What about crowdy slopes.......

Post by **hansvanraaij** » Saturday 6 February 2010, 17:56

Hello there,

I am new here and I am strongly thinking about buying a Swoard Extremecarver. The last years I rode a Nidecker Proto.
It's great to see the beautiful turns in the movies, but for me reality is a bit different.
When I am on winterholiday the slopes are mostly crowded and the slope is not that nice......
What about snowboarding with a Swoard then ? With my Proto I can 'slalom' (with a radius nearly 8 meter) and find my way.
How's that with a Swoard ?
And how easy (or difficult) is the step from a Proto to a Swoard.

I hope there somebody out there who can answer these questions...

Best Regards

Hans

Post by **Arnaud** » Saturday 6 February 2010, 20:22

Hi Hans

I tried last year the Nidecker Proto and found that board nice. I think there is not a big step between Proto and Swoard. Maybe Proto is more versatile in bumps and wet snow, but the Extremecarver is much more better for carving.
Reagrding the crowd on the slope, to take best benefit from a Swoard you should consider to find uncrowded resorts

Post by **Hans** » Sunday 7 February 2010, 2:23

No problem to ride the Swoard on crowded slopes and/or narrow pists.

I have owned both boards. The Swoard is an easy board to ride. The Nidecker is the best board when it comes to narrow slalom carves with fast edge to edge.

The Swoard is the better (EC) carver of the both due to its longer radius.

So when you want to ride a board for only crowded slopes stay with your Nidecker.

Post by **nils** » Sunday 7 February 2010, 10:49

a bit strange question: the answer is what board is able to get out of a carve without trouble to avoid a skier... i guess both the Proto and the ECarver can perform this, but i haven't tried the Proto for a long time..

Also one thing to consider is that the given radius for the Ecarver is in real much shorter if you push the board hard ( the 175 theorical radius is 13m but in power EC you can divide it by 2 ( i'll try to shoot a small vid soon showing this)... same goes for the 168 and 161.

Nils

Post by **Transistor Rhythm** » Sunday 7 February 2010, 21:11

The Swoard is not a race board. I rode both my Swoard and a Hot Blast of similar radius on the same slopes but the Swoard needs only half the speed to come alive and will cut short the radius if you push it more easily. Also if you pull up your legs you can break out of any turn and change direction.

It's one of the best boards to make the switch from softboots because it's wider and softer but very eager and stable to make carves at the same time. I've noticed most 'freestyle' boards are more stiff than the Swoard is.

I would not like to ride my Swoard in very crowded conditions because I do not like to have it scratched. People with rented boards and bought identities just don't care

Post by **Track** » Monday 8 February 2010, 16:01

Hi Hans,

Just joined here as well. I had the same questions about usability on less than perfect or crowded slopes. Finally I decided to take the plunge and this weekend I ordered a 175M Swoard.

From what I've read on all kinds of forums and talking to other carvers the Swoard is actually more easy to ride than most dedicated carve-boards.

When are you going on holidays?

Regards,
Track

Post by **István** » Monday 8 February 2010, 20:46

Well, some people might hate me for saying this, but on crowded slopes the type of board that is easy to handle is a relatively short and narrow slalom type of board with a short radius. Fast edge to edge, turning on a small radius - that is what you need when you have to dodge many people.

I think a Swoard is just the opposite of this: slower edge to edge and bigger radius.

But of course: you can ride any board anywhere if you like it.

Wide board rulez though in my opinion on steep slopes doing fully laid and linked turns.

Only my $.02.

Post by **starikashka** » Monday 8 February 2010, 21:34

István wrote:I think a Swoard is just the opposite of this: slower edge to edge and bigger radius.

Istvan, i would not say that i hate you but Swoard is also can be ridden in fast edge change style

You just need lot of practice in this particular excersise - fast edge changing with swoard

Post by **pokkis** » Monday 8 February 2010, 22:14

I would say that Swoard has not big radius, it is rather medium than big, so you can do some tight turns with that quite easily.
And edge to edge speed is always more to technic issue than board wide issue.
Wide boards are easier to handle on tight places than narrow ones.
I have 2 boards with all other spec equal but wide, other is 16.5 cm wide an other 23 cm wide, and for crowded day i certainly would pick wide one rather than narrow one, or that is exactly what i did in Zinal

Post by **István** » Tuesday 9 February 2010, 13:39

I see. So tell me guys then where and under what circumstances you would prefer to ride a narrower board? And I'm not talking here extremely narrow, skwal type of stuff, what I mean is just a bit below the current WC trend, so say instead of the 20cm WC boards, where and when do you ride something around 17-18cm (if at all)?

Cheers

Post by **benttech** » Tuesday 9 February 2010, 13:44

I agree with Istvan. If its a crowded day, and I guess we all have different defintions of whats crowded, the only board I would take out is my 158 slalom board and do light carving and be very very careful, wait when skiers go down and the slope is more empty, or find a slope where no one rides.

I would never take out the Swoard and try to do some real carves, it is just too dangerous to get hit or hit somebody when locked in a carve.

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What about crowdy slopes.......

What about crowdy slopes.......

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