From the reviews, the Swoard seems to be a very versatile board.
Has anyone tried out the Swoard on slopes where it is too steep to carve and you have to do jump turns? How about riding a Swoard in a steep and narrow chute? If the you don't like the Swoard in these conditions, what kind of board would you use?
Does the Swoard really do it all except for really deep powder?
Inquiring minds want to know.
GdBoyTyler
How does the Swoard ride in the steeps?
Moderators: fivat, rilliet, nils
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gdboytyler
- Rank 4
- Posts: 52
- Joined: Sunday 21 September 2003, 8:59
- Location: San Pedro, CA, USA
Powder even too!
Hi I can tell you one thing, I have the Swoard 175 M and the first hours I rode it, the slopes where not prepared after a snowstorm! 
I could ride the Swoard very easy trough the deep snow (about 40 cm). 
So I do not know what you mean bij deep powder but even that is possible. 
If it is too steep to carve or turn normaly
so you have too use jump turns is possible with the Swoard but I advise you to use another board that is shorter and lighter, a shorter board is easier to jump turn in my opinion! 
This is just a word, listen too more people to get the whole picture, any comment!!!!???!!
Greetz Dènis
I could ride the Swoard very easy trough the deep snow (about 40 cm). So I do not know what you mean bij deep powder but even that is possible. If it is too steep to carve or turn normaly
so you have too use jump turns is possible with the Swoard but I advise you to use another board that is shorter and lighter, a shorter board is easier to jump turn in my opinion! This is just a word, listen too more people to get the whole picture, any comment!!!!???!!
Greetz Dènis
What is steep for you? Steep starts for me at 40°, and this is already a degree of steepness where riding mistakes lead to possibly grave problems.
So it depends:
If you go regularly on high alpine tours with difficult steep descents the Swoard is probably not ideal as it is quite long (I am using the 175M). But this is not a problem of the Swoard itself but of length. I would prefer a shorter board for jump turns.
But the length will in my opinion only be a real problem for steep and narrow couloirs - of course I will try to avoid a long board when it matters to do clean short jump turns and mistakes are not tolerated.
Howevery, for occasional riding in steep but wide pistes I already used the Swoard and was perfectly happy. If you are an advanced EC rider you will even love steep slopes as long as they are wide enough to do laid turns.
The Swoard also works really beautifully in moderate powder - because a Swoard is quite long and wide compared to normal race boards. For a real freeride day though you might want to use a real freeride board, too, that has an appropriate nose and tail. With a Swoard you need to put more weight on the back foot as the nose is not very much "bend up".
So, if you are mainly a carver on normal pistes, but want to ride occasionally offpiste or really steep descents the Swoard will work perfectly for you. If you do a lot of freeriding get yourself a second board.
Greetings, Eduard.
So it depends:
If you go regularly on high alpine tours with difficult steep descents the Swoard is probably not ideal as it is quite long (I am using the 175M). But this is not a problem of the Swoard itself but of length. I would prefer a shorter board for jump turns.
But the length will in my opinion only be a real problem for steep and narrow couloirs - of course I will try to avoid a long board when it matters to do clean short jump turns and mistakes are not tolerated.
Howevery, for occasional riding in steep but wide pistes I already used the Swoard and was perfectly happy. If you are an advanced EC rider you will even love steep slopes as long as they are wide enough to do laid turns.
The Swoard also works really beautifully in moderate powder - because a Swoard is quite long and wide compared to normal race boards. For a real freeride day though you might want to use a real freeride board, too, that has an appropriate nose and tail. With a Swoard you need to put more weight on the back foot as the nose is not very much "bend up".
So, if you are mainly a carver on normal pistes, but want to ride occasionally offpiste or really steep descents the Swoard will work perfectly for you. If you do a lot of freeriding get yourself a second board.
Greetings, Eduard.
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gdboytyler
- Rank 4
- Posts: 52
- Joined: Sunday 21 September 2003, 8:59
- Location: San Pedro, CA, USA
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nils
- Swoard founder
- Posts: 3043
- Joined: Friday 22 March 2002, 19:22
- Location: Lyon, France - Swoard team
- Contact:
steeps!
You mean a couloir above 40°, ok its steep but its not what we call a carvable slope 
.
What we call steep, for EC, is something in the 30-35° which is already a lot when you want to lay down carves.
Above 35 it begins to put so much pressure on the edge that the end of the carve is very tricky and i would not risk myself at trying to link laid turns then.
Over 40° you enter the skidturns dimension, and well..the Swoard goes well like all boards, depending on snow conditions etc..
Over 50° you enter the extreme ski dimension where the jump turns are mandatory and everyturn make you loose like 3-4 meters in height.
In those (been only once in a 50° and did not like it so much), the edge grip is likely to be better on an alpine than a freestyle board, thus the reason why extremesnowboarders in couloirs use often alpine equipment.
The swoard is wide, meaning you get lower angle and get more pressure under the feet to bury the edge, so i guess i'd prefer to use the swoard than a narrower race board. Downside it will be less quick to turn (more inertia)....
Hope this helps!
Your couloir there is in the 55-58° range it is STEEP
Like this one http://www.tvmountain.com/topo/neige/gervaronde1.htm
but who wants to ride those anyway!
Nils
.What we call steep, for EC, is something in the 30-35° which is already a lot when you want to lay down carves.
Above 35 it begins to put so much pressure on the edge that the end of the carve is very tricky and i would not risk myself at trying to link laid turns then.
Over 40° you enter the skidturns dimension, and well..the Swoard goes well like all boards, depending on snow conditions etc..
Over 50° you enter the extreme ski dimension where the jump turns are mandatory and everyturn make you loose like 3-4 meters in height.
In those (been only once in a 50° and did not like it so much), the edge grip is likely to be better on an alpine than a freestyle board, thus the reason why extremesnowboarders in couloirs use often alpine equipment.
The swoard is wide, meaning you get lower angle and get more pressure under the feet to bury the edge, so i guess i'd prefer to use the swoard than a narrower race board. Downside it will be less quick to turn (more inertia)....
Hope this helps!
Your couloir there is in the 55-58° range it is STEEP
Like this one http://www.tvmountain.com/topo/neige/gervaronde1.htm
but who wants to ride those anyway!
Nils