Carving Demographics

[scottishsurfer]

3 minutes ago, Chouinard said:

How long does it F#%king take?  

Perfection is like the most beautiful women in existence you will never catch her but you occasionally glimpse the beauty of her face and that makes the chase worthwhile and push on even harder in hope you will one day get to her

[Emdee406]

Age 58 in May... Started in 1985 on a Winterstick Roundtail (with a central metal fin, and windsurf style strap bindings).

Next was a Burton Performer, followed by a Sims Switchblade. I sustained a foot injury, so couldn’t then continue in my hiking boots, so switched to Koflach hardshell mountaineering boots and Emery bindings. Started carving consistently with my first sponsors, on the 166 K2 Gyrator, with Raichle boots. Then I rode for the Burton UK Team, M6, M8, then the PJ’s. Then I made the jump to Hot Snowboards/Hammer Snowboards International Team (loved the Logical!), until they stopped making boards. 

Still racing, won a couple of SBX titles at USASA, last year I won the US Airlines National Championships Series for GS (no age categories)... I have no plans to stop! 

Edited March 21, 2018 by Emdee406
Omission

[barryj]

62 here !    Still riding and carving..... for a living!

Started out on a Burton Safari 160 or 170 early 80's at the now  extinct  Broaodmoor ski lift in Colorado Springs CO ....was using Koflac or Asolo. mountaineering boots with old Burton plates and tore the toe off a couple pairs!!

 

 

[SnowFerret]

Just turned 30.  I've been snowboarding for about 8 years now and regret not picking up the sport a few years earlier.  I had an interest since I was about 12, probably due to this game:

 

I liked the racing parts of the game, and you could choose actual alpine boards such as a factory prime.  I guess I made a mental note of it as something (alpine snowboarding) I wanted to eventually try.  After a few years of riding I finally decided to bite the bullet and jump into hardbooting and started to piece together my alpine setup.

[Mord]

I’m surprised by the lack of young carvers. Do they all think park and butter is “cooler” or something? Regardless, I only became aware of this curious thing called “hardbooting” earlier this season. And now here I am...

[General Tsao]

TVR,

Met you and your son last year at Bretton.  Your first post on this thread made me realize who you were....our conversation that day was initiated by your son's scream "HARD BOOTER!!!!" from the lift.    Great to meet you and take some turns with you and your son.  Hope to run into you both again....will be back up this Saturday.

RC

[b0ardski]

hardboots since '86

1st metal edged board (after trying 20 or so) '89 K2 TX, because it out carved them all (prototype monoplate converversion in 93)

 

Edited March 23, 2018 by b0ardski

[Atom Ant]

Younger people generally aren't into hardbooting partly due to a cultural divide between main stream boarding and partly due to price of admission.   If there was a set up comparable on price to a mid level soft boot set up we might hook more people.   

[st_lupo]

13 hours ago, Jack Michaud said:

I am.

Or better yet, enter the race.  You might surprise yourself.

Definitely this.  My daughter’s alpine group set up a GS course one day and then immediately went in for lunch.  I couldn’t help myself and had to give it a go or two.  I’m not going to beat anybody in a race but I was surprised at how doable it was to complete the course with mainly carving.  It was interesting how it involved a whole different set of problems to solve, especially regarding which line to take to be fast, but not so fast that you can’t make a hairpin or two.

[cin]

32 and started hardbooting last year

[st_lupo]

10 hours ago, scottishsurfer said:

Perfection is like the most beautiful women in existence you will never catch her but you occasionally glimpse the beauty of her face and that makes the chase worthwhile and push on even harder in hope you will one day get to her

Women are great, but getting a WHOOP from the chairs when tearing up a diamond is better. imho. (nobody tell my wife.  please.)

[Aracan]

My wife asked my a pertinent question once ...

Edited March 22, 2018 by Aracan

[Mord]

1 hour ago, st_lupo said:

Women are great, but getting a WHOOP from the chairs when tearing up a diamond is better.

Lmao. Never had that happen to me yet, but I am looking foward to that day!

[scottishsurfer]

48 minutes ago, Mord said:

Lmao. Never had that happen to me yet, but I am looking foward to that day!

Its a good feeling i had it for the first time when i was in Bulgaria this year riding under bundaritza 1 chair on the tomba black 

[Jack M]

Brammer, just teasing, my friend.

[Haus]

I'm 35, started snowboarding in 95  (if a plastic black snow mogul monster board counts, then i started in 92-93) 95 is when i got a metel edge board. After about 15yrs of  constantly booting out when carving, I finally picked up a hard boot setup last season and love it.  

I'm riding alot with my kids now, so im going to pick up a wide soft boot carver to ride when im with them, Hardboots and teaching/riding with a 7yr old is not so much fun.

Took a little bit of a break when the kids came around, thats why i didn't get into hard boots sooner.

That feeling of carving on edge has ruined softbooting for me. 

[bruincounselor]

50th orbit of the sun. My first board was a new Burton M6 with the old 5 hole pattern and a three strap setup. I'm thinking it was about '91 or '92? I raced for a while, now I get out a few times a year due to living on the windy plain.

[Emdee406]

17 hours ago, Mord said:

I’m surprised by the lack of young carvers. Do they all think park and butter is “cooler” or something? Regardless, I only became aware of this curious thing called “hardbooting” earlier this season. And now here I am...

We have exactly the same problem with slalom skateboarding! Relatively expensive gear for tech heads, and a much older crowd... ?

[Jack M]

18 hours ago, Mord said:

I’m surprised by the lack of young carvers. Do they all think park and butter is “cooler” or something? Regardless, I only became aware of this curious thing called “hardbooting” earlier this season. And now here I am...

Keep in mind this is only a poll of BOL readers.  How many kids really participate in online forums like this?  It's all Snapchat and Instagram for them as far as I can tell.

[Eric Brammer aka PSR]

On 3/21/2018 at 4:34 PM, Jack Michaud said:

You know, I could be mistaken, but I think @Eric Brammer aka PSR might have been carving then.  But it's not like he ever tells us about it.  ;-)

Yeah, I will shut up now....(maybe, or not?)  But, in my defense, I've had to Repost many Repost's that were the stories on the Original Bomber Forum, which often were culled from Freecarve. I may have been obnoxious, too loud, for too long, but I at least kept up a dialouge ( at least when people still replied: now, it's a diatribe . Que echo-chamber sound effects.. Lol-lol-lol). So, a few hallmarks along this a way: 1st Hardboots, Koflach Valugas (yes, PINK!): First plates used were Burton VP's, w/both using heel latches, First Asym Lacroix Eagle (thanks to Gordon Robbins), First plates owned were Crazy Banana on a Gnu Kaos 143 but I used Scott ski-boots (& hated it), First downhill edged Carve on Hardpack (soft snow doesn't count!), Barfoot Ravine, in Elfgen/Gnu bindings, first fully looped carve, on a Joyride EF, same binders as the Barfoot, early that next season ('91-92), first linked fakie carves were '88 on a Switchblade 1631using a duck-stance but still with a cant (? why !?) Overall, I've re-learned to ride through 6 or 7 definitions of what a Snowboard should be, as this thing has evolved..Hopefully, the Norm will still be valid in a decade, but, who knows?? Anyone else (beside Mig) recall using the Rope to help get the nose to bend?

[Eric Brammer aka PSR]

On 3/21/2018 at 4:34 PM, Jack Michaud said:

You know, I could be mistaken, but I think @Eric Brammer aka PSR might have been carving then.  But it's not like he ever tells us about it.  ;-)

Yeah, I will shut up now....(maybe, or not?)  

Edited March 23, 2018 by Eric Brammer aka PSR
Slow load, hit enter twice.. And, to keep Jack guessing awhile...

[Mig]

2 hours ago, Emdee406 said:

We have exactly the same problem with slalom skateboarding! Relatively expensive gear for tech heads, and a much older crowd... ?

Don't get me started on this or I will hijack this thread!!! LOL Pressuring newcomers into making them feel they absolutely need a foamcore carbon fiber deck before good trucks or wheels is so ridiculous!

[TVR]

This will set a rant... But have any of you guys ever seen PSR on a longboard or turning a Sk8? Man, he is an animal around the cones...

[Mig]

3 minutes ago, TVR said:

This will set a rant... But have any of you guys ever seen PSR on a longboard or turning a Sk8? Man, he is an animal around the cones...

Yes, but it was back in 2005 at a race in VT, and man did I suck back then. I was just getting back into slalom. @Emdee406 is pretty amazing too!

[Mike Blanz]

46

Started on a Burton Elite 140 in '87 with a 4 inch fin in the middle and concave swallowtail. "seat buckle bindings" Did not carve. We went straight down and made one turn at the end. But mine had edges. My brothers was red in color and just had p-tex to the edge. His had t-nuts thru the board for the bindings too. '88 was a Sims freestyle board. Modified bindings to have the inner tongue from rear entry ski boots to give the binding firmer forward flex...actually raced that thing. In '89 my board was a symmetrical K2 164cm race board on snowpros with Raichle Flexon Comp ski boots and raced that...others were on Hot Logicals but I worked in a shop that sold K2..then on to tons of burton boards over the next 10 years racing here and there.