Which board?

[Christopher]

For some reason, I haven't been on the slopes in the past 10 years. Before that, I was carving for 15 years. Started with an Alp 6.3 from Burton and later switched to an Oxygen Proton 164 (weighing 70 kgs, 1m89).
I found this Proton board very good from 9 o'clock until 11. Then the slopes became to irregular and carving became very exhausting. Even to that point that I was thinking about soft boots and a complete different board.
Starting from now, I will again hit the slopes twice a year, and I realize that a lot has changed since 2005.
Where in the past I was looking for an extreme stiff board, I now find myself looking for a smooth (forgiving) ride, also in the afternoon.
I'm now 38 years old, weighing 83 kgs and 1m89. I would like to carve all day long but in a relaxing way.
Which board do you recommend?

[Capykiller]

Hi Christopher,
since this is a SWOARD Forum I think most of the people here would recommend a SWOARD Board. I've ridden carving Boards for over 20 years now, always quite stiff and arrow ones. I switched to EC technique about 3 years ago and changed to SWOARD board. I find the riding more relaxing for carved turns and even laydown turns can be mastered with very low speed. It seems that your boards had a small sidecut radius which actually has an effect on the width of your turns. regarding your height, I would recommend a board larger then 1,70 m and with a sidecut radius larger than 10 m. There are a couple of brands that build that kind of boards.
SWOARD, Virus, Oxess, Kessler, Xtasy, Plasma, Goltes, SG, F2, etc. There's a big variety of price, models and customer support. Some are handmade in small quantities.
http://www.swoard.com
http://www.kessler-swiss.com
http://www.xtasy-snowboards.de
http://www.virus-snowsports.com
http://www.plasmasnowboards.com
http://oxess.ch/de/content/68/18/startseite

Everyone has their own philosophy and you should watch some videos on the net to find your riding style. Depending on where you are from you can go to a swoard demo tour or carving session and test boards, you only have to bring your bindings.
If you have any further questions.........ask!!!

Lambert

[wintersun]

Hi!

..interesting, I see paralles to myself.
I am 1,92m & 85kg, have been riding for quite some years, after it came to a stop for 5-6 years. Last spring came the 'relaunch' of this amazing hobby for me... with the same considerations. And btw: I have been without an own board for some time, renting boards for my skiing holidays until they weren't available for renting any more.... and I liked the Oxygene boards very much that time!!

But on your post:
First of all you should think about the width of the boards. There are the narrow boards with less than 19cm waist, requiring high binding angles to avoid overhang of your boots (and that's a must!). And there are the wider boards, like the ones built by SWOARD or PUREBOARDING, roughly 23+cm waist. The riding style and feeling is different. You certainly find pages of ergonomy philisophy & and pro and con, but I personally think at this point the stomach does the decision. Continue where you feel more comfortable. (For me the wider boards!)

When it comes to riding effort and power, I would like to cite Jörg Egli from Pureboarding: 'Raceboards almost killed our sport'. They are stiff and physically demanding, taking everything from you and yes, they return it through their performance. But you need to be a fulltime sportsman or accept spending the afternoons at the ski-bar for recovery.
Alpine boarding without exhausing will be an unrealistic promise! Few manufactureres have fortunately realised that alpine snowboard carvig is more than raceboarding. Those modern alpine carving boards offer a much better fun to effort ratio. And: do I want to race every piste with top speed and min time? Nooooo, I want to enjoy, feel the ride thorough the turns!

An advise you will find very often: join a carving session. In many cases a hand full of manufactureres are present and offer advise & testing. Plus, as I have recognised last autum: a great community of people entirely crazy for alpine carving, and really open arms for us newbies...

BR, Christian

[fivat]

'Raceboards almost killed our sport'.

For sure Jacques Rilliet was saying this before.
Have you seen our manifesto, written in 2002 ? https://www.extremecarving.com/philo/manif.html
It was provocative, with the goal to make things evolve. Some readers hated us for this (despite we were racers in the past too) . At that time narrow and stiff boards were the rule... except the prototypes made by Jacques which finally did lead to extremecarving and Swoard.
Wide alpine boards are now more current on the market. Setup and gear have evolved, alpine snowboarding is more fun in my opinion.
Even carving with soft boots seems trendy now. Future of our sport is more positive in comparison to what it was in 2002.

Patrice Fivat

[wintersun]

Actually I was riding my new SWOARD EC 175 Gen4 last week first time in Ischgl. Riding with a group of advanced skiers I had no time to practice my EC capabilites, but I have to say I am absolutely satified & happy!

The board is almost comfortable and when you angulate it, the edges are biting into the snow. And despite the radius you can go into tight turns if you push it a bit...

[tali]

weighing 83 kgs and 1m89. I would like to carve all day long but in a relaxing way.
Which board do you recommend?

Swoard Extremecarver 175M