Beginner, what to buy?

[István]

Nils,

Indeed it is a good idea, that was my first thought when the Ti came out. But then I could not find the Ti bails on Bomberonline as parts separately sold. I think we once discussed this matter on the forum back then.

I just checked it again and it is still not available. What's your trick, Nils, how did you do it?

All I found is a funny pic on the Bomberstyle carving.... hands on the snow, board in the air.... try to copy this!

Cheers,

István

[raphael]

Istvan > we sure all like it has a hobby like you.
You are right: if he dreams of TDs there is no reason for us to discourage him.
But if he just needs some bidings, there is no reason to push him to spend all his money.

My point is, realizing one dream is good.
But realizing a small dream every year lasts much longer.

You can't imagine how happy i was, the first time i bought my first own board (even if it was second hand). Next year it was my first own boots, and i was really happy too. Next year, my first brand new board and it's my first swallowtail too, i love it. You see i don't have the perfect board yet, but i still make my dreams come true. And with every new piece of equipement i really feel it helps my progresses. Next thing i do, i buy a swoard

Well i guess my dreams are more about technique than equipement

Though i never tried them I'm sure F2's are good. F2 is doing real serious racing stuff. They are german so they will be easier for you to find. Go for these.

1. In fact they are Austrian, which makes a big deal of a difference..

Oops, diplomatic incident

But I agree that it shouldn't be necessary to buy an expensive binding, I'd say F2 stuff will do fine. I guess the effect of bindings on the riding is often exaggerated.

Well i think the same. It certainly is not as important as board width, sidecut or flex.

2. I'm quite distrustful about carving instructors. Most of them don't know what this carving thing is all about, teach wrong techniques (for instance racing technique = counter-rotation) or try and convince you to give up hardbooting (see www.alpinecarving.com).

I think its changing a little nowadays. Plus, rememeber he is a beginner, even if he is not taught academic swiss-style, it may be useful anyway. Teaching to a beginner is not easy, i can tell (i began teaching my girlfriend last year). Instructors know how to do that. And they teach you how to ride with security in mind (at least i hope they do).

I'd prefer a) talking to a guy on piste whose style you really like and ask him to give you some advice

This is how i went back to alpine

b) meeting with the people here in the forum (ECS?). There's also a german forum (don't dare to write the URL here) which organises meetings a couple of times every year, soft- and hardbooters together, at one of which two of us have given some improvised carving lessons last year.

It sure may help, but it may aswell not be enough if the beginner's level is to low.

c) watching the videos carefully and having yourself filmed as well.

I'm sure being filmed is good.
Because just watching J&P's videos is not enough.

For example it took me 3 years to really see what they're doing. I needed to experience the mouvement in my body before i could see what others where doing. Every year i see the videos differently. At first they were only motivating me, whatever hard i tried i couldn't learn from them, but they set my goal: "i want to do that !"... Now i only begin to really learn from them. The first videos i understood and which helped me are the basic technique videos (i really recommend mastering them) ( https://www.extremecarving.com/tech/tech.html ).

Anyway, I'm sure you can learn faster than i did, because these years i didn't snowboard a lot and almost never with other hardbooters. Riding with others and commenting on each other really helps a lot.

[raphael]

All I found is a funny pic on the Bomberstyle carving.... hands on the snow, board in the air.... try to copy this!

OMFG

[tommaso2k]

Hi,

i have a pair of TD2 and i am happy with this binding but a good friend of mine has F2 Titanium and if i wont have my TD2´s already i would try to find a F2 Titanium via ebay. I dont like the spring mechanism of the rear bail of the TD2 because i really need to get used to it when i tried to slip into the binding the first season. The spring is to soft to keep the rear bail upright and always went down so i was not able to easily go into the binding. This is much better solver at the F2 Titanium where the bail can´t fall down. Anyway i get used to it and it is no major issue for me.

In regards to the training lessions i would recommend to come for some days to Zinal and ride with the masters together. They could give you some really good tips to improve your riding style. another option would be to meet with somebody from the forum who lives close to your home area. So you could get some training lessions as well from this guys.

Cheers
Thomas

[aventrax]

Thank u guys.

Tommaso, sorry, where is Zinal?

In regard my bindings, for a small difference between F2 titanium and bomber TD2 (60€), I'll buy last ones.

Bye
Matteo

[tommaso2k]

Aventrax,

Zinal is the home resort of Jaques, Patrice and Nils.
Every year they organize the ECS - the Extremecarving session in Zinal.
Just type in the search ECS or Zinal and you will find a lot of informations.
Check this website : www.Zinal.ch

Thomas

[István]

Raphael,

There is one line in your message that really caught my attention:

"For example it took me 3 years to really see what they're doing."

I think that this is really the point behind the complex but simple techinque they do and at the same time it also explains why it is so difficult to learn the techniqe without someone pointing out your weeknesses. You can watch the video and read the text a 100 times, understand push-pull and rotation, but there will still be hidden secrets - this is why a good teacher is essential.

My last experience in this neverending learning curve is that in March in Corvara Silber pointed out (thanks again Silber - as far as I can remember you just earned this golden advice on the previous weekend from Patrice... ) that in some cases I did not fully finish the frontside by the shoulders, hence the lack of dynamic rotation and edge preassure on the following backside. I felt that sometimes there was a problem, but it only came out when I went really deep on the backside, so I just did not pay enough attention, I thought it will go away automatically (but it did not) and hence did not figure out the root cause. Now that I know the root cause I can easily avoid it by consciously paying attanetion to it. So this is what a guy with good eyes can do to you, i.e. pointing out the mistakes that you would never figure out yourself.

So all in all Matteo, buy the stuff, hit the snow and try to talk to someone that really rocks. First it'll be easy to find someone that is far better than you, but then after a few seasons due to the extremely low number of extremecarvers the only location where you'll be able to learn is the regular EC event in Zinal and then once you'll be the one that rookies turn to when they start carving.....


Cheers,

István

[pokkis]

Prices: dont compare prices that way, you can get F2s also from eBay etc with nice price most i've ever paid is 130euros.
Plus accoring my understanding you need to vay VAT if you order staff outside of EU, so for me it would be:
(price of bindings + freight)*VAT and cause vat here is 22% hit would be bad
But dont get me wrong TD's are great bindings but as Catek, they are very costly here in Europe

[raphael]

in some cases I did not fully finish the frontside by the shoulders, hence the lack of dynamic rotation and edge preassure on the following backside.

Oh, i know that too.
I just understood it last winter. When finishing my frontside i looked forward to see where i would turn. This tends to make me de-rotate my shoulders. The only way to avoid it, is maintaining the shoulders rotated inside the turn while turning my head outside. This way i end up in egyptian position.
I read many times about the egyptian before, but that's when i got it.
And it was thanks to a session with CptCavern, another fellow swoarder.

[skywalker]

Prices: dont compare prices that way, you can get F2s also from eBay etc with nice price most i've ever paid is 130euros.
Plus accoring my understanding you need to vay VAT if you order staff outside of EU, so for me it would be:
(price of bindings + freight)*VAT and cause vat here is 22% hit would be bad
But dont get me wrong TD's are great bindings but as Catek, they are very costly here in Europe

Thanks Pokkis, now I don't have to type this words any more
http://www.boarderline.de/shop/assets/s ... 05d22.html Just an example of 1 Minute of search. There are better offers for sure.

One hint: Training in Switzerland nowadays is almost always with a good rotation technique. I watched a lot of professional trainers in different resorts and would recomment to try to find a trainer, who performs proper style himself. Maybe you even find a hardbooting trainer, like I know a few...

Welcome to the bright side BTW

skywalker

[aventrax]

Tnx Tommaso, hope I can be in Zinal for next EC Day, I have only to improve (learn ) english before go in swiss

Istvan, I hope to hit the snow very soon

Pokkis, VAT is included, I think.....I hope.....!!!