THIRST 8R WARP

[pow4ever]

10 hours ago, bigwavedave said:

@pow4ever stalkers don't don't wear orange suits, right?

I hope to ride these boards back to back with my other boards for comparison this winter. I demoed the Super last year right after coming off my REV and I didn't want to give it back! It was just a bit more versatile and maneuverable...and smoother carves. Very similar turn size.

Happy New Year!  Go out and get some new year turns in
I am sure I am speaking for everyone that we are all looking forward to your report/review.
Thank you so much for your detail reply.  It confirm what I am afraid of; my wallet are in danger lol...
Seems everyone is saying the same that the thirst snowboard board have more a "je ne sais quoi"/magic quality to it.
you have warped my fragile little mind; I just can't fathom how much better it can be with the world class line up already in your quivers.

The skeptics in me; what's the catch?  Seems all the reviewer are already great++ carvers.  maybe one need to be at certain level to truly appreciated it?
Could it be the reverse side cut profile(larger scr in the nose and smaller scr in the read)? 
Thinking out loud:  If a "coiler/donek/kessler/Oxess" were to build with the similar profile; what's the result...

I should follow the advice already stated multiple time:  Go demo one and find out

Best,
David

[b0ardski]

I'll have to watch for that now that the bx has a fresh factory tune

Edited January 1, 2019 by b0ardski

[b0ardski]

11 hours ago, bigwavedave said:

I've noticed an interesting thing about how the wax wears off the edges. I often found it curious how all my other boards usually had the most wax wear just forward of the front foot and fading back to about the waist of the board. All my Thirst boards have an even pattern of wear from just forward of the front foot to just behind the rear foot.

I'll have to watch for that now that the bx has a fresh factory tune

[dredman]

1 hour ago, pow4ever said:

I should follow the advice already stated multiple time:  Go demo one and find out

Demo them all at the Montucky Clear CUT! 

 

[bigwavedave]

2 hours ago, pow4ever said:

Happy New Year!  Go out and get some new year turns in
I am sure I am speaking for everyone that we are all looking forward to your report/review.
Thank you so much for your detail reply.  It confirm what I am afraid of; my wallet are in danger lol...
Seems everyone is saying the same that the thirst snowboard board have more a "je ne sais quoi"/magic quality to it.
you have warped my fragile little mind; I just can't fathom how much better it can be with the world class line up already in your quivers.

The skeptics in me; what's the catch?  Seems all the reviewer are already great++ carvers.  maybe one need to be at certain level to truly appreciated it?
Could it be the reverse side cut profile(larger scr in the nose and smaller scr in the read)? 
Thinking out loud:  If a "coiler/donek/kessler/Oxess" were to build with the similar profile; what's the result...

I should follow the advice already stated multiple time:  Go demo one and find out

Best,
David

Aging knees have made me more sensitive to the quality of the ride. I felt the Thirst difference immediately; sureness, smoothness, slicing through ruts and piles and barely noticing. It felt like how carving feels in your dreams--which I highly recommend, it can really improve your riding! All the improvements in boards, bindings and boots have kept me riding more comfortably into my "senior" years. I didn't like the loss of board/snow feel with a plate system, but sidewinders, boot spring systems, and all the Kessler inspired board innovations of the past--good.  

Some of the Thirst features (asym core, heelside sidecut shifted forward, ect) have been experimented with in the past, but not putting all of it in the same package and there are likely some secrets that only Mark knows. 

Instead of moving to Milkland where the snow is always smooth carving, I chose the next most practical option and bought some boards that make every hill feel like Milkland.

[pow4ever]

Thank you BWD!  I think I got it.  Very well said; I like that very much make your local hill feel like the land of milk....
Setup that filtered out the bad noise and only letting the important signaling through (improve SNR) sure sounded like magic but 
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" -- Arthur C. Clarke

Riding smoother is my current goal.  I carve ok but it can seems quite "violent" from time to time lol(hip checking the mountain work but take a toll on my body).
Trying to get back to the basic and remove as much crutches as possible.  Thirst Snowboard sounded like the ticket 

[Carvin' Marvin]

Alright so I've finally started the process with Mark and will be sending my deposit tomorrow.  I'm thinking about widening the 8rw to 20cm since I don't really ride angles north of 55 degrees. I know its only a cm, but does anyone have any experience suggesting this might be a bad idea given the ride qualities?  I'll be hashing out the final details with Mark, but I wanted to get a read on the peanut gallery too.  I'm really excited about it.  Hopefully it will be done in time to shred the crud I hear it likes to eat so much.  Currently my longest board is a 175 Coiler Stubby that feels a little too "in between" for me sometimes. 

[b0ardski]

I ride the non warp 23 wide bx at 45*/30*, crud busting magic, it likes to bisect soft bumps and scrape piles and still holds elbow draggin carves on not ice groom

[lonbordin]

8 hours ago, Carvin' Marvin said:

I'm thinking about widening the 8rw to 20cm since I don't really ride angles north of 55 degrees. I know its only a cm, but does anyone have any experience suggesting this might be a bad idea given the ride qualities? 

I've never regretted getting the width I've desired.

[bigwavedave]

9 hours ago, Carvin' Marvin said:

Alright so I've finally started the process with Mark and will be sending my deposit tomorrow.  I'm thinking about widening the 8rw to 20cm since I don't really ride angles north of 55 degrees. I know its only a cm, but does anyone have any experience suggesting this might be a bad idea given the ride qualities?  I'll be hashing out the final details with Mark, but I wanted to get a read on the peanut gallery too.  I'm really excited about it.  Hopefully it will be done in time to shred the crud I hear it likes to eat so much.  Currently my longest board is a 175 Coiler Stubby that feels a little too "in between" for me sometimes. 

All my Thirst boards have a 20.5cm waist. Pretty happy with them.

I've been gradually moving towards wider boards (from 18cm to 20.5) allowing for ~55-60° angles and have gradually widened my stance (from 18 inches to 20.5). I feel more stable with the wider stance and with more relaxed angles feel I exert more power through heel & toe weight to pressure the edge.

[Carvin' Marvin]

Thanks guys. Settled on 20cm.  Boardski I believe I rode your board when crackaddict brought it to aspen a few years ago. Great board. It rides really similar to my 23cm waist angrry with the exception that the bx just ripped thorough stuff that would buck the coiler.  All in all I’m super pumped for this board.

 

[Carvin' Marvin]

On 4/24/2018 at 10:46 PM, johnasmo said:

 

The downside to laying it over so quickly is that you are obligated to push to de-camber it early by extending yourself early, which can result in having little extension left to save yourself if it does start to slide later in the turn.  A slower roll-in lets you stay compressed and keep some extension in reserve.

John, based on your review it seems we have extremely similar early experiences on the 8RW.  I've only got half a tired morning on mine, but I really relate to your review so far.  My usual rides are Coilers as well with a short Donek for exercise days.  The 8RW immediately railed a heel better than any board I've ridden, but I'm having trouble making it speak to me on toeside.   The way you phrased it made me realize the difference in my heel/toe technique.  Historically, on heel I'm always in early while on toe I roll in slow.  Any tips on getting this thing up on edge earlier on toeside that you've figured out?  Looking at that Big Sky video it looks like immediate action coming out of the transition is key to whipping it around.  Push it more? Inside hip down sooner?  I'm just trying to get some ideas in my mind for when I can have my first real day on it on Thursday. 

If I can get my toeside dialed in I have no doubt this will become my go-to board for almost any carving day.

Gratzi,

Marv

[Kneel]

9 hours ago, Carvin' Marvin said:

John, based on your review it seems we have extremely similar early experiences on the 8RW.  I've only got half a tired morning on mine, but I really relate to your review so far.  My usual rides are Coilers as well with a short Donek for exercise days.  The 8RW immediately railed a heel better than any board I've ridden, but I'm having trouble making it speak to me on toeside.   The way you phrased it made me realize the difference in my heel/toe technique.  Historically, on heel I'm always in early while on toe I roll in slow.  Any tips on getting this thing up on edge earlier on toeside that you've figured out?  Looking at that Big Sky video it looks like immediate action coming out of the transition is key to whipping it around.  Push it more? Inside hip down sooner?  I'm just trying to get some ideas in my mind for when I can have my first real day on it on Thursday. 

If I can get my toeside dialed in I have no doubt this will become my go-to board for almost any carving day.

Gratzi,

Marv

 

FWIW, I was overthinking the 8RW for the first week. Making micro adjustments here and there and trying to manhandle it.  It doesn't like that.  In fact, I was convinced as I told Mark that the board wanted to kill me.  He told me to take a step back, literally by moving to the last inserts, dropping my hips as relaxed, neutral and centered over the board as possible, then just tipping it over on edge.  That's all it took.  Effortless.  I don't try to to work it when hard charging, but just let gravity do it's thing. Neutral, slightly back but centered, relaxed, tip.  It doesn't work like that for me on other boards. 

[bigwavedave]

I found that these boards seem somewhat sensitive to binding placement for optimum performance. At first I had similar issue as you, but it was heelside on one board toeside on another that felt a little off. I carefully re-visited the heelside/toeside balance of the bindings (no bias for me) using the "Fuego box wine method" and found that I had just a slight heel or toe bias, so I got them set so they were equal and just inside of the edge. That really helped equal out the feel of my heelside/toeside turns and there's no difference in the width of my heelside and toeside tracks when viewed from the chairlift.

Then, like Kneel said, and Mark has recommended,  start with the rear set of inserts for your forward binding and where ever your stance width lands you for the rear foot. I didn't do this, but experimented moving forward or rearward from the reference stance.

On perfect snow, I find I can ride my 8rw in a relaxed upright position, with just slight bending of the knees, even on steeper runs, and still get my turns all the way around. And I really like using an up and down body movement on these boards; squat low coming into a turn and push as hard as you want (or not) to adjust turn size. Of course with soft spring snow, not as much push.

I don't really know what I do to get the board from edge to edge, but I do try to focus on using toe and heel (foot) pressure to set and hold the edge once on it.

[Carvin' Marvin]

Thanks for the tips guys. I had a few runs where I felt like a hero both toe and heel but once it was time for bed it went downhill (ha).  I feel like I've got some good places to start now to get it more consistent.

Dave, yeah I noticed the tight binding placement window the first time I tried moving one insert pack forward.  It was like someone put oil on the racetrack.  It went from predictable and stable to squirrely and scary.  I moved them right back and found the happy place.  

I'm really pumped for Thursday.

[johnasmo]

Sorry I didn't notice this before your Thursday ride.  I was so busy riding out our closing week that I wasn't paying much attention to the forums.  Hmm.. I guess that's true of my whole season.  But I can catch up now.

One trick I used to get toe side turns initiated quickly was to channel my inner Ryan Knapton.  If you watch his soft-boot carving videos, you will see that he gets very compact and then pushes out with his forearm at snow level very early in the turn.  Just thinking about doing the Knapton forearm slide without breaking at the hip will exaggerate your up/down body movement.  You don't actually have to touch the snow -- that's too hard on gloves and sleeves -- it's just the getting low at the start.  Going in low and extending will initiate faster than falling over from upright, and visualizing a Knapton forearm slide will have you do that without thinking about the details.  After initiation though, my arms come up and its about body angulation and pushing knees low to hold the rest of the turn.

That said, I have trouble pulling it off when visibility is low.  It's really hard to commit that fully to start a hard turn when you can't see how smooth the snow is.  The 8RW will start going pretty fast if you're too casual about leaning it over.  The 8RW has an inflection point were it goes from riding like a long sidecut to riding like a short sidecut, and foggy weather puts me just on the wrong side of that inflection point.

I also added a Superconductor 175 this year.  Got it in early March.  I found myself more comfortable on it for low viz or chopped up conditions.  I thought it would act like a downsized 8RW, but there's more to it than that.  I think the 8RW may have a more efficient carve, with the ability to hold an edge under low traction, but the Superconductor a more lively and active ride when edge hold wasn't an issue.  It might just be size and radius, but venturing a guess that the 8RW behaves more radially and the Super more progressive?  Neither is an accurate description, as I bet they both have a long-short-longer kind of sidecut progression, but maybe they have their tight spots positioned differently.  Where edge hold was the attraction of the 8RW, a lively slalom-y ride seems to be the Super's appeal.

Neither is particularly comfortable on uneven grooming.  Metal seems to dampen irregularities better when boards can't cut through to something smooth.  Both liked smooth hardpack or smooth under loose piles or spring slush (the Super was really fun in spring corn!), but once the irregularities push back firmly, metal dampens the hits with less commotion.  I did a lot of afternoon-to-last-chair days, and I was usually on a metal board by last chair.

[Carvin' Marvin]

Thanks for the advice John.  So that Thursday ride ended up being a huge success.  I ended up moving my bindings all the way to the rear most inserts and everything just seemed to sort itself out.  This thing will turn super tight when called upon. Very smooth, very intuitive.  I like the loud noise personally.  I would like to get another good day on it before I release my full thoughts onto the world, but I don't think its going to happen this year.  I ran into another hardbooter at Beaver Creek I had never met before.  Richard was his name I think.  He is a longtime instructor there.  Anyhow, I rode way past my usual 2 hours because we were having so much fun and something happened to my ankle beyond its usual F-ed uppedness.  It swelled up double its size and hasn't been right since. My season is done, but I'm scheduled for surgery May 31st so I am super pumped about getting to rail on this thing on a fresh joint next season!

[SunSurfer]

23 hours ago, Carvin' Marvin said:

 I ran into another hardbooter at Beaver Creek I had never met before.  Richard was his name I think.  He is a longtime instructor there.  Anyhow, I rode way past my usual 2 hours because we were having so much fun and something happened to my ankle beyond its usual F-ed uppedness. 

That would be Richard Knapp. He's come to a number of SES/ATC and taught a range of clinics from beginner through to advanced skills. I credit Richard's teaching with me making real progress in my riding during the 2015 session. 

[Corey]

5 hours ago, SunSurfer said:

I credit Richard's teaching with me making real progress in my riding

Same here!  His slow-motion video analysis of just 4 turns helped me a great deal.  Bonus points that he's a cool guy too.  

[Carvin' Marvin]

On 4/22/2019 at 4:20 AM, SunSurfer said:

That would be Richard Knapp. 

Yep that's him.  Super cool dude.  He said it was his first time on hard gear in quite some time.  One of his buddies gifted him some sort of  Donek prototype and he was taking it for a whirl.  I'm definitely hitting him up next season for some turns.

[Carvin' Marvin]

Updated review since my experience this year is totally different.

Oh man I had quite the week on the 8RW.  To preface: last year I was firing at about 60% functional capacity but since a rebuild I'm back to 100%.  For some reason last season I couldn't get this board to totally click.  Something always felt off that no amount of set up tweaking could remedy.  I'm not sure if I'm just properly drinking the Thirst Kool-aid now or what, but the 8RW is now my favorite board hands down.  All issues and uneasiness just seemed to evaporate once I focused my energy solely between my feet.   Being able to rip turns without curb-stomping the nose of the board like it owes me money is really nice and energy conserving, but it was a really hard habit for me to break.  It is like the nose and tail of the board are irrelevant and it just wants to be ridden between the feet.

Another big revelation I had on the board was when I met some non-carvers on the hill and they dragged me to the backbowls of Vail which had about 10" of heavy leftovers.  I thought I was going to be in for a bad time but I was very mistaken.  This thing will ride soft medium-height bumps and open powder no problem at all.  No sinking, no catching, just rippin and cruisin.  

I'm really interested to try Mark's shorter offerings.  This was the last board I expected to take over as my daily driver, but here we are.

[bigwavedave]

Riding the 8rw on the last days before the shutdown last season. In co-vivid color. 

 

[Lurch]

Need me some of those prismatic boots! 

[CB Utah]

Review of 2023 Thirst 8RW.  Hopefully an unusual but helpful perspective.  

Parameters: 190 pounds, mondo size 28 boots

Background: Haven't ridden snowboards at all since 1992.  Used to ride hard shells with plate bindings.   

Now:  Relearned boarding in 2022 fairly non-committal (no season pass, very few days of riding) with NOS 2022 Burton Flight Attendant 156W, new F2 Titanium Race and new Deeluxe 325's.  Struggled with leg muscles and brain knowing what to do but without much power. Had to stop every 5 minutes. Progressed from 2022 156 cm Burton with 26.2 waist to 2020 165 cm Coiler AMT with 23 cm waist.  Blown away by the Coiler edge hold and performance on every surface from hard pack to slush. Up-sized to 2018 176 cm Coiler AMT with 20 cm waist.  Loved it.  The Coilers became my favorite.  My ultimate goal was to see how narrow of a board I could ride so I could try some of the Thirsts I had seen for sale on the forum.  

Bought a new 2023 184.5 cm, 18.7 cm waist (.266 flex index 12.5 avg. SCR) Thirst 8RW late this April, took it out first time early May @Solitude.  Took a deep breath at the top of the run and just trusted it.  It was so light; it carved like a razor (and my skills are currently weak compared to how I used to be able to ride.)  I made everything from long sweeping turns all the way down to very tight slalom turns riding neutral on the 8RW.  Bumps or slush were not an issue.  It was smooth.  Words cannot describe my feeling on the drive back home, after going from a stubby 156 to a lithe 184.5 cm board in maybe 7 total days of riding after a complete 30 year hiatus.  After that, I started riding every opportunity I could until the resorts here finally closed.  I found some hard pack which it sliced right through.  One boarder said he was a little shocked I was riding such a long board on narrow trails when it was so crowded extreme late season.  Literally not a problem.  Got my 2023-24 EPIC pass and am planning on riding every lunch hour and most weekends next year @PC and surrounding areas.  

Big thanks to Jack M for this forum, to all forum members who patiently helped me this year and the site advertisers from whom I purchased multiple sets of bindings, accessories and boots.  Very cool experience.                         

[Kneel]

On 6/3/2023 at 11:29 PM, CB Utah said:

...Thirst 8RW...

Best board ever.   Rumor has it while balancing on a barstool at No Name, Mark fell and hit his head, knocking him unconscious. When he came to, he'd had a vision of the WARP shape which makes time travel...er uh the 8RW possible.