decent shop Netherlands (or should I go for the SWOARD...?)

[miket]

Hi there, my first post here....Does anyone know a decent shop in the Netherlands to buy new hardboots, carve-/raceboard. Or should I go for the swoard...?
My current setup is a F2 speedster with race titanium bindings (can still use them) and Burton race boots.
Active on a race/carve board for over 15 years.
Thanks!

[Hans]

Top Surf Vinkeveen: http://www.topsurfvinkeveen.nl/index.ph ... &Itemid=37

Wim Jacquet Amersfoort

Meestal Eurofun in Zevenhuizen ook wel.

[rcrobar]

Hello and Welcome

Or should I go for the swoard...?
My current setup is a F2 speedster with race titanium bindings (can still use them) and Burton race boots.
Active on a race/carve board for over 15 years.

With your experience I wouldn’t hesitate for a second to buy a Swoard, even if you had limited experience I would recommend a Swoard if you want to get into carving.

Even if you NEVER do ONE extremecarve you will not regret buying a Swoard, it is a VERY forgiving board that is a pleasure to ride when just cruising. I own two of the first generation ExCarvers a hard and a medium, I still love them both. The newest version has many improvements, but I still love riding my Generation #1.

If you are interested, here is a review I wrote several years ago, during my first season on a Swoard.

viewtopic.php?t=310

Hope this helps.
Cheers
Rob

[manuchill]

Top Surf Vinkeveen: http://www.topsurfvinkeveen.nl/index.ph ... &Itemid=37

Wim Jacquet Amersfoort: http://www.wimjaquetsports.nl/

Meestal Eurofun in Zevenhuizen ook wel.

Ben onlangs nog bij Wim Jacquet geweest en die hebben niet zo heel veel meer staan... Ze hebben bijv. de Deeluxe Track 700 nog niet eens staan, alleen de oude varianten nog...
Ze hadden ooit een kleine collectie F2 planken staan maar die staan er niet meer..
Dus ik zou je zeker adviseren om bij Topsurf of een ander te kijken
(eigenlijk moet je gewoon een swoard kopen )

[miket]

Thanks for he info...very helpfull. Been to topsurf nice people and prety good advise. They are even familiar with the "Swoard" The problem I have is buying it onine whitout seeing or touching the board. And an other thing is that I find the swoard big in comparison to a speedster. But I guess it is al about the radius to go more extreme. Personally I don't care about forgiveness of the board. Topsurf recommended the nidecker custom GS with a breadnife edge...But not available untill next week. Still questioning to buy a Swoard.

Cheers, Mike

[miket]

Hello and Welcome

Or should I go for the swoard...?
My current setup is a F2 speedster with race titanium bindings (can still use them) and Burton race boots.
Active on a race/carve board for over 15 years.

With your experience I wouldn’t hesitate for a second to buy a Swoard, even if you had limited experience I would recommend a Swoard if you want to get into carving.

Even if you NEVER do ONE extremecarve you will not regret buying a Swoard, it is a VERY forgiving board that is a pleasure to ride when just cruising. I own two of the first generation ExCarvers a hard and a medium, I still love them both. The newest version has many improvements, but I still love riding my Generation #1.

If you are interested, here is a review I wrote several years ago, during my first season on a Swoard.

viewtopic.php?t=310

Hope this helps.
Cheers
Rob

Thanks Rob...But I have trouble convincing myself to buy a bigger board. Do you have experience on a raceboard in comparison to the "swoard". If the situation is right I am able to go flat..but the radius is big and the end speed out of the turn is lower then the swoard (I guess)...Is this the main advantage?

Cheers, Mike

[Hans]

It's just apples and pears. That Nidecker is a nice and very fast edge to edge tracking raceboard. The Swoard is just a nice funboard. Due to the width relatively slow in edge to edge. But therefore nice in crud and deep snow and good in what its made for: extremecarving, the Swoard is an extremecarveboard with some nice allroundcharacteristics. It depends on what you want.....

[rcrobar]

Hello Milke, good to hear from you Hans

I think Han’s apples to pears comment is very fair and a good analogy.

I would add to Han’s analogy that depending on what ‘other’ board you may buy, the comparison could also be like a Green apple to a Red apple; they are different, but very similar. Example: It seems to me that a 21 cm wide board is getting be to more and more common these days. Depending on the size of your feet, the Swoard is 22 cm. For the weekend guy it should only take a run or two and you will forget about this ONE centimeter difference.

Mike, I don’t completely agree with you regarding your comments on board radius. There are so many factors that make a board turn a given way for a given rider. I would suggest to you that a board FLEX that matches your body weight is a KEY parameter, perhaps even more important than the radius. The ideal situation is to get a custom board, this can be very expensive or a long wait. One advantage to the Swoard is the several different flexes, designed to better match your weight. This approach of offering one model in several flexes is probably as close as you can get to a custom board from a factory . If your goal is to EC on ice, get a softer Swoard. If you love speed and cruising fast, get a stiffer Swoard, etc. Depending on your weight, the same board could be considered soft or hard.

I agree Mike, in a perfect world we would all be able to demo a several boards before we spend a bunch of money. All the many happy Swoard owners should give you some piece of mind that you would be getting a top quality product. Alpine buyers are lucky these days as there are A LOT of beautiful top quality alpine boards on the market today, Swoard is one of them. Maybe Swoard could be a good fit for you?

I hope this doesn’t make the choice harder.
Rob

[erik]

They are even familiar with the "Swoard" The problem I have is buying it onine whitout seeing or touching the board. And an other thing is that I find the swoard big in comparison to a speedster.

Hey Miket,

if you are not sure what to buy, just wait for another 2 months and join the next ECS!
There you can see, try and compare the Swoard.

And in case you wouldn't like the board , you will have had the time of your life in Zinal

[miket]

Thanks again for all valuable info....thanks Rob for the good clarification. And I agree that the radius is not the only thing that matters and that flex is even a more important factor and depending on the way you would like to use your board and fits your style.
Seems a good idea to join this years ECS....so I try to make it.

Cheers, Mike

[merkies]

Hi there,

If you want to see and feel the Swoard in The Netherlands, you can come to Breukelen and I'll show you mine. Nice board 4 sure.
I ride it next to Nidecker Concept, Nidecker Proto, Völkl Monocarver and a Rossignol X

saluT


tomas

[miket]

Tomas,
Thanks for the offer! A lot of nice boards. I am thinking of buying a Nidecker Custom but last week I had a long discussion with someone from VandenBerg surfing (they do all the test for snowboard magazine) and in the past I joined them on some extreme trips with Ozone. They are saying that a Burton T with the right setup should be equal to a hardboot setup like mine F2 speedster when it comes to carving...but more allround. I am curious how this feels, but I don't think this can replace a hardboot setup. This week I am going to do a testrun.
Can you tell me the difference between your swoard and nidecker custom?

Greetings Mike

[merkies]

Hi Mike,

Funny how everybody has his/her own opinion
Here's mine:
Most people board on prepared pistes and seldom go off piste or do freestyle but they buy boards that are made for off piste and/or free style. I think that is weird, but that's Marketing. I tried the stiffest softboot/binding combination on a piste and it was a nightmare I remember that i jumped into a frontside carve on high speed and it felt like my feet broke off my leg because the shoes/bindings do not absorb energy like hardboots do.
If you want to do carving and go off piste too buy a Nidecker Proto, a great board with unbelievable control on very high speed. If you want to be the coolest guy on the piste with extreme carving buy a Swoard or a Skwal
The Swoard is a total different board than the narrow race boards, it is wider and flatter. The first time i took it, it felt like a Ferrari, low en wide. The nicest thing about it is that it has so much grip in any carve that it becomes quite unbelievable. If you look at some video's on Youtube about the Swoard, it's like the board is beyond the rules of nature.
By far the nicest snowboard material lesson ever to me was what kind of material our guide had when we did a Chamonix/ Mont Blanc snowboard camp. He came in a fluoristic ski suit, with a Mistral board and plastic hardboots and our group thought it was a joke. In the week he showed us that skills are always more important than material. He did the most extreme things you can imagine on his 70's/80's equipment
I advise you to always keep your old stuff when you buy something new

You live far from TopSurf?

greeTz


tomas

[Transistor Rhythm]

This weekend I talked to a guy about snowboarding and he said he was riding in hardboots too. Then he said he had flowbindings....so when I questioned him further he thought he was riding hardboots because they were just as uncomfortable to walk in as ski boots and they always told him hardboots were very uncomfortable

[merkies]

I'm laughing my socks off