WTF is THAT????? Hmm............an experiment. An inline snowboard/monoski??????

[SunSurfer]

Beware summer's fevered dreams of snow, and it's probably not wise to try to bring them to fruition! Too much time spent watching snowboarding videos in the dark corners of the InterNet takes you to strange places.

Exhibit 1: Boone Lennon  - Portrait of a snowboarder (Vimeo won't allow embedding of this video)
https://vimeo.com/7628238

Exhibit 2: Skwal riding with and without poles. Poles have their uses, especially in moguls.

Exhibit 3: But skwal stance always looks so cramped! How could I open that up a bit?

This years experiment puts all that and more together. It's an intersection between monoskiing, alpine snowboarding, & skwalling.

Start with a Riot Supercarver 180cm x 18cm waist, SCR single radius approx 12m, circa mid 90's.

Pimp the Riot with extended UPM inserts, add a 4mm Bomber Boiler Plate with extra holes drilled at each end for an interaxle distance 6cm longer than designed.

Bomber TD3 stepins, custom toe blocks built with Dynel cloth and hot glue, because UPZ boot toes don't fit snugly up against the standard Bomber toe bail (whereas F2 toe bails are a neat fit).
Set the bindings to a 56cm C-to-C stance, 80 Front, 78 Rear, 1cm off centre bias for a regular stance, with toe and heel lift, and approx 4 degrees of outward cant on both bindings.

Build 4th iteration hand armour, creating a stubby bullet shape, and the Boone Lennon Glider effect.

Try initially on normal length ski poles for height, then move to 10cm shorter after initial trials. (125cm to 115cm poles, rider 182cm tall).

This bastard child of a miscegenated menage a trois, of a snowboard, a monoski, and a skwal (a very Gallic concept) had me scratching my head trying to answer the question of what it is, (definitely an experiment) but getting feedback that whatever it was, it looked "graceful".
The stance is very comfortable, not all cramped, and allows easy fore/aft adjustment of weight distribution. It was easy to get up on edge and carve, and you could pole plant, or not, depending upon your momentary preference. The ride was super smooth, a combination of isocline plate and optimal angles for knees to absorb bumps. Skidded turns in traffic and hockey stops were major goals of these first few runs, control first and foremost, and weren't hard to achieve. The first session ended after 5 runs down the 1.2km beginner slope, when I needed to transfer the gliders/hand armour to the shorter poles, having found they worked better.

I have a friend with a GoPro arriving end of next week, and hope to get some video of it in action, by whch time I hope be a little more familiar with its quirks and to have tried a range of terrain.

[TLN]

IDK, looks like regular board with bias stance on a plate.
It's clearly not a monoski: foot needs to be next to each other.

It's not a skwal, cause it's 18cm wide.

[Jack M]

[ThePeonsChamp]

Can't wait to see the footage it looks intriguing. Whenever I see footage of skwalers it looks so clean and effortless. 

[lowrider]

You keep  posting stuff like this and someone is going to have you certified and I do not mean as an instructor !

[SunSurfer]

"What if...?" can take you to interesting places. 

[SunSurfer]

This trip being cut short by an emergency at home. My first Covid infection, fortunately mild and with no obvious post Covid issues, took out last week. So Frankenboard hasn't been out for another play.

[lowrider]

Been sick twice on ski vacations and all I can say is it is a hell of a lot nicer to recoup in your own bed! Once was in an expensive cabin but didn't find out how much it cost till I got home. I felt even sicker then. Stay well and tinker on !!