Flywalker Posted October 30, 2010 Report Share Posted October 30, 2010 Yeah... l know... it's not a powder board. l am shopping for new gear and there is SOOO much powder where l live that it's hard to find hard packed runs. However, l am coming off an old Sims CON 166 and rode that in the pow since it was the only board l owned. Seemed OK to me.... but l have nothing to compare it to. ls this a BAD idea? Since joining this forum my situation has changed and l am in the market again for a snoweapon. My brain has been scrambled with the options available to me now. LOVE to carve.... but... l love going everywhere, too. l'm kitting out the wife this year and coming home to Calgary for the winter holidays so buying myself two boards is out of the question. lf any of you Calgary carvers are around between Dec. 22nd and Jan. 5th it would be cool to make some turns with you before we go to Vancouver for a week (^_^) Gotta try to get my boards legs under me by the time l meet BlueB and Mr. Scooby! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack M Posted October 30, 2010 Report Share Posted October 30, 2010 My Coiler Stubby 171 is 21cm wide and it's great in soft snow. I had a blast on it after an 18" storm. In untracked powder it will submarine if you don't stay well back, but in anything tracked or cut up it works surprisingly well. However in a place like yours where you get lots of powder, you'd probably be better served by the Prior 4WD or Donek Axxess or Coiler All-Mtn. They have bigger noses for powder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carvingbassist Posted October 30, 2010 Report Share Posted October 30, 2010 well said jack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pokkis Posted October 30, 2010 Report Share Posted October 30, 2010 I've been in past quite a lot on soft stuff with 21 and 23 wide WCR's. They work quite nicely there, better than i expected originally. Not as well as my SwellPanik naturally but they were easiest rideable carving gear on soft i've been before that time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flywalker Posted October 30, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 30, 2010 Thanks for your comments guys! l have had my eye on a 4WD for years but after having a few email chats with BlueB and Chris Clark over at Prior l am beginning to wonder what would be the best way to go. Like l was saying before, there is just so much snow here that REALLY hard-packed days are few and far between. There is plenty of machine-groomed fresh stuff... and boatloads of untracked in the trees and between the groomed courses. DEEP too... like "where's my scuba gear" deep! Of course chopped up and tracked out pow is in abundance too if you aren't up early. I rode my old CON in snow like that and it was capable provided l kept the pace up an the weight back. Mind you, it was 27/21/26 so pretty fat up front. Are metal boards more prone to bending if coming into hard contact with a mogul? ls it a bad choice to consider one as an all mountain board? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueB Posted October 30, 2010 Report Share Posted October 30, 2010 Hey FW! I was hoping that Dave* would comment here, but he's not on Bomber too often nowadays... He's our best tree rider, here. I believe that his WCRMw (superwide - 23 waist) is his favorite all-round board, besides a custom stiffened ATV (he's a big fella). When it's really deep and fluffy you'll find him on an F2 Eliminator Wide or Option Nortshore (basically a better Fish). He's got few 4WDs but didn't ride them much since acquiring the ATV and Couple of metal WCRs... These are just my observations - you could email Dave* through Bomber and find out first hand. My 4WD never had enough float for my taste. It doesn't have the nose rocker (mind you, maybe it does on latest ones) of modern metal boards. My Kessler BX 168n has infinitelly more float then 4WD 174 I used to have. It has only 7mm more waist then 4WD and it's shorter. Yes, metal boards can get bent. However, they ride so much better, that I'm willing to take the chance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philw Posted October 30, 2010 Report Share Posted October 30, 2010 Short answer: no. Wider boards will probably be better, although you'll possibly want to adjust your stance as a narrow stance on a wide board on piste can be tricky. If you're riding 4" then you're mostly riding on the skier-pisted stuff beneath. For real back-country powder and trees, it's certainly possible, but I think you'd be better borrowing or buying a powder board. Tail design is more important than nose design. In my experience nose rocker (or rocker elsewhere) doesn't make a lot of difference... Taper, enough width to be laterally easy to balance on, and the precisely correct amount of tail flex are what you want. Race boards don't even come close on the tail... they feel like having a huge barge behind you - you can slash, but you can't control your speed using the tail which is mostly what you want in tight trees (people with large swallowtails seem to have the same issues). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Gendzwill Posted October 30, 2010 Report Share Posted October 30, 2010 The all-mountain styles, both the 4WD and the Coiler AM that I've owned, carve very well but also work nicely in the soft and the bumps. They are my choice for Western Canada which is not as much pow as you experience. I don't have much experience with real deep pow but for resort pow, like knee-deep, the all-mountain style works fine. It's a compromise design. If you don't see much groom at all I would consider the ATV. I would even be thinking about a Tanker or something like that. My understanding of the FLC, not having ridden one, is that it's a board targeted towards groomers so it seems to me like the wrong choice for your conditions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flywalker Posted October 30, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 30, 2010 What about asking Mr. Prior to throw a layer of metal into a 4WD....? Defeating the purpose? Whatever l get it will be the only board l own for a while. lt has to go everywhere... including the odd mogul run. l'd hate to bend it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack M Posted October 30, 2010 Report Share Posted October 30, 2010 What about asking Mr. Prior to throw a layer of metal into a 4WD....? Defeating the purpose? Whatever l get it will be the only board l own for a while. lt has to go everywhere... including the odd mogul run. l'd hate to bend it As long as you're talking custom, I am of the strong opinion that ALL the stock all-mtn carvers (4WD, Axxess, AM) are woefully short in the sidecut department. 10m on a 174?? I would put 14m on that rig. Better for carving AND not carving. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flywalker Posted October 31, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 31, 2010 How about extending the nose of a FLC or WCR to make it more powder friendly? Or.... moving away from Prior altogether. Yes, there is a lot of snow here. However, there are groomers and they would become fun again if l was not on skis. We(wife & l) totally avoid them at the moment because they are boring when skiing. We are both using slightly long all mountain skis(Rossi B2 158cm/Volkl AC4 177cm) for our body sizes and have had huge grins on our faces since buying them 3 years ago. The wife seems destined to be on an Oxygen Proton 148. She's only little at 47kgs and 151cm. 95% of my riding experience has been on detuned racers(Nidecker Concept 163/Sims CON 166) so l have no idea what the world of "all mountain" is like. However, after coming off 200cm skinny slalom skis and moving to all mountain skis l don't feel like l have done myself a huge disservice by owning one pair of skis for everything. They aren't the big fatties which would rock in the pow, nor are they they razors of todays carving ski... but they are definitely very good at carving and still fun in pow. There must be one board out there that can do the same thing....? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leeho730 Posted October 31, 2010 Report Share Posted October 31, 2010 You might be interested in Virus UFC, I ordered 163 a few days ago... If you're interested, read John Gilmour's review in gear review section; sounds like really fun all mountain metal carving board which is really good in powder but has got tons of edge grip. I've heard Coiler AM's quite good too... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crucible Posted November 1, 2010 Report Share Posted November 1, 2010 I have a Coiler AM 172 and a Prior 166 FWD, and I bought a Prior 167 ATV last year to use as a deep powder carving board. The difference is that I feel that the ATV is more of a powder free riding board that can carve well, while the first two boards are carving boards that you can take into powder.... YMMV. Geo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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