Neil Gendzwill

How do you like the Amplid?

[looks up the spec sheet] So it is. I think I got that impression from the Jones videos introducing the product where they talk about the two being 6 m and 9 m sidecuts.

I discussed the BX shape with Bruce when ordering mine. His comment was that the BX shape "is for on piste only and can really go under in softer stuff." Being that I ride primarily in the west I didn't want something that restrictive. If I'd gone BX the board would have been 6 or 7 cm shorter with the same EE. As far as double digit sidecuts go, I think Jones knows his market. I'm just a little surprised that he uses the same radius at every length. I wanted it a bit longer so I specified 10m.

If you’re in the market for a free carver you’re not looking for a pow board. Also the Tanker is pretty narrow, the Jones is 1.4 cm wider.

The Coiler 166 I just had built is not that far off a Freecarver 164. Same EE, 4 mm narrower, longer sidecut (10 m). Probably heavier, it weighs about 800 g more than my Flagship 162.

I really don’t care for that video. A bunch of slow motion shots of a single carve. I want to see the full speed footage of a bunch of those turns linked together. With the amount of drag that guy is showing I would be surprised to see him link more than 2.

They're very convenient I find, just step in as I glide off the chair, no stopping required unless the layout requires it. Also I have a bum hip so necessary for me these days. They are really handy in resorts with lots of flat spots. Run out of momentum? Step out, skate for a while, step back in on the fly. Maybe you're coordinated enough to do that without the toe piece dragging in the snow or scrubbing speed as you try to clip back in but I'm not.

If you are looking to do extreme carving, ultimately duck stance will limit you.

So what you are running into there is the max width of the tip and tail Sean can provide. The bigger the waist at a given length the longer the minimum sidecut as shorter sidecuts mean a wider tip and tail. Similarly longer length forces a longer sidecut, given the overall width limit. As far as which way to go, I can’t tell you. I’ve found I like around 10 m. I have a board with 12-14 m vsr and I like it for wide groomers but it’s not as versatile as my shorter ones. OTOH lots of guys who are really laying it over like long sidecuts, some are using up to 20 m.

The Alp is purty. I have a ‘94 Asym Air that I love. Don’t ride it anymore though.

Coiler makes their all-mountain model with titanal and it works great. Mine is built with a little extra nose and 16 mm of taper. The taper lets you release the tail easier but it still carves great when you want it to.

Had my Flagship tuned in Whistler a couple weeks ago, they seemed to handle it fine. Magnetraction or some variant of it is very common these days, good shops need to be able to handle it.

If you're going to ride Nakiska, avoid the weekend at all costs. That resort sells cheap family passes and on the weekend it is overrun with kids and nearly impossible to carve safely there. Otherwise it has the best grooming of all of the resorts within easy driving distance of Banff. Other than the groomers it is a pretty boring hill and doesn't get much snow cover compared to the others. Sunshine and Louise are quite doable on the weekend. They have enough uphill capacity that the lift lines are never too bad. They are also large enough to disperse huge crowds of skiers. Especially if you are comfortable on expert terrain then you don't really have to deal with too badly crowded conditions. Of course the connector routes get busy on crowded days. The worst bottleneck is the parking and gondola at the base of Sunshine. If you go there on a weekend, make sure to go early. I hear that in some cases they will turn people away when they run out of parking. The last few times we've gone we've left the car at the hotel and taken the free hotel shuttle to the hill. That's a great service that not a lot of people take advantage of.

1. No 2. No 3. No 4/5. The two major resorts near Banff are Sunshine Village and Lake Louise. They both have runs that work well for alpine gear but to truly enjoy them I would bring an all-mountain setup. Leave the Speedster at home.

So if I am reading you correctly and I measured two equivalently stiff boards of differing lengths, I would expect: D1 ~= D2 * (L1/L2)^3 where D is deflection and L is the distance between the support points.

Being able to answer work calls on the hill is a good reason not to buy imo. At any rate the features don’t matter if it doesn’t fit. For example the Smith brain bucket looks cool but I have yet to find a single Smith helmet that fit me.

You could probably test with the support points at either edge of the effective edge and then adjust the result mathematically to compensate for the difference between EEs on the board. Not sure that would be accurate.

Those stiffness numbers aren't really comparable.

Just received a new soft boot carver from Coiler and was giving it the old shop flex. It’s stiffer than my Jones Flagship but not that stiff. Got me to thinking, exactly how stiff are my various decks? So I set up a crude test rig using my two vices (comically disparate in size as you will see in the pictures). The support points are 110 cm apart which is about the max the Jones can do. I put 100 lbs of weight over each insert pack and measured the deflection. Results: 2022 Jones Flagship 162W: 55 mm 2024 Coiler Contra 166: 50 mm 2015 Coiler AMT 167: 44 mm 2012 Coiler NFC 180: 29 mm The Nirvana is definitely the stiffest both by test and by riding but it is not an overly stiff board by our standards. I’m guessing this kind of deflection test doesn’t correspond linearly to the formally defined flex properties whatever those are. Not a mechie. Corie? Pics here: https://imgur.com/a/Ze2cHZ9

Bruce’s bases are like the model T: you can have any colour you like so long as it’s black.

If you like the Carve RS, I believe the Intec RS are just the step in version. You’ll find them a bit stiffer, the step in mechanism takes out some slop. As Alan mentioned they can be tricky to get in or out of in deep powder. I have two pairs of the Titanflex and like them. They are stiffer than the RS but do offer some lateral movement. They add about 10 mm of stack height compared to the normal F2 design.

Bruce said he’s done a lot of retro graphics but this is the first time for this one. Turned out well I think.

Merry Christmas to me! Thanks to Bruce for the fantastic build and Nic for the graphics assist. 166 Contra SB with the all-terrain tip/tail. 138 cm effective edge, 27 cm waist, 10 m sidecut, 12 mm taper, looks like about 5 mm camber. Graphics inspired by the 2nd board I ever owned, although mine was the more common yellow-orange stripes.

I don’t think I’d care for a visor. I have a couple of pairs of goggles plus some shades I like for nice days, I can choose what I want.

I use Giro because it’s the only brand that fits my xxl oval head. My advice is buy from a local shop with good selection and get the one that fits. For me MIPS and adjustable venting were required features. Also, they should be replaced a lot more frequently than every 20 years. Plastics have a limited lifespan.