Heard Rumors..

[Abrax]

Guys,

Come to PCS in January... We have 3 hardbooter instructors and all will give some free carving lessons. We will not give up -> more hard instructors are there to come in the following years!

We will share our passion everywhere and we will flood the internet with all the positive energy which comes to us from snowboarding! This is a niche, right, but it is not going to die! Never!

[harald]

the teenagers are NOT constant customers: they get older or they easily change sport for something which seems new and fashion... like skiing with fat skis!!

Also old guys have started to use fat skis, although they are carving too. I hope to be strong and flexible enough to be able to touch the snow, even this winter. (I succeed to lay down my sail in windsurfing during jibes and 360 attempts so there is hope for ECing too) .

[Petr]

I think that alpine/hardboot snowboarding can get back on popularity, especially because of EC.

EC is something new, modern, and there is IMHO a market for at least two groups of people being potentially interested in EC:

• 1. Those who started with snowboarding as hardboot riders (ca. 15-25 years ago, like me ) and are now searching for new challenges.

• 2. Those from the softboot riders (also teenagers, yes), who are serious with the sport and search for improvement possibilities and fun.

People want to have fun and they want to be challenged. This is what EC offers (and besides that, it looks very cool, what people also care of), so I do not see a reason for why EC should not be a perfect candidate for the revival of alpine snowboarding. The potential is IMHO there. The "big" schools will follow (they are not setting trends, they follow them).

Petr


P.S. to Patrice and Etna:

I have also seen that Etna is a great spot for snowkiting - you "just let you get up by kite" and then you ride down. What would be then the result for the following equation (using SWOARD-Dual): EC+Snowkite = ( ??)

A little bit more here:

[Abrax]

When we've asked our SnowboardInstructorsandTrainersSociety for a possibility of creating a special group for hardboot snowboard instructors, they were truly interested. I mean that we were told that it is really possible to make papers on a hard board - with no problems on their side! So they are not that narrow-minded -> they see the potential too...

I think that the alpine snowboards will revive and there will be an explosive progression in the following years.
Look, we had 19 persons on our first PCS, 35 on the second and ... 67 on the third PCS list! Finally just 43 did come, but the snow conditions were really awful. Now we do have 30 on the list and the snow is even not here... I estimate about 70-80 persons coming this year.

Keep your head up!

[av_dumitrascu]

I have also seen that Etna is a great spot for snowkiting - you "just let you get up by kite" and then you ride down. What would be then the result for the following equation (using SWOARD-Dual): EC+Snowkite = ( ??)

A little bit more here:

I am very new in EC area, but I know I like my snowkite board to the softer side, twintip and equal stance...also, softest bindings and boots....So a Swoard Dual would be a total waste of $$$. I would buy any flexy TT and keep that Swoard specialized board for windless days
just my pov

[starikashka]

Carving in hardboots is for desperate maniacs. Only those can reach level of carving art that looks spectacular and breathtaking. Real desperate maniac is rare person it makes any hardboots business case less comercially attractive.

[licarver]

@Petr in volcano Etna 500 softbooters 10 hardbooters 5 snowkiters, but only one Swoarder

Thanks Patrice but i'm learning...

[keepTheSport]

I have had about 6 positive comments on the few times I have been in hard boots and they were all from young people 20s,one perhaps early 30s, including a couple of females oh yes and a rather conservative-type 60 ish skier...impressed by my angle-edge hold(obviously a lucky moment... )
Bear in my mind I'm pretty rubbish. So imagine the reaction to seeing some cool extreme-carvers

I think one of the young guys didn't really mean his comment in a complimentary way to me, stating that the only reason I was beating him down the (indoor) slope was that I was on the hard boot set up...Hahaha... what he didn't realise was it was slowing me down because I was having trouble staying upright,as it was only my first or second go on the board... bear in mind I ain't that fast anyway but he obviously thought he was...I must have dented his ego a bit...BUT it made him think about hard boots/alpine board

Personally, I think the market is going to grow.

BTW, love the video on snow kiting up Mt Etna..got my first kite a few Weeks ago...woo