neil sunday

there are usually no footbeds with the thermoflex in my experiences... i usually have my riders get custom footbeds for comfort and performance... the foam under the liner is a wedge usually made to give women a little more room inthe boot at the calf height. it basically raises the leg a few cenitmeters higher, onto the thinner part of the calf, making a better fit. hope this helps...

wavechaser- if the assistant director position ever comes available, I will be applying. I would like to see USASA support the alpine side of the coin more as well... and not to refuel the fire... but i can't let it go... the USSA has told us how they feel about Alpine Snowboarding by the decisons on the FIS PGS at Lake Placid. Kinda gives "The Race to the Cup" Series name a slap in the face... the US Snowboard Team needs some sort of endowment program or private funding.... maybe if i seel more concrete countertops they could all ride for ZENCEMENT by NEIL SUNDAY!!!!

one of my former atheletes trains there on weekends with matt drinker... they love the mountain, plus it's close to his college. PM me and i'll give you his email if you want to ride with some alpine heads...

Back to the original quesiton of risers for a 14 year old... Here's my experience... I started with the Cutting board riser plates under snowpro bindings two years ago. it's a good feel, but only for powerful riders. the leverage created makes the board very unforgiving once on edge. risers also decrease edge change quickness... cutting board risers raise the rider an additional 10mm or so, and take about 7 to 10 days on snow and in gates to really get the feel for... now i ride the Spirig Hangl Plates and i would NOT recomend them to anyone under 150-160 pounds, simply because they make the board SO HEAVY. Heavy can be a good thing, as my board slices through crud, bumps, etc.. but it also weighs in at 20.02 pounds. you need to have enough strength to "muscle" the board from edge to edge. once it gets going though, it is hard to stop. in GS i am not so concerned about edge change speed, as i would rather have the dampening and the leverage that the hangl plate offers. on a side not- i have not set up any of the 9 kids on my snowboard team with risers or hangl plate systems.... i did give my cutting board risers to a 19 year old graduate of my program and he loves them. he's becoming a more acomplished rider, and had been training for about 6 years.. as phil fell stated earlier, at 14- there are so many more things that are important ot snowboarding and technique other than this avenue.. -and the schooch brothers may still be riding the hangl plate system for GS , I have only seen this on their slalom sticks...

phil, congrats on your athletes doin' well...

i checked them out earlier... glad to hear she's on track for arosa... steve said they are/or were working on a new technique? is this the hips into the turn system (i.e. swiss) riding style??

alot of these old boards we sold as we were growing up, and now that we have settled down, made some money, we'd do anyting to have our old stuff (or replicas of it) back!! I made the same mistakes of selling or giving away boards that i would love to have as a show piece.

Glad to hear nothing is wrong. I hope she lands one or more for the US. How's your season going?

Does anybody know if Michelle Gorgone is in a slump, or just having an off year??? Seemslikelast year she was ready to be the top american if not a top contender at the WC level. This years results just seem off... Anybody have an idea? I see she quit riding donek, and moved to Oxess, I wonder if this has anything to do with it?

do they boards have titanal in them?

WC- you are a brave man running the "tall boys" again... it's been 10 years since i was in a race w/ breakaways. i remember how expensive it was to hold a snowboard race back then, as we would shear off the tall boy right at the hinge... i also remember how they would wrap around you when you snugged up on the line. nice post though- brings back a ton of memories. i like the stubbies (and keeping my front teeth!) -Neil

are you riding a freestyle board? that's really narrow for freestyle set up. my Giant Slalom board in 20.5 cm, and i want to go to a 21.5 or 22 cm waist for this coming season.

just be careful of folding the nose and going head over heels! the forward pressure you can generate with plates can oftentimes taco the nose of softer flexing boards....

Lee- this setup should be comletley legal for racing. I believe the boards must be at least 16 cm at the waist (check with Phil Fell) and binding angles must be less than 75 degrees. that is the parameters for racing boards right now... again, double check before purchase, but i'm fairly certain these are the crucial parameters that ussa would check. -neil

we just puit her leg in the "stretcher" and she amazingly grew from 5'1" to 5'5" and now her boots fit! :) we're talking streching the plastic of the boot, and thermoflex fitting the liners better..

for all the kids on my team that weigh in at or around 132, we put them on the deeluxe lemans boots. they seem to have a perfect flex pattern for that weight range. we did have aproblem with one of the girls on our team that required some modifications to get her calves into the boots...

I dont know where he went "off track." I admire(d) both athletes. I watch the tour de france and skiing events whenever i can just to follow these guys- then i hear things that bode says to the press... it's truly dissappointing. As a coach of a snowbaord team, I'm always around the youth skiiers as well. I can tell you this- the skiing youth follow Ted Ligety now more than bode- even they understand...

Bode's a great skier- perhaps the best America has seen since the Mahre brothers... USSA should put a muffle on his mouth and keep him out of/or away from the press. Nothing positive comes out of his comments other than the same, passive-aggressive blah, blah, blah of only skiing for himself and no one else. Long after Bode blows out his knees and is retired, Lance will still be seen as a survivior, and the greatest athlete of all time. My two cents.

skatha, LOL! very few times have i had to sit at the pc and LOL with no one home!!!!! if i only lived in texas i'd have you for my doctor... i guess i'l rely on the kid's of my snowboard teams parents for their continued treatment of snowboard related injuries.... hahahah. still laughing. peace.

Riding swith is an excellent technique to show kids balance on their hardboot setups. so many times they are focused on alignment and "proper" riding position, they forget about being balanced on the snowboard. i oftentimes make the kids on my snowboard team ride switch- it's usually when there's too much "confidence" and trash talking going on while they are ridign the lifts! then it's switch time!!!

a tobaggan would be hard to fit through the start gate :)

I dont think the construction of the UPZ boots are an issue.. about 50% of the FIS World Cup riders wear them. The five buckle red ones. i agree with phil on the cuff of the head stratos pro being a little low.

Dragonsword- you defintely would want to qualify for USASA nationals with all the other Mid Atlantic kids. It's more snowboard focused compared to NASTAR nationals... You tore your ACL? How is it healing? Hope your back for the season... -Neil

all you need to do is look at the pics from the slalom vs the GS, and you will clearly see that all Ross did was change his helmet, goggles, boots and speed suit-- plus dye his hair and grow a goatee... this is common practice to make these changes day-to-day on the circuit...

Barry- is that you rail sliding on your avatar? hahah. how's the shinbang? i hope you're over it by now....