tpalka

Releasabiliity is definitely an issue -- esp. with a ski like Pocket Rocket that you just want to take everywhere and go big :) But, like Hagen mentioned, both telemark and carving setups don't release. Although there are releasable tele bindings, they are generally heavy and not that great for backcountry, so I just use the popular G3 bindings on my one pair of skis and use that everywhere. From that perspective, I'm not losing anything by not having releasability. The splitboard bindings look pretty neat -- but still not releasable, and I'd have to travel with them. I suppose that the coolest thing would be to have some kind of a randonee-like plate that hinges on the toe and that detaches under high loads. The plate would raise the binding for better carving, and be the releasable platform. I'd move the toe/heel assembly from the TD2's to it when I wanted to ski. But that'd be another binding altogether :) Bryan hit the nail on the head -- hitting some deep steep powder on skis and then railing it elsewhere on a board would be a sweet combination on the right day. That's my thought with all this... I'll post more if I do try it. Thanks for all your thoughts! tom.

I recently purchased a pair of Salomon Pocket Rocket skis, and just had an idea -- curious if it's at all feasible. I dislike travelling with a lot of gear -- so I was thinking... what if I drilled four holes into each ski, sunk snowboard inserts into them, and then mounted just the TD2 toe bail and the heel step-in piece? Pocket Rockets are 90mm wide at the waist, which seems plenty for the bindings. That way I could fly with one pair of boots, one pair of TD2's, a snowboard, and an unmounted pair of skis, and be able to both ski and carve with that setup. I've been telemark skiing for a long time, I haven't alpined in years... but in order to not carry extra gear, I'm willing to switch back :) Silly? Ridiculous? I'm curious what other think. Thanks, tom.

How about a beer next time I'm in Beantown? :)

Whoo-hooo -- sticking a 1" chisel under the bindings, once I removed the other bolts, finally worked. I tried the bending methods before posting, and I guess I couldn't generate enough flex. Now, what could have caused it? Did I put too much torque on the bolt when mounting the plate originally? I greased all the bolts (used cooking oil) and used the car-tire style of progressively tightening the bolts. Is there a better way? Thanks, tom. PS. "A" -- stripped top of the binding plate "B" -- the loose insert

I am having a difficult time taking off the TD2 plates off of my girlfriend's board (Nidecker Custom GS) -- one of the bolts in the base plate just keeps turning and turning... suggesting that the insert is loose. What's the best way to go about removing the binding? Ordinarily it wouldn't be such a big deal to leave the plates where they are, but they're set back an inch or two for powder, and eventually they should go back to the usual placement... Thanks, tom.

It's Ben Harper -- my bad for not including the soundtrack credits.

Interesting if this trend will continue. Sweet (the Norwegian company) has a back support that looks like a fairly light exo-skeleton type of thing: http://sweetprotection.com/ It weighs about a pound and looks like a nifty piece of support equipment. I love their helmets -- got one for boarding and one for kayaking, both are very light and feel super sturdy. tom.

Ha ha, reminds me of when I was 15 and worked hard to keep my knees together when parallel skiing -- I'd tie my knees with rope, and ski that way :) It worked well, I figured out the balance and I have that stance today still. tom.

The last few days have been outstanding -- 6-9" of fresh every day, and I've been getting out quite a bit. Between carving the fresh groomed slopes ("Hero" snow?) and hitting some powder, life has been beautiful. I have been working on the drills that different people suggested, and I'm finding that my body gets a lot closer to the snow as I'm trying to stay away from it -- lifting the inside forearm, looking into the turns, getting a lot more angulation. It's been a most excellent time. I will try to post some pictures next time I get out. My girlfriend said that my toeside is enormously improved, and that the heelside is much better too, although I'm still dropping the inside shoulder a bit. I am also sticking my back knee into the front one, so I'm trying to be cognizant of that and purposely keep it out -- but driving the turns with the knees made a HUGE difference -- I even started carving with my hands clasped behind my back (a'la Patrice doing crossovers at the bottom of Zinal in one of the Stoked movies, that looked so cool) in order to further push the knees, hips, and straighten the back. Thanks again to everyone for their suggestions, they have been most helpful :) tom.

Yup, I'm going to borrow a 183 Nidecker from a friend and try it out later this week -- I rode it once before (4th or 5th day) and did like it... tom.

Crave2Carve -- thank you for your offer! Very generous. I'll give you a ring during the week... willywhit -- thanks for the pics. I'm going to stick with the "textbook purse dragging" for now, still have a long way to go on the steeps. Have a great time in Brazil :) D-Sub -- yup, I'm the one from Monarch. I went again today, had a great time, we had 8" fresh. Alternating between surfing powder and carving groomers made it one of the best days ever. Thanks for the encouragement! By the way, the board is not an Axis -- it's a Donek Custom 183cm, a used board I bought via the gearswap forum. Twin-tip, all mountain, on the soft side, my only board and I love it. It was an excellent day -- that tray drill really helps, and I'm concentrating on that and on keeping the "pinch" in the wait (angulation). I have also started driving with my knees, another suggestion I got, and that makes the transitions so much snappier. Thanks again everyone, tom.

A big thank you to everyone who replied with suggestions! I went out this morning for a few hours, the snow was great (3" fresh, many groomed runs), and I did a few warmup runs and then just worked on the two drills. I found the "hold the tray" one more comfortable -- and I concentrated on making sure that my inside arm was higher, kind of what the "reach for the sky" drill would do too. I started feeling that my edge digs in a lot better -- once I started angulating more (i.e. "feeling the pinch") and concentrating on the tray, I found that my turns felt a lot more stable, and that I was sometimes getting close to the snow too! Neil was very right about the fascination with getting low -- the first images of carving for me were the extremecarving Stoked videos, and being new to board-oriented sports in general the desire to put my hand down and to get low was pretty high. I posted some pictures, as well as a 3 minute movie, from today's drill session at my website: http://www.slackerdom.com/2005/01_carving_drills/index.html Thanks again for all your help, tom.

Excellent -- again, thank you very much for all the replies and suggestions -- I'll try them out this weekend and post more afterwards. A related question -- I think that the main reason I'm trying to touch the snow is related to that feeling of fun and getting down -- I guess I'm rushing that, since it'd come automatically with good technique. Looking at other pictures from SES'04 I think that these pictures illustrate what I am trying to [unconsciously?] emulate -- and are those riders displaying good technique or perhaps just effective and alternative technique? Am I looking at the right elements when looking at the pictures? http://bomber.smugmug.com/gallery/136027/6/4966142 Touching the snow, but the angulation looks good. http://bomber.smugmug.com/gallery/136027/6/4966127 Getting down, but the back is almost parallel to the slope -- I think that this is kind of the image that I was aspiring to in my mind. http://bomber.smugmug.com/gallery/136027/6/4966159 Again, I think this rider looks great, but the back is really bent. I'm not looking to criticize those riders -- just looking at other pictures and trying to find elements of what I should keep in mind and of what I should try not to do just yet... tom.

Thanks again -- all tips much appreciated. I tried the reaching for the upper board edge exercise, but since I'm still bending at the waist that wasn't really helping. Makes perfect sense as the next thing to practice, though. As for the tray, that's what I'll hold, full of G&T's :) Thanks! tom.

Thank you -- very helpful suggestions. This is in fact my first season, so I'm still at the basics stage -- so far I probably logged a total of 20 days on a snowboard, 6 of which were at the end of the last season. I can definitely see the reaching for snow and the general posture issues -- I'll try the "driving" technique, and concentrate on fixing this habit before trying anything else. Attaching a few snapshots that I found on a video that my girlfriend shot earlier this season.. (http://www.slackerdom.com/2004/12_first_boarding/index.html). Thanks again, tom.

Hello, I've been repeatedly told that my main bad habit of the moment is hunching over my board as I'm making the turns. It's less of an issue if I'm just doing cross-unders, but it's somewhat of an issue on the toe-side and definitely a problem on the heel-side. I've been trying to stand tall, to push my chest out, to keep my eyes looking high up in the direction of where I'm going to make the turn, but somehow I still end up bent at the waist. Riding with a bamboo pole held horizontal at chest level helped some, but without the pole I started slouching again... Does anyone have ideas on things to keep in mind that could help me overcome this habit? Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks! tom.

Just to add my two cents -- I used the Pentax Optio 33WR for almost a year, and was quite happy with it. It supported 320x160 15fps movies, which was reasonable in terms of size -- I could fit 22+ minutes of video on a single 512M card. For me, that was sufficient and the quality was OK. Recently I upgraded to the Optio 43WR, which has the 640x320 30fps support -- much nicer :) What I like about it is that it's waterproof, very compact, easy to explain to other people how to use, and it's cheap -- under $300. For some samples, check my web site (http://www.slackerdom.com/video.html), or see a jittery-ish video from my season's first day on the snow, yesterday: http://www.slackerdom.com/2004/12_first_boarding/index.html All the images are stills extracted from the 320x160 15fps Quicktime movie... tom.

Haven't used one, cannot comment, but Corran Addison (world class, sometimtes controversial, kayaker) swears by his. Check this comments on these two pages: http://www.2imagine.net/blogger2002/gath.html and comments from 2 years later: http://www.2imagine.net/blogger2004/gath.html Hope you find them useful, tom.

Looks like version 3 of this bulletin software supports RSS out of the box, but not this version (2.3.x). There also seem to be some hacks out there to let VB2 have RSS-like syndication. tom.

Ah -- thought you were still in CB. Yes, Wolf Creek is great -- I go there 2-4 times a season, depending on what the snow is like. Great powder there... but kind of weird slopes for tele'ing -- nice steeps to begin with, and way flat at the end. Then again, it might be perfect for my boarding level :) tom.

Ha ha, yes -- I ride mostly at Monarch. I just started boarding last season (March of this year). Hope to ski in CB sometime this season -- I guess it all depends on the snow. 18" at Monarch -- wow -- that's pretty much the most we get at a time, 2-3 times a year if we're lucky (at least in the past 4-5 years). Let me know if/when you're coming over to Monarch, it'd be fun to meet up. tom.

I just bought a Sweet Rooster -- haven't used it for snowboarding yet, but it is very comfortable. I have used the Sweet Strutter whitewater helmet this past season, and both helmets are very strong and light. The snowboard helmet comes in at 400 grams... Link of a review to the helmet: http://www.boatertalk.com/article.php?id=62 Sweet designs revolve around the notion that with a stronger shell the helmet doesn't need to rely on a lot of thick padding, which results in a lighter and more comfortable helmet. The Rooster doesn't seem to have great venting -- I know that skateboarding in the Strutter made my head sweat... but I didn't mind. tom.

Thank you, Joe -- I will re-read Jack's article. I read it last season, and I'm due for a re-read :) I got a few other suggestions about bending the knees more -- I'll do that, practice cross unders/overs, and wait for snow. Thanks again, tom.

I only started to snowboard in March, and all I got in was about 8-9 days.... but had a great time doing it. Now that the river is low, I miss the snow, and started getting ready for the next season. Friends introduced me to the Loaded Vanguard skateboard, and I've been trying to carve on some asphalt roads in the neighborhood. Still tentative about picking up a lot of speed, but this past weekend I finally got the basics. I was wondering if anyone would have tips on things to try, things to do, posture or technique that would carry over to the snowboard carving world? I posted some pictures and videos of this past weekend (warning: home productions) on my site, http://www.slackerdom.com/2004/09_skate/index.html -- hopefully someone, still in the mode of getting into work after the long weekend, will take a peek and tell me what I could be doing better :) Thank you, tom.