choose it as soft as suits you) and the wider body, the board does nice high G carves without excessive speed. For all day riding this is by far preferable IMHO. With lower speeds, the size of a crash is just smaller. The radius is smaller than the GS guns that makes it relatively nimble in traffic. It is less tiring getting and keeping the wide board on its edge and once on its edge, the grip is very reliable and comfortable. Through the softer construction, the board is also much more forgiving than the GS boards (The Kessler 185GS that I rode in Jan aside...) If you want to go racing, don't take the swoard, but for full days with gaping skiers and snowboarders this board is just insane. It is the perfect board for a headset and the feeling as if you are "dancing" your carves. Off piste is not its forte with a nose with very little lift. It'll give you some float, but pulling it over a stone will put cuts right through your heart. BTW, I'm not doing EC (yet), just free carving.

Just realised that after going to all that trouble posting, I might as well add it to a gear review. Some of the other posts in the thread can easily be added to the review. Care to join?

One of my mates in za has one. We only rode it on the roads in cape town. It is very relaxed on asfalt. The warning sticker is hilarious.

Hooked into the thread a little late and did not read till this post... Som smoking recommendations in there!! Much closer to the needs of the FP. That SG Cult is one that I won't mind trying some time. Is the F2 Eliminator not also an option?

The Swoard is a very nice board to ride. Think of it as a long wheel base BMW or Bentley. The statement that the Swoard wants to go fast is not my experience. Through the softer construction (and you can choose it as soft as suits you) and the wider body, the board does nice high G carves without excessive speed. For all day riding this is by far preferable IMHO. With lower speeds, the size of a crash is just smaller. The radius is smaller than the GS guns that makes it relatively nimble in traffic. It is less tiring getting and keeping the wide board on its edge and once on its edge, the grip is very reliable and comfortable. Through the softer construction, the board is also much more forgiving than the GS boards (The Kessler 185GS that I rode in Jan aside...) If you want to go racing, don't take the swoard, but for full days with gaping skiers and snowboarders this board is just insane. It is the perfect board for a headset and the feeling as if you are "dancing" your carves. Off piste is not its forte with a nose with very little lift. It'll give you some float, but pulling it over a stone will put cuts right through your heart. BTW, I'm not doing EC (yet), just free carving.

Getting back to one of the earlier posts, I've been thinking how one could fix this. One of the ideas I had was to make a vacuum chamber. For sidewall delaminations, one could use a piece of clear Acrylic tube with caps and notch one side to fit over the side. Rags impregnated with wax can be used to seal of the cracks and an old fridge pump can be used as a vacuum pump. It might be handy to have a vacuum gauge and first do some tests to see when the epoxy starts to boil... One must still figure out an elegant way to get the epoxy into the cracks once the vacuum is released, for one alternative route will suck air back in. My guess is though that the chances of getting the original strength back is small...

City rats that can't back a trailer! :P

For those missing background information, check out the Kaane report. Background: The Kaane ruined my left foot with a double forward loop on day 1. Day 2 was spent looking through the village and finding out how I can post the Hot Blast 167 that I sold on extremecarving.com... and praying to all deities to heal my foot as quick as possible. Day 3 saw us on slalom training with my foot taped in very tight and my SG released on a very challenging slalom. The foot was still a little dodgy, but was improving by the minute and by the afternoon (and an hour in bed with my foot up) things were starting to look peachy. The trusty Swoard was taken out of the board bag and the afternoon was spent playing with deep carves. On Day 4 the Kessler Cross was reserved, but the Swoard was providing plenty of joy and the reliability of the known was chosen to regain confidence. Day 5: this day was planned for Giant Slalom training. The Kessler alpine boards were in high demand, but with my frugal use of the boards, the 185 was MINE ALL MINE for the slalom training!! :D The first few runs were a little tricky and getting the 185 turning was more than I was used to. The trainer was giving me hell for riding like an old lady, but perseverence being the name of the game got me closer to to the 185 with every run. By the end the run was reasonably neat with a nice rhythm coming into the turns at the end of the run. The success story of day 3 was repeated with the hotel only 1 minute walk from the lift. With a half an hour on bed with my feet in the air and shaking out my legs, I was feeling as strong as a bear for the afternoon. The 185 was unleashed on lovely open pistes with much enjoyment. The crisp and predictable behaviour was a warm welcome after the trigger happy Kaane with the machinegun in its pocket. Every turn was super stable with immense edge grip. At no second did I feel that I was going too fast (even though the speeds were rediculous at times!!) On the black slopes with the carves going balistic, it was always possible to up he ante and dig in your rail deeper to get the board to produce fire cracker G forces!! Man what an absolute blast!! This kind of behaviour is what I've come to know and respect in true race quality boards. No unexpected behaviour, no crazy stuff. Just good, dependable and reliable railing at any speed. And if you drive it like a rinoserous, the board will politely let you know that it wants to be treated nicer if it can not handle the abuse. If it can, it'll keep quiet and do its work dilegently. How I wish that the little beauty is affordable enough that I can convince myself to include her in my quiver!! It is most certainly a very fine piece of craftsmanship that is also a magical free carve board when the pistes are empty enough to allow it. A few people are nice, though, to see them stop and stare at this lightning bolt carving trenches in the piste that would shame Catterpillar earth moving equipment.

Never got round to trying the Kessler Cross past week, but was spending plenty of time on the Swoard. It has a very reliable edge grip and is a true hard boot board unlike the Cross that is mainly ridden on soft boots. It is still perfectly possible to carve on the Cross though (seeing what the other soft booters did...) The swoard has a reasonably small sidecut radius (12-13m, I recall). This makes it nimbler than you would expect. They are also reasonably soft which means that they are far more forgiving to ride than something like the F2 RS you mentioned. With the extra width of the swoard, you can ride less agressive binding angles that make the carving more relaxed. It is a very fine board that is built to exceptional quality at a reasonable price, compared to the Kessler. I did take out the 185 Kessler on our carving camp and it was absolutely breathtaking. With the sidecut on the 185, nothing but open pistes is enjoyable for freecarving.

Monday 16 January, Day 1 of the Soulboarders Ultimate Carving Experience in Innichen Sud-Tirol. Last night the guys organising the event said with smiles as big as slices of watermelon that the 22 boarders on the event (and one skier) had: 12 boards from Kessler (SBX, SL and RS) 4 boards from Nidecker 4 boards from Jones, 1 board from Yes and 3 boards from Kaane that was just fetched from the valley to the south. The boards were just on the other side of the mountian, but it was still 4 hours round trip!! Sometimes I want to be a crow (Fritz the cat). Sigi is sorting out some full carves and Race titans for the event. (maybe send us some of the Cult boards!) With the majority of the boarders riding on Kessler, SG and some F2s, the new Kaane boards were inspected with verve. There is a 162ish SL, A 173 RS and a 183 RS supplied as demo boards. The boards are finished in nice style, the 173 with the Italian flag in the sidewall round the nose!! The top sheets are of a material that looks to be treatable with wax which would ensure less build up of wax on the board that might affect the ability to follow the snow due to extra weight. I looked at the boards and the 183 was markedly softer than the 173. The sides were tuned to perfection and even the whole nose was sharpened to a rasor. Hats off guys on supplying the boards like Italians Pistenbully drivers supply cordroy in the morning. I chose the 183, since my reasoning was that with my 120kgs I'd be able to get the board curving at lower speeds that would make the ride less hectic. This would make the board nice for freecarving, I thought. One of the intersting aspects of the Kaane boards is a perfectly flat tail with absolutely no kickup. The board has base to the tail. The nose is not as blunt as the SG or Kesslers and has no camber on the tail or nose. This could affect the dampening. The 183 board has 4 rows of inserts per binding in close 4x4 spacing. In the evening I placed my bindings and ensured that everything was set for the next day, today. We took the bus to one of the areas closer to Austria and were there for first lift. At the top there was a slight sun on our domes and with -18, it was nice and cold. The snow was crispy and the pistes were maintained to absolute perfection with billiard table quality hardpack. On the first section of the run, the sun baked the slow bit and 4 of us had to lie down and enjoy the snow ;) (well, we fell). The next bit is a section that is ridiculously wide and I got the Kaane on its heel rail and experienced one of the most impressive backside carves I have ever had. My style is still quite rough (hence the slogan: "Brake fluid drained... GO!!" on my SG SL) but has improved immensely in the last few months thanks to quality training. Even so, the carve was so completely out of this world that I am happy to say, my holiday is made! Further down the run, it became evident that I could not control the front hand with the same precision as the back hand. This was caused by 2 aspects. 1: The back hand carve was so pure that my speed was too high for my limited technique. 2: My bindings were too close together, partly caused by the spacing of the inserts. This did help me to open up my back knee. The back hand would chatter under the speed and I would end up a few times on my belly. Playing around with my stance in the front hand turns did result in a number of them getting purer, but it was a bit of struggling the whole time. On the one run we had some nice photo opportunities and we took the hill one at a time. My previous run here produced another absolute corker on the backhand that is recorded on film. The second time, I wanted to get the front hand right and scream into an even more impressive backhand. The first part of the carve I found that piece of heaven in the Kaane that was ready to launch me into warp speed... shortly before the nose dug in and threw me in a spectacular top side. I somehow ended on my feet again, but unfortunately full on the nose taking the Kaane's nose into a 90deg bananabend for a second time and sent me flying again. The board is miraculously unscathed. How I did not manage to break it is an absolute miracle!! The crash did take out my foot joint and this report is now being written with a fat ice pack on my ankle joint. The board is clearly a very interesting board. Somehow the board loses absolutely no pace in the carve, no matter how hard you stomp the tail. I expect this is a result of the absolutely flat tail. The board thus has no drag on the tail slowing you down. Just this aspect of the board would make me advise anybody keen on purchasing a new stick to consider this majestic piece of Italian craftsmanship for their quiver. I know that most people would say "I don't loose speed in the carve..." This message is especially for you!! :D Do check that you can mount your bindings wide enough, though! The binding positions is a major problem and more of the riders reported that they were very frustrated with the possibilities for binding positions and how close together one's feet are together. Ratings: Quality of build: 11 (would've given it an 8, but there are very few boards that wouldn't have broken under the crash) Quality of the carve: 7 (could not get the front hand stable) Would I purchase?: 5 (this beast bit me badly!! Inserts are too close together. Maybe with my bindings more favourable, I could control the frontside better but other riders also report issues with the frontside.)