People who break all their boards

[Jack M]

I have never snapped a snowboard, and I sort of wonder why. Only on one board, the topsheet and top layer of glass eventually buckled just infront of my front foot after about 50 days. But it was nothing catastrophic, and the board is actually still functional. I gave it to my brother-in-law to learn alpine on.

But then I hear about people who break every snowboard they ever own, sometimes at a rate of 1 or 2 or more per season. People who snap the core, or pull their foot off the board taking a chunk of the board with them, or people who routinely have boards delaminate on them, or whatever. I have to wonder why this happens. I also wonder why I've never done it. I think I'm pretty average sized at 170# and 6', and I can pull plenty of G's.

So if you break all your boards, why do you think you do? Do you think you may be misusing the equipment, or is current snowboard tech just not up to your snuff?

Or do you know/ride with one of these board-destroyers and have you observed anything about their technique?

Or if you don't break your boards, why do you think you don't?

(Note: Sims Burners and other "time bomb" swallowtails don't count)

[ARCrider]

used to break skis on a regular basis, one or two pair a season

mostly my fault, stiff skis through bumps and eventually the bumps win, overflexed ski

since switching to boards no breakage but I did rip a heel off my AF600's last year. Raichle was good for warranty with some Suzuka replacements.

hey Jack I haven't progressed enough to handle a board in the bumps like I could ski them. I think someone who regularly runs a GS board through moguls will break it sooner than later.

[Tommy D]

I have never broken any gear, but a friend of mine has; several pair of skis, but never a snowboard. He's on the heavier side of things, and really works the crap out of his gear. But now that I think about it, until he started buying Volkl, he broke just about every pair of skis he used.

Most of the skis delaminated, but one split right under his foot during a turn. As far as we could tell, it was caused by stress, not by impact with a hard object (rock, etc).

I think a lot of it has to do with his weight and power, and combine that with his technique of 'making' the gear work, rather than 'letting' the gear work, puts a lot of stress on the gear.

[mirror70]

Jack,

I spoke with Beckman last weekend. He'd like to see some sort of hardbooter gathering this year. Perhaps the three of us can put something together.

As for people breaking boards, I think a large part of it is a macho thing. Certainly accidents do happen, but if someone is regularly breaking boards then he is clearly doing something pretty wrong, and covering it up with "I'm just too tough for the equipment."

I did break a board once, but it was entirely due to abuse. I overshot a table and landed on the tail - SNAP!

[Mike Tokar]

I broke a Burton FP185 behind the rear heel-side binding from trying to crank a turn too hard to control speed. I tip the scales at about 220 and at the time I was using a fairly narrow stance that allowed me to really rock back on the tail. I also used to ride pretty fast, and that adds to the stress.

I broke the heelside tail of a Burner that same season, but like Jack said before, split and swallow tails don't count.

One guy I know that used to break boards on a regular basis is a great rider that would fly through bumps. He didn't break any alpine boards that I know of, but went through his fair share of Burton warrantees. Not a big heavy guy, but just tough on the equipment.

If anyone will be at Windham or Stratton the Friday after Thanksgiving, look for 4 of us from PA on the hill!

MT

[Neil Gendzwill]

Lessee - I pulled the inserts out of a Burton Elite several times, but any strong 2 year old could probably do that...

Bent some skis in the bumps once - but they were GS racing skis with metal, that was pretty much abuse.

Broke one of the Intec heels on my Raichles last year - my fault, hadn't checked the screws for tightness.

Other than that, no problems.

[k_t]

I have broken my share of skis but no snow boards (at least that qualify for this thread).

As far as the Burners that have failed me, I think that I got fair mileage out of them for the most part.

I used to break at least one pair of skis a year when all I did was tele. I almost always skied on alpine skis with tele bindings on them and broke and/or delaminated everything until I started using Solomon skis. About the same time I started skiing on Solomon’s, I also started riding alpine snow boards so the mileage put on them was not near as much. However 4 years later still no breakage. I think that it must be pretty hard to break a well made snow board unless you completely abuse it. I know that I have abused some boards in the way I have wrecked, going over the handlebars for one thing, along with the other wrecks. Still everything seems to be in tact with the boards that I own, Coiler, Donek, and Sims.

My take for those of you who may have broken an alpine board, say in the bumps or something similar, I would just not expect a stiff race or carve specific board to hold up very long under those conditions without some problem. As for the wreckage of my skis, I think that I came to expect some failure because of the stress put on the ski with a much smaller “foot print” of the tele binding mount over the rather large area that an alpine binding uses.

[Mark Brown]

Only breakage was a chunk taken out the nose of my Volant... because my wife T-boned me by looking AT me rather than where she was going! That did give me an excuse to buy a new board that year ;)

[trikerdad]

I've broken three boards and had one pair of bindings blow up on me. The first board was a K2 freeride, I don't remember the model but it was green and I think it had some kind of big knotted rope graphics on it. I landed a jump in a big hole and it delammed full length. The second one was a Sims Mark Fawcett Race that I took a high speed spill on and ended up doing end over end flips down the hill. I got up thinking that I was sure lucky I hadn't broken anything. When I looked down the nose of the board was sticking straight up. The third was my Sims MFR replacement board (I had to buy it, Sims wouldn't replace the broken one). I was right in middle of a toe side carve when I hit a big hidden hole filled with wind blown powder. The nose stuck in the side of the hole but I kept going. Ripped out two big patches of core that were stuck to the bottoms of my bindings that were still on my boots. The bindings I broke were a pair of Blax plates. I sailed off a roller and thought I landed pretty smooth but the bindings just exploded. I'm 6'3" and at the time I was about 200 lbs.

[Guest boogieman]

i never broke anything in 10 years becouse i take care of my equipment and i only ride on nice groomed slopes in the morning (apres skie starts at 2pm usually with us) and anyway the snow and the slopes suck in the afternoon where i go

i dont ride bumpy slopes becouse i hate it and i dont jump

becouse last time i did i ripped out my front binding at the landing

and almoast broke my knee so thats 1 thing i damaged in 10 y

so i think its really simple if you want it to break you will make it break otherwise it wont or at least not that fast unless your unlucky

[Guest Randy S.]

I broke a board for the first time last season. It was Mike T's Coiler. It took dropping 10 feet off a cornice straight down and landing on the nose. I didn't notice it was broken really. Mike noticed it later. It broke right in front of the forward binding. He did the same drop on my Donek 210 and it didn't break.

Oh, and I delaminated the tail of my O-sin 4807 two seasons ago. I was dropping a small cliff and the tail caught on the rock. I still ride the board (Dynastar wouldn't replace it, but did repair it).

I used to break skis pretty regularly, but that was when I was young and had strong legs/knees. I broke two pair of Dynamic VR27s and bent two pair of Atomic SLC 203s.

I think in general with most boards (Volants being an exception - they delam all by themselves) you have to do something pretty harsh to break it.

[Guest Hopscotch]

I have been riding for 4 years an only broke 1 board....It was crapy liquid snowboard.. I was carrying too much speed into a set of rollers during pratice at a boarder- X and i tried to pump instead of gap.. and i got worked on the up side of the second roller... other than that my boards last...

[GeoffV]

Snapped toe bails three times all in a hard carve on Burton Race bindings (Burton did replace 2 set's for me and claimed at they had never seen somone snap a toe bail). Snapped a Crazy Banana in 88 in the moguls. Ripped the edge out and delaminated a Burton 6.1 after jumping and landing on a frozen mogul. I did recently crack the top sheet of my Donek 2 seasons ago with some Burton bindings, however that was partly my fault because I had the spacer that was custom for the TD1, which shouldn't have used on the Burtons. I wouldn't ride with Burton bindings again, they are to weak for me. I would very suprised if someone actually snapped a Donek, Coiler, Madd, F2, Völkel. Ripping out of bindings is a different story, Tim ripped out of Todds old red 195 at the ECES last year, but the board and a lot of years of use on it and was ready for retirement.

[Guest johann]

I have never snapped a snowboard, and I sort of wonder why.

Some people ride harder than others, that seems obvious.

I've broken two boards and I have a friend that destroys boards. I've seen him break 2 boards personally.

In fact, he was at Burton Demo tent once asking the rep what happens if he broke the FP they were showing. The demo guy "says you won't break it"

The kid takes the board out, makes 1 run, arcs it in front of the Burton Demo tent, folds the thing and hands it back to the guy.

Oh, riding stiff ski boots and bombers help.

[mellowjonny]

You broke one Burner right in front of me on Engin. I believe that was on the 5th or 6th run on the first day of use. We sat on the snow and calculated how much it cost you a run--how could you forget you were almost in tears.

[Mellow Yellow]

Had a Dynastar GURU from the early-mid 90's that the rear inserts blew out on me while on a heelside turn... not a fun ride.... at least I was able to control myself and come to a fairly uneventful stop after it happened....

Hey Jack... I was carving when I broke it..... :D

[ncermak]

Ive Broken two (in 9 years)

first up was an Oxygen KR164 at Ragged. Running a race course, too much in the front seat,went over the nose, and it snapped at the front binding (Oxygen step in bindings...they sucked)

second was a Rossi VAS Race (red white and Blue). Soft, heavy snow, again thrown forward in a clump of snow and went over the nose. Catek Bindings, snapped the board at the front binding.

I was about 5'9", 200 lbs at the time...

[Jack M]

I was really more interested in hearing about people who break boards simply by trying to carve - not by careening into a mogul field or landing a jump flat or some other unintentional event - and at a rate of 1 or more per season. Although regaling us all with the story of the one time you ham-fisted your board is pretty funny too.

Seems there are people out there who break boards at an exceptional rate, seemingly at will, just by carving them, like the guy Johann wrote about. I have to wonder who these gorillas are and what the heck it is they're doing. Wheelying the tail, driving the nose too hard, etc?

[Matty F.]

I broke a Renntiger 178 two seasons ago at A-Basin, I think it was my fault. It was my first week in soft snow ( being from Maine) and I loaded the nose way too much on a toe side turn and supermaned onto the side of the trail.. I didn't get hurt but I broke nose of the board a 3" in before the front binding. I was using td1's at the time.

Last year I did the same thing on hard pack snow in a race course at Waterville Valley with a Donek 182..no problem.

[CarvCanada]

I broke a board carving once :)

It was a Salomon Transfer 159 with cap construction, the board I learned to carve on with 55/45 angles with softboots. I took it out in the spring after a season of learning hardboots for nostalgic fun, and mounted my Catek Olympics and Suzukas. The board already had 2 cracks running the width of the board near the nose, probably to the core, and I basically carved the **** out of it for a few runs in soft conditions under chairlifts, getting hoots from softbooters, and then finally the nose just ripped off in the initiation of a toeside (on a harpacked area) and I went spinning down the hill!

That board only broke because it's condition was pretty bad, and I really didn't care ( I actually stated earlier that day that my mission was to carve the board to its violent death). I've never even damaged another board. (Went slowly over a jagged rock once which someone seemingly threw out onto the corduroy since it was perfect conditions and there was this rock just sitting an inch below the snow, my heart stopped and when I checked the board after I finished my run, absolutely no visible sign of damage to the base at all! It was a Coiler)

[Guest Todd Stewart]

I've broken everything from my first carving setup. I split the top sheet and core laterally on my Burton FP, I was pretty pissed off considering I only weighted about 120 at the time. My Burton reactor boot got mangled after I hit a tree and my Burton race physics exploded last season on a topside turn.

[terekhov]

Originally posted by Jack Michaud

I was really more interested in hearing about people who break boards simply by trying to carve

broke donek wide 169 that way, on the 5th day of riding it at last season opening, on softest slope, using catek olympic's over it. seems that smaller catek disk over-levered the board, so front inserts went loose and delamination bubble started from the center of the binding...

broke top lamar binding soft-carving 3 years ago - in the mid-carve.

seen MUCH of broken hot boards broken by our racers (they all - blasts and fireballs - too picky for not clean landings).

[Speedzilla]

I have busted a couple pairs of Burton race plates, but......who hasn't?

[willywhit]

I think what jack is getting at is not the blunt force impact that cracks a board but wrenching the snot out of a board in a turn. I've delamm'd a few boards either under my back heel or under my front toe side. Both Sims Soulcarves 159 & 160 with Burton raceplates and the 159 with some lent Burton Reactors(my Nordicas snapped at the ankle while putting them on that day).But both were victims of just too much torque/twist.I'm also 6'1" and easily 225-240 during the winter months.These boards aren't manufactured to be set up with plates and beefy race boots and cranking the snot out of them will eventually make the laminated wood cores separate.Right now I've got a Sims 169(tom's personal fav) that's slightly delamm'd and it's a cap construction.I've tried to get another warranty together but Sims isn't what it used to be c/s wise.Plus, I love the board and a proper fix would only make it a little stiff where it's split. We won't get into my 167 burner carnage at eces last year.The only person that gets to demo the 197 burners is Gilmore cuz he brought it back in one piece. :D

[Bordy]

I am sure I will ramble on some more about the Races at Copper over at Hardbooter, but I had a bunch of stuff fail while there. Some of it in races courses and some of it going to or from practice courses. The list for the week included 2 Doneks, Cateks, and the bond they did not form. I also got the chance to lube up with some Bomber Butter, thanks to Fin. And it was a pleasure to rub elbows with all the Fast guys, and girls and see them tear up some deep ruts and break some gear them selves.

I break a lot of gear while riding. and try to avoid stock boards or ride them softly. Often gear just fails while making a controlled turn, some of the time it’s due to chatter or major bouncing, trying to maintain control. I dismiss any collision or impact damages and hard landings as just that. And Soft boot gear is of course disposable.

Common Issues: are Insert Pull or compressing the core in the insert area (Never with a three hole pattern), Core Failures, Sidewall-Core vertical separation and compression, Edge failures. Tons of boot and binding failures (most often with Burton product). Plus a ridiculous amount of binding releases. As a young rider some failures where due to improper set up, after that every thing has been set up to be as durable as possible.