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Soft board stiffness


Neil Gendzwill

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4 hours ago, Mig said:

Both of these will cover your needs and have a stiffer flex than most boards of their type. Designed and made in Canada.

Fullbag Blunt Diamond:

My Bad, I totally meant to mention Mig's line of stuff.  He rocks!

Was sort of thinking the Diamond Blade, but it might be getting into the "softboot carver" zone.  Though it looks like it would handle most all mountain duties pretty effectively if you are used to a longer contact length.

Quick question for Mig:  I always sort of thought the Supernaut was a smaller Blunt,  but looking at the specs, it is a different sort of beast, isn't it?  You going to make a 160ish version (Super-Dupernaut hahaha!  Sorry, that was kinda bad...)?

Back to the stiffness thing:   We hardboot guys sort of have a bit of a bias towards stiffer gear, maybe to our detriment.  That and the fact that the lack of any sort of stiffness index that is cross manufacturer referenced makes us a little reluctant to go softer.  How stiff is my favorite board, compared to some 7/10 rating by a company's board i have never tried?  Hard to tell. 

An old friend of mine did pretty high level ski coaching and we had these sort of "theory" discussions all the time.  He invented a sort of "thought experiment ski (or board!)".  This impossible in the real world thing has no longitudinal stiffness, and infinite torsional stiffness.  Ie.  it won't twist, but will follow perfectly the line of the sidecut at a given board:snow angle without any effort.  The implication here is that you would be best served by something with as little lengthwise stiffness as you can get away with!  Always thought this was a pretty neat concept.  It has really come home to roost in the last couple years where I have been building increasing numbers of soft boot boards that people want to be able to carve.  When I get the opportunity to pry one of those boards out of their handa and try these boards out i almost always am a little surprised by how "soft" compared to my personal builds are.  But once I sort of "center" my riding, and reduce the tip to tail pressure shifting that hard-boots/stiff boards encourage/reward i am invariably stunned by how easy and effective carving still is.  Makes all mountain riding way easier....  Now, it is not that i would like to have my own board that soft, but maybe softer.... The trick is:  How much?  Hard to tell, but it is probably softer than the average hard-boot rider is used to, and stiffer than the typical softboot rider is used to . 

Probably right around where Mig's Fullbag line is ("stiffer than most boards of their type")  or Jones' flagships (really nice boards, but I personally can't stand the spoon-nose tail thing), or my stuff!

Well, that was lunch...

 

 

 

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47 minutes ago, west carven said:

howdy

so what was the reason for this thread to be in "the lodge"? just curious because the flex of a softboot board

relates to carving. or because it is not alpine? again just curious...

seemed like it wasn't a discussion about carving...?  "General snowboarding", no?

On 11/25/2019 at 10:12 AM, Neil Gendzwill said:

Actually I don't want a carve-specific setup.  If I want to go carving, I'll use my hard boots.

 

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3 hours ago, Neil Gendzwill said:

Has anyone ridden the new Jones boards? How does the spoon nose affect the on-edge performance? I expect it’s sluggish to hook up. 

Haven't rode the Jones but the Cask has the same thing - uplifted edges. Honestly, if I'm not paying attention I don't notice it. 

Don't think you could go wrong with that board.

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8 hours ago, Mig said:

Both of these will cover your needs and have a stiffer flex than most boards of their type. Designed and made in Canada.

I've had a fight with myself over buying the Hammerhead 181 for a couple years. If it was at least 27cm wide, I'd be fighting with my wife by this time. 

Neil, I'm happy to sell you a much-loved Glissade Big Gun 185 without rocker or turned up edges or other technical advances that may just be masquerading as marketing hype or even pretty graphics you'd have to fret over in the lift line to help ease your transition from HB to SB...you're welcome.

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22 hours ago, Neil Gendzwill said:

I don't think I would be happy with a rockered design.  "Hybrid camber" as they call it would be fine, that's just a decambered nose and tail in alpine-speak I think.

Not sure how I would deal with something so squirrelly as the 6.5 m radius on that Yes board either.

I thought the same about the Yes sidecut, and was concerned that it wouldn’t be stable at speed.

Well, when I got it 2 seasons ago, I spent 4 days on it in a row riding with a student I’ve been teaching since he was 9...he’s now 22 and rides better and faster than most of the Instructors in our snowboard school, loves powder and speed. 

I got it up to 60 mph and it was rock solid, nothing twitchy about it at all despite the sidecut. It’s a mid-wide which helps. It edged out my Sims TK Roundtail as my go-to soft boot board because of its incredible powder snow capabilities, while still a great carver. 

Edited by Emdee406
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31 minutes ago, Emdee406 said:

I thought the same about the Yes sidecut, and was concerned that it wouldn’t be stable at speed.

Well, when I got it 2 seasons ago, I spent 4 days on it in a row riding with a student I’ve been teaching since he was 9...he’s now 22 and rides better and faster than most of the Instructors in our snowboard school, loves powder and speed. 

I got it up to 60 mph and it was rock solid, nothing twitchy about it at all despite the sidecut. It’s a mid-wide which helps. It edged out my Sims TK Roundtail as my go-to soft boot board because of its incredible powder snow capabilities, while still a great carver. 

its the yes optimistic brett tippie rides nowadays for his do everything board he seems to like it for pretty much everything
 

 

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1 hour ago, Neil Gendzwill said:

If I was buying Yes I'd be more inclined to the PYL than the Optimistic.  I've also had recommendations for the Ride Mountain Pig and Gnu Mullair.

Durability and build quality on Mervin stuff really isn't great I own a hot knife and magic banana both of them required there bases to be refinished. My hot knife became an unsuportive noodle within 6 months and my magic delamed at the edge after only 60 hours of riding no impacts or park riding.... 

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Here is another comment in favor of the ultracraft

I am not sure what has changed in the spooning /3d contour in that last few seasons. Mine is about 3 y ago and the contour does not change contact on the flat or where there are edges only where the nose is elevated. It feels good in powder both self centering and improving turn initiation without any negative consequence on hardpack.

The board is stiff enough I ride with hardboots ( AT style for hiking ) and I  enjoy it inbounds as well as powdercat riding.

If you ride with weight  centered  this board works great but I wish they made a 175 because I am used to loading the nose for aggressive turn initiation. The float is enough for my fat 21lbs in multiple feet of powder but when I forget and try to aggressively load the nose and charge into a turn - hello cartwheel.

 

 

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3 hours ago, neanderthal said:

Here is another comment in favor of the ultracraft

I am not sure what has changed in the spooning /3d contour in that last few seasons. Mine is about 3 y ago and the contour does not change contact on the flat or where there are edges only where the nose is elevated. It feels good in powder both self centering and improving turn initiation without any negative consequence on hardpack.

The board is stiff enough I ride with hardboots ( AT style for hiking ) and I  enjoy it inbounds as well as powdercat riding.

If you ride with weight  centered  this board works great but I wish they made a 175 because I am used to loading the nose for aggressive turn initiation. The float is enough for my fat 21lbs in multiple feet of powder but when I forget and try to aggressively load the nose and charge into a turn - hello cartwheel.

 

 

@neanderthalCheck out the Stranda Cheater 177 as it will meet exactly what you are looking for.

Edited by svr
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