Old snowboards plus one

[philw]

Just re-insulating my loft (they increase the amount of filling you're supposed to have in there every few years) and I found three more boards. Well two boards and a ski.

Here we have, left to right, fresh from having the dust washed off them...

Rossi Fait d'Hiver from probably 1984 or '85, which I rode from then through perhaps '88. The ski weighs a ton, but the bindings were the worst bit - they had a horrible pre-release tendency (which the Salomon 747 mono bindings didn't), and they had no brakes. I switched the ski in '88 for a LaCroix with 757 mono bindings which was much better. My LaCrox is 1 1.95; I think the Rossi is a 1.84. Big stuff, like those raaceboards american hard booters ride ;-)

At this time there were lots of Monos in Europe, and almost no snowboards. What snowboards we saw were basically plywood: sod all use on piste, which is most of what we had and have here, for most people. Whilst snowboards looked like fish out of water, monoskis took the best available ski technology and pushed it forward - so here you have a wide board (which skis worked out about 20 years later), and taper (which snowboards worked out about 20 years later...), and metal edges, which didn't take so long but which seem a bit on the obvious side.

Santa Cruz GS board, 167. This was from around 1994 or so. I got it as a replacement for a broken Nitro Scorpion, because this was the only race board I could find in BC at the time. Even then, this was a minority sport. This was the first board I bought with inserts, which had arrived a year or two earlier. It's a plank - you have to ride at speeds which aren't possible safely in most resorts before it comes alive.

Burton Super Model 168. A Mark One of course. This one from 1997. I can't remember what people rode before these, but around this time these were the standard heli board for Wiegele; you could borrow other stuff, some people rode other stuff, but most "experts" would be riding these or the bigger 174. The rule was "go big or go home"; boards were designed to be ridden big in deep powder. There was nothing wrong with that - they worked will and still would. The Supermodel was perfectly designed for powder, with a stable nose and a soft tail for mushing the turns. Most boards people rode in powder were designed the other way around, this one kicked their arses.

I also found a couple of pairs of bindings, both in excellent condition:

- The "burton race plate" jobs, which were the first step ins I owned. These have blue bits on them with little red levers to release.

- The SIMS resin bindings I bought with the Santa Cruz, those were elegant and worked well.

[snowmatic]

Santa Cruz GS 167 N, or the GS 167 XN ?

Yes, they are stiff!

The date of the board (Year/Month/Day) You will find on the second line below the "R167N" / "R167XN"

Please post a pic. There are all others board specifications too!

[philw]

;-) yup - it's the N version - what was the difference? This was the only Alpine board I could find in Vernon when I crashed my Nitro Scorpion into a buried log and broke the nose off it.

The style was as you can see with the AutoCad file name and all that. Built (or printed anyway) 30th July 1993, so I'd have bought it late 1993 or early 1994.

[snowmatic]

That Santa Cruz GS 167 N by 11.8m SCR and 20.5cm waist is from 1994/95 season. It seems it's similar build to 1993/94 and 1995/96 too.

The "R 167 XN" is narrower on waist (190mm instead of 205mm like on "R 167 N").

It was the longest raceboard of SantaCruz that time and designed for competition RS (giant slalom) and competition SG (super-G turns).

The narrow XN one was best choice for rider with small feets, while the N was the choice of riders with bigger feets, or rider who like to go on less angulation.

The Santa Cruz GS 167 was the board for/from Bertrand Denervaud, several time World Champion and winner of countles titles (Halfpipe/Boarder-X/Slalom-gate-races).

Berti Denervaud became than president of ISF, later Head Judge of Freeride World Tour and now he is head of sport and resort-services on FWT.

I can see ones board (Santa Cruz R-type) many days during summertime in a garage if door is open.

[philw]

Thinking about it, I think they did have a narrower one in that shop also - so perhaps there were in fact at that point two race boards in BC, not just the one. I remember going for the wider one. Board fashion went narrower later, from what I recall.

Edited October 27, 2014 by philw

[icebiker]

Good finds!   What's with (what appears to be) the second set of inserts on the left half of the SC?     I had one of the '97 Supermodel 174s.  Was the board I rode the longest amount of time (about 14 years). Was still in great shape when I sold it.

[philw]

I had not noticed that - I can't believe the board has those, but I didn't muck with the image. I will have another look at it as soon as I can and see what that's about - I'm sure there is only one 4x4 set as you'd expect!

The original Supermodel was the business; mine's like new, never been ridden on piste ha ha. Actually I just bumped into Don Wildman, who at 82 is getting pretty old for a snowboarder these days - he rode the Supermodels too, back in the day. Don's latest girlfriend is somewhat less than half his age.