csquared

Epoxy is generally the adhesive used in the first instance for both edges and base material. The issue is how to get the epoxy to adhere to the base material. Before adhering the base material, clean it with acetone or failing that alcohol and once the solvent has dried, use a plumber's propane torch to flame the side of the ptex that you are going to be adhering. You just need to pass the flame over it lightly to open the pours in the material so that the epoxy will flow into the matrix of the ptex (ie don't melt it because this will close the pours). Don't handle the ptex with your bare hands once it is clean and flamed (use rubber or cotton gloves to keep oils from your hands off the material). Don't over catalyze the epoxy - a longer cure time is better than debonded material. Clamp a plywood block over the ptex once it is in place to keep the patch under pressure during setup. Hope this helps.

Craig: I could circulate something to riders through my SOS e-mail group list if you want. This might be a good alternative to make sure it gets seen. If you send me an e-mail through my Bomber Profile, I can grab your e-mail address and have people respond to you directly which I find is helpful in building a list for the event. Let me know if this would be helpful.

Buggs: If you are going to be sending artwork to Snowboardmaterials.com for dye sub printing, here is what worked for me. I did my own graphics for my AMT 72 and followed their (and Bruce's) recommendations for sizing to accommodate shrinkage of the plastic. I used a rectangular 'canvas size' of 13" x 71" in Illustrator to compose the graphics. Not to mix dimension systems but this is just over 8 cm longer than the nominal board length. The 8 cm is the figure that snowboardmaterials recommends for shrinkage. There is really no point in trying to design to the actual board shape or dimensions because Bruce can't position the sheet that accurately (he put mine on backwards but nobody except me would know). I made up a board shape that mimics the AMT 72 dimensions using Snocad and printed to a .pdf and then saved it as a .jpg to import into Illustrator just to give myself some notion of what the graphics were going to look like scale-wise. But I never expected any real exactitude in placement. Your design needs to allow for a large amount of tolerance and really needs to be on a somewhat generous rectangular canvas as noted above. Hope this helps. E-mail me through my profile if you need more info. Oh yeah. Tell your artist to work in RGB colour space or funny colour issues may come up. My design was in RGB and the accuracy from snowboardmaterials was very impressive. Their machine is very well callibrated.

You're not going to let a little snow stop you? Truthfully, there is no jeopardy if people do not show tomorrow. It would be perfectly understandable under the weather circumstances. I am not on the hook for anything so don't feel that you must show up. It is looking like it may be a sub-optimal day for both riding and driving. However, we could get a lot of valuable drinking done:smashfrea

Good one Art. The topsheets of Bruces race boards used to read "PURE RACE" but I know he would approve of "PURE LOVE".

The club accepts credit at the ticket office and at the food services in the main and Orchard Lodges as well as the bar in the main lodge. The Upper Chalet where we are going to have lunch does not have any data network so it has a cash register in lieu of a POS unit - in other words, bring cash for lunch or you'll be sharing mine.

We actually have a recreational snowboard race series that has typically been run 3 times a year but this year there are only 2 races. At the end of the year there is a club snowboard race. So 3 snowboard specific races is not bad for the level of participation. You will never convince the skiers to accept stubbies for their courses so that the boarders can use them. Likewise, you will never convince the boarders to run race courses with skiers (there is just to much seriousness and testosterone flowing, they are no fun at all and alienate the relaxed fun and comraderie that is at the core of boarding and board racing; I know: I grew up ski racing). Even I would not run a ski course: the ruts just get to hairy on a board. So I'm afraid they will always be two solitudes. And this is what marginalizes board racing. We have held a few AOS races in the past. Peter Jones used to organize them when he was doing AOS stuff. Maybe I need to make something happen. I will speak to Peter about it.

...will be at SOS on Friday. In fact, it may be the only suitable board I have if we get the promised snow (Bruce is trying to poach it and is complaining that all he has to ride at the moment is a Schtubby). Thanks for compliments on the graphics. If you are thinking of ordering a Coiler, I have given Bruce the graphics minus the 2 over the C. He actually applied it backwards. I had designed it with the C at the tail of the board which is generally the way that ski graphics are laid out. However, the design is pretty ambidextrous so I am not unhappy with the result.

Its not that Osler is completely unaccommodating when it comes to doing snowboard gates. However, ski racing just seems to eclipse everything else at the club. This means that more and more hill space is dedicated to ski events precluding boarding events. There is also very very little interest in snowboard racing among kids and adults. Certainly there is no critical mass of people to get any kind of momentum going. For mid-week days, we need to bring on race staff to run any races on the hill. The liabilities are too significant to have people setting their own courses and running them. These days there is netting set up at the edge of the hill for even the most modest races and some training courses. Who is jjfarb? Do I have you on the list? If not, you're too late unless you have some other member that will sign you in.

I now realize that you've been working on your own creation so here's my response: there's certainly no reason why any of us should not try constructing a board at home. The context in which I said "don't try this" related to the final step in the core shaping process that Bruce uses. Because Bruce cuts the camber into the core the thickness gauging of the core requires a lot of finesse. Using Titanal plies means that the core material must be very thin (or the board would be too stiff). After gauging the core down with a router to the point that the tip and tail are only about 3 mm thick, Bruce takes it the last .1 to .2 mm with a sander and the coursest media you can find. The material disappears in the blink of an eye and I think he spent about 10 seconds on the whole board. The crudest method was used to achieve the finest result. However, you or I could easily destroy a lot of hard work by doing this oiurselves. So, "don't try this at home". Good luck with the board. Its a great project.

... when you're having fun. It took the better part of four days to go from raw materials to the laminated board sans top sheet. If Bruce had been doing it, he would have been about twice as fast. Then it took 4 months to find time to design, order, and get the top sheet on the board. My family was very, very patient while I abandoned them day after day during our holiday to play around in Bruce's shop. I think the only reason I managed to find time to write the article and get a top sheet designed was that I was in the hospital for a week having a double hernia repaired in October. Its a busy life.

but you might find this interesting. http://www.bomberonline.com/articles/building_coiler.cfm I think I could now do about 90% of the steps myself. However, I still feel like the apprentice. Hope yours turns out. Mine has been amazing.

If you are still thinking about attending SOS 08, you are too late. I am closing the list tonight because I am way past my allocation for the day. Also I am going to be on the road for the next two days and unable to manage the organizing so I am submitting the list below to the club. Please let me know if you are not coming. List of Guests ‘08 Tony Boros Doug Barlow Mike Cividino Chris Couse (coordinator / host member) Jeff Cooper Rob Cox Darren Eagles Peter Halsall Justin Hines (maybe) Keith Hodgins Stewart Hodgins Simon Holden Chris Houghton Henry Kim Nigel Legg Kyle Legg Stephen Legg Ian MacKenzie Ken McCutcheon Beth McNally Kevin McNally Maggie McNally Mike McNally Andrea Morgan Dave Morgan Dave Niblett Brian Parrott Derek Peeling Victor Plopeanu Mark Rattenbury Rob Smith Dan Stewart Rob Sydia Gabe Tung Bruce Varsava Leslie Varsava Dr. John Vu Imo Weinert Jackie Wong Peter Zaluski

I had solicited responses to have a 'fun' race course set up but I think I only had one positive reply so it died. The cost would have been $350 split among us and it would have been in place for about 1 1/2 hrs complete with race staff, timing, etc.. These are usually set up for corporate groups (presumably to further enshrine the pecking order in the office). I think the pleasure of riding together would make the day for me. The course would just have been an opportunity for someone to get hurt (as likely me as anyone).

Mike: Maybe you could tap into some of the expertise at SOS 08. There will certainly be quite a collection of near experts there. I will bring my tuning box and portable bench in case there is interest. Watching a ski tuning demo as suggested above would be fairly useful but boards have particular needs that skis don't have. And never mind about the case of beer.

...you guys are now the official videographers. But seriously Henry and Tony, it would be cool to have some documentation if you are inspired to do so. As Henry knows, I did video for one of the first sessions and had a short movie together the same day. However, my Mini DV set up has a tired battery and JVC no longer makes a replacement (excuses, excuses).

Nigel: E-mail me please so that I can get you on my circulation list. You can e-mail me through the members list portion of the site.

Okay, so I built this board. Well, actually I had a lot of help from Bruce but I experienced virtually the whole process from end to end. I think it was an experience worth sharing. So I put together an article and you can find it here if you haven't already seen it: http://www.bomberonline.com/articles/building_coiler.cfm

...can work if the snow really bothers you but it tends to come off halfway through the day if you are adjusting buckles all the time like me. When the snow is fresh and fine, the forward portion of my front boot will have about 1/2 cup of packed snow on top of the liner and more will end up around the leg portion of the liner above the cuff to boot connection joint. Basically, the snow fills in any void available. You would think with Thermo liners that are intimately fitted to the shell that there would not be many locations for this to happen but I can often remove about 1/2 cup of snow when I take my right boot off at the end of the day.

Depending on your board and how you are set up, there can be a significant wash of snow that comes off the board edge just near the shovel and strikes the boot just where the plastic shell laps. I have and SB series boot and it has a kind of cove moulding to the shell just in front of the first buckle that is intended to address this but it is not very effective. Riding my longer Coilers (184, 186), my right (forward, yes I am goofy like you) will get packed with snow by the end of the day. I have been trying to analyze which turns produce this and I think that it is toe-side turns which seems strange but there it is. The snow only becomes a problem if you spend enough time in the lodge at lunch for the snow to melt (the shell of the boot is below freezing and the liner is about the same temperature without snow so outdoors the snow will not melt typically). However, the additional moisture means you need to take the liners out of the boots every night to dry them. Also, you should dry the shell upside down to let the moisture drain away from the 'T' nuts in the heel. This is especially true if you are using Intec heels as the 'T' nuts and screws can corrode if not drained and dried properly. Interestingly, I have started riding a shorter board this year (Coiler AM 72 titanal) and I have no snow in my boots at the end of the day. This could be a length effect or a stiffness effect (AM nose is stiffer than conventional designs).

Williamblake is right about applying heat: it can easily do more harm than good. However, it is true that the epoxy can be loosened slightly and reset with very careful application of heat. The problem is that it is virtually impossible to apply the heat uniformly enough and allow it to cool uniformly afterwards. And, as I can confirm, the effect is not durable. It is worth remembering that most board cores start life flat on one side and are pressed into their camber so that the composites are fighting the memory of the wood even when the board is at rest. Until he started building Titanal boards, Bruce Varsava built his Coiler boards without a press and part of his methodology (even with the press) is to cut the camber into the core. This gives the camber slightly better durability because the composite overlays are not fighting with the wood and vice-versa. I did manage to decamber a Coiler in a crash once by bending the nose over so severely that composites and wood core went past their elastic limts. Bruce suggested that I might want to try over-cambering the board and heating it to see if I could re-develop the camber. It did recover momentarily but quickly lost it on the hill. Now it just provides an interesting answer to what a board without camber would be like and the answer is that the board is very difficult to control riding flat and hyper-aggressive with turn initiation.

Not to be repetitious but I need names if you are considering coming to SOS, There are a few that have expressed interest above but I need something more concrete. Who are you and are you coming: pandt rocketman canuckcarver galacticspaceboy You can e-mail me from the profiles section of this site if you are shy about divulging your real name on line.

Okay gang, I said I would follow-up with details so here they are. Notwithstanding a the severe beating the hills took from last week's thaw, most of the club terrain is still ridable and all three lifts were open last weekend with reasonably good conditions (granular over an icy base). The weather forecasts look favourable over the next week so I am optimistic that we will once again have a great day on February 1. The drill is the same as it was last year and the year previous. Arrive at the Osler Bluff Ski Club at 8:15-ish. For directions to the club check here. If you are coming from Toronto, the simplest way is to take the 400 to Barrie and get off on the Dunlop Street West exit (96B). Take Simcoe Road 90 to Simcoe Road 10 (second light as you are coming into Angus). The balance of the directions are on the Osler web site at the link above. Collect and pay for your ticket at the ticket office window which is located in the breeze-way under the Main Lodge as you approach from the parking lot. You will have to sign a waiver form at that time. I have called our group "Southern Ontario Carvers" (to keep it innocuous-sounding) and you should say that you are part of this group when you arrive. Your name should be on a list that I will provide to the club. If for some reason you are unable to show up, it will not be a big problem but we will miss you just the same. If you are late and you have an FRS radio, I will be riding with mine tuned to 7-7 and you should be able to track us down that way. Otherwise, we will try to start the morning at the south end of the club on the Orchard chair. This will give everyone a chance to warm up a bit on blue or green runs (if you have not managed to get out yet this year). Exhibition and Valley run under the chair and are prime terrain so if you can get to this lift, you're bound to find us. Once again I have booked the Upper Chalet as our lunch rendezvous. I am suggesting that we aim for 11:45 as our lunch hour. This will give everyone an early break from the morning's exertions and let us get back out while most of the skiers are still in for lunch. Bring a bag lunch or buy it from the food service. There is no bar at the Upper Chalet but I think this will not be a problem for most of us. About 3:00, the light will be getting flat and so will the energy levels so we should meet at the Main Lodge, change out of boots, and enjoy some apres socializing at the bar upstairs. Once again, the nibbles will be on your friends at YYZ Canuck. If anyone is inspired to do photography or videos, please bring your equipment. There are a few good locations on the hill. Here is the list of attendees (or at least people who have not definitely said no): Gabe Tung Rob Sydia Andrea Morgan Dave Morgan Chris Houghton John Hevesi Bruce Varsava Leslie Varsava Henry Kim Rob Cox Monique Cox Victor Plopeanu Peter Halsall John O'Brien Rob Smith Darren Eagles Dr. Zone Mike McNally Definite No's Greg Marsden Arthur Tateishi Let me know as soon as possible if you are planning to come but you are not on the list above. Also please let me know if you are on the list but not able to make it. Once again, I am trying to offer this event to all in the hard-booting brethren and sisterhood. I would love to accommodate all your loved ones on skis too but I am trying to keep the numbers reasonable so leave them home (you'll have more fun in any case). See you all there.

I'm going to take a wild guess that the binding was mounted to the right-hand set of inserts in the photo. I am also guessing that the tear was on the heel side of the board. How'm I doing so far Thor? Titanal has a very high tensile strength and therefore the cores to which the titanal skins are laminated are relatively thin (compared to fiberglass boards) in order to keep the stiffness manageable. This means that the inserts are bearing in 7 to 8 mm of wood. Even when hardwood is incorporated at these locations in the core, it may not be enough to deal with the stresses. It looks like the Titanal tore where the inserts flexed the core upward. While Titanal has high tensile strength, it is only about the gauge of an aluminum pop can and tears quite easily. All that would be needed to cause a tear to propagate would be a slight nick at the insert hole. You pays your money and you takes your chances.

Bruce is pretty handy with a sewing machine. The chainsaw is just right. We don't go in for exotic machine tools and production equipment up here north of the border. Especially when it comes to snowboards, eh. Don't know what could be holding up the Schtubbies. One of them was substantially complete as early as August. Leslie was prying boulders out of the forest with it.