People who break all their boards

[Guest Jon Rutherford]

I was breaking 1 board/year up until last seaon. I've broken 3 or 4 madd's. They snapped behind my rear foot. I attribute the problem to my riding style. I ride with a lot of heel lift (leverage) and I tend to ride pretty far back on the board.

However, I broke my one and only madd 170 when I decided to hit the Big Air Jump at Attitash 3 years ago and overshot the landing...landed on the tail and broke it off...doh!

Hopefully last year I started a clean streak of no brakages!

JR

[Neil Gendzwill]

Bordy, are you saying you never pull inserts or compress the core with the 3 hole pattern? Is that because something else breaks first, or is the 3 hole pattern somehow better (I find this hard to believe)?

[Mark.Andersen]

Hey Bordy, thanks for the post. Can you give a bit more detail about core compression (what is this?) and why three hole pattern is better in this regard? My naive notion of "more is better" doesn't seem to be the case...:o

Thanks.

Mark

[Bordy]

Neil: I have never pulled a Burton insert in their race stock gear, which I ride as hard as I can. And have not pulled a insert in their stock gear, which I have not really ridden much since 94 or so. I do however own 6 stock race decks that I share with others, and sometimes ride myself, that I have never had an insert problem with. That is my own experience. I trust burtons inserts even with my TD1s on them with Intecs on race stock gear.

Mark: I am referring to the break down and compressing of the material between the inserts and the top sheet, usually resulting in a lifted insert or inserts. In some cases it can also be a push from the outer most edge of the binding platform onto the top of the board compressing the core material and causing a warped binding foot print.

I am not saying the three hole pattern is better only, I have not pulled one in a very long time. It does not mean they can not be pulled out. Only they remarkably have not pulled out on me. Also core compression was only one failure problem in a list of many. That does not mean I have not broken Burton boards only I have not pulled their inserts under normal riding conditions, They have ripped out in impact crashes like many other manufactures inserts would have but, when crashing is due to rider error you can not consider gear damaged in the crash faulty.

Lets see how the Burton Unic 2 hole pattern holds up! Maybe it's the answer?

;) ;)

[Strider]

The only time I've ever broken anything snowsport wise was when I switched from old Burton step-ins to TD1s. First day in the race course(beer league) after switching I pulled my front binding along with 2 inserts off the board on a hard initiation of a heelside turn at a comeback gate. Realized that I didn't need that much pressure on the TD's because they had a lot less give and it hasn't happened since. I also think that the fact the board I was riding was getting old and had been ridden hard had something to do with the insert failure.

[Jamie]

My Proton broke last year, but I still don't know if it happened on the plane or from a fall.

It didn't happen from my actual riding though.

[philfell]

I've broken far more boots than boards, but have broken a few boards. Most of the boards I've broken were ridden very hard and had many races on them so I wasn't that surprised when they finally said enough is enough. If you ride a product hard enough it will fail eventually. I think that racing and training gates increases the failure rate of equipment. When you are freeriding you don't encounter the chatter and ruts that you do in a race course.

To make a short list of boards that have broken on me.... I mainly ride F2 product and have broken a few G.S. boards under the front binding, and a few Slalom boards behind the rear binding. I've also severly twisted a Donek Sl board, permantly bent a Volant and an Oxygen. Like I said I'm not claiming the manufactures are makeing crap boards (maybe the Volant a little), these boards were raced on many times and these things happen.

[NateW]

I blew up three Aggression/Volant freeride boards in one season (I say Aggression/Volant because Volant bought Aggression shortly before that season, and the boards got rebranded during that season... the first two carried the Aggression label, the last one had Volant written on its lovely steel top ****, er, I mean, top sheet). The first board lasted 4 days (forgot how I broke it), second one lasted 3 days (delammed when I landed a jump with a little extra weight on the tail), last one delammed from edge to edge in front of the front binding while I was going UP the side of the halfpipe at Blackcomb.

Every time I called in to ask about a warranty replacement I was told, "gee I've *never* heard of that happening with one of our boards." Which was almost comical the third time around.

While waiting for the 4th board, I bought a Sims Search 171 (great freeride board) which lasted about 3 seasons... it still has good camber and flex, but the base is all beat up and there's very little edge left. That one lived to a ripe old age and was honorably discharged.

I've only delaminated one board (out of 3) since those Volants. That one was, by the manufacturer's own admission, from a bad production run. The response wasn't "gee, I've never heard of that..." instead it was "sorry about that, we know exactly what went wrong, it's our fault, and we'll have a new board out to you ASAP." And indeed it was replaced with a board that has held up just fine.

So why did all my Volants blow up? Because Volant sucks. More specifically, I think, they were laminating with a really, really bad epoxy, that just didn't stick very well. I had a heck of a time removing the bindings from one of those boards because the inserts just spun.

I heard Volant went out of business shortly thereafter. Now they're back. Hopefully they found some good epoxy. Far as I'm concerned those fxxkers still owe me a board that doesn't suck.

(Me, bitter? Why do you ask?) :)

I had one of the early Aggressions, from before the Volant buyout, Tarquin 165, or something like that, in about 1992. GREAT board.

(I post this rant every year or two. My apologies to those of you who have read it before.)

[Jack M]

Originally posted by Bordy

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.

Have you had boards fail in a controlled, non-chattering, non-bouncing turn? If so, why do you think it happens?

Nice Madd review by the way.

Nate - Volant is back? Got a link? Couldn't find anything on Google.

[outsider]

i broke a hot blast (core and all) from edge to edge behing my back binding when i was post running a boardercross course and landed a jump with too much weight on the tail.

[Guest johann]

Jack:Have you had boards fail in a controlled, non-chattering, non-bouncing turn? If so, why do you think it happens?

A friend of mine blew apart is brand new, out of the plastic rossi, on one of the first runs he had on it, at whiteface on lower borine.

borine is a tame green trail at the 'face, from what i've heard he was in a toe side, and the board snapped in half. he ended up with a concussion.

he was wearing a helmut.

[Bordy]

Yea, some times gear just blows up. Maybe the tree the core was made from had some damage or perhaps the glue was not mixed or set well? Most of the time stuff breaks, I try to do a little CSI work and discover the reason. Some times I am just unable to pin point the problem. I really try to stay away from stock race decks since they seem to fail more then Race stock gear. On Weds. of last week I was in this big long Heel side on Thorndikes old Practice board ( which has for sure seen some action) when my back binding(Catek) ripped out of the inserts ruining the middle insert pack, and sending me to Fin to find replacement screws. Which he tottaly hooked me up with! Mucho thanks to Fin!!!

P.S. Glad you liked the madd review!

[CarvCanada]

What the ***** *** **** ** *** **** do you do if you're in a low fast carve and a binding rips out or your bail disengages!!??

Do you ride the carve out by putting pressure on the board with your big boot/binding with screws sticking out club that you have at the end of your legs?

I've never had the pleasure of experiencing that luckily, and I'll always make sure my stuff is in right order.

[Neil Gendzwill]

Hope the orthopedic surgeon has an opening in his schedule?

[Jack M]

sit down or lay down and pray the board doesn't spin.

[Guest johann]

what to do when one foot is attached to the board?

I had a scary moment on a super cold day. either my bomber bails had deformed slightly in the few years that i've had them or my boots had been worn some at the toe and heel, either way, it made for a bail release under pressure in a high speed heel side carve. fortunatly it was on a huge face where two trails merged, and i was the only one on the hill. I felt somethign weird happend looked down and saw a toe bale free. i just rode out the carve and layed myself in the snow.

[NateW]

First board: K2 Hypercarve 152, foam core just broke down. I was buying new parts for the (soft) Sims bindings on a regular basis the whole time I owned that setup (2-3 years).

Second board: Agression Tarquin 165, cracked near the nose because I was having lots of fun doing 'nose rolls' where you ride forward at moderate speed, throw your weight up and forward, point the nose downward (into the snow), and pivot 180 on the shovel, and try to ride backwards on the shovel as long as possible. It still rode passably, but that one spot near the edge in front of my toes wasn't flexing properly. I ruined the highbacks of the Emery soft bindings I was usin, and had tons of trouble with the strap buckles coming undone at random.

Division 23 something-or-other, Burton hard boot bindings.... Had it for one season, bent the crap out of the bindings, had release issues, threw them away and sold the board to a friend for cheap.

Nitro Diablo 178, Nitro plate bindings... broke various binding parts, bought extras for spare parts, had some release issues but not much, breakage was the real problem (I guess that's a form of release, eh?). Broke the board under the back binding, probably from using the tail to cushion my landings. There's a ledge in the base where it broke, so that one is unrideable.

Then the Volant saga. Those failures were all catastrophic - delammed, cracked from edge to edge with the flex pattern of a door hinge. Still riding Nitro bindings at that point.

Then the Sims Search 171. It held up well.

CustomCraft 170, delammed on the first day, and the unsupported core cracked. CC totally owned up to it, sent a replacement which I am still using (good people, I'd do business with them again (but they're freeride-oriented and I'm sold on skinny boards now)) Started riding TD1s at that point, and had lots of issues with release. No breakage, but they kept popping open when I landed jumps.

Tried Catek WCs, had release. Welded little metal tabs in to hold the heel into the bail better, that'd didn't solve the problem.

Coiler 174 custom, TD1 SIs. Happiness at last!!! Got about 3 seasons on it. That board has no camber left, and the middle is sort of bloated vertically. Not really sure why. I'm looking forward to riding it some more this season anyhow, I didn't notice any degradation in performance while I was riding it last season. There probably was some, but it's still a fun board.

Am expecting two new boards this season. Will do some nose rolls on the old Coiler and see how long it holds up. :)

[D-Sub]

not a break but i had a front foot toe bail release on takeoff on a cat track jump once. Kinda a weird feeling to launch, then hear/feel CLICK, and look down and your front foot is out of the binding.

I managed to land with my front foot on the stomp pad. I ate **** pretty hard but came out only shaken. got lucky

damn burtons;)

[Jack M]

Bordy - would you ever attribute it to technique? Driving the nose to hard? Sitting on the tail?

Johann - boots can shrink in really cold temps leading to loose bindings. I believe some boot makers now use plastics that resist this, I know the last Burton Fire did, but it wasn't a complete fix.

[Bordy]

Driving the nose hard or too hard or sitting on the tail are all part of free riding should the board hold up under these conditions…Yes! Its just a shame that boards break while being ridden regardless of where the pressure is applied gear should stand up under the rider. Race gear is pressured through its whole flex pattern and is driven hard or to hard all day long. If the rider makes a error the gear should still hold up. I was loving my heel sides until my binding ripped out I felt very balanced and smooth. I did feel very powerful also! A friend who watched it happen said every thing looked fine and then I went down. The kids on the chair sure where screaming when I just "blew up".

The worst part was I had to hike up the hill later to get my black rubber ring so I could still use my bindings on other boards.

[Guest AlpentalRider]

I've had three prereleases with bindings all on the rear foot. One was going off a 4 foot jump. Luckily my softboot freeriding experiance kicked in and I pulled a grab and landed it. My friend couldn't beleive I didn't bite it hard core.

The other two where at Timberline this summer and they were entirely my fault. I had just got my Sazukas and didn't adjust my bindings properly, so twice in a row on high speed toe side carves, my rear foot slipped out of the binding.

The first time it scared the living crap out of me, but I got real lucky and just slid to a stop. Funny thing was it took forever to come to a stop because it was early in the morning and the slopes were boilerplate.

I didn't catch on real quick, so I went up for another run, and sure enough it happened again on a toeside turn, and again I was able to slide it out without tumbling or injury.

But after that second time I immediately made a b-line for a maintenance worker and borrowed his screwdriver lol.

I don't even want to imagine what would have happened to me had the prerelease occured in mid-transition

[Neil Gendzwill]

I've had some prereleases but they're usually my fault - snow under the binding and such. Sometimes in that case the toe lever isn't quite flipped enough, and if I'm in deeper snow it can get opened up just by the action of a toeside turn. It's one of the reasons I like the step-ins now - if I don't quite get the boot in, I know it right away, not 3 turns into the chute.

[k_t]

Originally posted by 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.

Yeah, that was a bummer, however riding the thing really hard in crud with small bumps was not reeally what the thing was designed to do. Later the other person that saw the crash thought that the cart wheels at the end of the wreck may have been what caused the thing to break anyway. Like I said "unless you abuse the thing". It always seems easy to blame the board or the builder rather than admit that maybe you just plain f--ked up. Heck I'm not ashamed to say that maybe I made a bad decision. In fact the other part of the discussion we had was me admitting that I should have retired the thing for the day several runs ago.

On another note, you been to Utah yet? or like the rest of us here are you too damn busy.

[Mike T]

... but I've broken a couple pairs of Raichle boots. The latest is a pair of 325's with only about 30 days on them. The lower piece of the shell split open right where the upper piece of the shell is joined to it w/ the cant mechanism. I can easily pop the cant mechanism out with my hands, not gonna mess with it on the slopes, already sprained one ankle this year :(