felix

Max speed on GPS is usually a bit too high in my experience (of course I know it has to be reset before and GPS has had to be turned on at least 1 hour so all the almanach data is in). However one can nicely analyze speed with software like GPSAR Pro (that's what is used in the speedsurfing/kiting world for contests). I usually clean out the inbetween points and then look at a distance of at least 300-400m straight line. Onpiste with my tanker 200 swallowtailed I once bombed down a 40° hill with 130kph. Offpiste on my 3part Swallowtail split I once managed 153kph straightlining a 60° face of 600m vert (dropped in, noted I had too much snow coming down with me, so I didn't dare to do any turn and just hoped to get the hell out straightline without falling). Carving feels fast, but is much slower. Usually around 40-50kph when using boards with 15m radius for me.

For people understanding German... Here is another nice thread how Frank Dietzel (User snowstorm 13) treats his own customers if they tell their opinion about how a Virus broke. http://www.frozen-backside.de/thread.php?threadid=1665&threadview=0&hilight=&hilightuser=0&page=1

Duh, I love great metal boards - been trying out Kesslers and SGs since years and allways really liked those boards. Dunno however when I have the conditions and few people on a hill to ride down an 185cm, 20m radius SG board a black slope. Needs lotta space (or drifting to reduce speed) and few people to really use it. If it weren't for the price I'ld be riding them (or one of the newer Goltes raceboards which I really do love). However as a student and interested in skiing, freeriding and racing I simply can't afford those boards. I board in hardboots bought used for 10€ (Raichle SB 325s), softboots bought for a similar price (softboots don't take much more than 30-40days anyhow until they are so broke you can bin them) and with 50-60days on the mountain kill at least 2 of my used boards every winter (and for the freeride stuff a board is only done if the cost of epoxy goes higher than getting another used longboard/swallowtail). New metal shapes excell if conditions are really bad or on a rutted racecourse - but on hero snow I feel as happy on some older boards. Most I ever spent for a board was 400CHF for a Swoard because I loved it so much - even if the edges were quite thin already. I paid 250€ for a nice 3 piece splitboard in pristine condition, other than that I bought tons of boards for 10-150€ cause they will still serve me plenty good. New boards are really nice but you can do without too. Buying a board for 1 grand would mean much less satisfaction too me, cause every little stone would **** up my day thinking about how much money I just burned. Freeriding I don't worry much about stones or rocks but instead enjoy untracked runs that others dare because of too few snow. Cutting a big Swallowtail into a 2m tanker gives you a great freerideboard, cutting a swallowtail into a cheapish 175cm average freerider gives you the same pleasure as a 3x more expensive pintail/extreme taper board. And if conditions are very icey and crowded instead boarding I just use some 2nd hand SL or GS race stock skis to shred. Reserves alpine boarding to days with great conditions when older boards work as good as newer boards.

I too had AF600s and have several SB325, The Asymetrics are waaaayyyy wider and higher overall than the symetric boots. Wide forefoot - get a good bootfitter to get you into the 325 (will need some dremeling) or take a asymetric one without probs. However with low arch asymetric boots might not be for you (I maxed out on the 2. ratchet) so I have to go for symetric line and blow out the toebox to get nicely fitting Raichles. Asymetric boots = heellift for my low arch, snug heel, but wide forefoot feet.

For carving I don't mind. My tanker 200cm 02/03 is by now missing more than 40cm of edges that have popped out because of contact with rocks, trees, etc.. (also due to my in my opinion completely unsatisfactory build quality by Voekl in Germany - my other freeride boards have much better base material (I want a freeride board to have an extruded base, I don't care for seconds, but I do care if I have to spend hours fixing up the board cause stones cause much more damage because of the supersoft base material and bigger and more durable edges; can't speak for other production year models though). I ride it softies only. I have installed additional inserts at 4 and 8cm back (on the back inserts) and 4cm back on the front inserts, and keep using mostly the 8cm back from standard most backward insert. This gives me the flotation I expect from the board. Carving with those settings becomes pretty impossible though because the tail will skid out (o.k. might also be due to edges missing). I tried it with hardboots but as with any other powder board, hardboots in powder is not for me - I rather use very stiff softboots (Deeluxe Spark, binned those ****ty DriverX) with very stiff binders because I want to have the ability to flex sidewards a lot (which simply does not work with hardboots). I weight about 65-75kg (depending on my training). What I do love about the tanker is high-speed stability. Hammer it fullspeed into a mogul field and simply go straight through it. Could do very well with a more powder specific nose though.

Did anyone note too that the search function doesn't seem to work: to try out search for watersplash I get 0 results. Looking into this thread gives me plenty of occurences however: http://www.bomberonline.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=20080

Pale shut down end of 2008 (they were not bankrupt though). Sporten and other tried to buy the equipment but Pale didn't want to sell it to them. You left out some of the very big Austrian ones though - "Keil". Keil - based in Uttendorf/Mittersill, Salzburg Land produces about 100.000 boards per year AFAIK they have about 150 empleyees - mainly produce for Burton (they only do OEM). GST (Austria) must be counted to the biggest snowboard producers worldwide too, as well as B&M. BTW Palmer is produced in Austria by Allaction - Some of the development and the real deal for worldcuppers is made by Kessler as we all know. I think about 10 years ago, 80%, if not more, of worldwide snowboard production was done in Austria, now more and more is moving away. 985.000 boards were produced in Europe in 2004, but I think by now worldwide production is no more than 500.000-600.000 (however that's a wild guess). I wanted to attach a PDF by Boardsports Consulting - Rémi FORSANS that is the source of my figures, but it's filesize is too large. Don't assume that because a company builds skis, they do build boards too. For Head AFAIK that's not the case. According to that document Market shares Europe 05/06: Burton 27% K2 group 12% Quicksilver/Rossi: 11% Salomon: 10% Nitro: 10% Others: 27% And here are the Producers Figures (mind they are for season 04/05): Austria: Oldenburg. for Burton (20.000) - now called Ybbsski or similar, were bankrupt 2 yars ago. Much smaller now. Now produces for Artec/Arbor and others. They were the exclusive producer for all Burton alpine boards AFAIK. Atomic: Atomic, Quecha; 25.000 Allaction: Palmer; 30.000 Elan: Elan, Nitro, Option, Sims, Salomon, Scott, Head 180.000 (AFAIK skis are produced in Slovenia, but all snowboards in Austria). Company is Slovenian. KEIL: Burton; 110.000 GST: Santa Cruz, F2, Forum, Jeenyus, Flow, OEM, 115.000 Pale: Nidecker, Head, Crazy Creek, OEM, 180.000 (stopped production end of 2008 - once they were with GST, Elan, Klein and Rossignol one of the biggest producers worldwide) Spain: Rossignol: Rossignol Hammer, Dynastar, Roxy, Hot; 180.000 Germany: Voelkl: K2, Voelkl, Rad-air, 40.000 (now moved to China - only raceroom skis still produced in Germany) Small factories: Virus: <1000 (just added for completeness): Virus, Alpinepunk - Some of the freeride boards were made by LTB for Virus and were even completely designed by LTB - since a few years LTB does not produce for Frank anymore however, I have heard rumors that Choc also produced/produces for Virus. So if you buy Virus watch out not to pay big money for boards that are available elsewhere for half price..... Pogo: <1000??? (just added for completeness) Jester/Powderequipment: <1000 (just added for completeness) Poland: Nodile: Burton, Fanatic 30.000 Bulgaria: Pamporovo: OEM 25.000 France: Salomon: Salomon - 25.000 Plus some very renowned Shapers for Swallowtails like Kafi. So those French Swallowtail brands are mostly produced in-house. Switzerland: Nidecker: Nidecker - 20.000 Kessler: <1000 (just added for completeness) Radical: <1000 (just added for completeness) - Most of Radical production is outsourced to Choc in Chzeck Republic. Czech Republic: Sporten - ???? Choc: Radical, Choc, Trans, Virus (still outsourced or not anymore?), OEM - ???? LTB: LTB, Virus (not anymore), OEM - a bit below 1000. (just added for completeness) Lusti - OEM <1000. (just added for completeness) Olda - < 1000 (just added for completeness)

Are you sure????? At the last worldcup in Gastein I could see mainly Kessler (okay custom), SG (production), Oxxess (production), Black Pearl (not sure), and not many other boards. Some Palmers (okay those are branded Kessler), some Apex, ..... Basically boards from the same makers as the GS/SL boards used in the worldcup. I have to say I've only seen the races starting from the quaterfinals, other heats (men only) and qualifiers were not broadcasted in Austria. I would find it strange to see people on average boards when speacialised boardercross boards are available easily.

No not that bland. It was a former Austrian Team A member (the training group in OESV for the "best") who told me that he by that time (3 1/2 years ago) went for Tomahawk instead of Kessler because he felt that he didn't get the same boards as the Schoch brothers from Kessler.

SGs come in 3 flexes if I am not wrong. Maybe the newer models with flat nose only come in pro team (stiff) and full race (medium)? I'ld rather think it's difficult to get a 185cm board if your 60kg only, because that's more the weight of women racers. But then maybe you'ld better choose the women version after all anyhow. I don't think there is a minimum GS length restriction in FIS races for snowboarders of 185cm for men, or is there? After all were not skiers who need restrictions for everything starting from boot height, ski height, binding height over to minimum radius/length..... Send Sigi a mail (either he or Elisabeth should answer your questions) about flexes.

The performance of SG is definitley top-notch. Triple-Podium at the last worldcup race in Arosa mens' should speak for the speed of the boards (even though Benjamin Karl, last year worldcup winner on SGSnowboards, is injured for the moment - hopes to get back on track for the world championships). Build Quality is top notch anyway. So it's probabely mostly up to your personal preferences. If you can't testride, you will have to buy cold..... I personally would go for SG, because of Sigis engagement for young local racers, and actually developping kids raceboards in really good quality too. Also with SG you know tat you get the full deal, I heard rumors about Kessler giving better boards to Swiss racers, but don't know whether that was ever true, or is still true.

Dudes, nobody of you ever freeriding Duotone boards in the dayz? Out of business sadly (got aquired by F2, went out of business in 2002/2003 (for the date I'm not really sure, might have been +-1 year). LTB and Alpinepunk are of course still in business. Killer Loop was only a brand produced by several companies (amongst others Radical with the Killer Loop 222cm shaped by Mark Farner). I think boards sold under Killer Loop label were allways available in other flavours too (think of identical board produced with different topsheet). Northwave (yeah they had boards too, at least boards branded with their name) What about Miura are they still producing powder sticks?

Well it's pretty clear rockered boards didn't work out great 15-20 years ago, but now materials have changed, previously unsuccessful technologies might simply work now. If on my skis I only tune the middle 50cm of my ski edge below the Vist worldcup race plate, they still stick to ice very good, the only problem is to tighten up the turn by loading the nose, because the nose will slip away while the section under the plate still holds up. Of course I prefer having the ski fully tuned, but it works with tuning only under your feet too. That's a bit how I expect Pokkis' board to carve. It should still hold up nicely on ice, but moving weight back and front won't change very much. As for drifting I think it's clear that rockered shapes simply do this more pleasantly (maybe not faster in a race but with fewer power). And of course the board will feel much shorter than it is, which is nice too. I would have gone straight for 190cm or 200cm though (adding about 20cm to normal construction for same purpose). I actually do like Pontoons on piste too. Off piste they are not wike enough for my taste though. Gogo Duret Monstre Fats in 1m of pow....

Nope Kryptons are a new mold. Original Raichle molds are too used by a pretty new Italian company run by a former well known italian racer, can't remember the name right now. Overall there are 4 companies producing skiboots with Raichle Overlap principe at the moment if I got it right. Wouldn't buy any new ones however, in Austria you can get old Flexon Comps in pristine condition for 20-30€ if you look around. They hold up so well, that if they are not broken they are still good.

Schtubbys have much more running length compared to a normal board tip while not being much longer in the gates. That's the main reason for me why there are so widely used in the worldcup and then trickled down. For the same turnability they offer more stability. If you don't want to go backwards you better design a powder board that has only one tip (like a Swallowtail). Same reason why raceboards are squared. The faster you go, other parameters non changed, the longer the board should be. The tighter you have to turn, the shorter. As in a forest you need to float and turn easily, boards with lots of taper perform great. That's the reason I'ld never get a burton fish, not enough taper at all compared to a Never Summer Summit or a LTB Ultrataper that has 4cm and the inserts even more to the back than old Fishs. However you could go longer on any tapered board, as long as the swing weight to the front stays the same without loosing much manouverability. Those factors taken into account, I love the handmade boards by Powderequipment. They weight one kg less for the same length compared with the lightest other boards. Not that great on harder snow, but if the snow is soft or you have powder there is nothing as stable while still being very easy to turn, even if it gets tight. Off course with the board being superlightweight - you have to take care of it much more.