Jack Vs Alex toeside

[Ray]

Very nice shots, very nice turns. Softboots or not. Only thing is you are far away from reaching what many hardbooters consider the maxed out turn/thrill. Material would just not allow it. I.e. boots/angle would make you boot out… just too many week links with a softboot setup… Not saying softboot are a bad thing, it’s just not providing what most hardbooter are looking for.

Cheers!

[b0ardski]

those are nice turns, for lace ups. I can see your at the limit on toe side for boot out on a wide board and it looks like heel side will be worse. gotta agree with Ray on boot/binding material limiting how far you can push your equipment.

Less duck, more alpine angles will get you in a more efficient position, if carving is more than a novelty for you.

I ride groom, bumps, trees, and ubersteeps on 25cm wide boards, size 9.5 feet, with a 1/2 inch of underhang, no boot out even standing still in a 50 degree chute.

Not to mention durability & step in/out convenience.

[b0ardski]

Regulars riders have way more fun... ;)

I love doing airplane turns too, but the left foot goes in the back:smashfrea

[Puddy Tat]

I agree with the above two posts. You've pretty much taken a softboot set-up as far as it will go.

I've got size 12 softboots and I boot out heelside anytime I start really laying into carves and forget what I am riding. Happened at least twice last year on two different softboot set-ups. Looking at the overhang of your bindings I would guess that you probably have similar issues on heelside turns, which is possibly why the four pictures posted are all toeside turns.

I was going to have a really wide board custom built to compensate for my bigfoot sized feet but I've had such a good time carving on hardboots over the last season that I'm going to mount TD3 step-ins on the board I use as an AM board ('94 CK Slopestyle 171cm) instead. If I break it I'll buy an actual AM alpine board to replace it.

I'll still have a softboot board (Nidecker Nano 132 cm), but I'll essentially only be using that set-up for screwing around on.

Cheers,

Dave

[ecshredder]

You're right. Heelside is less forgiving. I have to lean forward for balance rather than lay down like you guys. But I still enjoy the versatility of my setup. I wish I would see more harbooters on the hill to ride with to see if I can keep up.

[Puddy Tat]

Like boardski said above, changing the stance angles to a more alpine set-up will help to put your body in a position which makes the toeside and heelside turns feel more symetrical.

This helps you get away from breaking at the waist like you are in the first picture you posted 4 or 5 messages back. You'll note from the picture of Jack Michaud in the first message in this post that his upper body is actually bending away from the snow at the waist. While in your picture you are bending towards the snow at the waist (breaking). When you bring your hips away from the snow the angle at which you apply pressure to the snow changes. This actually reduces the downward force you are generating (relative to the boards base).

Interestingly enough I thought I looked amazing at carving until a buddy of mine took some pictures this year. I still thought I looked great until I looked closer a couple of days later and started noticing all the small body errors I was making. I was also breaking at the waist though not to the extent you are here. Correcting that alone helped make a huge difference in my carving towards the end of the season.

You obviously like the carving sensation, or you'd be posting pics of yourself on rails, jibs, and other features so you might want to consider a second board purely as an AM carving set-up. Once you get comfortable with it I think you'd be suprised how much more often you go to that stick rather than the softboots. I personally find that a really stiff SB set-up actually removes all the reasons that most boarders prefer SB over HB. They certainly aren't any easier to walk in than HB anyway.

You'll find that having two-differently performing boards is actually a nice thing to have. It starts giving you more tuned performance based on how you feel like riding that day.

Cheers,

Dave

[Ray]

Touching the snow is a crutch, it causes friction and reduces speed.

The Racers know! so what is it that makes you guys think it is correct?

You spend big bucks to get Da **** and then you drag your bodies all over the hill...whats up with that?

and then there is the Carve back up hill group stopping and laying all over

the slopes...try doing non-stops OK ?

Bob! Hey hey hey, chill a little, u r almost getting personal here ;)

[KingCrimson]

SBS- It's not like any of the people whom you actually want to take advice from here ever deny softboot carving ability..

The fact of the matter is those pictures show the limit of duck stance angulation.

The only way he could get more edge angle is to pull a mid-carve dry hump and stick his pelvis out. But, think of the consequences of falling- similar to what we call a botched boardslide down here in the San Gabies. "Ding dong!"

[Puddy Tat]

My apologies if you misinterpreted what I was saying. I was not flaming softboots.

I did mention that I was carving in size 12 softboots, my only issue was that everytime I really laid into a heelside carve, the heel cup would lift the board edge completely out of the snow resulting in the back of my melon impacting the snow. Rather takes the fun out of it.

I, like b0ardski, suggested ec might want to move his bindings to more alpine angles. Then later I said if he is enjoying this he might want to consider a full-on alpine set-up as a second board.

The 132 cm SB board that I wrote I was using for "screwing around" on was intended to mean light carving, boxes, and other jibby stuff. That board actually carves suprisingly well for being 132cm. It feels somewhat like riding a wakeboard.

By the modifications that you make to your softboot set-up (third strap, and locking of the highback), I would hazard a guess that you actually find a softboot set-up not supportive enough for the type of carving you want to do.

If your email was turned on I would have replied to you there as I don't really want to derail this thread any further than it has been. Drop me an email if you want to continue this discussion.

Cheers,

Dave

[Rob Stevens]

Anyone who says those shots show the toeside limit of a softboot, duckstance laid carve needs to check themselves.

Fully laid out toeside carves are part of any run for me. I'm talking about toeside EC to make the HB'ers jealous.

What has been giving me the ****s is the heelside, but since I completely removed the heelcup from my C16s, it's really down to core strength, the right amount of rotation and timing. It's frustrating, but I'll get it. I guess if I had size 12 feet, I might throw in the towel, but the upshot would be the huge wang I'd be rocking, so you 12'ers have that going for you.

I am committed to leaving the bindings where they're at for maximum compressive flexibility and stability when jumping / slarving and consider my technique to be the weak link when it comes to duckstance heelside EC, not popular opinion.

[KingCrimson]

Not trying to challenge you Rob, but it seems like the rider in question wasn't trying to do any layouts; it is apparent from his hand position he is trying to angulating.

Do you think that he is at the limit of angulated softie carves?

[ecshredder]

and you're right. I can do better. These are just the shots I have.

Lets see em Rob.

[Rob Stevens]

I think doing fully laid out carved or sliding turns at any speed is cool.

I've never seen anyone linking a series of laid turns in the flats on any gear, so if I did, yes SBS, that would have to be as cool as it gets... Defying physical laws and all that.

No wait... Doing the full Jeremy Jones Alaska line, through the park off the 80 foot table cab 5 and onto the groomers with some sort of Jasey-Jay Anderson / Gilles Rilliet combo carve style, finishing with a bindingless NoBoard pow face, stepping off the board before it even stops and being handed a beer and smoke by my lady, now THAT would be as cool as it gets.

Doing it on steep groomers is really the only way I think you have a chance at the EC style. Ironically, half the time I'm laying one out, I'm doing it to dump some speed, without sliding the turn. Mostly, it's just sheer lazyness where angulating and the pressure of it all would take too much energy, or more strength than I have.

ecshredders shots... the toeside heelgrab pics are mint and being done by someone who clearly knows how to ride. Is maximum angulation being used? If he was going for that, I'm sure you could get him to run both knees along the snow while standing up more vertically in his torso. That would be maximum low binding angle angulation in my book.

Again, heelside is a funny one. The toe grab pic makes me say "**** yeah", but could the board be more angulated to the snow while at the same time keeping an upright position? It would be really hard without comprimising something here. Short-legged, small footed, low-profile bindinged people could potentially straight leg that turn without blowing out, or maybe the knees could rotate and drive more into the snow than is happening here, but it's tough with the flat back foot.

Jack Michauds famed heelside shot is what I'm shooting for, in softboots with a duck stance.

Limber up, ****ers!