swissracer Posted March 20, 2008 Report Share Posted March 20, 2008 After many years away from snow related sports (due to geographical location) I've gotten back into this "snowboard" thing again. I tried it once in the early 90's while living in Colorado and fell in love. Unfortunately it took 16 years to do it again. My wife and I recently moved to SoCal and a little over a month ago I purchased a great all around snowboard (Never Summer Legacy). I had a blast playing around all over the mountain, only to find out that I really crave this carving stuff (thanks to my buddy for getting me hooked). Now I'm that guy that tries to do monster carves with soft boots, and probably doing all the wrong things (you may have seen me make a fool of myself at Snow Summit the last few days). Hey, but at least I'm having fun! Now I just need to find a way to get some gear without my wife killing me for spending even more money. Anyone need a surfboard or a mountain bike? :D If you want a good laugh, I'll be at Snow Summit tomorrow (Thursday) and if all goes well on Friday as well. Just look for the guy in the red jacket chattering on heelside turns. I'll be enviously looking for the hard-booters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carvedog Posted March 20, 2008 Report Share Posted March 20, 2008 If you want a good laugh, I'll be at Snow Summit tomorrow (Thursday) and if all goes well on Friday as well. Just look for the guy in the red jacket chattering on heelside turns. I'll be enviously looking for the hard-booters. Welcome back to the dark side. Don't chatter. Play with turn shape and "gentle" heelside pressure. Not to be familiar but treat your heelside like you do your wife. Too much cranking (rotation) leads to unhappy family life ( tail wash) . too much pressure leads to chatter ( talking ) and then you will have to sit down and talk about feelings and why you fell that way. Oh wait that's my wife....disregard. ;) Reread through some of the riding articles here for a refresher, may have something that clicks for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gdboytyler Posted March 20, 2008 Report Share Posted March 20, 2008 ...I'll be at Snow Summit tomorrow (Thursday) and if all goes well on Friday as well. Just look for the guy in the red jacket chattering on heelside turns. I'll be enviously looking for the hard-booters. Go to Bear Mtn on Friday (1.5 mi down the road from SS). Me and possibly DarkClone will be there. It will be easy to spot us at Silver peak. The carving runs at Bear are steeper and at higher elevations than SS. Checkout the ride board for when your fellow BOL'ers are going to the local mountains. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terryw Posted March 20, 2008 Report Share Posted March 20, 2008 Welcome to Bomber, and welcome back to the carve. We have a small group of dedicated carvers who ride at Summit and Bear mountain pretty regularly. If you are at Summit, check chair 7. That is the farthest east on the resort. If you are at Bear, go to Exhibition or Geronimo, middle of the resort. Check the ride board for so cal, as we generally post when we are going and where we will be. If you are at Summit, your ticket is also good for Bear, and there is a shuttle that will take you over and back if you should so desire. It is too bad you were not up on Tuesday this week. We had 6 carvers on the hill at the same time. That is a little unusual for our local mountains. If you have not all ready done so, check out Carvers Almanac at: http://www.alpinecarving.com/ Tons of useful information to supplement what is here at Bomber. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swissracer Posted March 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2008 Not to be familiar but treat your heelside like you do your wife. Too much cranking (rotation) leads to unhappy family life ( tail wash) . too much pressure leads to chatter ( talking ) and then you will have to sit down Great analogy! I was working on the "norm" yesterday and that's exactly what was happening (with boarding...not the wife:D). Toe side I was doing ok, but as soon as I would transition to heelside most of the time I'd either wash out, chatter or end up sitting down (falling on my butt) I'll be working on that today. Thanks for the info. Go to Bear Mtn on Friday (1.5 mi down the road from SS). Me and possibly DarkClone will be there. It will be easy to spot us at Silver peak.The carving runs at Bear are steeper and at higher elevations than SS. Checkout the ride board for when your fellow BOL'ers are going to the local mountains. I'll try to be there. My wife and I havn't been to Bear yet and I'd love to check it out. Just go dual mountain season passes so now there's no excuse:biggthump Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swissracer Posted March 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2008 If you are at Summit, check chair 7. That is the farthest east on the resort. That's where we spent a fair amount of time on Mon and Wed. Not too many people so it's easy to practice. I did see a couple of guys carving on both days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pogokoenig Posted March 20, 2008 Report Share Posted March 20, 2008 Welcome back to the dark side. Not to be familiar but treat your heelside like you do your wife. Too much cranking (rotation) leads to unhappy family life ( tail wash) . too much pressure leads to chatter ( talking ) and then you will have to sit down and talk about feelings and why you fell that way. Oh wait that's my wife....disregard. ;) :lol: Good point. But you will notice that this can get boring after a while. Then you are looking for adventure. Something that lets you push hard and rotate like a argentinian tango dancer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
two_ravens Posted March 21, 2008 Report Share Posted March 21, 2008 Not to be familiar but treat your heelside like you do your wife. Too much cranking (rotation) leads to unhappy family life ( tail wash) . too much pressure leads to chatter ( talking ) and then you will have to sit down and talk about feelings and why you fell that way. Oh wait that's my wife....disregard. ;) :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol: You guys are too much - I laughed so hard I broke the computer desk! Guess that's why they send me out to the field most days, not housebroken yet....! Welcome to carving swissracer! I just started carving this winter after more than 10 years (mostly) away from snowboarding and I'm having a blast! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swissracer Posted March 21, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2008 Well, I'm a little sore from riding (more like doing squats) the past few days but it looks like I'll be at Bear mt. on friday. I ended up changing the angle of the bindings and it really helped the heelside washout caused by the boods/bindings. It's just a bit ackward riding this way, not to mention a little uncomfortable when going slow. It's amazing how tired I am from practicing the norms. I usually have no problem being at the slope from open to close, but today I only lasted about 4 hrs. We'll see how it goes tomorrow. Hope to see some of you guys there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swissracer Posted March 22, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2008 Damn, this carving thing really takes it out of my legs:freak3: Rode just a couple of runs in the carving stance but it just went to crud. It seems like I can't do more than a couple of turns before my legs say stop or I just can't hold an edge. In freestyle stance I can go all day long without too much fatigue (even when carving hard, as much as the boot overhang allows) I don't know if its because of using soft boot equipment, but when using a high binding angle, my legs are under strain even when "cruising" on the flater sections. I had no forward lean on my front binding, but that still wasn't enough to reduce the constant pressure on my legs. I'm guessing that's why the real carving gear has toe/heel lift:rolleyes:. The board is also very hard to control when I'm going slow. Again, probably due to the board design (all mountain freestyle). I'm really curious what a carver setup feels like compared to what I'm feeling now. I suppose that it's somewhat comfortable just standing neutral. Are alpine boards a pain when going slow? I ended up switching back to a freestyle stance and had a blast doing quick little slalom carves in the steeps, but of course, as soon as I cranked it over hard my toe/heel would cause a washout. I'm really going to have to get some real gear. Now to find a way to get the ok from the wife. Anyone into donating old gear?:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Prokopiw Posted March 22, 2008 Report Share Posted March 22, 2008 Looks from your avatar that we are fellow roadies.I've got a good selection of entry to mid level carving gear.I'd be happy to help get you the rest of the way to the dark side for some interesting trades.Let me know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swissracer Posted March 22, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2008 Looks from your avatar that we are fellow roadies.I've got a good selection of entry to mid level carving gear.I'd be happy to help get you the rest of the way to the dark side for some interesting trades.Let me know. I do have some bike stuff I was looking to part with. Campagnolo Shamal clincher wheelset (like new, used only for a few races) Gary Fisher Sugar XC mountain bike (large) with Shimano XT groupo/Cane Creek wheelset Lots of misc. older road components (8/9 speed Shimano brake/shift levers, deraileurs, freewheels etc.) I also have a Surftech/Tuflite Surf Prescriptions 6'10 surfboard and some R/C model airplanes that would gladly make room for some carving gear:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Prokopiw Posted March 22, 2008 Report Share Posted March 22, 2008 I have to go to the hill now but I will contact you later.If you enable your bomber email or just email me through bomber with your regular email address we can get started on some bartering.sti shifters and the shamals have me interested. Let me know your foot size and your height and weight so I can start getting the appropriate equipment togeather.I may have boots and I know I have bindings and boards.Thanks. Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newcarver Posted March 22, 2008 Report Share Posted March 22, 2008 Carving in soft boots can take a lot out of you. You might want to try narrowing your stance some. You can't use as wide as with freestyle/freeride and be comfortable. I would only run as much angle on the bindings as necessary to get the heel and toe on edge. Also try the "Gilmore Bias" which is setting the front binding back towards the heel edge more and the rear binding more towards toe edge. This will help with proper hip placement when carving. It works well. Do a search on that and you will find a ton of info. Hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swissracer Posted March 22, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2008 Let me know your foot size and your height and weight so I can start getting the appropriate equipment togeather Well, I'm 6'3, 205lbs, have a mondo of 29.7 and love long walks on the beach:) I'm working on getting my weight back down to the 190 range though (yeah right). My email is now enabled and one is on the way to you. Also try the "Gilmore Bias" which is setting the front binding back towards the heel edge more and the rear binding more towards toe edge Thanks for the info, I'll will try that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xenalmorph Posted April 7, 2008 Report Share Posted April 7, 2008 I had you figured for at least 235... and yes you do like long walks on the beach... except maybe through Venice... at 2am... by yourself! Glad to hear you are in alot of pain and actually tired for once. (anyone ever see a Hummingbird on diet pills?) Unfortunately, your marathon riding sounds like it might have broken Jenny in the process. Tip - don't hurt the wife or she may not want to play with you anymore. FYI - My boots/heels came and I now have all the gear to finally hurt myself proper! My first day in hardboots should be good for a laugh (an open invitation to all) midweek after you get back and no I will not do the jumps with you so don't even ask! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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