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Skwal Riders General Discussion


mikel45

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I have seen a CODA board up close and was turned off by the build quality. Maybe its just because it was a prize board for SES, but man did it look rough. Interested to see some detailed shots and reviews when you get it.

Board building is resuming at Figment Original, stay tuned.

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That Oxess is crazy expensive without any titanal, and its not even an option?

Titanal is not a silver bullet, I've bended a couple of titanal skis and one titanal skwal really bad so they have switched from camber to rocker style :) . This never happens with carbon gear. I understand that Oxess is freakin' expensive, but most of what they do actually worth it.

Edited by avante
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I might have to give Aluflex a call. IIRC their titanal skwal was around 700 euros, and they're supposed to have a test site up in Les Carroz this year. I gave one of their alpine boards a shot last year, it was a blast.

Edited by tufty
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Got to pay for that nice new cnc machine!!

No doubt about it!

Oxess puts out a quality product for sure. It shows in the craftsmanship and I think they are one of the only manufacturers to use and autoclave to press boards. That doesn't exactly look like an entry level CNC machine though, and all that tech is pretty pricey.

That being said, most of the tech seems to be in the manufacturing process and not in the boards. Does this make for a superior product, not exactly sure...

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I got a set of used short-plate Catek OS2s and set them up today. The first weirdness I noticed was that the baseplates are wider than my 12cm skwal by a few mm. I thought that Catek baseplates were smaller than that, but I guess not. The overhang is very minor, and there's no possibility that I will baseplate-out. The stance angle reference marks on the baseplates don't go up to 90 degrees, so I have to guess at my angles. I think I'm riding at 0/2 or thereabouts, so it isn't hard to eyeball it. The stance width is something like 16.25". Cateks don't have an ability to microadjust the distance between the toe and heel blocks, so it seems like one has to live with a very small amount of wiggle room. I suppose a little tape could fix it up.

Getting decent toe/heel lift is no problem, and this setup feels pretty good on the carpet. I have a little outward cant on the rear foot. I might try some outward cant on the front foot too. Does anybody do this?

post-8519-141842399126_thumb.jpg

post-8519-141842399129_thumb.jpg

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Hey, can anyone advise me on these Catek OS2 spacer thingys? These plastic-looking spacers go over the kingpin, between the binding (sole) plate and the base plate (I think). The Catek instructions are a little vague. If you don't use enough of them, they just seem to function as covers for the kingpin threads. If you stack three (depending on the configuration), then the spacers become a structural load-bearing part. Are they really supposed to be clamped down hard when the kingpin is tightened?

post-8519-141842399224_thumb.jpg

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can anyone advise me on these Catek OS2 spacer thingys? . . . they just seem to function as covers for the kingpin threads.
The number of spacers to use depends on your preferred lift & cant settings. To ascertain your lift & cant, start with the following
. Go ahead and set the heights for the tilt screws. When completed select number of spacer(s) that will be required for your seated tilt screw height, reference
. Looking at the photograph, it looks like you just need two spacers.

Hope this helps.

CHEERS!

M.
Edited by mikel45
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The tilt calculator is very useful. It is definitely better to start from zero and adjust to hit a repeatable target. I used three spacers in the picture just for effect. You can see how it lifts the tilt screws right out of their cups. But the function of the spacers still baffles me. The instructions are a guideline, but it seems like most of the time the suggested number of spacers results in the spacers simply sitting there loose around the kingpin. My only guess is that their purpose is to prevent a ham-fisted musclehead from driving the kingpin so far down that it rips into the topsheet, or causes some damage to the binding.

Mike, did you get your Coda yet? On a whim I emailed The Chad, and he reassures me that he can build to suit my smaller stature. The Chad is going to give me a recommendation on sizing, etc. So far,

. I'm not sure if I'm actually going to get one, but I could really use a Skwal that will float. Please put up some pictures and comments on fit and finish when yours arrives.
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(Posting for Mono Don who was having some issues, maybe during the forum upgrade)

Hey Skwal riders, I mounted up a Nordica "Yah Luv" ski as a skwal. Specs: 167-140-157, 185 length, 29 M Radius. It has traditional camber and metal. It is amazing in the Powder, and worked suprisingly well on the groom, (not tested on hard pack). The model I used has a brown top sheet. 2010 I think. If I remember correctly I "T" nuted Cateks centered on the original suggested binding center. I could measure for sure if anybody wanted hard numbers. I think later models had some nose decamber but I'm not sure.

Don

Feed the addiction...

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Hah. I've not found a ski large enough to mount as a skwal, or, at least, not a *single* one. Although I find myself toying with the idea of mounting a "nordic skwal" from an old nordic ski, just for laughs and to counter that "cross country snowboarding" video (the one with "skooching"). Also, it would be funny to actually use, try and convince people that on busy days, restricting people to nordic skwals allows us have 2 people on every nordic run :)

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ExcelsiorTheFathead said:
(Posting for Mono Don who was having some issues, maybe during the forum upgrade)

Hey Skwal riders, I mounted up a Nordica "Yah Luv" ski as a skwal. Specs: 167-140-157, 185 length, 29 M Radius. It has traditional camber and metal. It is amazing in the Powder, and worked suprisingly well on the groom, (not tested on hard pack). The model I used has a brown top sheet. 2010 I think. If I remember correctly I "T" nuted Cateks centered on the original suggested binding center. I could measure for sure if anybody wanted hard numbers. I think later models had some nose decamber but I'm not sure.

Don

Feed the addiction...

This would be the board in between the plated monoski and the the Volkl. I have been thinking about doing something similar as well. Last time I was in CO I was tempted by a pair a Fat-ypus skis that ICE had at his house.

skwallineup.jpg

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