Risers for 14 Year Old Racer?

[jhcolman]

Hi All:

Seems that a number of FIS and just about all of the WC racers are riding riser plates.

My 14/15 year old son races on the Provincial circuit here in Ontario, Canada. He'll start some FIS races next year.

Rides a 173 WC Custom Coiler; 18 waist, 5.5 stiff on Burton Race Plates.

Weighs 130 lbs or so; 5 foot 8. Rides fairly aggressively but not as much of a trench digger as some of the older racers.

Time to try risers?

If so, where to buy?

Thanks

Julian

[Seb]

I'm a young racer and I did race both Noram on the East Coast so far this year ( Mont Blanc & Le Relais ). They were not so many racers that were using the riser plates. I would say 5 or 6 out of the 35-36 men at each race. Maybe both races were not as competitive as other years due to different problems ( lack of snow for Mont Blanc, same week as the world champ for Le Relais ). On the women side, I can't reminder any.

I personnaly found that I have still a lot of thing to learn before to get involved with the riser plate. I've talked with a WC racer who was learning to use the "Angler-Plate" system ( sorry for the name ). He told me that you need many days on snow to get use to it. It make the board quite heavy and very clumsy in your board bag for air travel also. You can't remove the plate since they are not normally installed with insert.

Personally I would considered in that order:

- Find a good boot with the proper fit, invest in moldable liner if required.

- Have 2 boards for racing. One for GS, One for SL.

- Get a perfect match between the binding you want to use and your style ( step-in or not, "soft binding" as F2 or "stiff one" as Bomber & Catek )

- Play with cant & lift solution.

- Have other board for extra situation: a longer SL board, a softer flex GS, a wider one ?

- Then think about "Angler-plate"

I personnally ride with Bomber TD2, and I use the Bomber suspension kit on my GS board. That will be my effort for a while. I will rather spend the money on getting a brand new Slalom "Metal" board and learn on.

Seb

[philfell]

The riser the world cup guys are using are made by Hangle Spirig out of Switzerland. I would not recomend these to anyone other than the top guys out there. For one you loose a ton of board feel, but most importantly they are so heavy. This is the reason no women is riding them on the world cup.

At 14 focus on technique and fun and don't turn this into an equipment sport yet.

[wavechaser]

Phil - I saw (I think) a lot of risers under the girls feet at the Worlds. Looked somewhat like Hangl plates (a "bar" on each side of the board) but just not connected between the bindings. Tough to tell exactly what the setup was on the quick TV shots. Risers? Made by whom?

[philfell]

The risers the girls are on are a different system. I can't remember the manufacture, and haven't played with them personally yet. But they seem to have a decent comprimise between suspension and weight.

[wavechaser]

Yeah - there looked to be some sort of suspension thing happening.

[yyzcanuck]

Did the women's plate system look like this? This is NOT a Hangl-Spirig system (although at first glance appears that to be). Looks more like an elastomer with aluminum rails on each side.

[wavechaser]

Hard to tell - on a lot of them there was definitely nothing BETWEEN the bindings, just bare topsheet. I'll look at the tape again tonight and freeze frame it and see if I can tell if I see the system in your picture. I'm just curious more than anything.

[Seb]

Dave,

On your pics, I see the word "VIST". They are the specialist for riser plate for Ski. I would suspect they are looking into the snowboard business also

Seb

[yyzcanuck]

"VIST". They are the specialist for riser plate for Ski. I would suspect they are looking into the snowboard business also.

You nailed it... http://www.vist.it/html/en/products_plates.php?p=1&subp=3#sub2

You'll find the larger version of that pic I posted in the NEWS section... http://www.vist.it/html/en/news.php

[tex1230]

careful with Vist gear - some skier friends demoed their bindings and really hated them. Broken toepiece on the 2nd run. Nor sure if that translates to problems with their risers, but look carefully at the all the components before making any speed runs on them.

[wavechaser]

You nailed it... http://www.vist.it/html/en/products_plates.php?p=1&subp=3#sub2

You'll find the larger version of that pic I posted in the NEWS section... http://www.vist.it/html/en/news.php

Interesting photo - and I had thought the Schochs were on Hangl plates.

On the VIST website - I'm always amazed when ski company websites spell "skis" as "skies".

[neil sunday]

Back to the original quesiton of risers for a 14 year old... Here's my experience...

I started with the Cutting board riser plates under snowpro bindings two years ago. it's a good feel, but only for powerful riders. the leverage created makes the board very unforgiving once on edge. risers also decrease edge change quickness... cutting board risers raise the rider an additional 10mm or so, and take about 7 to 10 days on snow and in gates to really get the feel for...

now i ride the Spirig Hangl Plates and i would NOT recomend them to anyone under 150-160 pounds, simply because they make the board SO HEAVY. Heavy can be a good thing, as my board slices through crud, bumps, etc.. but it also weighs in at 20.02 pounds. you need to have enough strength to "muscle" the board from edge to edge. once it gets going though, it is hard to stop. in GS i am not so concerned about edge change speed, as i would rather have the dampening and the leverage that the hangl plate offers.

on a side not- i have not set up any of the 9 kids on my snowboard team with risers or hangl plate systems.... i did give my cutting board risers to a 19 year old graduate of my program and he loves them. he's becoming a more acomplished rider, and had been training for about 6 years..

as phil fell stated earlier, at 14- there are so many more things that are important ot snowboarding and technique other than this avenue..

-and the schooch brothers may still be riding the hangl plate system for GS , I have only seen this on their slalom sticks...

[jhcolman]

Thanks all for your comments and help (here and in my other posts on this topic). What a great community!

Seems like plates are something to look at a couple of seasons from now.

Cheers

Julian

[sweetsooziep]

Back to the original quesiton of risers for a 14 year old... Here's my experience...

I started with the Cutting board riser plates under snowpro bindings two years ago. it's a good feel, but only for powerful riders. the leverage created makes the board very unforgiving once on edge. risers also decrease edge change quickness... cutting board risers raise the rider an additional 10mm or so, and take about 7 to 10 days on snow and in gates to really get the feel for...

now i ride the Spirig Hangl Plates and i would NOT recomend them to anyone under 150-160 pounds, simply because they make the board SO HEAVY. Heavy can be a good thing, as my board slices through crud, bumps, etc.. but it also weighs in at 20.02 pounds. you need to have enough strength to "muscle" the board from edge to edge. once it gets going though, it is hard to stop. in GS i am not so concerned about edge change speed, as i would rather have the dampening and the leverage that the hangl plate offers.

REPSPONSE:

Thank you for this information. I was originally wanting to buy a used slalom Kessler for my son, a strong carver, but still only has 3 seasons of hardboots under him. Because he was winning so many red and blue medals in USASA last year and qualified for Nationals, I got excited and impulsive thinking the metal boards would give him the edge this year (2010/11). I found a used Kessler 163 for sale but realized I need to buy hangl plates, have no idea about what bindings and really started to get confused.

Now I am learning that plates are best for GS? But still maybe not? What are risers--is that cant? I bought some last year but my boys and i don't know what we're doing. Johnny Walton lives nearby, and we hired Dane to help coach a few days, but have never been able to sit down and 'put together' the best set-up for their SL and GS and Bx. I am not even clear whether or not we already have what they need in our stash of 12 boards. Can someone help me? We are in a town that does not recognize hardbooting, have no local experienced carvers to glean from or learn by hands' on.

If anyone has the time and interest to check out our list of boards and bindings I have bought them from here over the years, (you may see your old gear here! :), this list can be found inside my sons' profile (CarterPrice), and maybe you can help us 'make' a high-functioning upgrade out of what we already own by just adding fine-tuning, risers, or nothing....

Thanks again BOL folks! My boys (14, 16-18) and I spend hours on end looking at your photos and videos with admiration. We are excited about your giftedness in athleticism, willingness and consideration and patience in educating us skidders always asking the same questions over and over! If there is an online place I can peruse to get my questions otherwise answered, I am grateful to any advice.

submitted 8-14-10 by Sweetsooziep@yahoo.com for young carver son CarterPrice/BOL

[CarterPrice]

5'9" 150 lbs, boarded 52 day last year (39 in hardboots for 1/2 days) Also we have

6 other boards listed in profile, no bindings on them.) WHAT is coaches advice of the best SL and GS set up out of what have on hand?

F2 Speedster 158 w/ Snow Pro / Raichle 125

GS Burton Coil 165 w/ Burton 3-hole / Burton Reactor

BX Hot Blast w/ Catek / Raichle 125