Carving on Skiboards/Snowblades

[nekdut]

Has anyone tried carving on skiboards/snowblades? This past weekend I saw someone really carving it up on a pair of these and it looked pretty effortless. Any thoughts/opinions?

[ARCrider]

Used them before I got into snowboarding. Takes a few turns to adjust to them but once you're on top of them they can be fun. They didn't interest me enough to buy a pair but I have friends who really like them when setting course or assisting in setting. Very handy for skating about and doing oddjobs.

I think they make a great ski coaching tool. You can't ski them on your heels, must get forward to drive them. Forces better balance fore/aft and makes railing a carve easier when you hop back to your own equipment.

Wouldn't recommend them for pow or uneven crud, not enough support.

[Tommy D]

Arcrider nailed that one! Snoblades are great fun, but after an hour I'm looking for something else to do.

I know the Tremblant ski school used them as training tools a couple years ago.

Imagine in-line skating down your favorite ski area. :)

[ncermak]

I have a pair...

I use em as a tool to find center (cant be on your or too far forward). They also are great because of the short length, they will really wobble if you don't set both edges.

personally I find it harder to set on them than a board...too little room for fore and aft balance problem when carying big and sometimes shifting loads. They well work with your snowboard hard boots, where DIN bindings won't, so thats anotrher advantage.

summary - on good groomers a great teaching tool. can be utilitarian where a lot of freedom of movement is required. Fun for a few hours at most, but then you need more. They do carve like a SOB...

-Noah

p.s. let me know your coming into the area, and take mine for a spin

[sic t 2]

snowblades ROCK!

wow, I had such a good time on them at Mount Snow (after someone on the company ski trip borrowed my snowboard and got lost with it leaving me with nothing but their snowblades). Oh, they don't carve worth a crap. And they don't float worth a crap either. What you do on snowblades is use them just like you would hockey skates. Rip assing around people like you are skating for a hockey goal net (better yet with a beer in your hand). In that environment they are the #1 tool because they can generate big speed on flats and you can careen around people like you are a NY ranger.

So, it "all depends" on the conditions as usual.

still riding at 54

sic t 2

[CarvCanada]

hehe I tried them out once on a late spring day just to have a lot of fun, and they definately were fun... but mainly because it was the last day of the season and everybody was just going crazy, hucking themselves off cliffs out of the woods and stuff. carving on them was pretty squirrely! what is it? 4 meter sidecut? 100cm total effective edge? hehe

[knoch]

They are great when they have crazy sharp edges, but that might just be a Michigan thing. Anyways laying down carves on those things is the closest i've been to the feeling you get on an alpine board, and it does seem really similar when you are moving super fast. I have used then as a racing tool to help with centering my weight, but i would never want to use them on a busy day because to be fun you pretty much need to be flyin on em.

Sic t 2, have you ever heard of saucer boy? Shane McConkey is what he goes by most of the time, but your opinion of what they should be used for sounds like it came from watching the movie "There is something about McConkey". If any of you want to know what i am talking about just find that movie because it's great. But i'd rather see the park rats on those things than have some dude walkin across the hill with a beer in his hand.

[Allee]

I've never skied, but I bought a pair of blades last year for those days where there's a zillion people on the hill and you just want to switch your brain off and do dumb stuff. I often spend an afternoon on them when I've either worn myself out on the board in the am, or taken a decent spill and rattled myself a bit.

Yes, they do work great with snowboard hard boots - just click em on and go.

I've always found they carve pretty well with a bit of speed on, but stick to the groomed for sure, they're not really designed for much else.

Oh, and definitely keep the weight forward - I got mine back on the Sunshine ski out last year, and got launched off the trail for my trouble!!

[Corey]

My wife exclusively snowblades. She has a pair of Elan Razors that she's learning to carve with. She's doing quite well, they turn on a dime!

I'm not much of a skier, but I had fun riding them for a few runs. They're pretty twitchy at speed, but very fun to carve with. Don't even bother with them in anything other than hardpack snow!

[patmoore]

I bought a pair of MicroSkis a few years ago (maybe 18 inches long at best) and found that they could really carve but would wobble like the dickens at speed. The quads could only take half a day on them.

One caveat: You know the motion ice skate racers use to go around a turn? Don't try it on snowblades/microskis! The tail of my outside ski tangled with my other boot on the crossover and I managed to provide a great deal of amusement for my friends. The spill was nothing short of spectacular on a very easy stretch of snow.

Another caveat: There have been a number of knee injuries on those things because of the non-releasable bindings. Folks think they don't need to release because of the short length but tell that to the dad I heard about whose son and daughter both tore ACLs in the same weekend in Vemont two years ago.

Pat