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How about short boards?


Ray(ottawa)

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I know you guys with big mountains in your backyards like to cruise around on long boards, but at the local areas where I ride, if you are on anything over 170cm, you might get in 10 turns from top to bottom and either end up going real fast or skidding because the runs aren’t wide enough to complete the turns. Whenever I go to Mont Tremblant or Mont Blanc in Quebec, I see riders on boards that look to be about 155cm or shorter, and they are laying down amazing tight turns with perfect c-shaped grooves. Seems to be the answer to narrow or crowded runs. If any of you ride these short boards, what length and sidecut radius are you using? What are the disadvantages to these boards? For what it’s worth, even on a good day when my riding doesn’t suck too badly, I can’t come close to staying in their tracks on my 163cm Volkl.

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I used to ride a nitro scorpion 155 which feels quite a bit shorter than the 164 or whatever the next length is up from that, and the 164 and my oxygen 178 are not significntly different in space they take up on the mountain.

THe short slalom boards are a blast to ride; the key is to get one which is for slalom, and then it will turn really quick underfoot and the cat tracks become a lot more carveable, as do the flatter runs.

You ride them slower for the most part IMHO but they handle well.

In NZ at a lot of fields you could not really ride a 178 or a 197 because the runs get very narrow and bumpy, the slalom boards are great in moguls and narrow runs.

The disadvantages; they don't like ultra high speed; I suspect that laying long drawn out turns is not so good because they turn faster than that; they can get worse edge hold, although that depends a lot on technique; they are a bit more sensitive to weight distribution and thus less forgiving sometimes. They can submarine a bit more in chop and slop.

Definitely a worthwhile second ride on a smaller hill.

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for the first time sat. originally intended as a rock board, it was a real blast, tons of pop. i guess shorter sidecut has you turning more and maybe a bit more tiring, but crazy human slalom at my local hills. SCR = 8.18

plus smaller boards you can probably decamber more?

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:eek: Rob can carve some pretty tight lines on his 185, I know, I'm one of the alleged "16x" riders..... :D We really do have narrow runs on our home mountain, it gets crowded quick and you've gotta keep your head on a swivel to avoid being run into or running someone over. I ride a F2 Silberpfiel 168 and a 178 Burner most of the time and don't really seem to have any problems carving through/around traffic. I've sold quite a few 163 Tigers to people and they all claim they are pretty "turny" boards so I'm surprised that board doesn't perform better for you. Something with a tighter SCR might be helpfull, but that 163 should have about a 9.15 SCR and that's pretty tight. Also board stiffness can be an issue, but again that Tiger has a relatively soft flex. Maybe try something with a narrower waist, this will make it easier to transition from edge to edge effectively give you more "turning" ability. The 158 Tiger has a 8.8 SCR and the 153 has a 8, that may be the solution to your situation...?

Good luck,

Paul

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The shortest board I own is an Oxygen Proton 149 SL with a 8.5m SCR and 19.5 cm waist. I ride it when the runs are icy or really crowded. It's just so much easier to keep the speed under control on a short board.

In So Cal, the runs don't get really icy very often, so I don't ride the 149 very often. The biggest drawback is it's less stable at higher speeds. Also, the 8.5m SCR makes it harder to do eurocarves.

I normally ride a Donek FCII 163. It has a 10m SCR and 19.5 cm waist. For the small resorts in So Cal, the 10m SCR feels just right. But when I rode the Donek at June Mountain, where the runs are longer and wider, I felt the limits of the 10m sidecut. When I was hauling a$$, the board just didn't feel stable.

At June Mountain, after a half day, I switched from the Donek 163 to my Oxygen Proton 164 GS. It has a 13m SCR and 19.5cm waist. The bigger sidecut on the Proton made a huge difference in feeling stable at high speeds.

With the Proton 164 GS, I haven’t gone fast enough yet to feel that I needed any additional length. There aren’t many boards like the Proton GS that is fairly short but with a big side cut radius.

With the 12 other carvers at June that day, I was riding the shortest board.

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compared to ours? We should march it off the next time we're up and see how they stack up. Ray can you direct us to the website for the mountain you ride? If the runs are really narrow you could very well need a smaller board, but I agree with Ralann about the stiffness and SCR being what I would try first. Let us know,

Paul

p.s. Thanks for the props Rob...where do I send the $20 bucks???.... :D

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