Learning How To Carve In Hardboots With PureBoarding: A Beginner's Perspective

[ken]

Hello,

I live in NYC and have been riding for the last 9 years in my softboots. I never once had the desire or inclination to “Hit The Park” and I always loved cruising the wide blue runs. Unfortunately, last January I hit a plateau because I was no longer having fun just cruising down the blues. It became routine and boring..I needed something more...I just didn't know what it was.

I guess like many people, I started watching videos on Youtube and saw these guys doing “Extreme Carving” with their bodies laying on the snow while doing these beautiful carves. Yea, that's the ticket! If I can only learn how to do that.

OK, I have a mission. Now comes the hard part, finding information on how to actually do this. After scouring the web and coming upon Bomberonline, I read every single article, post and watched every single video. I switched the bindings on my board for alpine riding and set off down the slope trying to figure this thing out for myself. After all, I snowboard, surf and wake-board...how hard can it be??? hahaha

Self Realization Points:

1. This is Friggin harder than it looks!
   
2. No matter how many “How To” articles I read, it ain’t helping.
   
3. Being on the bunny slope with all the 5-6 yr old kids flying past me while my friends are on the blues and blacks isn't exactly boosting my ego and confidence.
   
4. Wow, I really suck at this! Time for some professional one on one help.

Enter PureBoarding

During my surfing the web for instruction, I came a cross the Pureboarding website which listed their “Learn To Carve Camps” in Europe. They were offering a snowboard carving school in Kaunertal, Austria May 5-9 2010. The camp would include lift tickets, equipment, food, lodging and full day instruction for 3 days for a very reasonable price.

After doing some research on Bomber, I emailed Joerg Egli (The head of Pureboarding) asking him about his carving school. I had 50 questions for Joerg about the trip, which he answered all of very thoroughly. He finally said, just relax and come...you're going to love it! I booked my trip and Joerg set up everything for when I arrived in Austria.

After meeting the Pureboarding crew Thursday night and getting some off-slope instruction from Joerg and the others (about 25 people of all ages), we head up to the glacier Friday morning to carve.

I was very nervous and anxious the first day. All of my previous attempts to carve failed miserably and snowboarding in hardboots for the first time didn't add to my comfort level. However, Joerg has a very chill attitude and told me to just relax, “Surf The Snow” and most of all, have fun!

After following me down the slope to evaluate my carving (or lack thereof) Joerg started with his one to one instruction. We spent the entire day going up, coming down and learning to carve.

Joerg has a very observant eye and is an excellent instructor. He is very good at determining an individual's physical limit and pushes one gently to that limit. He is very serious about carving and does not accept mediocrity, it needs to be done the right way! On the other hand, knowing where a persons limit is, he does not try to push you out of your personal comfort zone. He truly has perfected the balance of pushing to the limit and knowing when to back off.

Joerg has an Extreme amount of Stoke and Passion for the sport of carving and is more than willing to share his knowledge and experience with anyone who is eager to learn. All he asks is that you bring a willingness to learn and good vibes. For the reason of carving is about learning and having fun with good friends.

After spending 3 days with Joerg and the crew, I finally have a bit of confidence in my ability to learn how to carve. Don't get me wrong...I still have a long, long way to go. The big difference now is that I do have that little bit of confidence and I found another level of enjoyment to snowboarding, it's become fun again!

Do I still suck at carving? You Betcha! However, I'm smiling again and having lots of fun on the slopes. For me, that's what it's all about!

The reason for my writing this is to hopefully give some new carvers out there a possible starting point to learn to carve in hardboots. Let's face it, it's almost impossible for a beginner to get the equipment and instruction to learn and Pureboarding's Camps are definitely one way to go about doing this.

Pureboarding.com offers their Carving Schools in Europe, Aspen, CO and Berkshire East, MA. I Highly suggest that if someone has an interest in learning how to carve, you will not go wrong if you attend one of their camps. I did and it was the best trip I ever had!

Ken

For those of you not familiar with their carving style here's a link to a video

http://www.pureboarding.com/index.php?id=the-eagle-has-landed&L=1

[tpalka]

Glad you went and hard a great time -- Joerg is the best! I love riding with him and his crew...

[jp1]

ken, Excellent write up !

I can (as probably all newbs) relate to exactly your situation (specifically 1-4). It's amazing what we can learn from others on the hill no matter what style anyone prefers.

Keep :) :) :) Smiling

[WASMAN]

As Joerg would say, it's eaaaaaaaaaaaasy........

[queequeg]

Great Story!!! Thanks for posting!

[Loc]

Camps are fun and I learned a lot at the one I attended two years ago. If only Pureboarding would come to California...

[Hans]

Those camps are not only suitable for beginners! but for advanced riders as well.

[Steve Prokopiw]

Joerg is super cool.His great attitude is his best teaching tool.Joerg,if you read this,I hope we get to take a few runs at SES.

[Michelle]

Ken, what a great story. Joerg is a great guy, and I'm glad he got you going and smiling!

Now come out to the SES and show us your stuff!

www.bomberonline.com/ses

[ken]

Yes, Joerg is a great guy!

Also, everyone who attended the trip was uber cool and welcoming to me. That not only included Joerg and the Pureboarding Crew, but also the guys from Carversparadise.com and every individual there. All of them made for a very fun trip!

For most of them their native language is German, however when I was around every single person went out of their way to speak in English for my benefit. That to me is quite impressive!

Unfortunately, I won't be able to attend the SES this year. However, I might be in Aspen for PureBoarding's March-April trip.