"corbeau" wrote

transition. As far as actual runs go, I spend most of my time on the
longer blues trying to ride fast and smooth, forays offpiste but
inbounds in search of powder: Debbies and GoldNugget at Snoqualmie,
everything off Chair8 at Baker, all the long blues and sometimes easier
tree runs at Crystal and Stevens.

That being the case, what do you see as the tradeoff between a big-
mountain shape and some of the more turny tapered shapes?
...
I like the specificity of the big-mountain models and the Khyber but
wonder which direction people find most effective for the PacNWish
conditions.

After trying quite a few boards over the last couple of years, it looks like
I've found a happy compromise in a medium length, medium to high
stiffness board with a tight sidecut.

I find that carving smooth blue runs I can basically do on anything, and
the amount of fun I get out of it doesn't really depend all that much on the
board, but more on comfort in the boots, binding setup, board tune (edge
sharpness, bevel, wax). Of course, I'm not talking noodle pure freestyle
boards, but pretty much anything else just works. (mind you, I could not
say that in the beginning of last year - takes some practice to get to this
stage).

Now, what comes next is where the board actually does make a big
difference for me. Bumps - need a short, light, turny, grippy board. If I
don't have something close to that, plus bindings that allow considerable range
of motion, I just can't do it. With the Channel Titanium and Nidecker freeride
bindings I could not, for the life of me, no matter how hard I tried, take a run
directly under chair 6 at Baker top to bottom without _at least_ 2 stops to
catch my breath. I could do it in one mad dash on my Nitro Shadow and
TechNine bindings with even some energy left in me, and it was very
satisfying because stops kick me off my rythm, dissipate concentration and
generally suck.

Same goes for tree runs and steeper smooth parts. When dropping into
a chute, if I don't plan to just bomb it, I want a very turny crisp short board
with as much edge grip as possible.

Some other considerations: in PacNW, perfect wide open groomed runs
are pretty scarce (Alpine Meadows comes to mind as a example where
they are plentiful). I find that on a really grippy stiff big freeride board I'm
just way too fast and have to hold back too much times for the sake of safety
(mine and others on the slope). This is quite frustrating, and a turny board
helps alleviate that - I can experience higher lateral accelerations at lower
speeds. The run under chair 8 at Baker (Daytona) is a good example - it
was quite a struggle for me this Sat on a BX board, it needs way too much
speed to get into the comfort zone. With all the beginners and skiers around,
I just coulnd't open it up as much as it deserved to most of the time. Oh, and
the Chute (the natural half-pipe close to the base of mid-station of lift 1) was
simply a disaster - I had to sideslip almost the entire length of the pipe itself,
not enough room/skill/strength/range of motion to turn that monster in two-three
boards wide rock lined icy path at 30+ degrees.. Quite humiliating considering
all the people on the lift watching you struggle with it

The boards that might fit your carving needs.. I'd recommend to try
Nitro Darkhorse, Shogun or Naturals, Prior MFR, Salomon Fastback,
or, if you can find it - Palmer Carbon Circle (looks like Clutch is the closest
analog of CC this year).