My Swoard Dual gen1

[AlexRomanov]

Hello everyone,

I just want to share my experience on my Swoard Dual gen1. yesterday and would appreciate any feedback/ideas about why this has happened, in order to avoid similar experience in the future.

First of all, the setup:

My current weight: 81kg (w/o the gear)
My current height: 183cm
Board: Swoard Dual gen1. 163
Bindings: F2 Carve RS (regular, not intec)
Boots: Deeluxe Track 225 with BTS
Binding angles: 45deg. front, 37deg. rear
Stance: set back, 49cm, as shown on the picture below

I went to close down the season yesterday to one of my local "snow hills" (as I call them, because they are really hills, with 50-100m vertical drop only). Typical spring-ish, icy hardpack (it was -9 at night, -2 in the morning when I rode).

I usually ride both the Extremecarver and Dual with hard boots, because I really don't want to purchase a second pair of boots (so far, the solution seemed fine to me). I always rode Dual with more relaxed binding angles (up to 35 deg. front, 25 deg. rear), and put bindings in the middle of the contact length, but this time I decided to try carving setup on Dual. I found stance with bindings in the middle of the contact length to be a bit wide for carving, hence I did a little setback (as shown in the picture). I've read here in the forum somewhere that other guys did a similar stance config on Dual to improve carving performance.

The day was going pretty well, I found this stance very suitable for carving, at the level almost comparable to the Extremecarver. I didn't do any laydowns, because of the narrow slopes at that particular hill, but I carved wide, side to side like I usually do at slopes that are less than 30m wide.

At one of my last runs, I did a wide carve as always, on one of the steeper sections, when suddenly I lightly hit something (a mogul, perhaps) when doing a frontside turn at ~50km/h, went off the edge and slid the next 20m on my stomach down. When I got up, I saw a little crack on the top sheet near the nose, at the same side that I was frontsiding on (see picture below):

I'd appreciate some feedback from more experienced riders, in order to avoid the same thing happening to the new board I'll purchase for the next season.

What might have caused that (except the mogul, of course)?

- A set back stance (making the nose longer)?
- A softer Dual nose, compared to the Extremecarver?
- Me being a little overweight for Dual 163?
- The age of materials (the board is 10 years old, obviously)?
- Hardboot setup on a soft board?
- Anything else?

Thanks!

Alex.

[Swoard team]

Hello Alex,

It seems small and probably only in the varnish.
You reply by yourself very well regarding the possible causes. One of them is your weight slightly above the limit 60-80kg for this board size. This is accentuated by the fact that you are using hardboots on this very soft board. And your height (183 cm) on this small board (with thus a small moment arm with the tip) is causing more deformation when you put weight on the tip.

If we could look closer, we could confirm you if only the varnish has been affected by the too strong deformation (shock with the mogul). Eventually the plastic of the topsheet? But the woodcore is probably intact. Write to our excellent customer service for an expertise: orders@swoard.com
One Dual2 (but rather in size 168 for your weight et height) could be a nice upgrade. Let's see what we have in stock, new or used. But again, your board seems still usable.

The Swoard team

[user]

similar happened to me 2 years ago. only difference, I was doing a faky carve with hardboots in soft snow... way more damage than yours, even the core.
If I where you, I'd put some epoxy at and under the breaking area, press and ride it with softies.

[Swoard team]

Despite the shock, the 10 years age and the too small size of board, the gluing seems to have resisted and the woodcore is intact.
Is there no space below the mark on top sheet?
We need pictures from the side if there is a small and visible space. Try to insert a flat screwdriver.
As said, please write to orders@swoard.com for expertise and explanations on how to apply epoxy (Blue Araldite) if necessary.

The Swoard team

[AlexRomanov]

@user: Sure, thanks for the advice! Already discussed the details with Swoard team!

Alex.