I was riding freestyle board for 4 years. This year I first saw carvers and extremecarvers close. That made me sick about carving. I've sharpen edges on my freestyle board, so I could make turns on piste. But it wasn't so easy because our mountain slopes are extremely bumpy. So, when you're in piste at an extreme angle and get into little bump - you're flying out of piste and losing control. A month ago I have injured my knee seriously while making some freestyle trick - so, next year I'm going to buy a carving board. And I'm worrying much about how carving board will go on our bumpy slopes. Is it really hard to control a carve on bumps or not? Which type (and brand, probably) of board would you suggest me?
Btw, once I tried a freeride board - it was much-much more easier to control it on bumpy slopes, but board edges were not so sharp - so I could not really carve. And also this board was 5 or 10 cm longer than my freestyle board. I suppose it's would be better to take a little bit longer and more stiffier carving board.
Riding on bumpy slopes
Moderators: fivat, rilliet, Arnaud, nils
About board suggestion: in this message board Swoard is must, no. 1, then everything else comes 
More seriously: if you can afford Swoard, then go for it, it is well worth of money. But if your budget is tight, then go for some other freecarving board.
Bumps: what kind of bumps you are talking about? Bumps, which appear in afternoon on slopes due to riding or natural terrain bumps (moguls)? In first case you should be first on morning on slopes and ride until its possible, then switch board for freeriding or go to after-ski party. Of course if those bumps are not very big and snow is lightweight, then it is possible to some extent carve through them, but it is not very pleasant experience, especially when you want to do extreme carving, injury possibility (dislocated shoulder or broken finger) is quite high in such case. On bumpy conditions race-like style works better (i.e. center of gravity is kept over board to avoid board angulation changes due to bumps) And you need stiff board for such conditions, with soft board you could fold nose in bump and fly over board (injury possibility again !). Longer board is also good, as it has better edge grip.
If those bumps are from terrain, then I doubt, that it is possible to carve them or ride gracefully with stiff carving board (well, at least this goes for me, I can't run them in any gear
).
Doh, somewhat incoherent article comes here, I'm tired and my brain is in knots already from work
But hopefully it helps or provokes some thoughts...
More seriously: if you can afford Swoard, then go for it, it is well worth of money. But if your budget is tight, then go for some other freecarving board.
Bumps: what kind of bumps you are talking about? Bumps, which appear in afternoon on slopes due to riding or natural terrain bumps (moguls)? In first case you should be first on morning on slopes and ride until its possible, then switch board for freeriding or go to after-ski party. Of course if those bumps are not very big and snow is lightweight, then it is possible to some extent carve through them, but it is not very pleasant experience, especially when you want to do extreme carving, injury possibility (dislocated shoulder or broken finger) is quite high in such case. On bumpy conditions race-like style works better (i.e. center of gravity is kept over board to avoid board angulation changes due to bumps) And you need stiff board for such conditions, with soft board you could fold nose in bump and fly over board (injury possibility again !). Longer board is also good, as it has better edge grip.
If those bumps are from terrain, then I doubt, that it is possible to carve them or ride gracefully with stiff carving board (well, at least this goes for me, I can't run them in any gear
). Doh, somewhat incoherent article comes here, I'm tired and my brain is in knots already from work
But hopefully it helps or provokes some thoughts...Converting potential energy to kinetic..
Of course, Swoard is the best for extremecarving, but the problem is I cannot extremecarve yet, I even haven't tried real carving yet. And I don't know how long will it take to teach that. So, if it's impossible to start extremecarving in less than one season it's better to take freecarve board, and left Swoard for the next season after that. My friend recommended me to take F2 Eliminator LTD, because it's rather stiffy. And I'd like to use it with hardboots, so it would be easier to switch to real carving board next year.
Hi Rancid!
It really depends on what you'd like to do. Eliminator is a good board, you can even carve with it, but it is far from alpine carving board and even further from EC still. I would also suggest you don't set harboots on that board, simply because it is the board made for softboots and I dont think it would work out that well. Besides, Eliminator is not that cheap. For it's value you can get a decent carving board. Not Swoard or Virus, but a decent board (e.g. Silberpfeil, Speedster, Hot blast, although the latter might be a bit too stiff for comfortable carving, even Donek or Coiler if you can get your hands on them without customs and some other brands, that pop up in your local store from time to time).
I would disagree partly with my predecessor, which suggested a log board for bumps. It is true that sometimes in specific conditions you can carve through bumps, but... It takes quite some skill, effort, caution, precision and strenght to do that. Anyhow, you can't EC on bumps, no matter what kind of bumps you're talking about, except if they are very small. As mentioned, the risk of injury is too high. Long board has normally good edge grip, although I wouldn't bet on it, it depends on the board, but what it does is, it gives you more speed. When moguls appear, edge grip is not really that important, because moguls usually appear on soft snow or fresh snow, and carving through that is easy, even with poor edges.
The problem with speed that a long board gives you is that if the mogul is not soft enough for you to carve through and is too big you cannot control the ride over and you'll end up in the air and then landing on next bump (as there is never one alone on the piste), all of which with rather high speed and no control. Consequence - fall and possible injury.
For me it works a bit shorter board best, ar at least some normal size (171 or 168 for my 183 cm body hight works just fine), which is rather narrow so you can change edges and thus direction quick. If moguls are not too big, you can jump over mogul and then land and make a carve between moguls and so on. You can even link those turns in a way, which could mean we are talking about a specific way of carving
Riding like this is extremly fun and it fells wicked
, but it is not that easy and you need to proceed with some caution.
So, I'd suggest you that you go for some carving board to learn riding on groomed slopes first (it does take quite some time to learn how to carve if you learn alone and dont spend immense number of hours on the snow), and then try with a board I've suggested. But if you only ride moguls, perhaps you should go for eliminator, but ride it with softboots. I myself don't ride freeride or BX boards, so I couldn't really be the right person to advise in that matter, but that's what I know or heard other people say.
Hope it helps,
Jakob
It really depends on what you'd like to do. Eliminator is a good board, you can even carve with it, but it is far from alpine carving board and even further from EC still. I would also suggest you don't set harboots on that board, simply because it is the board made for softboots and I dont think it would work out that well. Besides, Eliminator is not that cheap. For it's value you can get a decent carving board. Not Swoard or Virus, but a decent board (e.g. Silberpfeil, Speedster, Hot blast, although the latter might be a bit too stiff for comfortable carving, even Donek or Coiler if you can get your hands on them without customs and some other brands, that pop up in your local store from time to time).
I would disagree partly with my predecessor, which suggested a log board for bumps. It is true that sometimes in specific conditions you can carve through bumps, but... It takes quite some skill, effort, caution, precision and strenght to do that. Anyhow, you can't EC on bumps, no matter what kind of bumps you're talking about, except if they are very small. As mentioned, the risk of injury is too high. Long board has normally good edge grip, although I wouldn't bet on it, it depends on the board, but what it does is, it gives you more speed. When moguls appear, edge grip is not really that important, because moguls usually appear on soft snow or fresh snow, and carving through that is easy, even with poor edges.
The problem with speed that a long board gives you is that if the mogul is not soft enough for you to carve through and is too big you cannot control the ride over and you'll end up in the air and then landing on next bump (as there is never one alone on the piste), all of which with rather high speed and no control. Consequence - fall and possible injury.
For me it works a bit shorter board best, ar at least some normal size (171 or 168 for my 183 cm body hight works just fine), which is rather narrow so you can change edges and thus direction quick. If moguls are not too big, you can jump over mogul and then land and make a carve between moguls and so on. You can even link those turns in a way, which could mean we are talking about a specific way of carving
Riding like this is extremly fun and it fells wicked
, but it is not that easy and you need to proceed with some caution.So, I'd suggest you that you go for some carving board to learn riding on groomed slopes first (it does take quite some time to learn how to carve if you learn alone and dont spend immense number of hours on the snow), and then try with a board I've suggested. But if you only ride moguls, perhaps you should go for eliminator, but ride it with softboots. I myself don't ride freeride or BX boards, so I couldn't really be the right person to advise in that matter, but that's what I know or heard other people say.
Hope it helps,
Jakob
Element - water.
i am riding a f2 eliminator ltd with hardboots.
it is a good compromise, you can ride nearly every condition including powder. when the slopes are good you can do some good turns with snowtouching.
on harder conditions(not ice yet, only harder) you cant carve that good but it works. on ice...no chance.
an i think that i find out last time, that the radius an stiffnes of the board, let you drive a turn, that is not rigth to lay it down. wehn you have enough pressure than the radis goese to small, if the pressure is to little you beginn to slide.
you can have real fun with this board, but for serious ec not fit.
i have too sell one if you ned it
regards
bowen
it is a good compromise, you can ride nearly every condition including powder. when the slopes are good you can do some good turns with snowtouching.
on harder conditions(not ice yet, only harder) you cant carve that good but it works. on ice...no chance.
an i think that i find out last time, that the radius an stiffnes of the board, let you drive a turn, that is not rigth to lay it down. wehn you have enough pressure than the radis goese to small, if the pressure is to little you beginn to slide.
you can have real fun with this board, but for serious ec not fit.
i have too sell one if you ned it
regards
bowen
...sunny days ar the best!