G-Force Boards

[István]

Interesting.....

http://www.gforcecarving.com/

http://www.bomberonline.com/vbulletin/s ... hp?t=11042


Triaxial fiberglass, poplar and ash wood core, P-Tex 4000 base, full wrap rockwell edge.


Specs are: (http://www.gforcecarving.com/specifications.pdf)
Length/Width/Effective edge/Sidecut radius
170/22.5/154/12.25
180/23.5/164/14

Look like EC shapes.... Greek guys are going wi(l)de....

The funny thing is that they posted it on BOL - where first responses are obviusly: "It's too wide, man....."


Best,

István

ps.: Maybe I'm wrong, but I think on the first pic in their gallery the guy is riding a Swoard....

[nils]

We know the thing and what can we do about it? Coiler and Donek also do it, and its a matter of time until F2 jumps in this wide board concepts we developed.

People buy the swoard then make copies of it... its good for the sport, good for carving and for EC. Its the first time in this sports that boards are beeing copied so close to the original so i guess its a sign that our concept is good and works, it shows there is room for some other boards than narrow boards.

What we would prefer is see real developpement from others, not just copies but i guess it takes time and experience... It would be interesting to see other's proposal of wide boards with other technical and shape solutions rather than cloning, but we think its a good start for the sport.

Nils

[alexgforce]

Thanks for introducing this thread to me Istvan.
I am in the first picture in the gallery of our site and YES I am riding a Swoard and lovin it.
Our objective for making a board was not to copy Swoard but to improve on some of its characteristics that we felt could be better from a personal preference point of view. In addition since I am a designer I wanted to put my own graphics on the board and make my own brand identity.
My personal opinion is that the wide boards have been around for ages. They just have not been marketed specificaly for carving. The originality of the EC crew is not the width of the board. It is the board + the way they ride + the way they have been promoting themselves. And they have been doing a great job. The width of the board is just a fraction of everything else.
To cut a long story short since most of us (G-Force) have a racing background we wanted a board closer to the characteristics of raceboard capable of laying down carves.
If you guys still want to think that we copied or cloned Swoard because we made a wide board...its up to you!

[Jack Michaud]

The funny thing is that they posted it on BOL - where first responses are obviusly: "It's too wide, man....."

Correction: the first and *only* response saying it was too wide was from a European guy who rides Skwals. I think they look like great boards! Good looking specs and sharp graphics too. Can't go wrong with Donek!

Nils - I was riding a 21cm wide Burton FP in 1995, can I say I started the wide board phenomenon too?

[nils]

ok for the explainations... hope we can try the board to feel how it rides and see how we can take it as far low as we can...

Calling it copies: critic accepted : Try to put yourself at our place: the boards using the same widths, sidecuts and overall shape would appear to you copies of your concept, even if there are subtle differences that are of course hard to notice... give us time to digest the idea . It took us so much energy to push the concept against all currents that its not easy to accept the idea... its just a human reaction that will make us work on new ideas again which is good!

Agreed : there was indeed wide race boards, but it was at the time where boards were assymetrical, not symetrical! The wide boards of before cannot really be compared ( burton safari etc) when it comes to shape!..
Jack : we are talking 23 cm here not 21cm which is what the knifer had on the 161cm

Am curious to see what are racing specs on a EC boards btw!
Racing = fast edge change above all... flexes are so different from manufacturers that it cannot be really a racing constant....

Cool graphics on your board anyway, but i do not agree with your description of silkscreen being weaker> silkscreen inks are epoxy based and it never ever delams... what delams is the fiberglass that separates between the sheets usually!

N.

[alexgforce]

Nils,
I undestand what you say about the energy you put into it. But look around you. It has payed off. You have established yourselves. All you need to do right now is find ways to take it further and I am not just talking about the board.
Next season I would love to come and ride in the ECS in Zinal and share some ideas if you dont bring a firing squad for me.

[nils]

You shall come in peace! No white flag needed lol

[fidel]

Greetings all!!

I just want to say that we, at gforcecarving.com, have only one thing in our minds when it comes to snowboarding.

And that is to promote the sport in Greece and especially us hardbooters which are very hard to find in our country( maybe only 30-40 persons ride plates in GR!!!). Thats why we decided to use our connections with some people that have been around the world carving scene, and produce a board that we believe suits our style better.

I personally think that the "blade" is a very good looking board, thanks Alex for that, and we are sure that it will meet our expectations.
After all its a DONEK with our final touch!!!

PS the ec (Fivat Nils Rillet) guys have been an inspiration to us all i think and they are the pionneers when it comes to extremecarving.

ride hard......

thanks Panos
G-FORCE

[jeanma]

If your board is less expensive than the swoard, why not ... hehe
to Nils

[Hans]

Of course they copied the SWOARD, but only the specs not the board.
Coiler, DONEK, who else want to float on other mens success, they are all clones (made in ) with their own characteristics.

A SWOARD is a SWOARD. So the SWOARD stays a concept on its own .That's for sure. No one will ever be able to copy that.

So say the word, and we buy a SWOARD.

Greets, Hans.

P.S. Hope there are more copies to come, I will demo them all

[rilliet]

Next season I would love to come and ride in the ECS in Zinal and share some ideas if you dont bring a firing squad for me.

Anyone is accepted to the ECS, even skiers!
And I would love to try your new EC board.

My personal opinion about "Swoard clones" is that it is normal that other people want to do something with a concept they love and even try to improve it. For me it's a great satisfaction. We wanted to share our passion, so now the passion is... shared.
I think that having competitors will create a positive cinergy and I hope that their will be other EC developpents like new bindings, new boots, new gloves, etc, that are optimized for EC.

Jacques

[Vladimir]

...I personally think that the "blade" is a very good looking board, thanks Alex for that, and we are sure that it will meet our expectations...

So am I
As owner of "Test center" I want to get it for tests
can we organize it

[alexgforce]

I think that having competitors will create a positive cinergy and I hope that their will be other EC developpents like new bindings, new boots, new gloves, etc, that are optimized for EC.

Jacques

Nicely said Jacques.
Lets all hope that one day somebody will clone the Northwave hard boots that you all are talking about so the rest of us will have a chance ride 'em

[tufty]

I think this is a good thing. Honestly.

More, and more accessible[1], alpine boards (whether explicitly designed for EC or not), has to be a good thing for us. Because, with any luck, more boards == more sales == more money into our little niche == more R&D money from the "hangers on" - boot manufacturers, binding manufacturers, etc which overall has to mean a better choice of equipment for all of us, advances in the technology, and overall more fun.

And maybe it will stop people in the lift lines calling my board a "skiboard" or a "monoski", or asking if it's "like a snowboard". It won't stop the pipe monkeys doubletaking as I blast through the park on a slalom board, though...

We largely have the EC boys to thank for making hardbooting "cool" again, with any luck the market will at least continue to expand and leave room for more than the few niche companies still here.

I do sympathise with Jacques, Patrice and Nils, it's not easy to see your "concept" copied (to a greater or lesser extent), but it was to be expected. You've made carving fun again. You've made it _look_ fun for people who are taking their first, hesitant slides down the baby slopes. You've made it at least as accessible as throwing tricks in the park. There is a market out there for it, and the bigger manufacturers will jump on that as soon as there's enough money "in the pot" for it to be worth their while.

But it will always be _yours_ :)

Simon

[1] By which I mean accessible as in "aimed at the average rider" as opposed to "aimed at the dedicated racer"

[Jack Michaud]

Of course they copied the SWOARD, but only the specs not the board.
Coiler, DONEK, who else want to float on other mens success, they are all clones (made in ) with their own characteristics.

WTF?!? Donek is made in Colorado, USA, and Coiler is made near Toronto, Canada. Both by hand, and by carvers.