v94

right. thank you very much :)

On the soft boot board I am both carving and skidding, depending from the situation and from what I want to achieve, but I definitely can carve; maybe not fantastically but I can carve. I will surely be getting an instructor from the first day next year then :) Hopefully the stars will align for me and I will be able to go for a few more days next month. Thanks a lot. I will be looking for some used gear. I am looking at the FAQ threads. I am unsure whether I want an allmountain or racing board. I want to ride on the tracks the whole time pretty much. Also, does it work well with bumps? My friends with skis complain all the time after 1pm when the tracks aren't flat anymore, is that a problem with a hard board?

Hey everyone! I just finished snowboarding this season. Unfortunately for me I live quite far from the slopes, and being so expensive (alps, dolomites. I live in italy, amazing mountains!) I can only go 1 or 2 weeks a year, but I always try to make the best of it (this year I have done a lot over 200km in a week, and one day I was too sick to board!) Having that said, I love snowboarding. I am 18 and I only started going on the mountains 4 years ago. I went with the snowboard straight away because of my instincts: going sideways with both feet on a board just felt more "right". I did not regret this decision, it's the most fun I ever had. After 4 years of soft snowboarding though, I feel like I can't get much more out of it and that I need "the next step". I can go down the slopes very fast, on black tracks i make quite smooth carves and even overtake many skiers, i can ride switch, do some jumps, boxes. Thing is, I mostly ride on tracks. Yes, I do the occasional powder ride or park session, but I figured I spend 90% of the time on the tracks. At one point I got quite frustrated because I could not keep up in terms of speed with my skiing friends, and because I feel my snowboard fun has been saturated. But then just this week I saw an older looking folk, probably in his early 60's, carving like a crazy mother****er on his alpine board. I just looked at him in awe. Amazing carves, he was splitting the slope in half and hugging the mountain. I decided that's what I want to do. I'm tired of not being able to push myself further down the tracks. Now, I have a few questions: 1. Given the fact that I am pretty good on a soft board, does that mean it will help riding an alpine? I spend very little time every year on the slopes so I wouldn't want to spend the next 3 years trying to learn how to get down a red slope. 2. Is it worth getting a private instructor for alpine? 3. Where can I find used gear in Europe, better yet Italy? I only found a couple boards for sale on italian Ebay which aren't even the right size for me. :D:D:D