r_starr

I bought a Swoard in 2004. It's a great board and the board that I spend the most time on. Hopefully will demo the 3G at SES and am planning to buy one next year. Rob

This isn't LOL funny but perhaps somewhat amusing. Last year I riding the gondola at Squaw. I asked the guy sitting next to me if he got tired of people telling him that he looked a little like Andre Agassi. He looked at me for about 5 seconds and with a grin said "Not really, I am Andre Agassi." I said "cool, I've enjoyed watching you play." Always possible it was just some guy messing with me. Looked & sounded like him though.

rwmaron, I sent you an email but didn't receive a reply. If you're still looking for one of those I put it on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=300179641351&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=020

My understanding is that can be prevented by loosening the binding screws before waxing.

I started doing my own waxing a few years ago. I'm OK with the waxing part but never liked the scraping. So I quit scraping. For the way I ride & the conditions that I ride in I can't tell a difference. I try to put the wax on as thin as possible. After a few runs the snow scrapes the wax off the part of the base that gets the most contact. Every 3 days or so I re-wax where the wax wears off the sides of the base. I make an exception if the temps get really cold, then I'll scrape off what's left of the old wax in order to re-wax with a cold temperature wax. Rob

Tex, Thanks for the tip on the goggles, I bought 2 pair for xmas presents. Got them yesterday and they look fine to me. In case it helps anyone, this site is offering free standard shipping with code c216124 until Dec 15th. I don't know if this wax is worthy but since it's about half the price of the Toko that I typically buy I ordered a few bars to try it out. http://race-werks.com/product.php?process=update&cart_id=70106&prod_num=93004103&size=&color=Blue%20/%2010F%20to%2022F

Hi Mike, I'm flying into Aspen via SLC. My plan is to cancel if it's snowing the day of my flight. This works for me as I don't want to take the chance of getting to SLC and having the Aspen flight canceled, also I don't have much regard for snow until its been rolled twice. heh heh that last part is heretical expression I know. Any cancellation costs I consider to be "trip insurance." Just tossing out the option to consider if you haven't. Rob P.S. I think I bought some vices from you last year.. thanks man those are great. :)

Burton Fire / Wind Boot Liners have been given away.

If you end up not selling as a package, I'm interested in the bindings and the associated step-in heels. Thanks, Rob

I'm up for it if it makes life easier for Rob. :) I presume you send me a shipping label? Please email me via BOL and explain the procedure. Thanks!

Burton Fire / Wind Boot Liners, Mondo 30. Barely used. I have 2 pairs of these. If anyone can use them, they are yours for the shipping cost. Thanks, Rob

I use the Thermoflexes in my Burton Fires & Winds and they are so much better than the stock liners. Rob

Sold to Thor, thanks! DiveBomber, my guess is that they would work with soft boots but don't know for sure. Rob

My first SES, arrive Weds morning & depart Sat afternoon. Looking forward to meeting everyone. Rob

Burton 7° Lift/Cant Plate, with 3 and 4 hole inserts, 4 mounting screws, and Burton adapter disk. I have 2 sets of these. $30 each set includes shipping and delivery confirmation to continental U.S. Thanks, Rob

I too have been thinking about setback. For the last 3 years I've been riding a Swoard, which, if my measurements are correct, centered bindings result in being centered over the running length. Recently I've received 2 Coilers. Per my measurements, centered bindings results in a 2cm setback from the center of the running length. I'm speculating that the setback on the Coilers may be due to some taper, and, perhaps, given Coiler's racing linage, the Coiler inserts are setup to accommodate a race stance... which seems to me to be more of a forward-leaning stance compared to a relatively more upright EC posture. Since I ride EC style and I am used to riding with the bindings centered over the running length, I thought I'd to start with the bindings on the Coiler set forward 2cm from centered which should put me centered over the running length. I considered bouncing this off Bruce, but as with most setup variables it's largely a matter of personal pref, so it's probably best just to give it a try and adjust from there. The following quote taken from one of Jack's excellent articles in the tech section helped encourage me to "play around" with the manufacturer's standard settings. "Your board's sidecut reaches its apex at the center of the running length. The reason some boards have setback is so that when you lean forward, your center of gravity will be over the apex of the sidecut or just in front of it. If your board feels heavy turning or unresponsive, you may wish to experiment with centering your bindings on the center of the running length, or even slightly forward. That's yet another beauty of snowboards... we don't have to drill. Play around!"

This is the formula I have to calc sidecut radius: ((Running_Length^2/4 + (Tip_Width-Waist_Width/2)^2) / (2*Tip_Width-Waist_Width/2))/100 Appears that the formula may need to be tweaked for a board that has taper. Rob

Ernie, Mt. Rose appears to meet your criteria. http://www.skirose.com/index.php There are typically carvers there mornings. Rob

Groom for the technical challenge of carving and the stoke. Powder days get boring after a while.

BlueB, 2 years ago I was probably about where you are in the EC learning curve so I definitely recognize all of those issues. I too am still learning so take what I say FWIW, in the event there are others who give advice contradicting mine, please ignore mine and listen to them. Here are some ideas: 1) My toe sides are way better then heel. I can really lay it over and stay for a while and recover/transition to heel. Contrary, on heel side I can just touch down for a brief moment. Anything prolonged leads to wash out. 2) Heel side I can not do EC-Swoard style, only Jorg style or hard inclination. Any drills to fix this? Furthermore, flatter my angles, less likly I am to even attempt heel EC-Swoard style? For me the key to the EC heelside is entering the turn with deep knee-bend and putting on extreme rotation; for an EC heelside I don't think that you can rotate too much. Here's a drill. When crossing the fall-line, bend knees as much as you can, turn your neck to look over your shoulder, rotate, aim to land on your forearm. Please go slow and be very careful with this as if the rotation isn't sufficient your forearm won't be aligned with the direction of travel and you risk pulling your arm back. Try to get the trailing glove around and on the snow, if you can get your back hand on the snow then you know you're rotated. Practice this drill without trying to get up and link the next turn. Also you can do this drill whenever you want to stop and rest. Don't worry about the PUSH part of push/pull for now. This is a drill Peter Vu gave me, I hope I related it exactly right. 3) Sometimes I drop too hard into heel side and hit hip/bum, which results in edge release. I think pivoting off the hip is a normal when starting out, once you get a better feel for the balance you'll skip the hip contact, your contact points will be the edge(duh) and skimming lightly on your forearm. Pull the legs in as far as you can to start the turn (the pull of push/pull) and you'll be close to the piste, that way there won't be much of a drop. I spent lots of hours bouncing off my heelside hip. It was a great day when another carver (thanks Matt Dodge!) clued me in on the Burton Red Impact Shorts. That saved me a lot of pain and I found I could be aggressive about getting my hip down without worrying about getting stabbed with a death-cookie. I used shoe-goo to keep the pants alive. 4) On sub-19 waisted boards I can not EC-Swoard, but have to apply the other 2 styles. It's easier to EC on a wider board. I have to ride my rock board with 60/60 angles and while I can make the same EC turns I find the balance more difficult. 5) When I go hard EC-Swoard full drag, toe side, on my belowed Generics (19.7mm, 12m, stiff flex), the board would often jump and change the track and engage again, just after crossing the fall line. It would still let me finish the turn and transition, but it sheds a lot of speed and the trench doesn't look nice... I had this same issue, a forward weight-shift/more pressure to the nose took care of it. Rob2

I have an extra set of never-ridden Burton toe bails. You can have them if you want to pick them up in Incline. Rob

Like James I haven't found lateral stiffness to be a big deal either. My bindings are the Burton Race Physics step ins, with the toe-hooks in front, with the Burton Fire or Wind boot. I think that's a fairly stiff interface but it seems work OK for EC. As Nils said a person can probably get used to just about any setup. Rob

I too gave myself headaches for the first several years of riding messing around with cant/lift. Then I learned that many riders whose style I have a lot of admiration for (e.g., Jacques Rilliet, Patrice Fivat, Rob Crobar, Peter Vu) all ride flat. So I threw my cant/lifts in the trash. I've enjoyed the simplicity of not having to deal with that anymore and IMHO there are many more important variables than cant/lift and unless you have an unusual anatomical situation they aren't necessary or beneficial. Judging from the poll results, not an opinion held by the majority apparently. :)

D-Sub, Appreciate the lead! Epik Carve, I sent you email about those heels. Thanks, Rob

I'll take 'em. Will send you email. Thanks, Rob