West Coast US movie

[james ong]

and a nice slope too.
I wonder if there are always so few people on slopes in West of US. If yes, it could be worth for a trip.

I hate to crowed slopes; but this one lookes really nice

Olaf

These shots were taken at mount rose which is in the tahoe basin on the Nevada side.
Midweek is uncrowded and grooming is quite good.

[yomama]

Jumping in quite late here but may I have the honor to introduce the two EC Masters of the West Coast who terrorize the local Mt Rose neighborhood.

Rob and James are two excellent carvers here in Tahoe and after watching the film, I have made a reservation for some private EC lessons with them. Hehe, better reserve now, the line up is long!!!

James is riding a clone of a Swoard (Donek) on steroid. It's a massive 2m long Swoard type of board.

There was a question that came up after we watched the movie. How come the Swoard 175 is spraying/roostailing a lot more than the Donek even though the Donek is a copy cat of the Swoard.

Is that because of
1) The Swoard flexes longitudinally a lot more so when it comes back to its original position, it results in big spray?
2) The Donek goes so fast that there is no time for spray?
3) Swoard ATC causes and effects?

I am curious on this as both riders use the same push/pull/roation technique.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks beforehand

Peter

[nils]

the spray comes a lot from how much pressure you put on the board during the push section of the turn. With a long board with a bigger radius, its harder to push the board as much as you do on a 175. Would be nice to see James try the shorter board to see if it comes also from each rider's technique.

Nils

[x-eff]

Could the spray come from the way the swoard's nose is shaped, also ?

If you look at some pictures of people carving a swoard, it is clear that the spray starts at the nose/edge transition.

[nils]

the shape of the nose is particular too.. and hard to copy hehe

Nils

[x-eff]

Anyway, the swoard ec ain't just an alpine board with an extra width.

As far as I understand it, the concept of the swoard is that it's been designed to have a particular shape when it's almost vertical on its edge, and bent by the rider/snow forces. This shape is a consequence of the width, sidewall radius, atc matrix design, longitudinal flex patern, torsional flex, etc.

So copying the flat shape of the swoard, adding an extra inch here and there or some flex to a race board won't be enough to "copy" a swoard.

And we're not even talking about adding any "steroid" to it...

Am I wrong ?

[nils]

its not just the shape (and even this is not easy to understand if you have the board.. subtilities .

Core, flex distribution, torsion distribution, nose entry, camber are all working together so the board works great when tilted vertically as well as for cruising and sliding the tail when needed.

[james ong]

Perhaps it's not accurate to say that the donek is a swoard clone.
It is similar dimensionally only in the waist width .
This was done as you can figure to accomodate lower angles.
The board is rated a 12 on his stiffness scale and also has a scr of 17 meters.
Rob rides much stronger and with more rotation than i do , we guess that the amount of rotation he imparts on the board causes the nose to hook up much better and thus the snow spray?
When i ride my 175M swoard i do throw up more spray, so maybe this is an indication that the board is optimised for your weight eh?

[nils]

interesting james... wondering what the 13.3m radius would be like on the donek...Care to order one so we can have a comparison?

Nils

[james ong]

I am alredy seeing an number of swoard "clones" around.
Fat is in!!

[nils]

We knew it was going to come back one day or another! Good news! We are fighting for now almost 4 years for the come back of widthness!

When people understand they can have easier fun on a wider carving board, half of the message has been given !



Nils

[gdboytyler]

interesting james... wondering what the 13.3m radius would be like on the donek...Care to order one so we can have a comparison?

I've got a 13m radius Donek (with Olympic construction) on order. It is 165 cm long with a 20.6 cm waist. I should get the board in about 10 days.

The Swoard 161M and Oxygen Proton 164 GS were the two boards that were the inspiration for my custom order.

I rode a friend's 161M (s/n 007) for a few days and really liked it (I'm 60 kg, mondo 24 boot). I was torn between bying a Swoard and getting a custom Donek.

I went with the custom because two of my friends have Swoards and I didnt' want us looking like triplets when we rode together

Also, I felt safer riding the Oxygen Proton at higher speeds. I think that was due to the Proton having the 13m sidecut versus 12m for the Swoard 161M.

[nils]

i remember the flex of my 172 proton was very different from the 175 extremecarver... The proton nose flex pattern is very soft, and the tail if very stiff. Meanwhile the extremecarver has a very parabolic flex pattern with symetrical reactions... this could explain why the ride of the proton ( which was karine ruby design for the Nagano olympics) is different ( she used it as SL and used the 168 in GS.
I also liked the stability of the proton at high speeds...
but stay tuned: we'll show you next season that an extremecarver can be taken fast too!

[Frankie]

I've ridden many boards this season and found that none worked as well for ec than the Swoard.
Frank