I think I feel a change in the wind says I...

[photodad2001]

Yeah, I figured that after I posted.

[Jack M]

Welcome fellow class of '88 alum! Don't hold your breath for the companies who got burned by alpine to get back into it, they won't, and that's not a bad thing. The internet has allowed real alpine dedicated companies to thrive (and in some cases re-form) by bringing the world to their doorstep. Check out Donek, Prior, Coiler, Madd, Tinkler, Virus, Swoard, etc. I don't know if we'll ever see that "resurgance", but there has been steady growth, and I think it will continue.

[photodad2001]

Check out Donek, Prior, Coiler, Madd, Tinkler, Virus, Swoard, etc.

Madd I've seen on the slopes and in the mags, the rest I haven't heard of till here. I've checked out some of the companies web pages, I liked the Prior page, I like the customization.

I know the American companies are out of the alpine business, but I know some of the oldschool Euro companies are still in production. What do you think about F2 and Nidecker?

[photodad2001]

I agree that there's a resurgence, but I think it's already started. Carving will never grow to be huge due to the skill required and a fairly sizeable initial investment, but it's noticeably changed since I abandoned soft boots just 3-ish years ago.

There is a huge resurgence. Bigger than many seem to think. There's a percentage number that may appear small, but the overall numbers keep going up.

As an example I'll use this forum. I also attend Windsurfing Magazine forum and a thread this size would take literally weeks. That's not an offshoot of windsurf racing (which suffers under the spotlight of wave and freestyle windsurfing), but the only windsurfing forum to my knowledge on the web. I can actually get an answer, reply, get an answer, etc. on a fairly regular basis here. Check it out... http://forums.windsurfingmag.com/

[Jrobb]

There is a huge resurgence. Bigger than many seem to think. There's a percentage number that may appear small, but the overall numbers keep going up.

As an example I'll use this forum. I also attend Windsurfing Magazine forum and a thread this size would take literally weeks. That's not an offshoot of windsurf racing (which suffers under the spotlight of wave and freestyle windsurfing), but the only windsurfing forum to my knowledge on the web. I can actually get an answer, reply, get an answer, etc. on a fairly regular basis here. Check it out... http://forums.windsurfingmag.com/

Try www.iwindsurf.com they just updated their forum style to one like here, it alsohas some good wind info. Lots of chitter chatter, mostly North America so not so much chatter now.

Also, www.seabreaze.com.au (Australian currently in summer now so lots going on), http://www.boards.co.uk/forum/default.asp out of the UK, Exocet ans Starboard both have them as well as www.gpsspeed-surfing.com if you're into speed. rec.windsurfing on google groups is still active.

Windsurfing Magazine forum is probably the least active and not really indicative of windsurfing in general.

J

The two sports are similar niches though.

[photodad2001]

Try www.iwindsurf.com they just updated their forum style to one like here, it alsohas some good wind info. Lots of chitter chatter, mostly North America so not so much chatter now.

Also, www.seabreaze.com.au (Australian currently in summer now so lots going on), http://www.boards.co.uk/forum/default.asp out of the UK, Exocet ans Starboard both have them as well as www.gpsspeed-surfing.com if you're into speed. rec.windsurfing on google groups is still active.

Windsurfing Magazine forum is probably the least active and not really indicative of windsurfing in general.

J

The two sports are similar niches though.

Cool, thanks for the heads up.

[ncermak]

I actually agree that we are seeing growth in the sport; more specifically, sustainable growth. In the past, the new people to alpine were all adults. Thus, a flatter growth curve would be seen, with the gain one, lose one type of numbers. This past weekend, we had 6 kids under 13 on plates, and and two more 13-17 yrs old. All of these are kids who want to compete, but realize that they aree not the second coming of Shawn White. As these kids skills improve on boards, they are attracting their friends, as well as fellow competitors who are seeing that they will need that edge to remain competitive. While the sport is still attracting those same adults who are drawn to make the switch, these kids will serve to drive the market and bring alpine (eventually) back into the shops, and into larger scale production. The Donek Pilot currently occupies a key niche, as most of these kids are currently riding old, hand me down boards...primes and rossis from the early nineties.

[carvedog]

I started riding plates just a little after you, probably '92 or '93. Started on the east, went out west. Stopped for a few years, started back up on the east again.

Maybe its an ice-coast thing? I didn't notice that many hardbooters when I was in Oregon, other than the few guys I used to ride with at Willamette pass. Now that I'm on the east coast, I see a fair amount. Maybe there are more over here, due to the edge up (ha!) that hardbooting gives you on new-england ice. When I was learning (east coast), I remember there being a not-insignificant number of hardbooters who were riding at Temple Mtn. (all 600 feet of it!!) in NH (now closed). I used to go there a lot for night skiing with my school.

I would think the big mountains of the west would appeal more to hardbooters, but it does seem like I see more on the ice coast.

It could also simply be that the mountains here are smaller, and that there are just as many out west, but you run into them more often here due to the smaller, more crowded nature of things.

There are a handful of guys still riding Hbs ( and a few talented ladies too ), but I can think of alpine packs running like stray dogs on Baldy 10-12 years ago. 10-15 of us literally stopping all ski traffic as we run down Warm Springs. Wasn't that we were cutting anyone off, but to see 5 hbers laying it out full body style was enough to make the skiers stop to see WTF is going on.

Once they stopped, frozen in place like deer in the headlights, we would just keep jumping in at the end of the conga line style and keep it rolling. Awesome!

Now I have to call around to try to get 3-4 of us together to shoot some vid for my pet carving project.

I can also look around my mtn and see ( Sunday morning for example when the carving on Baldy was as absolutely good as it gets ) Josh, Ryder, Carl, Mark, Nate, Amy, Laurie, Miles, Steve who would have all been on hardboots 6-8 years ago.

So maybe I am just missing all my old carve buddies, but I am not seeing new people hard booting here much. Or staying in it. I do have some snowboard teamers coming up and talking about how cool the carve looks and they want to try it. 10 years ago they would have all had a hard deck to run Gs as well as the pipe and boardercross. I know I used to train with them. Today I haven't seen one team kid on a hard boot setup all year.

So I am glad there seems to be a resurgence in your areas.