Why did you start riding Alpine?

[ar(angel]

I was talking with a friend of mine the other day and we were both talking about how and why we got started riding alpine gear (a conversation started when we were discussing different boards). He's a snowboarder with 20 some years of experience and I've only been on a board for 4 years, this is my 3rd season hardbooting, but we both still speak with enthusiasm about riding alpine and why we got started. It kind of got me wondering what makes people switch from free-ride gear or skiing to riding alpine. I started when I saw a local ski-patrol guy on a Sims Burner 167. I still remember what I said to him "what advantage does that set-up have?" he explained it was better for "carving" and making turns. I was so impressed with the board and the way he was laying down carves, that I decided right there that that's what I was going to do. I rode crotch rockets for years and did some "road racing" and missed the feeling of arcing through the apex of a turn at full lean. Riding alpine has brought that back for me at considerably less danger and the ability to enjoy it with my family. What got you started?

Thanks,

Paul

[philfell]

To get girls!!!!! Why else would anyone put on ski boots and try to turn a snowboard with them.

[RJ-PS]

I see alpine as a way to chase after the perfect wave. At the end of a sweet ride on swell, you can't erase the grin on your face. Same way with a perfect run....perfectly linked turns all the way down a run results in perma-grin. It's fun to think how close I am to just flat out losing it when the snow is flying past me and the fact that I am turning isn't slowing me down at all. And I'm not even good yet, my carves are all over the place still. Yet when I ride up the chairlift and can follow my tracks all the way to the top, I get that insane feeling of yeah, I pushed the envelope there, there, there.

I still ride all-mountain boards and am even learning to take my hardboots into the pipe, so it's not just alpine. But when I transition from heel to toe losing gravity for a second and then transfer all my momentum, weight + gravity and transfer it onto the edge for the G-loading, gotta say when it's good, it's very goooooooooooood!

[Mike T]

I originally tried hard boots because I was looking for a way to "cross-train" for soft-booting. I thought hard boots would give be a better feel for being on edge and it would carry over. Well, it has, except I only ride soft boots every now and then :)

[philistine]

This is my first season riding alpine. The first time I saw an alpine board was at Copper Mountain, some race teams were training at the beginning of the season and I was instantly attracted to it. The geometry of the board and bindings is really attractive and so are the resulting turns..

I am also a bike rider and I had a similar feeling when I made the switch from a regular road bike with brakes, derailers, cables..etc.. to a track bike, which has no brakes, no derailers, just a chainring, rear cog, wheels and handlebars.

So my reasons for getting into it are:

Beauty and sensation!

[knoch]

to race...

[big mario]

I wanted something else to ride on non powder days, and now I just want a good grooming

[SWriverstone]

Because less is more. As Robert Frost said, "I took the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."

Scott

[thebionicman]

I started for a number of reasons:

One because it is the coolest looking thing on the hill.

Second because we don't have powder days in Minnesota.

Three because I have foot drop and things are working so well on the soft boots.

Now if I could just get used to being in hard boots. Me feet are still cramped, and its been over 24 hours.

[AaronG]

I came from a GS ski racing background and a waterskiing(slalom, personal best=6@32off) I enjoyed the feeling of the ski(s) carving through the water and snow. I starte d out on softies and did that for a few times. I went to Mammoth and saw a carver coming down Stump Alley, my eyes locked on the pencil thin line that this guy was leaving behind him. I knew right then that I had to experience it. Forget the softies, haven't been on them since first learining how to snowboard.

i still run the gates on GS skis(much smaller than what I used in the 80s) and still like to take a trip through the bouys, although, I now get to water ski at 32 mph instead of 36.

[Jack M]

because I can't fly one of these:

[Derf]

I started alpine snowboarding because riding with my softboot setup was boring. I almost stopped snowboarding because of that.

[Guest dragon fly jones]

To continue the stoke of riding. Be it the pipe park and groomers, skiing was stale as was all the flippy tricks. This was new and besides, some of the best of the day were living and riding in Colorado. Chris Karol, Dowd, The Pappas brothers, Peter Kiss, the Delany's, Fin (pre bomber) I had the great fortune to ride and compete against all of them at one point in our careers, our love of the sport transended labels like freestyler or racer WE WERE AND ARE SNOWBOARDERS.

[Chubz]

All answers were many I could relate to, but Jacks answer was one that made me openly chuckle. I think the perma grin would come out in on of those bad boys.

[Baka Dasai]

I skied for 20 years. Toward the end of that time I was obsessed with trying to carve a turn, but this was the era prior to shaped skis and the best I could do was a ridiculously large radius turn on very shallow hills.

One day I saw a hard-booting snowboarder and got very excited to see somebody actually carving a turn. Bells rang and lightbulbs went on and I knew immediately that I had to take up snowboarding, but in my ignorance I failed to differentiate between hard-booting and soft-booting.

After a couple of years soft-booting I had finally started to carve turns, and had also realised that I needed hard boots to take it further. So I bought hard boots and an alpine board, and here I am.

I've been obsessed with carving for so long, and was so frustrated that I couldn't do it, that now that I can every day on the snow is like Christmas.

[jason_watkins]

Because my ankles hurt, and I figured hardboots might solve the problem and keep me boarding. They did, and I seem to like them better.

[kinpa]

Wow..... my answer is so different than everyone elses.... I got started in hard boots (well, ski boots for me at that time), because if I wanted to ride much, it was the only way. I was teaching skiing at Ski Liberty in PA and could jump on my board for a run on two between lessons. If I had to switch boots all the time, I never would have been able to ride much at all. And then once I got to actually teach some snowboard lessons, I found out that all the PSIA examiners (before the days of AASKI) were on Alpine stuff, so that seemed the way to go.

Now, I do have more of an appreciation for it. I've never been one who wanted to Jib and Bonk.... I'm completely happy with my feet on the ground. For me now, carving is the way to go!

[Guest Morgul]

I also got started on hardboots.

[Mellow Yellow]

Because I saw Shred Gruumer and Helmet Karvlow about 4 years ago ripping it up.... and I said.... ooooo... I want to do that.... I want to be just like those guys I thought.... they must get all the birds.... :p

Thanks Shred and Helmet.... :D

[Mark Brown]

1) My soft rig was just that: soft and sloppy

2) I needed more support after an off-season ankle fracture

The funny thing is my first ever lesson when I started was from an older guy... in hardboots!

[Miguel]

Because EVERY turn is a bottom turn!:p

I'm no Gerry Lopez or Mike Doyle but I was surfing when they were surfing and thus know the joys of a bottom turn. IMHO, surfing is great but carving is even better.

[TEAMFUN]

I was in Turkey and I went to Mt Uuludag to go snowboarding...I had to rent since I hadn't brought my(soft) boots and board. They only had a few boards...all w/plate bindings! I had to rent very ancient stiff ski boots that I had to cram my feet into from another rental shop from where I rented the board. After that I only had enough $ for a 5-run lift ticket. Within one run I met a couple of Austrian hardbooters who were giving me the thumbs up...we rode the rest of the day...and since they were staying there for a week, they gave me their lift tix to burn some runs when mine was exhausted. I had so much fun despite cramped toes that I bought some white Raichle's when I got home and a Madd Mike's AC166, then I drilled and installed Snow-Pro's...as I was hooked and loving life!:D

[jdgang]

My first snowboard a 91 or 92 air 5.1 came with the three strap bindings. I loved these bindings since they taught me how to carve. After going though a few boards burton dropped the three straps. Since carving is what I believe snowboarding is all about the only thing left is alpine!!

[FTA2R]

1. It takes too much effort to tie my softboots.

2. Riding facing the nose of the board allows me to make better eye contact with snow bunnies on the lift, even though I may ride into the lift pole immediately after

:D

[mattj]

I moved from surfing to snowboarding and started in soft boots. I missed the feeling of the bottom turn on a wave and the long curved turns but one day I saw someone on an alpine board and thought "I want to do that".

I crawled around the web looking for equipment and learning about alpine and then made the move to hardboots during a trip to Val D'Isere. I then bought boots, bindings and a board on a trip to Whistler.

I arrived in Whistler and started franticly running around the village looking for gear. I ended up buying a Sims Daytona because I couldn't find any alpine boards in the shops. I bought boots (SB324's) and got them fitted at Fanatyk and they have been the best thing I have ever done.

The bloke there also setup the bindings and provided heaps of guidance and binding tweaks at the end of each day.

A couple of days later I made a quick trip to the Prior factory and picked up a factory second 4WD (early model with the square tail).

Life has been good ever since :-)