nigelc

this point about initiating with the feet/ankles first is what I am just becoming aware of. It seems counterintuitive with such relatively stiff boots, but obviously is of major importance. Anybody got any drills or ideas for re-inforcing that turn start from the bottom up?

Marion Posch is teaching snowboarding at Coronet peak at the moment. Three olympics, two world championships and 43 world cup podiums - credibility to burn. I went along with my wife and christian Klossek(another bomber member) for a lesson yesterday and learned more in one hour than in two years. any local carvers should get in touch with her at the snow school - www.nzski.com and look for the coronet peak entry - thanks Marion you were great.

hi mate - I am in queenstown for a few more days - been here for two weeks and I am planning to go up to coronet peak on Sunday 27th and possibly Mon and Tue as well - the weather looks good. e mail me to niggelc@NOSPAM_xtra.co.nz I have PM'ed a mobile number too. cheers Nigel

tried much of the hill a acouple of years ago - the top part of Kalinas rainbow was very good plus there was a nice steep carvy face running dow into an old double chair - maybe it was called powder gulch? - lots of good wide intermediate blues, with a few steepish places if you seek them out. Also as someone else has said this is the least crowded ski field I have ever been on. All in all a great experience and where I did my first ever hardbooting!

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I have posted over on the EC forum - thanks Nils. I guess I am after what we don't have in NZ: long slopes,dry cold conditions,ride in/out accomodation and uncrowded slopes. I ride an alpine board and my wife also rides alpine and skis. We are both intermediate and looking to improve. In NZ we are used to going off trail in less than ideal conditions but we are not so good at powder so maybe a mixture of groomers and off-piste would be good. I can do ice till the cows come home but was looking for a change!

Going to Europe in Jan for a few weeks to visit family - I thought I would get in a weeks snowboarding as well. So where is a good place to go. I don't want to spend all my time travelling so I need somewhere close to a major airport and I would prefer ski in/out accommodation. Any recomendations?

Found this on an auction site http://www.trademe.co.nz/Sports/Ski-board/Snowboards/auction-25136734.htm Anybody know anything about these? width/sidecut radius etc

My wife has one - allthough only 147cm. It is a really forgiving slalom/all-mountain type board that is ridiculously easy to ride and feels longer than it is. It has no vices that I can discern. Allthough obviously less happy at high speed than a longer board it is still quite rideable and I have even ridden it in 30cm of powder and it showed no tendency to nosedive despite my 85-90kg's! I bought it for my wife to learn to carve on for which it was perfect. She now prefers the F2 Roadster 162

I have ridden soft for ten years and have only done one season on the carving set-up. Also riding in NZ I believe that the conditions are far more variable that in north America. I read on here about you guys riding long stiff carving boards and I know that I just will never be able to do that on most NZ hills. My longest board is a 170 GS board and I can almost guarantee that this will be the longest board on the hill on any given day. Most carvers here have come to the same conclusion and the average board is a 162 slalom. Most people are aslo using softer hard boots and flexier bindings. Also more flexible boards seem to be better in the variable conditions. With this set-up the only thing I possibly could do better on a freestyle set-up is .. well .. freestyle i.e in the half pipe. For everything else I feel that a more forgiving carving set-up is simply a better tool for the job

I think I remember seeing a link posted here to a Korean or Japanese site which showed step-ins consisting of a solid heel piece with a pinthrough it like the intec pins but rigid and stationary, with the clip mechanism built into the binding, much like a gate latch - I though at the time that as an engineering solution this might be better - easier to make stronger etc

The specs for these boards are all similar in terms of length/effective edge/sidecut radius/width - note similar not identical bit I think the only guy giving stiffness specs is Sean at Donek. I am looking at buying one of these in March/April - which is the softest/ stiffest and is there any difference in how the flex is distributed on the length of the board?

spent two weeks at big white last year - lots of intermediate carving with some steep stuff if you look for it - the cliff would definitely be challenging. I had a ball on kalina's rainbow and powder gulch. We were there in the last two weeks of the season and for the last week had spring conditions with good hard ice in the morning. There is also some of flattish traversing in places which require a bit of pace and can catch you out if you don't go hard - the run out to the gem lake chair especially In general a great place for a family trip and well worth the effort.

I would be interested to hear how Ltd 170 compares to other boards, proton etc when you guys finally get to ride.

easier to traverse with soft boots? surely you jest? I can't get more than afew hundred metres on my softies but I think I can just about stay with skiers for a km or so on my hard boots and carving board

see this link re the ski/snowboard industry in new zealand http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/sundaystartimes/0,2106,3059490a6445,00.html

a contrecoup injury? - apparently not the impact of the brain against the skull but a more complicated mechanism involving rotationand shear forces tearing brain tissue.

Giro 9 -comfortable, light, warm, cool etc Be aware also that helmets do not make you bulletproof - beyond a certain level of impact there may be alot of damage from your brain colliding with the inside of your skull - I forget the name of the injury now - perhaps someone medical will fill in

prices in $NZ Lots of off trail here too bro

If I was doing the trip I would time it for Late July/August/early September. I would probably base myself in Queenstown which is stuffed full of poms so you will feel right at home.Also you will need a car so I would fly into Auckland, splash $2000 on a car and then do the reverse on the way out. This will enable you to drive to the SI and visit the NI fields and the Canterbury fields on the way down or back up. Actually I would visit the NI fields on the way back up as they suck until they have at least 2m of snow. www.nzski.com - The nzskipass gives you unlimited skiing & riding at Coronet Peak, The Remarkables, Mt Hutt & Ohau - the Early Bird price is $499 for adults if you buy before the 12th of March There was a single "superpass" available for all the ski areas but is wasn't sold this year. See www.snow.co.nz for details - it may be reinstated. Day passes on most fields are $65-$80 this season Accomodation costs around $20 a night in a backpackers and up to $250/night in a hotel. many backpackers have double rooms with ensuites for $40-60 which are often as good or better than some hotels. Bring all your gear with you as gear here is either expensive or crap or unavailable. Anything else?

this is a lifties hut on Turoa, Mt Ruapehu recently : http://www.boarderzone.com/user-galleries/showphoto.php?photo=380

Best resorts for carving are Whakapapa and Turoa in the north Island, Cardrona & Coronet Peak and Treble Cone in the South Island Whakapapa (pronounced faka-papa) and Turoa are on Mt Ruapehu a 3000m high volcano. They are NZ's largest ski fields allthough not big by other standards and are actually higher than the SI fields. Both feature wide groomed slopes and a great deal of very carveable off piste terrain which is accessible if the weather is good - probably twice as much off piste as on. The weather is less certain in the NI and the mountain can be very icy. Think spring conditions. This season they have around 3m base and so far I have not queued more than four minutes on any day! Cardrona in the SI is smaller but has the most dependable weather and snow conditions. Think early spring conditions. There is less off piste but the groomers are wide, less crowded and very good. Easily the best place to learn in NZ but possibly a bit limited for advanced riders. It just aint steep enough. On the plus side Cardrona has a new quad express which makes the only steep area - arcadia chutes - more accessible Treble Cone is steeper and does not get as much snow. It does have a six seater express chair and on a fresh snow day is the dog's bollocks. This season it was great Other resorts are Coronet Peak(concrete peak). This can be crowded and it is very low so without fresh snow can be icy. This year the snow has been the best in 20 years and coronet was fantastic. If the snow is good this place has brilliant terrain and is bigger than it seems. I ride with the locals down there and we went places this year that some of them have never been before! Mt Hutt - Mt Shutt The Remarkables- a bit limited in fact wholly unremarkable but with some reasonable off piste if you can be bothered to catch the shuttle bus back to the lift. I wouldn't bother with it. Go to the pub instead. There are numerous club fields that I have never visited - Ohau Craigieburn, Broken River and Porter Heights get good reports. One day I will rent a campervan and do a tour. In general NZ skifields are small underdeveloped affairs but on a good day they are as good as anywhere. A bit like the whole country . The snow conditions here suit carving boards as in nine years of snowboarding 10 to 15 days a season I think I can remember four powder days. This season I have had more powder in one month than all the preceding seasons put together. For all details including trailmaps and website links go to www.snow.co.nz

I have just ridden the board for two days. these items should be borne in mind when reading my opinions of the board: 1. NZ conditions are very spring like - ice in the morning and slush in the afternoon. -1C to 10C 2. NZ hills are small and crowded 3. I have only used a few smaller alpine boards That said I spent most of the first morning being terrified as it was very different to my F2 Roadster (scr 8.7m). In particular by the afternoon when the groomers were destroyed it was a lot less forgiving. By the next afternoon however I could use relatively steep narrow slopes, off trail with confidence. Compared to the roadster, or an oxygen apex I sometimes ride it is much stiffer, much narrower and will not turn as tightly, though much more stable at a far higher pace. All this is to be expected I guess from the specs. I certainly did not notice the reverse taper. The edge grip on ice was far superior to anything I have ridden before and on sunday morning I was surprised by several people on the chair complaining about the ice when I had not even noticed. Considering the frequency of icy conditions in the NZ north island this has made me very happy. It's now monday evening and I'm still grinning like an idiot.

Ok so I just measured mine and here it is: Overall length: 170 Tip Width: 23.4 Waist width: 18.3 Tail width: 23.7 running length 153 By my admittedly crap maths I think that puts the radius somewhere around 11.5m?

so just to clarify - if the tail keeps breaking away do you move the bindings foward or back?

I have been actively involved with sailing at a reasonable level for 20 years. I have long since stopped reading reviews of yachts as they so often did not coincide with my experience of the same products. This long held conviction was recently confirmed to me by an internationally regaded american freind when his review of a yacht for the most prominent U.S. cruising yacht magazine was rejected because"it did not contain enough positives". He has told me privately that the yacht in question was an overpriced shoddily built deathtrap. Long live the honest opinion - those I agree with and those I don't.