Sounds like BS to me... (noob equipment question)

"Baka Dasai" wrote in message
...
On 5 Apr 2004 18:46:12 -0700, Jules Agee said (and I quote):
I'm actually planning to switch to hardboots and a custom all-mountain
board as soon as I can afford it...

Cool, another one switching to the dark side. We've already got Arvin
safely in our clutches, despite his "I'm still a soft-booter"
protestations. Hooked like a guppy.

So, anyone ever tried hard boots + duck stance?

Sorry, sorry. Couldn't resist.

Keith

On Tue, 06 Apr 2004 10:04:03 GMT, Baka Dasai
allegedly wrote:

Cool, another one switching to the dark side. We've already got Arvin
safely in our clutches, despite his "I'm still a soft-booter"
protestations. Hooked like a guppy.

I whacked my angles up to 54/24 for a run down to base at Jackson Hole on
the greens at the bottom. Found it suprisingly fun - but I wouldn't want
to ride like it all day :-)

- Dave.

--
The only powder to get high on, falls from the sky.
http://www.vpas.org/ - Snowboarding the worlds pow pow -
Securing your e-mail

The Snowboard FAQ lives here - http://rssFAQ.org/

was awful; on heelsides, I'd often be overcommited into the turn and
would smack my tailbone on the ice. So I eventually switched to a more

My guess would be that when you were in the duck stance, you couldn't
get enough edge angle using purely your lower body, so you bent
forward at the waist? One of the tips my girlfriend got was to push
out her belly on heelsides to keep toes-hips-shoulders more or less
stacked on the edge instead of bending at the waist to let hips drop
inside the edge and shoulders to go outside the edge to balance. It
seemed to be working great for her.

I use 30/21 and can carve reasonibly well on my softboots. That's the
stance I know and am comfortable with, so I likely won't change it...
but based on what I saw, I don't see any disadvantage for carving
turns from a duck stance. If you like the duck better, maybe go back
to it and try to generate more angle just from ankles and knees.
Bending your knees more for each turn and increasing the angle on your
highbacks should help.

"Keith" wrote in message ...
"Baka Dasai" wrote in message
...
On 5 Apr 2004 18:46:12 -0700, Jules Agee said (and I quote):
I'm actually planning to switch to hardboots and a custom all-mountain
board as soon as I can afford it...

Cool, another one switching to the dark side. We've already got Arvin
safely in our clutches, despite his "I'm still a soft-booter"
protestations. Hooked like a guppy.

So, anyone ever tried hard boots + duck stance?

Sorry, sorry. Couldn't resist.

Keith

Actually, I HAVE heard of someone who tried that. I met my
girlfriend's classmate a week ago and she mentioned that she borrowed
an old school asymmetrical board with plate bindings from a friend
(choosing this over regular boards bceause it was free and she could
use her ski boots). Because her knees are really warped, they gave her
a duck stance with like 15/-15 angles. Needless to say she had serious
overhand issues with lots of toe drag. But she actually stuck with it
for 5 days of riding this season - managed to do a total of 3 links
turns after lots of falling and sliding. She ought to get a free
beginner board and bindings just for going through that effort.

--Arvin

(Jason Watkins) wrote in message . com...
was awful; on heelsides, I'd often be overcommited into the turn and
would smack my tailbone on the ice. So I eventually switched to a more

My guess would be that when you were in the duck stance, you couldn't
get enough edge angle using purely your lower body, so you bent
forward at the waist? One of the tips my girlfriend got was to push
out her belly on heelsides to keep toes-hips-shoulders more or less
stacked on the edge instead of bending at the waist to let hips drop
inside the edge and shoulders to go outside the edge to balance. It
seemed to be working great for her.

I use 30/21 and can carve reasonibly well on my softboots. That's the
stance I know and am comfortable with, so I likely won't change it...
but based on what I saw, I don't see any disadvantage for carving
turns from a duck stance. If you like the duck better, maybe go back
to it and try to generate more angle just from ankles and knees.
Bending your knees more for each turn and increasing the angle on your
highbacks should help.

Interesting. Yeah, I was bending at the waist, keeping my CG more over
the edge instead of keeping the hips/torso straight and getting even
more overcommitted into the turn... the ankles only bend so far, the
knees only extend so far. Sticking the belly out on *heelsides*???
Good advice for duck-stance toeside turns, I think, but are you sure
that's what he said? That sounds really odd to me. But your girlfriend
does hard, fast, turn-on-a-dime heelside carves in duck, huh?

Switching to a 30/21 stance and steering more with the knees made such
an incredible performance improvement for me that I'm skeptical that
duck could possibly be as good for hard, fast (fun!) heelsides. But if
you've seen your GF make heelside carves like that, then I'll see if I
can find an instructor that rides duck next time I'm in softboots. I'm
curious what I was missing... cranking down the highbacks helped some,
but then I couldn't stand in a relaxed position and I got tired
quickly.

I just picked up some Raichle 123 hardboots and Burton rat-trap race
plates for next to nothing. I suspect that 45/50 or higher will be
more comfortable than 30/21 and give even better carving/moguls/trees
performance. Probably less comfortable than softboots in duck, but it
also seems like hardboot carving style uses larger, stronger muscle
groups, and that's a comfort factor too.

Anyway, thanks for your input, Jason.

Jules Agee wrote:

I just picked up some Raichle 123 hardboots and Burton rat-trap race
plates for next to nothing. I suspect that 45/50 or higher will be
more comfortable than 30/21 and give even better carving/moguls/trees
performance. Probably less comfortable than softboots in duck, but it
also seems like hardboot carving style uses larger, stronger muscle
groups, and that's a comfort factor too.

Another one over to the dark side. Bwahahahaha!

Neil

PS picked up a 2001 Tanker 200 off ebay for cheap, just arrived. No
snow to test this beeyotch out but it looks like too much fun...

Good advice for duck-stance toeside turns, I think, but are you sure
that's what he said? That sounds really odd to me. But your girlfriend
does hard, fast, turn-on-a-dime heelside carves in duck, huh?

Hey, don't exaggerate what I said . She went from windsheild
whipering her way down to carving solid, clean turns. But, she does
still stick to medium size turns, so I wouldn't say she's doing hard,
fast, turn-on-a-dime.

The idea of pushing the belly out on the heelside is so that your butt
is more tucked in over the edge. You'd want to pull your toes up as
well, and bend your knees. The limit of the position would be your
board tip'd up on edge maybe 75 degrees, and your butt sitting against
the highbacks. As long as that butt stays tucked in, you can lean into
the turn a bit more without washing out and falling on your butt.

Switching to a 30/21 stance and steering more with the knees made such
an incredible performance improvement for me that I'm skeptical that
duck could possibly be as good for hard, fast (fun!) heelsides. But if
you've seen your GF make heelside carves like that, then I'll see if I
can find an instructor that rides duck next time I'm in softboots. I'm
curious what I was missing... cranking down the highbacks helped some,
but then I couldn't stand in a relaxed position and I got tired
quickly.

I don't know first hand, but I trust the coach that was giving the
tips. He rips on hardboots, and said he rode duck on softboots as well
and liked it for carving turns.

I just picked up some Raichle 123 hardboots and Burton rat-trap race
plates for next to nothing. I suspect that 45/50 or higher will be
more comfortable than 30/21 and give even better carving/moguls/trees
performance. Probably less comfortable than softboots in duck, but it
also seems like hardboot carving style uses larger, stronger muscle
groups, and that's a comfort factor too.

Sounds exactly like what I did. I wasn't so impressed by riding a
boardercross board in the 123's, but now that I've tried a couple real
alpine boards with a better set of boots (423's), I get it, and it's a
lot of fun. I imagine I'll be spending almost all summer and most of
next season in hardboots.