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Vahur

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Posts posted by Vahur

  1. I love feeling when after 4 year carving break I buy new board, book trip to mountains and after first run realize that not only I can't carve but even sideslipping makes problems.

    I love chattering sound when heelside turn fails. And I lose edge. And fall on my back. Under lift line. With cheers above.

    I love when I can complete couple of nice turns and getting grip of it and then see flock of skiers bombing after me so I have to slam brakes and sideslip until they have passed, thus losing feel and rhytm.

    I love when I am getting nice run and then after turn I see group of students. Following each other. Across slope. Twice across.

    I love all this right now.

     

    NOT!

  2. How is this not bending at the waist? (pic not mine, obviously, it's from Jonas Rejman)

    Not very good angle in this picture.

    This is bending at the waist:

    dsc_2877_std.jpg

    This is not bending at the waist:

    dsc_0203_std.jpg

    Have you seen Rejman's film or Patrice/Jaques riding videos? I guess not, otherwise you wouldn't have asked this question, Patrice and Jacques (and other good carvers with push-pull technique) keep their upper body quite erect, it's strong leg bending during entering into turn, which could make such impression.

  3. Both boards are 20cm at the waist.

    You can order different width for those 2 board type, I kept the same width because it works for me.

    OK, it was wild shot from me anyway, as I don't know spex.

    I had front leg tiredness problem on heelside turns (or keeping heelside edge on flat sections) when my binding angles were unnecessary high. Lowering them as much as possible helped but this doesn't seem to be the case here.

    But another thought if you try both boards on carpet: does the stance feel same? And is front binding centered (i.e. same distance from edges on heelside and toeside)? If heelside (or toeside) turn feels more tiresome on front leg then adjusting binding position might help?

  4. What are central widths of the boards? It seems that Coiler Freecarve is quite narrow by today's standards (<19 cm) but I guess that VSR is much wider (21 cm? more?) If this is the case then I see no point in using same binding angles as it requires more effort to put board on edge and could be reason for leg burning. Set rear binding so that there is no overhang from binding and boot and set front binding angle some degrees more (I use +3 degrees).

  5. Weatherproof and sports means D300, which is sealed and has best AF-system from mentioned cameras. Quite good in low light (though D90 is tad better) as well, though you have to take care with settings and exposure otherwise noise could be visible even in ISO 200.

    I'm not sure that battery grip is needed with D300: it's 6fps without and 8fps with it (but then it needs another type of battery and charger), and adds considerable size and weight. Of course shooting with large lenses is little bit easier as well as in portrait orientation but still... I used D300 ca. 15 months and never missed battery grip (power kit set with grip + battery + charger cost here ca. 700 USD 8( , so this was also one reason not to buy it) .

  6. Thanks for posting these...just a lot of great pics here!

    say, the group photo of the boards leaning up had 21 with reg. stance and

    only 2 Goofys... found that odd ?:eek:

    Not odd, just normal. Erm, regular :eplus2:

    Seems like you are representative of minority here, as you noticed such discrimination, I didn't give this any thought before. But I promise that this discrimination will be eliminated next year and goofy riders representation will be at least 50%. :ices_ange

  7. First week of March meant that traditional Oppdal Carving Camp (OCC) was held. This year in cojunction with Swedish HBU (HardBooters Unite) event. So in total 20+ carvers from Finland, Sweden, Norway, Russia, Germany and Estonia were meeting in this carving paradise during informal event.

    Highlights of this event were following:

    Great number of happy people:

    dsc_5852_std.jpg

    Free waffles and coffee from lift company as recognition to our skills. Takk! :biggthump

    dsc_5814_std.jpg

    Destroying corduroy:

    dsc_5072_std.jpg

    Riding on 30 degree slope:

    dsc_5431_std.jpg

    Skilled riders using downhill edge effectively:

    dsc_5294_std.jpg

    Lonely rider:

    dsc_5628_std.jpg

    Skwalling:

    dsc_6776_std.jpg

    2 super-Swedes:

    dsc_6467_std.jpg

    Driving F2 from backseat:

    dsc_7060_std.jpg

    Rest of images here:

    http://carving.grewu.org/ojankaivajat/2009/oppdal/index.htm

  8. This was taken ... at ECS09 and its the first photo of me riding I have seen for a long time. I love it but I think I should maybe riding at SES09 as I ride more race style than extreme carve.

    I'm sure that none will complain if you continue to ride this way during ECS. :D

    Not that there is something wrong with SES in Aspen, I myself am thinking about hitting those slopes once again sometimes in future...

    Also if anyone thinks I am doing something wrong, please tell me as I am always looking to improve.

    Looks nice to me, but what do I know about technique :rolleyes:

    For race style heelside turn suggestions maybe this thread is of help:

    Backside turn....

    As per last comment by philfell you should rise your leading hand to avoid hitting snow with it.

  9. Anyone else? No...? Must be darn good unit

    I had D70 and while it was quite decent camera for its time I'd not buy this camera anymore as it's outdated for now. Some of issues:

    * limited dynamic range compared to modern cameras. This means that in contrasty situations (e.g. taking riding pictures of someone with dark clothing on well-lit high-altitude slopes) there is risk of overexposure on light areas and dark areas do not contains enough details. For sure, such situation is hard to handle for any camera but newer cameras are better in this regard.

    * Combined shutter: this means that minimum speed of mechanical shutter is 1/200 seconds (IIRC) and shorter shutter speeds are handled with electronic shutter. This is good if you want to use flash as main light source (you get sync speed 1/500) but if you shoot against the sun or other light source with fast shutter speeds then you get severe overexposure not only on lightsource but also in nearby areas due to sensor "overflow".

    * Automatic white balance is not good. This is especially visible for snow scenes (e.g. for riding pictures) where different colors of snow are very well distinguishable.

    Despite of these shortcomings it's still very good camera and produces better images than any of compact cameras, not to mention operation speed.

    My camera line goes D70>D200>D300>D700 and most noticeable quality change seems to be from D70 to D200, next changes are less noticeable except for low-light/high-ISO where D300 is quite decent and D700 really shines.

    If budget is limited, then I'd suggest D70 or D80 and good lens(es), but if there is more money to spend, then D90 or second-hand D200 or D300 is better choice (here second-hand D300 goes for almost same price as new D90, D200 is much cheaper). For lenses any kit will do for a start. For action shots (snowboarding) telelens I'd suggest AF-S 70-300 VR which has quite decent optics. Or 55-200 VR lens, which is also quite sharp and price-performance is good.

    Can't speak for cameras from other companies as I have no experience with them...

  10. "EC carving" sounds like echo ;)

    Voted "no" though I ride Swoard since 2004 and hope that one day I can drag my arms as nicely as Jacques and Patrice...

    But for me the ultimate goal is to have fun.

    Swiss carving technique ( prerotation and push-pull) is visually appealing and quite effective, so I learn it. Extreme carving is development of it but it's not applicable in every condition. However when conditions are right then it's blast to drag your body and see heads turning.

    Modern racing technique is another thing which I hope to master and use for the sake of fun and alternation.

    But there seems to be a kind of mystique/obsession/machismo surrounding laid-out EC-syle carving...and I'm not sure I get it.

    If you get this feeling from Carver's Almanac Extremecarving topic last paragraph then I think that you read this last paragraph too seriously :P

  11. Some really good shots in there.

    Any more sales. Looks like you did a nice job of it.

    Seems like there is no more sales than initial (7 books).

    But despite of this (or maybe because I don't want to admit that my photo book sucks :D ) I'll probably make another book this spring. Or maybe two books. :rolleyes:

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