Swoard and extremecarving - Disclaimer

[Whitey]

After 2 season of intense use, my 1st gen 3D is still in excellent shape. I have also fallen down numerous times on hard and icy slopes. The only result is a small delamination on the tail (which was very easy to repair). Personally I'm satisfied with the quality of it.

[rcrobar]

Hi

For a variety of reasons the groomed snow where I ride is often really soft , guess this is much better than having to ride ice all the time. Regardless, I do my best to EC in soft snow anyway (picking my spots as Nils and Harald have advised).

I too have found that staying centered on the board, in softer bumpy conditions, can be difficult! This was especially true, for me, when trying to EC while riding a bit faster. Of course this is bad news that could lead to a front flip or a damaged board.

This past season I experimented with a MUCH wider stance, because I often felt myself positioned a little too far backward or forward when ECing. This adjustment REALLY helped me to stay centered, especially in softer and bumpy conditions. I've gone from about a 20" stance up to 22" stance width; moving the stance angles down a degree or two also seemed to help with the comfort of a flat/wide stance.

I've attached a picture from this spring, the grooming was excellent and the snow was very soft, wet and heavy. Notice how about 1/3 of the tail seems to be gone, the trenches were very deep Despite the soft snow and a few really hard carves, the only damage to my Swoard has been a result of guys hitting my board while in the lift lineup. I too am very happy with the quality of my Swoard.

Rob

[utzel]

I can give a first hand impression on the above statements:

Jaques refferd to this thread after I´ve contacted them yesterday. After riding in, I would say good conditions and not doing a frontflip or getting stuck in the snow especially one turn ended in the snow and with damaged Swoard.

The Advise:

"- Do extremecarving turns only when you are good enough technically to do it: it means also you are good enough to absorb (with legs) the unknown (holes, ice balls, etc.) and not let the board absorb shocks it is not designed for.
- Do EC turns only when the snow is good for it (or take risks of injuries): stay on good snow, and avoid pure ice, melted zones or heavy snows for they put you at risk. Watch out the irregularities and the bumps that can be dangerous for the shoulders: simply do less inclined turns.
- Do EC turns by good visibility, on the slopes that are not too crowded.

We are guaranteeing only the board against craftsmanship and material defect: not against breakage due to snowboarding accident. It means we will not warranty boards that have been damaged because the nose got stuck into a turn making it stick into a hole and all similar cases. Any board will break when put on stress over its physical limits, so it's a matter of taking great care instead of blaming things! We are of course taking care of other warranty issues (cosmetic, small delams etc.) in case they happen."

didn´t help me much, especially after the issue.

I had the idea that I bought one of the strongest boards on the market and as I am far away from doing EC there wouldn´t be a chance that I can overstress this board.

I did way more powerful crashes with other equipement wich is still in good shape.

I don´t wan´t or can judge on the craftmanship of the swoards but I wan´t to share my experience to prevent other Swoarders from facing such a "tragedy".

regards Wolfgang

[Hans]

Hi, Wolfgang
Pitty you broke your Swoard. You must be dissatisfied about your Swoard. But your topic doesn't contribute anything to this forum as you don't explain how you broke it. Or did I miss something here??

Just simply put any pictures here without any explanation???
WE/I am interested how you broke yours, especially when you told here, you didn't EC and didn't ride into snowbumps. How did you manage to break your Swoard??

[Whitey]

Damn, that looks pretty sad! How did it happen?

[ngsam]

I think that it's possible to have fabriquation defects .

In this case it seems to be clear that to fold a board like that, any board would have yielded...
the physical laws are the same ones for everyone >>>f2 - swoard you and me....

A fabriquation defect would have involved much lighter marks and a less important torsion.
Moreover before the rupture, you would have felt a defect which would have forced you to stop front.

In this case i think you cannot deny that the fall was of an undeniable violence

[utzel]

What I can say how it happened:

I actally did some carving, let´s say to 45 degree agle body to snow. Not really aggressive because I was with my kids 6 and 8.

They were on skis and I did accompany them.

What I noticed:

Where: here in Zinal, 300m from the restaurant on a not so steep slope

Conditions: - 4 degree, no ice, easy snow but not wet or really soft, just good snow

How: in the middle of a turn, when I had the legs strechted all the way, the Board gave way or lost edgegrip and I feel. I can´t recall going over the nose, more had the experience that somehow gont canted on the wrong side of the board and flew hard and flat on my back. Left Shoulder did hurt a bit.

After standing up and continuing the ride something felt wrong and a glance at the board showed why.

Finally: beside the advise that breaking a board due to a "snowboard accident" is not warrantied, I didn´t get any other response frorm the heads of Extremecarving.

As I have 3 more days here in Zinal I would really have liked to get somehow another Board.

I´ll head to an Oxess shop today, these guys did answer very friendly. We´ll see if I have a new Board later today.

Greetings Wolfgang

[nils]

Question for thought...

Image Web13 shows clearly the breakage following the line of the TD2 base... i wonder if we shall maybe try mounting the TD2 with the tripod facing the nose and not the middle of the board, in order to balance the energy on a less linear pattern, and maybe save boards that meet so much energy....

N