skywalker

although one might not agree, some times I know, what I am writing ;) I estimate the number of riders using conventional bindings somewhere below 5 times the number of those using intecs. This may differ from area to area, country to country,... But: Amongst the riders I can watch, the numbers are in the mentioned area. At the same time, I might know about 30 broken front clip bindings and 1 (one) failure of intecs. So this is my estimation. You may keep your case rested ;)

my two... I've seen many many riders, who broke the bails of their front clip binding, but only a very few who broka any part of the intecs. Some of the riders I know, break the bails of their front clip binding at least once every saison. Most of us have experienced braking bails. As I can not see any difference between the failings of front clip bindings and intec bindings, failing intecs should not be an argument to avoid them. I would estimate the failure rates of step ins lower than those of front clip bindings. this said, I ride with conventional bindings and love them ;) Tom

o.k. some more ;) I was writing about something physical. If it was, we wouldn't be snowboarding on it ;) ;)

please don't bore me to death!

There are two things making Extremecarving possible: 1.) Torsion. As the board is twisted, the appearent radius is increased. The more a board is bent, the more it is usually twisted. This increases the carved radius with increased angulation of the board. I don't think, a torsionally totally stiff board would be the optimum for EC as it would bite the snow. 2.) Snow is not a plain ultrahard surface. If you look at the trenches the Extremecarvers make, you can see, that they become wider when the turns a fully laid down. The nose and the tail make the snow "move" or displace it. So as snow is a soft surface, the board's stiffnes and it's distribution affect the bending radius at a given angulation (as the board's torsional stiffness does). My little 2 Eurocent ;) Tom

Sorry, I was not totally correct. The difference between overall width (or: nose and tail width) and waist width is a function of eff. edge and scr. So with a given waist width (for binding angles) or a given overall width (for FIS rules) the other number just is a result ;)

Hi Scott You're right about the bigger and smaller. It's not the way round you think about board width and scr. At a given board length and a given scr the board width is the result of both. (most of the time. There are some parameters like starting and end radius too, but I would like to neglect them now). It's not a given length, a given overall width, a given waist width and a given scr. this would result in areas withaout radius along the board. You're right again about your final confusion point: A smaller sidecut is deeper ;). This is: more sidecut depth at the same eff edge length means smaller scr. Hope I could give some more confusion Tom

There was a Bobsi Database mentioned in some older posts. Does anyone know anything about it? Does it still exist? Would anybody be interested in such a database to compare most of the board models? maybe even see, what works for whom?? Just asking ;) Tom

I still remember the day a saw a post of beloved D-Sub for the first time. I though, what a intelligent, nice and polite person this must be. --> prejudices, as I didn't know him at all. There is always such a lack of persons like him, so I'm so glad that he exists and that all my prejudices were nothing than the pure truth!!!

Hi. I can't download the clips from gamingjapan. Always get told "site not available". Is this internet site down, or is anybody else able to reach tem? Thanks Tom

Thank you so much for confirming all my prejudices :) I knew you are a smart guy *LOL*

...and it's of course not a problem. I want to ga back from the moment I leave the slope since I started snowboarding back in the late 80s. Today I'm convinced, that it's an obligation, and I was selected to be the one to cut the trenches, as someone has to do.

What's better? Beeing crashed by an a§§hole, maybe even by his objective fault? in this case, you have the right to be really angry ;) Or to be crashed by someone you love, although this person takes as much care as she can? In this case you will be mild, what IMHO helps you to handle your pain easily ;) Hope you will be better soon! Tom

Swiss, I've got one, doesn't exit any more AFAIK.

Dear D-Sub, there is no doubt about this. Even your German in twice as good as mine. I thought it was "Schwanz" ;)

Dear D-Sub, thanks a lot for this short translation!!! You're such a smart guy!!!

Hi, I'm looking for a cheap way to ship a board from the US to Germany. Does anyone here have any experiences with that? What is the cheapest service (from Aliso Viejo/CA)? Thanks a lot for your help!! (Board is 178, so it might ship under 180cm). Tom

I tried fully laid out turns for some times this season with my hands on my back (frontside). Some of them worked more or less, but I can tell you that first of all I lost some layers of skin on my face ;) *Ouch* I really want to have a picture of one of my FS EC-Turns without my hands touching the snow, but then I will for sure stop this experiment. The result so far is: I would strongly recommend to use your hands in really deep turns ;)... and to keep them from the snow in not fully laid down turns.

Hey, seems like time has come to make enemies ;) ;) First of all: Sorry Jack, I like your postings. Most of them are clear and based on enough experience. But I think, this is quite a very poor attitude. There are some guys here around, who always reply one sentence, if someone else looks better carving on a picture than they themselves ever did: "Total hero snow". It wasn't his performance, he's not better than me, it's just the grooming. That's the intention to say, right? That's all? To come back to the asym issue and to make some more enemies: What's the concept of asymmetrical boards? Please Joerg, explain to us, who still think like Jack: How the heck do you get pressure on your nose on backsides if the grooming get's harder? In fact most of us experienced this: If you ride with more edge-pressure and more dynamically, your nose on backside ist just too short. This is, because I've never seen anybody moving his center of gravity 10cm to the back to be able to do proper BS. Yes, your extreme sitiing-position helps, but it also brings the CoG much closer to the edge then on a extended, fully laid down turn and in this way keeps the forces lower. I'm planning to join you at the Carving Session in Davos, I'm really looking forward to ride the #1. Then there is a chance to compare.... and maybe to think a new way... ;) As always: Only my 2 EuroCents Tom

I don't like to take with me up the mountain the whole qiver. Don't like to be afraid, don't like to care about locks, don't like the action in the morning bringing them up. So I was looking for the board for (nearly) any condition. My absolute favourite board does it well on all kind of grooming, just needs some effort dp bend on narrow slopes. There might be better tools for the narrow ones, but I would always miss my WCR on the wider and steeper parts!! What I will have to add is the ultimate powder board. Don't know yet, what it will look like, but maybe something oldschool from the 80s. I votet for certain board any terrain, any condition. But more precisely it would have been any grooming instead of any condition ;)

Hi Kamran. I own only one of them, which is my WCR70 personal Team Edition. So on every picture of this year's ECS I am riding this board. 18.5 cm waist width is not narrow IMHO, it gives me 55R / 60F binding angles, which is rather intermediate than steep. Well, Nils is just jealous *LOL*

Hi, I can totally subscribe everything, what Kamran wrote about his Virus. This is, how you feel, if you buy one of the serious tools made by Frank. I have a big smile on my face, when I read Chris' Comments, as obviously Frank and me have been right with our suggestions ;) ;). My WCR for sure is one of the more demanding boards made by Frank and I'm still surprised time by time by it's abilities. I just returned from ECS, where I wanted to demo some other boards. But conditions were so nice, I couldn't miss a minute on my Virus. But: My sister and two other girls took the chance to demo a Rocket. To make ist short: Three girls, one opinion. The Rocket is a toy, not demanding enough for any of the girls. Easy to skid, easy to turn, easy to carve tight. Funny to do short- and jumpturns, but a little too soft and too short for carves with high edge pressure. This is exactly, what I expected when I saw the shape and felt the flex. This is IMHO one general misunderstanding. Not every narrow board with high carving ability is hard to ride. Most of the Virus boards are a really easy ride compared to a Hot Blast for example or other pure race boards. please don't kill me, that's just my personal opinion about some of the boards I tried over th last years ;)

but why should I????

Q#4: No. I think, one really important thing at least in Europe are the guys trying to carve in softboots. About two years ago, I got a little bit angry, when a Softbooter came along telling me "I can carve with SBs". I thought: "You can't, you only think you could. In fact, proper carving needs HBs". Today I tell him: "Yes, that's great. Does it feel good? Multiply it with 10 and you get the feeling you have with HBs". These are our newbies, belive me. THEY are limited by material but know, that it's cool to carve. So the next step will be to convert ;) Q#5: Yes, every time I feel the danger of this uncommon way to act on a slope. More exactly I think, it's bad to be one of so few carvers. If there were 30% going down the hill like us, everybody would know how to act.

Don't know, how to explain exactly, and don't have the time to point out properly, But: Don't totally agree. Yes, extended legs are essential for proper heelside turns... but not especially in the beginning of the turn! I don't want to start a "them - us" discussion here, but www.extremecarving.com show's, that heelside works also, when the turns are started with bent legs --if the are extended DYNAMICALLY directly afterwards. This is, was I've learned about cross under / flexion turns / push pull: Backside doesn't work, if the vertical dynamic is missing. But if one pushes properly after the edge change, a great backside can be reached. So IMO it's NOT the extended legs at the right start of the turn, but in the control period of it. But right: flexed legs on heelside will keep the board from proper angulation... and won't support enough efge pressure for deeply carved heelside turns. Only my very personal point of fiew ;) Tom