What have you noticed at the Olympics Parallel Giant Slalom?

[fivat]

Well, slalom racing is very specific with different needs and ride technique. But here are some interesting (or funny) things which I noticed.
Feel free to add more things.

1) In men's race, the winner (Nevin Galmarini) is Swiss.

2) In ladies' race, the winner (Ester Ledecka, Czech racer) has also won the Ladies' Super-G... with skis!

3) No gold medal for the new .951.

4) Sylvain Dufour (French racer) had duct tape on the tongues of his .951 close to the toes.

5) Sylvain Dufour, 35 years old, got the amazing rank #4 while France is not supporting alpine snowboarding (and should be blamed).

6) Some racers had no plate on their board, like Zan Kosir (rank #3, Slovenian racer) if I watched well.

Patrice Fivat

[nils]

7. Russia, which has the biggest budget for alpine riders worldwide has paid the price for the Sochi doping scandal... Vic Wild and the other favorites didn't make it this time... Must have been a hard time for them

8. Kessler is almost out, with SG (congrats Sigi!) taking big lead...

9. F2 making a comeback.

[The Blitz]

4) Sylvain Dufour (French racer) had duct tape on the tongues of his .951 close to the toes.

For me look like .950, and the duck tape for the tongue ? (snow infiltration)



Lien

[fivat]

Indeed, probably snow infiltration.

I had no snow infiltration in my .900 for many years. But this winter I have this problem with my .951... Consequence: at -15 °C I got a frozen toe.

Patrice Fivat

[pokkis]

6) Some racers had no plate on their board, like Zan Kosir (rank #3, Slovenian racer) if I watched well.

Nope, he had AllFlex plate, top riders ride with plates

[fivat]

I knew you would say this.
You made a mistake. You wrote "top riders" instead of "top racers". It's not the same, the goal in a slalom is very specific.

Real top riders should not need any plate.
Actually it's more related to the board. A real good board, which is well designed and built, should not need any artifice or any plate to work properly.
Of course there are also the bindings: how the bindings are working with or against the board.

Now some racers are complaining about the weight. A few ones are already going to thinner plates (soon you will see no plate ), and even to lighter bindings (I have the example of a German racer using Redline instead of F2).

A well known racer told us he doesn't like plates because he thinks this is not the good way to bring young racers to the sport. How can you make this sport attractive when you have to spend so much money for the board, the boots, the bindings, and in addition the plate? Finally you get something heavy below the feet and you lose the feeling of the snow.

In a Swiss TV report about the Olympics, a lady racer said that outside the slalom she takes her soft boots for freerding and having fun. She doesn't ride alpine with plate for the fun.

Patrice Fivat

[pokkis]

Top riders i referred here topic, ie riders in Olympics.

[fivat]

Yes, but I write "top racers" instead.

This is not really the place to debate about this (not the topic), but plates are killing the sport in my opinion. They should be forbidden from racing, still in my opinion, in the same way as the rules for ski racing have been adapted with time (and in may other sports).

Patrice Fivat

[Vitaly]

had duct tape on the tongues of his .951 close to the toes.

it was Russian Dmitry Sarsembaev

[fivat]

In the picture posted by The Blitz above, you can see the gray duct tape of Sylvain Dufour.

In the case of Dmitry Sarsembaev, what are exactly these white strips?

Patrice Fivat

[denisb]

My guess is that the third hook was very loosely tightened because .951 are very unconfortable , so he puts a turn of duct tape over it to prevent intempestive opening...

Denis

[WinterGold]

Patrice, I know that you are a great guy and what you have done for the sport is really appreciated!
But this thread is disappointing. It is again (!!!) about drawing lines between different aspects of the same (!!!) sport.
We are a small community and we should stick together. Promote our sport and have fun! And not work on the (artificial) differences!

You prove in your initial post that you are not very interested in racing, because you made several mistakes. That is no problem. You don´t have to like this aspect of the sport yourself. But it is very important for the sport and you should respect it, especially as you are an important part of this great sport!

I will post my latest video in a new thread here. Guess what? The whole video is done riding plates ... and still, I had a lot of fun

Let´s celebrate life on the edge together!!!

[danger]

@Wintergold "Word".
Your Video is just frekin awesome.
I also have a lot of fun with my Plate and there is no better way on hard slopes to Ride!
@all - sylvains DuckTape - he uses it since years an still rides a 950. The reason is not because of Comfort!
Regards Frank

[olive]

It is again (!!!) about drawing lines between different aspects of the same (!!!) sport.

I'm sorry but I don't agree with you.
But first I have to tell you that I have absolutely no experience with plates.

In my opinion the carving technique promoted by Swoard is a different sport than slalom races with plates; I'm sure you would agree if I tell you that half-pipe is not the same sport as snowboard carving, although somebody not well informed would tell you it's the same sport, snowboarding!

The extremecarving technique is about carving the steepest slopes as effortlessly as possible, controlling speed and eliminating all parasite gestures.
Racing technique is about going down flat slopes as fast as possible while turning around poles. Even if the technique is impressive, I would not say that it is aesthetically pleasing or fluid.

So of course the gear better suited to either technique is not the same; you wouldn't enter a snow park with modules using a carving board.
What Patrice is saying is that extreme carving is better done with dedicated gear and that plates are unnecessary (and he has tested them).
And an important point he mentioned is the price; the problem with alpine snowboarding is that youngsters are not attracted. If you add Kessler board 1500 euros, plate 1000 euros and Mountainslope boots 900 euros, the price will repulse any of them.
Whereas it is possible to do extremecarving with soft boots and a Dual board (have a look at Matti's latest video)... Which might raise interest in alpine boards.

So talking about extremecarving (which is the title of this forum), I don't see the problem if Patrice's point is that there is no need to complicate matters when you can have much fun without unnecessary stuff...

[WinterGold]

olive, so you are also drawing lines between the disciplines and there are a lot of prejudices in your text - unfortunately

What I love about snowboarding is the diversity and I never considered that I am doing a different sport when I jump on my freestyle board. I love all aspects of this amazing sport! But if you want to call each discipline a different sport then go ahead - in the end that is just semantics ...

So race equipment and technique is just for flat slopes? You have never ridden with really good riders using race equipment or you would never say that. You can check the second riding scene in my latest video - it is a black slope, but of course you wouldn‘t like it!

About the whole pricing argument - that is so wrong, I don‘t even know where to begin ... just one example - you can get slightly used Vist plates for around 180€ all the time. So while it is not a cheap sport - in any discipline - it is not as expensive as you make it look like.

This thread is mainly about racing at the Olympics and not about extreme carving, as you suggest.

But you can keep digging trenches between the disciplines and point out all the „differences“.
And I will keep promoting our great sport as a whole and enjoy classic carving, extreme carving, powder riding, freestyling and all the other great aspects of this awesome sport!

Stay sharp and keep using those edges! And enjoy the snow!