Carving story - the online interview

[Guest The Snowboard Journalist]

We're putting some final touches on a carving piece for our next issue and wanted to go straight to the hardcores for some text. If you're game, we're going to fire some questions to see what we get. No promises on what ends up in the story, but I trust you be able to illustrate the passion that'll make it'll be a great piece.

Q#1: WHY CARVE?

[Fleaman]

I love snowboarding but don't like riding the terrain park or hucking cliffs. I just like laying out turns at will. My favorite is taking my 188 Coiler PR and riding it 'till it's done turning by itself and switching edges and doing it all over again making huge radius turns using the width of the run.

I sometimes crave carving and cannot wait to get to the mountain. It is a great feeling when you are riding down and pulling sweet turns like no tommorow, then riding the chair and checking out your line. Do this a few times and you will always see some softbooters or skiers trying to mimic your carving by dragging their hands in the snow trying to get as low as possible.

I also love riding powder and trees too, but all roads lead to corduroy. So if you can ride the rough areas on plates and enjoy it, you can have a blast all over in the trees, steeps, bowls, groomed runs, not just in the halfpipe or the terrain park.

Oh ya, I forgot. Chicks Dig It!

[Hagen]

I saw some really good carvers last time I went snowboarding in Austria Soelden a couple years back. Compared to all the other snowboarding I did/saw back then it looked so much better and more fun!

So I bought a board, bindings and hard boots. I tried it out and was hooked...

[Slow Eddie]

Why carve, huh? Well, I guess for me, carving is the ultimate distillation of the snowsports experience. I fell in love with skiing because of the speed, fluidity, and the pride that comes with mastering new skills and taking my ability to the next level. When snowboarding came onto "the scene", it was a whole new way to discover the passion of learning and mastering something new. I guess that can be said by enthusiasts of any sport. What separates carving from the rest is the purity of the motion. One edge, one purpose - your line is not defined by gates or handrails, but by an inner sense of being connected with the hill. Toying with gravity, letting it caress you and slingshot you through your arcs, with evrything literally riding on a meter and a half of carbon steel. To ride the chair over a run you just took and to be able to see your trenches, where you instantaneously transitioned from one edge to the other, how you played with the knolls and lift towers on your way down - it's like leaving your signature all over the hill.

Sure, you can get caught up in sidecut radii, boot-out and where you put your hands while you ride, but at the end of the day what matters most is how big the grin on your face is. And, by far, the happiest people on the hill are ALWAYS the hardbooters. Just ask any one of them.

Eddie Plantilla

[tilledog]

The reason I ride an Alpine Snowboard setup is simple. I love to turn.... Hard! There was a time for me that my abilities to turn had exceeded maximum output of a softboot setup. I turned to Hardboots, plate bindings and an Alpine snowboard to maximize my carving expierence. There's nothing like a clean and powerful turn on the hardpack.

I've introduced many softbooters, who love to turn and not necessarily ride in the park, to the Alpine discipline. It has really rounded out there riding ablilities.

I still ride the pow but for those droughts that are inevitible during a winter season, there is nothing more precise on a groomer than hardboots.

Dave

[Guest The Snowboard Journalist]

Thanks everyone for responding. This is great, keep it coming.

Q#2: DO YOU FEEL LIMITED BY YOUR EQUIPMENT OR STANCE?

[Guest tigger]

yes, sometimes my foggy goggle limits my vision.:D

[Guest The Snowboard Journalist]

Q#3: WHAT COULD SKI AREAS DO TO MAKE THE CARVING EXPERIENCE BETTER?

[LeeW]

question 1:

that's like asking a motorcycle road racer, Loris Caprirossi:

Why race to 200 mph?

question 2:

Yes, there are days I feel limited. Not a very good idea to get 'em in a halfpipe, tho ive seen insane alpinist boarder ride the pipe, i.e. Damien Sanders.

question 3:

there was an article covered in S.A.M. (Ski Area Management) with a propostition with a dedicated carving park, as in versus terrain park. i.e. consistent grooming, and some sort of qualification to be able to ride in the carving park. Ive yet to see it happening in a while. However, from a Ski Resort perspective, I'd bet you my right nut they'd agree with the cost of maintenance of carving park would be far lower cost than terrain park.

[Fleaman]

Q#2: DO YOU FEEL LIMITED BY YOUR EQUIPMENT OR STANCE?

The only thing I am limited by my stance is riding switch. It can be done, but it's uncomfortable and slightly dangerous (not being able to see where you are going.) Some of the longer race boards don't handle all that well in powder and bumps, but I only ride mine on groomed runs and use my all mountain setup for the rest of the days. It is actually better because you are matching the board to the conditions and it helps improve your experience.

Originally posted by The Snowboard Journalist

Q#3: WHAT COULD SKI AREAS DO TO MAKE THE CARVING EXPERIENCE BETTER?

I think ski areas should promote carving by offering lessons on a freecarve board and plates, kinda like they did when shaped skiis became the norm. Lately, you have to beg and plead for the snow school to give you a lesson on plate board, not to mention paying through the nose for a private lesson.

They could also stock a few lengths of boards and boots in the rental shop.

The only thing holding back the masses from picking up the sport is the lack of exposure and stock in snowboard shops. I would be willing to bet that the majority of alpine equipment nowdays is bought online.

[D-Sub]

do we really want "the masses" on 180cm rockets? Im not so sure

I like carving because it is the most controlled, precise derivation of snowboarding possible. I often picture it like flying a jet fighter...ever little twitch is instanly transmitted to your equipment.

what could resorts do? dunno...I dont expect them to do much, except some places could REALLY improve their grooming!

[CarvCanada]

Are we limited by out equipment and stance?

Of course, we're limited to carving on groomers on an alpine board. That's why we have several boards! It's all about going out and getting awesome riding in, and conditions always vary. It's not uncommon for a carver to have more than 3 go-to set-ups, ripping lines on steep, wide groomers on a bluebird day, then on a storm day, taking a stiff freeride set-up into the trees. The next day, it's time to bring out the big gun.

Let's look at it the other way: by riding exclusively one little noodle of a board with duck stance, you're limited to freestyle, and a mediocre riding experience everywhere else. Also, with freestyle, the thrill is limited to seconds at a time. Of course, relaxing between lines is part of freestyle, but with carving, the thrill lasts as long as your legs can.

Having experienced all the disciplines of snowboarding, I can say that nothing beats the sensation of pulling G's in a massive, low, ripping heelside with your chin 4 inches from the ground, tucking your rear knee in to tilt the board even higher while releasing your angulation, then having that awesome SNAP off a violent transition, catching some air and landing in a compact toeside, ready to rip off across the fall line with just enough time to plan the next launch off a roller in the distance.

Everyone notices an awesome carver on the hill, it is un-avoideable. From kids with their parents to experienced riders, the awe is always present, and it's pretty cool to see every single pair of eyes on the chairlift locked onto your turns.

No real snowboarder limits himself/herself to one single aspect of snowboarding, and I should hope that in the future, the mainstream will drop this heavy "shred it hard" empty image and start getting stoked off what riding is really all about, and that requires different tools for different types of riding. Carving boards themselves vary greatly in terms of length, shape, stiffness and flex patterns for the huge number of styles of carving out there, much more so than the variation between freestyle decks.

Aggressive carving isn't only for alpine snowboarders with hardboots and steep stance angles, sure a longer, stiffer deck with a forward stance helps, but I should hope that the next generation of snowboarders puts some diversity in their riding and lays down aggressive, smooth turns as well as stomping huge tricks in the park. Maybe it'll help'em to stop sliding in the pow as well! No sliding! Only fast, low carving!

-----

too bad we don't have a sweet video ready on the internet showcasing this style that most of us love, except maybe this low quality 7 second bit archived on stoked.at (the clip "speedy")

It would be cool to link readers to the extremecarving video, specifically Opus 3: Stoked. While carve-porn is beautiful, nothing quite awes like a video of an awesome rider. Freestylers tend to take a look at the picture, think for a while, and either say "Is he falling", "Where did the tail of his board go", or scratch their head a bit, and then "That's sick!" but still a bit confused...

[alpinegirl]

1. it's fun.

2. no. well, it is a little bit harder to run "all out" in the boots, but i do try to avoid doing that. i am more comfortable in varying conditions (doing various things) riding in hardboots than i am in softboots. and no, i am not a former skier.

3. i would love it if my area actually bothered to do a decent job grooming. that'd be nice. especially in light of the fact that they spend so much freakin time grooming the terrain park

[RCrobar]

Hey

Q#1: WHY CARVE?

Hardboot carving is the perfect marriage of power and flow ... in any snow conditions.

Q#2: DO YOU FEEL LIMITED BY YOUR EQUIPMENT OR STANCE?

Very interesting and telling question!

Let me answer your question with a question. Do softbooters feel limited by their equipment or stance angles? All soft boot set ups are the same ...right? To the untrained eye there is no difference between a park board/boots or all mountain board/boots, they are all the same ... right?

Same holds true for hardboots and boards, to the untrained eye plastic boots and a square tailed boards are all the same ... right? If you want to see the feathers fly on this forum post the following: The best and only stance angles should be **F and **R, the best sidecut radius is **M, the best and only waist width must be **cm. This is an IMPOSSIBLE topic to agree upon in the hardboot community. From very high stance angles and narrow waist widths of Madd advocates to the low stance angles and wide waist widths of Swoard advocates and everything in between, we are all hardbooters who love to carve!

Hardboot riders use a quiver of boots (soft hardboots + hard hardboots) boards and a wide range of stance angles, depending on the conditions and the mountain being ridden. So to answer your question, NO, we do not feel limited by our equipment or stance.

PSR posted this info about stance angles, I think it illustrates this point nicely.

Binding angles are put into four classes in my quiver;

Softboot Freestyle [12* to 18* F - 3* to 6* R] ;

Softboot Freeride/Carve/BX [24* to 36* F - 12* to 24* R] ;

Hardboot Freeride/BX/Freecarve [39* to 48* F - 33* to 42* R] ;

Hardboot 'Skinny boards' Freecarve/Race/SkierEgo Deflation [ 51* to 66* F - 42* to 60* R] :

A little side note ... If a hardboot carver was forced to pick only one board to ride everywhere all the time, a large number would choose an Allmountain carver because of it's versatility in all conditions.

ie - Donek Axis, Coiler Allmountain, Prior 4WD

Question #2 illustrates the stereotypes, misconceptions and a lack of understanding towards hardboots and carving. I'm glad you have showed up, we are counting on you to educate the masses for us!

I can't wait to read your article and see the pics.

Thanks

Rob

[FTA2R]

1. It's fun and much more challenging than a soft setup.

2. It's intense, the next level.

3. I consider riding down the hill the primary objective of snowboarding, as opposed to riding rails, hitting jumps the average rider is not qualified to attempt, and spending the whole day in the park.

4. I have found that I have little in common with the whole freestyle scene (even though I'm still in my 20s)

6. I've always done sh*t differently and I admit I generally enjoy the attention. FS is for the masses.

7. Speed is sorta addictive once you got it under control.

8. Definite comraderie in the BOL/hardbooter brotherhood- sort of cool. (although one may never know it from some of the message board "debates")

yes, I feel limited everytime I put the boots on (I'm not going to get air on my setup), but I don't care really. I can ride my soft setup if I want to hit jumps.

[CarvCanada]

Hehe, I forgot one equipment limitation: After I take off my board at the end of the day, I know I look like an idiot walking back to the lodge! Snowboard hardboots are even harder to walk in than ski boots, they have much more aggressive forward lean, and on top of that, our rear boots are set at quite a bit more forward lean than our front boots, so we walk like idiots back to the lodge. Someone once asked me, "are you alright" I was walking with such a limp! Ghetto stride aside, the equipment is extremely comfortable.

[Guest rowanpg]

Q1 Why Carve?

A1 Having skied for 15 years and mastered the local 660foot bump of a ski hill, Carving allow me to experience a rush while pulling out turns with enough G force to remind you what you had for breakfast. Skiing and softbooting just dont do that on a typical day of corduroy. I do however ride a soft setup also for the rare power days (ironically we had 2 this week).

A2 When a softbooter comes up and insists that we "race" i indulge and proceed to lay trench all the way down and the rubberneck points straight and goes.. we meet at the same time at the bottom, but I end up covering twice as much gound.. so i have concluded that hardbooting is also a question of economics, more ground covered per run = greater lift ticket value

As far as what the ski hills can do for HB, NOTHING

remember the 80s? I dont want to be segregrated

My solution is ride midweek mornings.

Growth in the sport.. Well if the lack of common sense that is so plentiful in the masses on soft setups were to convert the result would be disasterous, A full on carving rig is a weapon in the wrong hands.. as much as possible i "wait" for an opening before launching down a trail so I can minimize the pylon effect.

Nuff said.. Hardbooting remains a solid 1% of the SB market lets keep it that way.. I dont mind buying online from a select few vendors (bomber you know who you are, and yyzcanuck)

[C-Carves]

My answers follow. While I've only been officially riding on carving gear for 2 years, I can still remember the day I first saw a carver. It took me a while to get a board, but once I did, I knew why I got a rush watching that guy ripping turns.

Q1: Why Carve:

Carving feels like you've harnessed raw energy and learned to fly with it. When you drop smoothly into a deep carve and you're firing effortlessly through a sweet turn, it reminds you of every sweet spot you've found on any baseball, or any perfectly executed tackle. For a moment, the world drops away and its just you and the carve. Then, you get to do it over and over.

Q2: Feel Limited?

Once you feel the crave for the carve, you quickly begin to search for the best carve. I've never felt limited in my hardboots because I can easily cruise the mountain, but I can also drop into a rail thin turn in a hearbeat. I admit I'm not one for the half pipes, so I don't miss that aspect at all.

Q3: Can resorts make it better for carving?

Yes, Definitely.

First - provide gear and instructors so that people can get started easily. Carving requires rethinking the typical snowboarding experience from: "being able to slide down and have fun" to "being able to use the board to ride gravity with grace and have a ball."

Second - Help raise awareness about carving - both snowboarding and skiing carving. As both groups of carvers make more sweet turns, there will be more across-the-mountain traffic.

Third - Possibly dedicate (at least during some morning hours of the day) certain runs as carving friendly. Grooming runs near the lifts and attracting carvers to it will certainly raise awareness as riders of the lift will certainly see our runs.

Thanks for this post. I can't wait to read the article!

-C

[Hagen]

Q2:

Every time I'm starting to feel limited by my equipment I see someone else ripping it up on the same equipment...

But that helps - makes me try harder and get better.

Q3:

Better grooming, less terrain parks... ...I guess.

Hagen.

[Gecko]

1) as LeeW said the comparison to motorcycling is similar...I love railing corners on two wheels and I really love railing turns on snow...the feeling is so much beter than skidding. I think of Apline boards as akin to a race rep motorcycle and a freestyle board as more like a motocross motorcycle

2) I don't really feel limited by my equipment/stance but then there isn't much other than the terrain park/pipe that I can't ride and those areas I have neither the interest nor the time for...I really just like running the mountain from top to bottom

3) If a resort were to groom a steep trail 2-3 times a day instead of letting it mogul up...something like Angel Street at Loon for instance with nice corduroy all day

[Neil Gendzwill]

1. Why carve?

Others have answered eloquently. I'm going to answer a related question - why hard boots?

I come from both a skiing and skateboarding background. Skating is what got me interested in snowboarding, but years of skiing are what give me my goals - to ride the whole mountain with style and speed. I'd like to be able to make any turn shape at any speed anywhere - that defines the truly expert skier and it's my goal as a rider. Hardboots make that possible. As the snowboarding population gets older and the boards get better, we're seeing more and more softbooters opt for stiff soft boots and stiff bindings, so that they can have the control to do what I already can do in hardboots. What is a pair of Malamutes strapped into Nidecker 900s but a watered down hardboot setup?

2. Do you feel limited?

As others have said, it's not the ideal equipment for the park or riding switch. Other than that, I don't feel limited at all. I take my all-mountain board with 45-ish angles everywhere - steeps, bumps, trees. Carving hard on the groom is just a bonus to me - I'd rather be in the fluff or the bumps most days.

3. Can resorts make it better for carving?

I think resorts already have enough groomers for my taste. I think the way they could improve them is to mark and patrol some of them as intended for high-speed carving. The terrain park exists to go big - let's make some of the steep groomers safe to go fast by marking them clearly, closing off side access and harassing people not for going fast, but for going too slowly or for clearly being outside their limits on a trail intended for experts.

[Chris Houghton]

As said by other members many times over

Why carve? To skid is human, to carve divine. That goes for skiis and softboot rigs as well as hardboot. To use equipment for it's intended purpose, that is the sign of a good rider. No board or ski was ever designed to sideslip or tailwag down the hill (OK, OK, Forum boards maybe)

The other carve revelation is the technique of falling and then at the last minute saving yourself by putting the board between you and the hill. Carvers will know what I mean. Think of a slow run across the fall line on a steep face, and then engaging the downhill edge and just ripping off the turn - that's falling with control!

[philw]

;-)

1) I don't understand the question. It's a bit like asking an expert skier why they don't snowplough. I do it because that's how snowboards work. If I wanted to do aerial ballet I'd get some skis and do it right.

2) Only when I'm forced to hire soft gear, at which point both the stance and the equipment is severly limiting. Granted I'm not interested in jibbing or boy bands.

3) As someone said... there are plenty of "slow speed" areas, I'd like a few "high speed" areas. I'd like to see designated experts-only areas (bumps & steeps) where you'd be able to let rip without having to slalom around the sideslippers.

[AMWOOD]

1. It is the pinacle (sp?) of the style of riding we all enjoy. Kinda like powder would be for freestyle/freeride. JMHO.

PURE sums it up in one word.

2. Olny when riding Snow Sunmmit/Bear Mt. on a holliday weekend.

3. Like terrain parks, maybe have a carve specific area thats periodicly groomed thru out the day, kinda like a zambonie putting a new sheet of ice down once its all chewed up.

[skywalker]

Hi,

Q#1: Of course I could answer this by my personal history, with the pictures in my mind of the first carving snowboarders I saw. At this time I had no Idea of Peter Bauer, Jean Nerva and so on, only some rare carvers at my holiday resort. But that's only how you are recognized by others, only the first step.

What really kicked me, are the G-forces. There is no other way to feel the accelleration so pure. It's only you, your board, your control and the response of the snow and your board. You can feel G-forces in or on other vehicels, but there are only few, where you can just decide, how much at which time. On your alpine gear it's just little more or less angulation, if you are not totally satisfied with the G-forces you feel. This is the real freedom of the hardbooter. And there is another difference to other sports, which is the smoothness of your run. Surfing is smooth, too, but only carving gives you this combination of power, freedom and smoothness.

There is no such element like water (maybe air, but unreachable for most of us). You can have unique feeling surfing the swell... and you can have totally different but also sensational feelings on frozen water with just a different board. One more issue comes up here: The natural stance of a slidingg person, which makes snowboarding in general so great.

Q#2: No! It's totally different: I always feel me limiting my equipment. Of course there were moments, where I knew, that I would be better with better equipment. (These times are gone now, for at least one year I guess *LOL*) But I always knew, that my equipment could perform better with a better carver on it. These days i feel like reaching the limit of equipment, but one thing I know: After a few years of cerving my equipment will perform better... due to my increased skills.

Only thing I would like to have: A board with 18cm waist width, on which I can mount my bindings under 48R / 55F. If you find one, let me know ;)

Q#3: Of course, o lot. Please make sure, that the wide and even red to black slopes are perfectly groomed. Let the narrow slopes be bumpy, soft and demanding for thse, who don't like these perfectly groomed "easy to ski / board" slopes. in my most beatyful dreams, there is a part of the biggest slopes separated like the training area in a swimming pool. One side like always, for everybode, groomed like every slope in the world... and one side only for those who really want to carve, perfectly groomed and never crowded. Yes of course, carving parcs or even better carving areas would be great.

i guess, that's all for now ;))