angles to start carvers

[dbrsb]

My son wants to let a few of his friends who ride freestyle try his carving board. He wants to put flow bindings on the board. He will put the bindings on either a Burton Speed (210 waist) or a Burton FP (probably either a 180 or 190 waist). My questions are for such a set up and newbies to carving boards, how much should he be worried about boot overhang? What kind of angles should he set on the board for the bindings? How much of a difference between the front and rear angles should not be exceeded?

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks

Dick

[mackDan]

Try for around 45 or 50 degrees.

Its going to be a trade off of learning to just ride the board with the boots at a high angle (tough for all new ridiers), and the need to adapt to the higer angles to eliminate boot drag, and learn to drive the carve.

One might say that you could start with as small an angle as possible with no boot over hang (make sure no part of the boot/footplate/binding is overhanging the board edge). So on the 21.0 wide board you might get as little as 35 or 40 degrees depending on foot size.

If you go too low, the new rider may just continue to skid the board thinking they are on a freestyle board with hard boots. To much and it gets too intimidating.

[Justin A.]

Its not a really good Idea to put soft boots on an alpine board. I did it for a few seasons on an old Burton Amp, but I felt that I didnt have alot of control, and the board was sometimes riding me. I was still skidding all over and it felt like a terrible board. A better idea would be to change their stance angles on their own boards and bindings and have them try carving on those. Once they're hooked on carving that way, it will be easier to lure them into the alpine world. Even better, look for some demo gear?

________

PILOT

[Guest owaysys]

I started riding hardboots on a really wide board at 45, 45. It worked for a while and helped me transition between softboots and hardboots. as long as the board is wide enough, you might start them at that

[Bobby Buggs]

Simple equation, S+A=N

Softboots+Alpine board=

[Bricky]

dbrsb,

Why not try having the kids rent ski boots? That must be better than soft boots. Then use the proper angles.

Bricky

[Chris Houghton]

Unless your son wants to turn the others off of alpine for life, DO NOT use any kind of softboot bindings on an alpine board. Ugh, that really scares me.

Better to put plates on a freeride board.

[Raisputin]

a waist of 188 and I am pretty sure that I cannot get away with angles much less than 59/60 without overhang. Perhaps the new boots will change that when I get them, but I am not counting on it...

[veector]

A friend of mine who rides a freeride board wanted to try my alpine, since he has the same foot size and shape he used my hardboots too. I set the angles at 45 for him and he seemed to do alright. He said the first 2 or 3 runs were shakey but after that he got the hang of it. Id say it really depends on the riding ability of the people who are going to ride the board or how quickly they can adapt to the angles and narrower stance.