Jack M Posted May 24, 2019 Report Share Posted May 24, 2019 I missed this last year, but it just came to my attention: https://www.conwaydailysun.com/community/obituaries/obituary-john-g-howe/article_0adef3cc-7637-11e8-ab23-5706810e71c1.html I met him once at his home on a farm in Bethel in the winter of '97 when I was working with a fellow from Bates College who was starting a snowboard factory in the Bates Mill. He had a relationship with Howe I think through a college internship. We had a meeting with Howe to discuss snowboard design. Howe's book "Skiing Mechanics" was considered a bible of ski design, as it explained the physics of a carved turn, among other things. I really enjoyed meeting him. He was enthusiastic about our little snowboard factory and about snowboarding in general. His wife made us liverwurst sandwiches, which I surprisingly didn't hate. It was about 58 degrees inside their house. A couple years later I wrote an interpretation of Skiing Mechanics, relating it to snowboarders, for BOL. You can see it here: http://alpinesnowboarder.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Physics-of-a-Snowboard-Carved-Turn.pdf My friend from Bates made a snowboard version of "The Claw" ski and it worked very well. It was basically an isolation plate, laminated to the board with a thick (1/4"?) layer of rubber in between. The bindings only mounted to the plate, no screws or other metal mechanical linkages touched the board - a design I haven't seen since. I tried it and it was eye opening. I think it would be worth trying today (hint hint @Donek). He didn't pursue it for long however. He exited the snowboard industry after a few years and went back to medical school. Cheers to John Howe, a life well lived. We here have all benefited from him. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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