Until recently I have been riding the same board for about 8 years. It was a 160cm, wide, regular camber Salomon. I never figured out what the model is called, but I've been riding it since I started and it has served me well. This season I've been feeling fairly good about my riding, so after doing some research I decided I was going to treat myself to a Burton Custom X Wide 162cm. Well, I tried it out for the first time yesterday in the French Alps, and it was nothing at all like I expected.
From various reviews I had read that it was an extremely unforgiving board, but with great grip and an ability to hold an edge very well. I feel that I am a fairly competent rider, who usually goes fast, but is always in control, but based on the reviews I was nevertheless expecting to catch an edge or two, before learning how to control this board.
Well, I can safely say from yesterday's experience that there was not even the remotest possibility of that happening, not even going switch. In fact, my biggest problem was that I seemed to be unable to hold an edge at all and was slipping and sliding around like crazy.
It hadn't snowed in a few weeks and the pistes were all quite icy, so everyone seemed to be sliding around to some extent, but I felt like I had a lot more problems than most, and I could certainly handle it less well than I could with my old board. In particular I found that if I tried braking with my toe-side edge the board would slide from under me and I would fall.
Now I should probably mention that I am 178cm tall and weigh 78kg, so I realise that the board might be slightly on the long side for me. But the fact that it is somewhat lighter, more responsive and has a slightly narrower waist than my old board meant that it actually felt somewhat smaller than my old board. I also quite liked the increased stiffness the board had to offer, and it mostly seemed to do what I wanted it to, but this was all overshadowed by the fact that I was slipping around a lot, especially on my toe-side edge.
Now my question is why this could be, when I was told that one of this board's strengths is it's ability to handle icy conditions. Might the cause be improperly tuned edges? They don't seem particularly dull, but I'm definitely going to try and get them tuned before my next run.
Or could it be that fact that I am riding a board that is too long for my weight? Does the longer effective edge length mean that I am unable to exert enough pressure to hold the edge?
Or is it just that my technique is too poor? I can't really see what I might be doing wrong with a simple toe-side brake, but maybe it's just a matter of getting used to the board?
Any suggestions on what might be the problem will be appreciated. Many thanks.
TL;DR New Custom X doesn't behave at all as expected: Not sign of it being unforgiving, can't hold toe-side edge. Help appreciated.
From various reviews I had read that it was an extremely unforgiving board, but with great grip and an ability to hold an edge very well. I feel that I am a fairly competent rider, who usually goes fast, but is always in control, but based on the reviews I was nevertheless expecting to catch an edge or two, before learning how to control this board.
Well, I can safely say from yesterday's experience that there was not even the remotest possibility of that happening, not even going switch. In fact, my biggest problem was that I seemed to be unable to hold an edge at all and was slipping and sliding around like crazy.
It hadn't snowed in a few weeks and the pistes were all quite icy, so everyone seemed to be sliding around to some extent, but I felt like I had a lot more problems than most, and I could certainly handle it less well than I could with my old board. In particular I found that if I tried braking with my toe-side edge the board would slide from under me and I would fall.
Now I should probably mention that I am 178cm tall and weigh 78kg, so I realise that the board might be slightly on the long side for me. But the fact that it is somewhat lighter, more responsive and has a slightly narrower waist than my old board meant that it actually felt somewhat smaller than my old board. I also quite liked the increased stiffness the board had to offer, and it mostly seemed to do what I wanted it to, but this was all overshadowed by the fact that I was slipping around a lot, especially on my toe-side edge.
Now my question is why this could be, when I was told that one of this board's strengths is it's ability to handle icy conditions. Might the cause be improperly tuned edges? They don't seem particularly dull, but I'm definitely going to try and get them tuned before my next run.
Or could it be that fact that I am riding a board that is too long for my weight? Does the longer effective edge length mean that I am unable to exert enough pressure to hold the edge?
Or is it just that my technique is too poor? I can't really see what I might be doing wrong with a simple toe-side brake, but maybe it's just a matter of getting used to the board?
Any suggestions on what might be the problem will be appreciated. Many thanks.
TL;DR New Custom X doesn't behave at all as expected: Not sign of it being unforgiving, can't hold toe-side edge. Help appreciated.