Softboot carving to ExtremeCarving in France

[nicholaswmin]

Hello,

2 questions:

Whats the difference (or similarity) between G-force carving and ExtremeCarving?

I'm a softboot carver. What's the progression gonna look like to get into ExtremeCarving?

And most importantly, where do I get a proper ExtremeCarving instructor in France? I coach for SBX race carving and the Extremecarving style is not something you mention to a race coach.

Are hardboots an absolute must? its gonna be hard tweaking/fixing specialised equipment. Is it ridiculous to do softboots on a Swoard?

Regards from Cyprus/France,

[fivat]

Hello Cyprus and welcome!

You can read here in the FAQ the original definition of "extremecarving" (or "Extreme Carving", or "ExtremeCarving", or "EC", as you want, but it is inspired from the word "freeriding" in one block) that we created in 2002. It's a whole concept about ride technique, snowboards, setup, modified gear, and philosophy. We developed the ride technique thanks to the Swoard boards, and reciprocally.

Then the word "extremecarving" has been overused. Riding on the edge (no skidding) is simply carving: the body is inevitably inclined toward the center of the turn, just like on a bike. There are also obsolete words that are used in the chaotic social networks. The G-force is what anybody can experience in a turn (if you remember your physics lessons from school ). Well, with the ride technique that I developed with Jacques, we use the centrifugal force to recover from the laid turns. It's a question of good timing (with all the rest: rotation, "push-pull", ...).

Though we used (and are still using) alpine gear for making EC (to get more power, dynamics and precision), it has become possible to carve nicely with softboots for 15 years. Actually, in 2009 there was probably only Swoard and Dupraz making snowboards for carving with softboots. As we were also softboots riders since day one, we released the "Dual" for off-piste and on-piste, with the EC technology coming from our alpine boards.

As we use no stiff hardboots (we modified the springs system and the plastics, until we made our own model with UPZ), and a quite smooth ride technique (inspired from surfing, not from racing in the gates), it has been natural to apply our EC concept to softboots gear.

Now, with the "Dual2" or the "Stoke", you can lay down and link the turns almost like with an EC alpine gear. It's not ridiculous but different. For carving an entire day, you may really prefer alpine gear.
Fully laid backside turns with softboots are rarely seen over Internet. At least not like Pascal, Taro, Seb or Xavier...
My favourite picture of Taro is below.
You can also watch this video from Pascal with his Stoke at the last "20th ExtremeCarving Session" (official video here).
Or Xavier with his Stoke here, or Seb with his Dual2 here.
In powder, you can see Vincent here.

Finally, you can get a nice instructor in France. See this post, and contact Seb: sebastien@swoard.com
He teaches with hardboots or softboots.

Remember that we love both gears, we are one family: poster below!

Patrice Fivat

[nicholaswmin]

Oh that's a pleasant suprise, hi Mr Fivat.

Excellent reply, you've covered a lot.
I'll be joining you and the rest of the team/community for the event in Zinal in Switzerland, late January, first time.
I've also just messaged Seb, many thanks for that contact.

[fivat]

Excellent, it will be a pleasure to welcome you in the family!

For the camps, you will be in good hands with Seb.

Have a nice autumn!

Patrice Fivat