The blues off Goat’s Eye are pretty good for carving. Under Jackrabbit chair is fun. The blues off Wawa can be good. Great Divide is fun if it isn’t too busy.
Not necessarily in spring though.
James doesn’t carve super steep stuff but he’s carving about as steep as you get for groomed runs. He claims 33 degrees for the slope in this video which seems about right given the angle of the trees. I don’t think many of us here could link as many turns as he does here on this slope and he’s doing it in soft boots.
I don’t think buttering is in the same universe as slarving.
OP you’ve mentioned pressure building up in the last half of the turn several times. The solution to that is to much more aggressively pressure very early in the turn. If you casually tip it over and let the pressure build it works fine on easy slopes but as you’ve observed gets you in more trouble the steeper it gets. I’m no technical expert like the others who have replied so far but I definitely have the most success on steeper terrain when I commit early. This means a quite aggressive move from the uphill edge to the downhill edge which takes some courage especially from toe to heel when you’re hucking over your shoulder blind.
There’s a nice video or two of Corey explaining this early pressure concept on YouTube if you search SES carving clinic you should find it.
Just chatting with a Burton rep through their site, they say they plan to offer the Ion step-on in wide next season. I suggested they make a Driver X step-on and he said he'd pass the message along but I am not hopeful on that front.
I think that shop owner just sold you what he had, James. In 2006 Burton still had the Custom and T6 which as I recall were both cambered. Nothing much over 160 though.
Tempted. My Photons are softer than I’d like and after riding them I need to size down. If they’re still available next fall I’ll probably snag a pair and ebay the Photons. I found the dual Boas on the Photon better than the mix of speed lace and Boa on the Ion though.
Just curious, do various countries actually just adopt FIS rules outside of competition? I always just thought they were a competition organization, not some sort of umbrella safety federation.
I think for sure there’s confusion on those terms and a lot of overlap in the commercial designs. But to me an all-mountain design has to handle park and a freeride design has to float well in pow and handle significant speed. Think Mountain Twin vs Flagship in Jones’ line. There’s overlap for sure but ultimately those boards are targeted at different people.
But I digress.
Do you mean to say that board design is irrelevant? Because this forum is full of technically minded people who love to discuss the relative merits of gear design.