tpalka

I haven't sold the board -- my wife rode it a few times and is enjoying it. If you're interested in buying it, let me know via PM and I'll see how strongly she feels about keeping it :) At her [much lower than mine] weight that board performs really well at our local mountain. Thanks, tom.

SOLD

Jose -- check this video for some super fun action: https://www.youtube.com/embed/tIMvWNiaB9c That's why I bought mine, after riding those boards on that mountain... :) Cheers, tom.

I rode the Rocket (IIRC) model and had a great time on it. I'm also around 200lb, and it worked great. It had a lot of setback, a fast base, and was a hoot to ride. I got home to Colorado and bought a Moss Snowstick (very similar to the Gentem) but it doesn't work so well on my home mountain -- we have plenty of trees, but not a lot of longer steep runs. I'm actually trying to sell mine -- if the Gentems are expensive and you might be interested, let me know. Cheers, tom.

I think you'll be just fine -- and you'd probably be OK with the cants and lifts too. Have a good time!

Poor uploading on my part :) I made them both public and removed the sound tracks... Play your favourite music while you watch!

PS. I uploaded to youtube a few old movies of riding with the Pureboarding groups: Aspen Feb 2008 and Aspen March 2009.

Hey Bobby, it sure has been a long time! But 8 years already? Yikes. Tempus fugit :) Lisa says hello back! Bear in mind I'm no instructor and you're a better rider anyways -- but just had a thought on a drill that might help with the body rotation and turns. I sometimes ride with hands in pockets or behind my back, keep my legs bent but basically static, and do all the edge changes just by rotating the torso back and forth. Doing it slow, on a low/medium steepness slope, big wide fast turns. Cool feeling, pretty smooth and relaxing, and maybe a way for you to relax your back a bit? Snowboardfast: unlikely that we'll be at SES this year, vacation schedule follows now our 7 year old's school schedule. But if you're ever coming to Monarch, please let me know, it'd be great to ride together! And yes, I remember riding with you at Loveland, and yes it was me who brought the TWO. It's been a good few years since I rode the PB boards so I can't really comment on any differences between the Two and the Bastard -- but I recall them as being pretty similar. Mark (dingbat) might be a better person to ask. Cheers, tom.

I enjoyed reading the thread. Before saying anything else, Joerg is the man and the machine -- and it's always a great fun experience to ride with him and his groups! So yes, I'm definitely a fan. I rode a Pureboarding TWO board for a season, and it had great edge hold. Very good board. But as I ride in Colorado where the snow is good, I found it a bit stiff and I switched back to a longer softer board that has similar width. My boards of choice for the past 4-5 years have been a Prior 4WD and an Alpinepunk Superswede. Those work really well with the conditions we have and the kind of riding I enjoy. My stance varies, but usually I ride with these angles: 60-65 front and 35-40 back. Among many things I like about Pureboarding is that the rider rotates into the turn -- I think that Patrice and Jacques would call it "driving the board". As the body rotates over the board, the edge change comes about naturally and smoothly. Whether you want to keep your hands out or in is purely a question of preference... With the wider angle spread I end up with a lot more freedom, and can turn my torso to be parallel with the board, or even slighly angled towards the tail. Comes in handy when riding switch. But the main thing is -- I want lots of freedom to move my body, and the Pureboarding setup and style work well that way. I also ride with softer Raichle boots, and Sidewinders with the softest yellow pads, so all these components work well together. For me, that is a very different setup than what I started with -- riding narrower (sub-20cm waist) boards, with stiff step-in bindings (TD2 in my case), locked boots. I could hardly move anything below my knees, and so driving the board had to be done with all the big muscles higher up. The softer the gear went, the easier it was for me to drive the board with different groups of muscles, depending on what I wanted to achieve at the time. I love the fact that when I rode with Joerg, the whole mountain was a playground. No complaints about powder and lack of groom :) We surfed 16" powder, hiked up to Highlands Bowl, rode on very icy late spring snow (where the groom tore my clothes up), it's all good and it's all fun. I used to have a bunch of movies on youtube from the various Aspen trips, but here is one that was a lot of fun -- a [never?] groomed run on Ajax, steep and to the skier's left of Copper Bowl. Don't know what it's called, but it was choppy and ugly, and yet so much fun to ride :) The Pureboarding way of teaching beginners makes a ton of sense -- the arms rotate, driving the torso, making the edge changes almost automatic. People get the feel of carving pretty quickly, and it feels very natural. Anyways, my two cents. If you get a chance to take a clinic with Joerg, go for it! tom.

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I recommend you call Marco Olm -- he's a very talented carver and a great instructor. He works at Snowmass, and you can probably book him through the Snowmass ski/snowboard school, or PM me and I'll send you his email address. Not aware of any other hardboot instructors there. tom.

Taro is still around Niseko, Mats and I visited his shop a few years ago. The boards ride great. If you haven't seen the movie "Signatures," check it out: http://www.sweetgrass-productions.com/films/signatures/. Related/unrelated, I have a Moss board for sale, the shape is very similar to the Gentem swallow. tom.

My suggestion would be the Prior Powstick, http://www.priorsnow.com/gear/boards/pow-stick. I'm about 6', and rode this board when I was in the 190-215lb range. It floats great, the setback combined with the swallowtail lets it turn on a dime, and my favorite riding is in tight aspens. I can't talk about all the other boards people mentioned, and my wife really loves her Prior Fissile, but for me the Powstick is the one. I rode it in hardboots, but now ride it in softies. The long effective edge makes it great for carving the groomers between the powder stashes too. If you have the funds, talk to Chris Prior and have him build you a board for your weight. Hope this helps, tom.

Welcome back! RSS feed is here: rss link

I did the opposite -- yellow on front foot, blue on back foot. It worked well, but I think that doing it the other way (blue on front, yellow on back) makes more sense -- will try that next season.

Sold.

I got a board with bindings, if you're interested. http://www.bomberonline.com/VBulletin/showthread.php?40001-FS-kids-Asylum-board-with-Wombat-bindings-93cm&p=399953#post399953 tom.

Very nice! Proper "water skiing" too, in the pond :)

Spray the bindings and boot heels with PAM or another biodegradable oil? Not WD-40.

I agree... and have no experience with NTN boots. If I didn't telemark, going with AT boots for both carving and skiing would be the way... Curious to see what suggestions you get, best of luck, tom.

I haven't, but am actually considering putting tele bindings on a wider softie snowboard. I too telemark while riding with my son, and sometimes want to take a few solo runs to carve it up. My solution was to go with a teleboard -- check the video. tom.

Thanks, Bryan. Yikers -- crowds are insane in the last one :) tom.

I've been wanting to try one for a while, and finally got my hands on one (thanks to WPCarver!). Took it out a few days ago, it's a very different balance than on a carving board. Esp. riding on heelside edge at low speed. And dealing with the poles. But the few carves I got were sweet :) tom. <iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/59533502" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe> <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/59533502'>http://vimeo.com/59533502">First run on a Teleboard King Carve</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user1570026'>http://vimeo.com/user1570026">snowytom</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

Thanks again. I picked the board from Steamboat a few days ago, rode it the first time today. I'll put up a post on it on the main forum, since it's real carving :) It's a very fun tool. tom.

Disclaimer: I only used BOA on fishing boots, and never on snowboarding boots. My issue with them is that I cannot get the boots tight enough for my liking. There is a limit to how much I can crank them in, partly due to the size of the spool and partly to the torque on the knob. I even went as far as cutting off 2" of the steel cables and rewinding them onto the internal spool, but still not good enough. So all I wanted to say is: if you like your boots cranked tight, make sure you try that before you buy... tom.