rschneid Posted January 22, 2007 Report Share Posted January 22, 2007 All, I think I am the posterchild for how to do things right (at least with regards to trying to join the ranks of carvers)! I have been snowboarding for years (mostly skidding - with accidental carves). I stumbled across bomberonline, did the instructor search, found Phil Bowman in PA at Roundtop, which is closest to me. Called and got a lesson, pretty much following most of what bomber online suggested. I had a lot of trepidation that this was going to be a big waste of time has most snowboarding instruction seems to be sort of ad-hoc and not really that useful. His instruction, on the other hand, has totally re-invented my boarding. He knows his stuff! I spent 2 hours with him and am on the journey to carving. This was the best 2 hours of snowboarding instruction I have ever received. Slice and dice! He corrected some of my many errors, managed to convey to me what I was supposed to be doing and presto, carving (not pretty and not perfect) but woohoo it is fun. He also gave me realistic drills that I can and am doing at home. He also managed to beat into my head that I can't simply stick hardboots and step-in bindings on my current nidecker megalight62 and expect that to necessarily work. The painful truth is that I need 2 setups, 1 for my softboots and a separate alpine setup $$$$ - oh well. At least temporarily, I will work on improving my current carving technique with my softboot setup. Anyway anyone who wants instruction in carving - I strongly endorse Phil - and no I don't get anything for this other than spreading the truth. Rich S. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrjamie Posted January 22, 2007 Report Share Posted January 22, 2007 Granted it was tough love, but a Prior 4WD handles well in all conditions with 63/60 angles and hard boots...a bit tough in steep trees though, but that means my technique isn't there yet eh! ... After riding a brand-new Malolo (same hard-boots, 54/54 angles) in wet powder and on piste, I now understand why people would want more than one board. Riding the Malolo on powder is one of the most fun things I've done on a snowboard in a while. It carves decently too, but maybe that had more to do with 54/54 angles than the board itself? Good luck with your two setups, whatever you end up going with! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gleb Posted January 22, 2007 Report Share Posted January 22, 2007 This past weekend i was given the oppurtunity to get free lessons to teach kids how to ride. Thankfully, the instructors we had didn't like the park too much and just loved to carve. This was at pats peak and our first intructor was Papa Joe who rides 35/-35 duck (looks painful) and rips. On the 2nd day, we had papa Joe and Rueben. Rueben's daughter races on an alpine set up at loon. He is a crazy carver and does extreme carves on toesdie on the blues at low speeds with ease. He uses a softboot setup and has yet to try hardboots. Using my mad, i was able to get almost as low as him and I think this weekend brought my carving to a another level. I tried riding switch many times but heelside turns were not too successful but I'm going to keep working. I also learned how to ollie which works incredibly well with the pop of the mad. Its amazing how much you could learn from an instructor even though you're in different set ups. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Posted January 23, 2007 Report Share Posted January 23, 2007 Thanks for the props - the check is in the mail. ;) As I said, without the potential that you already had, we would not have gotten so far. Thanks again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.