Sean

All, We are six weeks out from Sun Peaks and the forecast says snow for the next 5 days, so things are shaping up very nicely for our carve camp. Presently we have two groups worth of folks registered, and just need a few more signed up to be able to commit to bringing on an additional coach, so please let us know as soon as possible if you are interested in joining us as this makes it easier to accommodate you. As a reminder, the camp runs from December 15th thru the 18th. The coaches in addition to myself we have lined up are World Cup Gold medalist and former Olympic team member Mike Jacoby and local slider extraordinaire Justin Garey (full cert alpine CASI instructor and alpine trainer). The camp Includes • 4 nights accommodation at the ride in ride out Cahility Lodge • 4 day lift tickets • Coaching in highly personalized groups • All Mountain free ride training • Gate Training (SL and GS) • Daily Digital Video analysis • Stance and alignment analysis Demo gear from Donek Snowboards and Bomber Bindings All the details are available on our web site at www.snowperformance.com. On the site you can not only find info about this camp but also about all the Snowperformance offerings for the season. I look forward to seeing you on a hill somewhere hopefully soon. If you have any Q’s feel free to email me or drop us a line at the number below. In the meantime, pray for snow! Regards, Sean Snowboard Director Snowperformance.com 253-569-3713

Fellow Carvers, Its getting frosty out in the mornings and the snow sports shows are kicking off, so like most of you my attention is turning away from the mountain bike trails and towards the snowy mountains. Along those lines, Snowperformance has a number of offerings lined up for alpine types beginning with our extremely popular camp in December at Sun Peaks in December. The camp runs from December 15th thru the 18th and includes coaching from myself, World Cup Gold medalist and former Olympic team member Mike Jacoby and local slider extraordinaire Justin Garey, who not only carves a mean trench but also recently became the fastest man on two planks in all of Canada. The camp Includes • 4 nights accommodation at the ride in ride out hotel (Cahilty Lodge) • 4 day lift tickets • Coaching in highly personalized groups • All Mountain free ride training • Gate Training (SL and GS) • Daily Digital Video analysis • Stance and alignment analysis And as always, demo gear from Donek Snowboards and Bomber Bindings. All the details are available on our web site at www.snowperformance.com. On the site you can not only find info about this camp but also about all the Snowperformance offerings for the season. I look forward to seeing you on a hill somewhere hopefully soon. In the meantime, pray for snow! Regards, Sean Snowboard Director Snowperformance.com

...I'm there baby! :lol:

Awesome! See you out there. -Sean

All, We are a few weeks out from the Mammoth camp and I am very pleased to announce that Mike Jacoby will be joining us for coaching duties. For those of you who don’t know Mike, he is a former Olympic team rider and has an impressive resume which includes numerous World Cup victories. If you are interested in joining us and have not yet contacted us, please do so ASAP so we can arrange meals, accommodations, etc. Hope to see you on the hill. Regards, Sean Mammoth Mountain May 19th 20th 21st 2006 If you have never visited this outstanding mountain this is the time for it. Mammoth is know for its outstanding snow base, which means in early June we should have no worries in carving up the whole mountain and having great race lanes available. We have put a great package together with the mountain. Price: $810 Price is per person, double occupancy. A deposit of $250 is needed by April 30th to secure a place. after which places will be on a first come basis. A late fee of $50 will apply after May 15th. Includes 3 nights accommodation slope side at the Mammoth Mountain Inn 3 meals a day 3 days lift tickets 3 days Coaching in highly personalized groups (max 6:1 ratio) Private race lane Free ride/all mountain training Gate Training with snowboard gates with timed runs Daily Digital Video analysis Complimentary demos from Donek and Bomber Extensive stance and movement analysis Please let us know ASAP if you are interested in a learn to carve program or would like to introduce someone to alpine gear. If we have enough interest, we can dedicate a coach to an intro group and provide a full demo setup including boots. Pass holder rate $700 Coaching only rate $425 Not Included Transport to Mammoth. The nearest airport is Reno and we should have a number of people flying in there, so we can help link you for ride share. Contact Info: Phone: 541-386-3639 Cell: 253-569-3713 E mail: gavalski@snowperformance.com Web Site:Snowperformance Summer Business Address 1308 18th Street Hood River, Oregon 97031 Winter Business Address 16810 Crystal Drive E Crystal Mountain, Washington 98022

but fortunately I was out carving today with my spouse. Dilemma solved. -Sean :)

All, The contact email I used for Ian Burkheimer was incorrect. His address is actually ian@fivetwoten.org. Sorry for the confusion. Looking forward to seeing some of you up at the race. -Sean

All, Crystal mountain is once again hosting the NorAm nationals and they are very eager to enlist help from race volunteers who are familiar with alpine riding. The dates are Saturday and Sunday March 25th and 26th. Positions needed to be filled will be forerunners, gate keepers, course workers and the like. Perks include a free lift pass for the day plus one extra for each day worked, T-shirt, lunch and lots of socializing. Time permitting, I also hope we can get a take some laps around the hill. If interested, please email me and cc Ian Burkheimer ian@projects-worldwide.com so he can get an accurate head count. This is a great opportunity to get up close and personal with your favorite team members, watch some great racing and ride with other alpine types. For more race info, visit the NorAm site at www.NorAmFinals.com . Hope to see you at Crystal. Regards, Sean rideon@qwest.net

All, Crystal mountain is once again hosting the NorAm nationals and they are very eager to enlist help from race volunteers who are familiar with alpine riding. The dates are Saturday and Sunday March 25th and 26th. Positions needed to be filled will be forerunners, gate keepers, course workers and the like. Perks include a free lift pass for the day plus one extra for each day worked, T-shirt, lunch and lots of socializing. Time permitting, I also hope we can get a take some laps around the hill. If interested, please email me and cc Ian Burkheimer ian@projects-worldwide.com so he can get an accurate head count. This is a great opportunity to get up close and personal with your favorite team members, watch some great racing and ride with other alpine types. For more race info, visit the NorAm site at www.NorAmFinals.com . Hope to see you at Crystal. Regards, Sean rideon@qwest.net

OK, I'll give it a shot: There are 4 things you can do to a snowboard: Pivot it, pressure it, edge it and, yes, twist it. Since many of the alpine focused decks are pretty stiff torsionally, the twisting concept is pretty minimal. However, if you ride fairly flat angles and a relatively soft board like a 4X4/AWD/Axis, then you can actually twist the board to initiate a turn. Think about pressing down with your front set of toes first to start a toeside turn, then following up with by pressing the back toes down to finish and you have the concept. This is best accomplished on a long mellow run as you will have to wait a while (read- time it with a calendar) to allow your average alpine board to gradually edge into a turn. This is a much more applicable discussion in the freestyle, boards that are as flexible as a french fry, knuckle dragger world. Nevertheless, it is a valid topic. I say this because I teach the "twisty" method of turn initiation to the french fry crowd. BTW, I do it on my Axis. -Sean

Valerie, Lotsa of replies. There is a lot of great info in the archives, so I highly recommend you browse through Jack Michaud's articles. He writes some great stuff. I set up a fair amount of folks on new gear, so FWIW, here is my 2 cents thrown into the growing pot: 1) Stance width: personal preference is a big factor, but something around .6 times your inseam is a good starting point ( for instance, my inseam is 32 inches so I run around a 19 inch stance width, give or take depending on the deck). You should be able to center the bindings on a line drawn half way between the insert patterns with the Donek. 2) Angles: Something that gets your toes and heels pretty close to over the edges without any overhang is also a good starting place- probably will end up in the mid 50s. Again, personal preference, but I relax my back foot and run it around 3-5 degrees flatter than the front. With your freestyle background, a initial angle setup that is not overly steep will give you some comfort level as it should help you draw on some of the riding skills you have honed over the years with your softies. 3) Cants/Lifts: Unless they are significantly knock-kneed or bow-legged, I typically start folks out with a flat front foot and 3 degrees of lift on the back- no canting whatsoever. I feel this promotes a natural neutral stance and is a good starting point for most riders. 4) Boots: I noticed you had your front boot locked way forward and your back one more upright. You should strive to set up your boots so they will give your ankles the ability to flex smoothly and equally. Consequently, I woud recommend you play around with the walk and powder modes of the Suzukas in order to allow your ankles to open and close as a means to start edging the board. 5)GET WITH SOMEONE! No lack of folks in the area who will be happy to take a few runs with you and give you some pointers. I would recommend you hook up with someone however who has a bit of coaching or teaching background as they can help you develop good habits from the get go. Stick with it and things will start to click- the first time I tried this gig, I was ready to throw the stuff in the trash. Once I felt the board hook up though, the thrill was worth the wait. Hope this helps- welcome to the world of endless advice and ever growing quivers. Regards, Sean

Rob, I don't know if you remember me, but if you are the same person I am thinking of, we met at the CASI supercourse (rode the lift with you and Stu I believe) at Banff some years ago- was doing my SB alpine II coach with Gagnon and Hugill. Still the best alpine course I have ever done...Fancy coming down Aspen way for the SES? I know you would be very well received, especially with your coaching background. Regards, Sean

To help clean things up a bit, angulation simply means creating an angle with one or more of your body parts. This happens at your primary joints- ankles, knees, hips and, to a lesser degree, your spinal column. When we discuss this with respect to riding, most of the angulation we are talking about happens at our hips. The reason we sometimes strive for strong hip angulation (look at racer pics) is because it allows us to keep our weight over the working edge, stay in balance and regulate the pressure that is coming up through our feet, knees, hips etc. If you think about pinching your lower rib against your back hip joint during a heelside turn, that gives you a good idea of the look and feel of hip angulation. If we were to unfold those angles during the turn and lean into the hill, we will have traded angulation for inclination. Inclination simply means leaving the vertical plane with your body. Inclined turns such as eurocarves are cool, but they also tend to be more terrain and condition dependent as it can be a challenge to stay in balance and regulate the pressure when your center of mass is so far inside the turn and away from the edge. There are elements of both these movements in most of our riding and we often blend them during the same turn. While we don't go riding with the goal of riding inclined or anglated, it does help understand how positioning our body helps us ride as effectively as possible, given style preferences and terrain constraints. -Sean (PSIA/AASI weenie) :o

Mike, Based on the truly prodigious shrine o' boards I saw up on your living room wall when I was at your place, I think the thought of having to choose is a task that not even Salomon could handle. Its really kinda like having to choose which kid to leave behind when you go to Disneyland... I think your best bet is to rent a big ole V-12 Powerstroke diesel, hook that sucker up to the foundation, and drag the whole casa out to SES. :lol:

Greg, Interesting dilemma. FWIW, I would first check the deck and make sure the base is flat and you don't have something weird going on with the tune, especially with the toeside edge. Assuming that is the case, and you are riding fairly loose and centered, you might consider three things: 1) If your bindings are too far forward, you may be overloading the nose during the toeside turn and causing that "catch and release" feeling. Since your toes are closer to the nose of the board, it would make sense that this would be more prevalent during your toeside turns. If your bindings were too far back, I suspect you would have the feeling that it would take quite a bit of effort to get it to initiate the turn. 2) If your binding angles are overly steep, you will find that the heelside initiation will feel more seamless, but you can't quite get enough pressure on the toeside to get a clean turn going. Try relaxing the angles and getting the toes and heels of your boot closer to their respective edges until the turns start to feel more even and symmetrical. 3) You have just plain lost your mojo with the Madd. I recommend in that case that you express mail it to me ASAP so I can perform some heavy duty "diagnostic" tests on it and get you back your toeside karma. ;) -Sean

I think I have the solution to all this consternation: Step one: turn right Step two: turn left Step three: repeat :p

Forgot about that one- had two students on them. 14 yr old boy and 16 yr old girl, both around 135lbs, had SBX experience in local series, very athletically talented and were getting on plates for the first time. Both ended up buying the deck and are currently racing on them, so I'll be keeping an eye on how they do.

Billy, Good point. I was using AF 600, size 26.0. Running 55/55 on TD2's with the yellow soft rings. Flat disc on the front and 3 degrees of pure lift (no cant) on the rear. (Have found I like flat/flat on the all mountain decks and 0/3 on the FC/race boards.) Jack, Thanks- never crossed my mind. Just submitted it in the new product link in the review page. I couldn't post a full review though- assume it has to be accepted into the list first? Next stop- FC 171 Olympic. Sean sent me a demo and I have kept it under wraps until we got some decent coverage. Chucking down in the hills presently so I'll get on that one as soon as I get some more time off for good behavior.

I finally was able to spend some time on one of the new Donek Pilots, so here is my feedback. In the interest of full disclosure, Sean Martin provides our Snowperformance camps with demo gear and has been a great supporter. Nevertheless I think this is an unbiased review. I rode the 168cm Pilot. Specs as follows: Rider: 170 lbs (minus the Red Hook), 41 yrs old Effective edge: 151 Radius:12.25 Waist: 18.50 Flex: 3.7 (Scale of ten) Tune: 1 degree base/ 2 degree side (done in my shop before I rode) The deck was an early production model and arrived with a pretty deep linear structure. Additionally, the graphics were somewhat faded. I talked to Sean about this and he was already aware of both issues. Since then he has gone to a different print process for clear fade-free graphics, and is working with a technician to lighten up the structure during production. Test conditions were perfect- cool out with nice firm groomers on the main runs, and crud or powder in the fringes and trees depending on whether the sun got to it or not. Initial impressions were that the board felt very light under foot, especially compared to the normal Freecarve models. I started out just standing over the center of the Pilot and tipping it into some mellow turns just using my ankles and knees. The board initiated turns well and was very forgiving- could feel the nose and tail flexing even in slower speed mellow turns. When I turned up the volume and started to apply higher edge angles and earlier pressure in the turn, the board remained responsive and predictable, but I could already feel it was not quite as snappy as the freecarve. This fact was borne out when I went on some steeper firm pitches- got the nose to twist away and wash out in very hard sharp turns at a point where the FC would have held on. Additionally, in really dynamic high energy cross under type turns, the board did not have the energy return- the "pop" when I released the edge- and I would occasionally get caught too far inside the turn waiting for the board to travel back under me. Neither of these facts is too surprising as the board was not designed to be flogged that hard. I was really trying to find the performance limits of the board, and was riding it in a manner that most entry level alpine riders would not be doing. For comparison's sake I also put a friend of mine who is another experienced alpine rider on the deck for a few runs and his feedback matched up very closely with mine. In crusty chop and crud, the Pilot did not feel overly damp, so if that is your cup of tea I would look for something more beefy and sure-footed like an Axis or 4X4. It was light enough and soft enough flexing, however that it floated pretty easily over anything I rode in and handled powder and bumps pretty well. The bottom line with the Pilot is that if you are an experienced rider looking to go to the next level, this is not your tool- simply does not have enough energy or stiffness built into it. If however you are an aspiring entry level racer or someone trading in your skis or softies for alpine gear, this is the ticket. Finally, when you consider the price of $375, I think Sean has done a commendable job of building a confidence building deck that is easy to ride, pretty forgiving and can appeal to a broad range of riders. -Sean

Sounds like my experience with the campers falls right in line with the other fellow who bought the 3 decks for his kids who are racing, but I'll be sure to post the review of the 167 as soon as I hop on it. As far as used demo pricing goes, everything is run through Sean M, and I don't have any others for sale until the end of the season. The deal at the camp was kind of unique because the kids live way up in the boonies in BC and can't easily find gear, so I had Sean send me up some brand new decks with the binders to bring with me to Sun Peaks. They bought them at retail, and they are competing on my loaner demo boots as we speak. Never hurts to ask, but at $375, the decks are a great deal. Sean is getting lots of folks asking about race and pro deals on the Pilots, but since his margin is already so low on them at that price, his position is that he really can't start letting them go for less. BTW, if anyone out there has an extra set of 24/5's and 28/9's boots that they would be willing to part with fairly cheaply, please let me know- their mom is very eager to find some boots for her kids, and then I can get my loaners back for the next set of newbies. -Sean

The Pilots were designed with two main target groups in mind-beginning junior racers and introductory alpine riders. Consequently, they run a variety of flexes and widths aimed at a large cross section of riders, petite to Sasquatch. I had a bunch of the demos out at our December Sun Peaks camp and they were very well received- so much so that our two junior racers bought them right from the camp and one of our adult riders has dibs on another one. Unfortunately I was slammed with coaching and was unable to ride any of them at the camp. FWIW, the male rider on the 167 (14 yrs old, 135 lbs, competes SBX but was his first time on plates) was flexing the snot out of the deck and doing ollies, riding switch and all kinds of crazy stuff and not getting bucked around, so my impression is that it was plenty soft for him. I had the gal on the 157 (also around 135 lbs, SBX competitor, 1st time on plates, killing the race course!) Sean Martin told me that he is getting feedback from some coaches that some of them are too stiff for their racers. They spend alot more time training athletes than I do, and I have alot of respect for their input, so as soon as I am able to I will ride a 167 demo I have on hand and post some feedback- probably by this coming Saturday. Hopefully this is just a case of picking the right flex out of the lineup, and the price is certainly right. Cool graphics too -Sean

Pat, I like where Phil is going with this in terms of staying centered over the board, focusing more on the knees, and not getting too low. As a "bi-slider" myself I know exactly what you are talking about. Having two sets of edges to use at the same time with your GS skis is invaluable as they allow you to make a lot more small adjustments to control the pressure that is coming up through those edges throughout the turn. Also, having an active inside foot helps in regaining your balance when you start sketching out. Since you only have one edge to use at any given time with your board, subtlety and centeredness are key components in getting the deck to turn smoothly. FWIW, getting a different board, new tune etc all may be justified. Doing too many things at once however creates its own issues so I would recommend you use the same deck with a fresh tune, find some moderate icy pitches and do some J type turns in which you don't compress your upper body but rather focus on edging from the knees down. Use your ears as well for feedback- the quieter the turns, the smoother the edging. Once you can start linking those turns on a firm pitch without getting too fast and having to bail, you should be able to take it back into the gates. -Sean

Autobrakes? I don' need no steenken autobrakes! Us eskimos fly the maddog as it was meant to be- round dials, cable driven controls, aero tabs and we use them big ole discs and spoilers to stop. Quiet too :o See you in Aspen -Sean

gotta luv them carvers who fly- eh, Tim? :D

Fair enough. I did read Jack's article on cant and as usual, it is incredibly detailed and very informative. (I think everyone owes him beer when they see him for doing all this work.) The only point I guess I would add to his comment is that maybe more could be gained by focusing on the boots first to promote a comfortable fit and centered position, then going to the binders- might result in a less canted, lifted versatile setup. Tweaking the binders to compensate for the boots is IMHO out of sequence. Again- the bottoms up approach. As I suspected there would be a healthy discussion on this one. All good stuff. Now I'm really outta here... -Sean