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Lez

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Hi all - I am making the switch to hard set up for racing and need HELP!! Racing now on a Burton Feelgood 158. I am female - 5' 4" - 150lbs. Size 7 foot. Solid and strong and want to rip. I don't even know where to start and people here in NH don't carry any racing anything. How long should my board be??

I appreciate all suggestions.

:confused:LJ

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Hiya Lez -

Where to start: You probably want a board that will be around 165-170, and start using it for GS. Keep with the FS set up for SL. Go to the USASA races, and talk to the coaches there. Many have a line on Eqt. That said, I have boards and bindings you try out, come to MA on tuesday nights, and ride with us at Ski Ward...

In fact if you go to USASA.org, and check the forum, there is a guy selling some stuff that might work for you...

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Thanks so much!

Where to start: You probably want a board that will be around 165-170, and start using it for GS.

This I understand....

Keep with the FS set up for SL.

This I don't understand at all...sorry for the lack of intel here.

Go to the USASA races... I joined late last year (April) never raced and got nothing from them and now they are asking me to join again... worth it?

I have boards and bindings you try out, come to MA on tuesday nights, and ride with us at Ski Ward

Sounds good - where is Ski Ward?

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The very quick turns needed for slalom are often difficult for a new hardbooter. I have seen many people have a great deal of sucess on Softies in Slalom, where the sidecut and flex of the board is better suited to the racecourse. Also, If you can anly afford one board, I would reccomend getting a GS board, designed for that course, and running Sl on FS gear, rather than trying to get one HB board that will do both poorly.

Ski Ward is in Shrewsbury, MA. you will need boots...

USASA is definitely worth it, we are the only ones putting on Snowboard races. If things go well, you qualify for nationals, and I'll see you at Copper!

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Hi all - I am making the switch to hard set up for racing and need HELP!! Racing now on a Burton Feelgood 158. I am female - 5' 4" - 150lbs. Size 7 foot. Solid and strong and want to rip. I don't even know where to start and people here in NH don't carry any racing anything. How long should my board be??

I appreciate all suggestions.

:confused:LJ

Welcome, Don't know if you have boots yet, they are your most important purchase, call the starting gate ( 877-297-1213) to set up a fitting you'll be glad you did (depending on your budget). Then pick up some used Burton or F2 bindings and slap-em on your board or whichever 158-172 ish used board you grab here in bomber classifieds. Depending on where you are in NH, If you hit Loon on weekends you'll see lots of carvers :)

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Keep with the FS set up for SL.

This I don't understand at all...sorry for the lack of intel here.

Welcome. The feelgood sounds like a freestyle board. FS=freestyle. SL=slalom.

Noah coaches and is maybe on the board of USASA. Good dude who will steer you right in spite of all the abbreviations.

You do this long enough and you don't even think in full words. I said HBs to someone who boards the other day and they had no idea I meant hard boots.

Darn carver geeks. And again Welcome to bomber and carving.

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Hi Lez, welcome to BomberOnline. Honest question - do you know how to carve your board so the edge is slicing cleanly through the snow with no skidding? That is the first step towards being able to use an alpine setup efficiently. If not, there are some articles in the links below to help get started with that.

Good luck!

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Lez, welcome to Bomber forum! ther is a plethora of good information and a lot of riders in your area. Loon has a continous thread here in the ride-forums. Its one of my fave places to snowboard, Im sure you cpuld meet up with some riders from there and get some good in-person help! My only gripe about loon is that it is not condusive to alpine GS riding as the majority of it tends to get very lumpy and uneven with narrow trails. You mention NH. If you want to really kill-it on trails like the NASTAR course @ gunstock, I think you would be perfect on a 157- to a 161 with a weist width of around 13.

You need the flexability to make those "under-gates" that they love sticking in the tight turns adn places where you either have to blow off a lot of speed, or completely scrub a turn to keep the line. I think a longer Giant Slallom board will be too much for you to handle initialy on such short courses where it really is all about getting from edge to edge and snappy turns in less than 300 feet @ 30mph or so.

One bit of advice I can definatley make, is to turn both your soft boot bindings in a forward facing position (if you don't already ride this way as I saw no mention of present stance in your post SEE ATTACHED PIC FOR REFERANCE) and get a feel for how the body movements initiate more in the hips and ankles with your shoulders squared to the fall line. Start on a wider normal freestyle board and then ramp up your angles so when you transition to hardboots, it will be a lot easier.

If what I said doesnt make sense at this stage in your transition, take a look at a bunch of carver videos, and it might help :)

post-2724-141842290871_thumb.jpg

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Great advice. Thanks. Yes - I already have a forward stance and do fly on my softie but am looking to get just a little faster....I think I will go for less length as you suggested. I am going to check out the the Starting Gate as soon as I can. I freeride for fun so this board would ONLY be for racing and carve days (boiler plate/pow-less days).

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Lez,

I got a 168 Volkl RT I'm considering selling. Drop me a line if you have any interest. It's in great shape and should be ideal for you.

Definately take Noah up on the Tuesday night thing. Also, see if you can make it out to Berkshire East for the Rally (check the link in my sig.) and the ECES at Stratton this year. There will be plenty of gear to check out and plenty of advice to go around at these events.

-Mark

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would love to learn how to do that - have NO idea.... please share articles.

THANKS!

OK, first things first - make sure you can comfortably do The Norm on your softboot gear to the point where you can consistently change edges before the board points downhill. If you can get this down on softboots first, you'll have a MUCH easier time making the transition to hardboots.

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I think you would be perfect on a 157- to a 161 with a weist width of around 13.

once again Dave ESPI gives terrible advice.

he's dense, 13 CM waist width is a squal not a snowboard.

I've seen a couple 19 waisted kesslers that the smaller girls ride, I'd say that would be your ticket.

IM me and I will give you some contacts of girls that race and younger guys that race that will have or know someone with boards that you could make work.

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Welcome to BOL! Just throwing it out there and don't know how quickly you're looking for a set-up. I have a Burton Factory Prime w/ Burton Race Plates that is likely to do nothing anymore and I was planning on just selling the raceplates anyhoo. I have to be in North Conway Friday night and Saturday and could bring the board with me so you could examine it. It's a 171 and might be more length than you want but that's up to you. Maybe the bindings would be worth your while. No sweat either way for me. Passing on the stoke to someone else starting up would be good karma. If you want more info, drop an email to jdbonz@msn.com

and again welcome to your new addiction:)

powdah

Hi all - I am making the switch to hard set up for racing and need HELP!! Racing now on a Burton Feelgood 158. I am female - 5' 4" - 150lbs. Size 7 foot. Solid and strong and want to rip. I don't even know where to start and people here in NH don't carry any racing anything. How long should my board be??

I appreciate all suggestions.

:confused:LJ

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I think you would be perfect on a 157- to a 161 with a weist width of around 13.

I believe that Dave's recommendation on length is a good one. I think the 13 waist was a typo.

Lez, my stats are pretty close to yours except I'm 5'5 and am an 8 1/2 foot. I would strongly recommend the same as ursle. Boots are the most important piece of the puzzle when getting started. Get some boots and get them fitted properly. After that, some plate bindings on your FR board will really give you a good feel. You will be amazed at the reaction time of your board from edge to edge in comparison to your softboots.

Hope to meet you at ECES at Stratton this season. Good luck!

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