[WigMar]

Thanks for this thread and the insights it has brought up. Your theory about having too much effective edge for easy carving blew my mind, and I had to try carving on my 144 Cool Bean today. I always use that board for the trees, and tree days are spent 90+% in the trees. Fore-aft weighting felt more obvious than on my longer decks. I had to max my stance out.

You're totally right, I was carving so hard today with less effort. Once you're stacked and the Gs get rolling, washing out just isn't an issue. Over-unders felt super locked in and swoopy. After sitting on the snow a bit, I finally did an actual laid out heelside that wasn't dog petting. I didn't pop out if it that well, but it still felt insanely good. I think there's a link between holding Gs in turns and pure joy.

Riding a shorter effective edge makes me want to try a larger sidecut. My Cool Bean is 7.4 m, and it was feeling swoopy today. The Bateleon party wave has an 8.7-8.9 m sidecut. Do any other production boards come to mind? It's inspirational that you built your own carvers- way to experiment and drive your progression. I'll always love skateboarding, and I'm working on a pow surfer in the shop right now. Keep it up Kijima!

 

[WigMar]

Yeah that's a beauty.

I guess, maybe... on a not-so-busy weekday, we can score a few early runs close to this. But it would be a rare sight, specially with such good snow.

Going to make it a goal this season, to get an uncrowded smooth groomer day...

You can squeeze in moments like this when you're in line for the chairs before they start moving. All the Jerrys are still getting themselves in order while you've got the whole mountain to yourself. Maybe this is just Colorado spoiling me though. I've wondered if those Japanese videos are shot right before the resort opens. You can hike up and do sunrise laps around here.

After a lap or three... those sweeping carves are just a beautiful memory as if from a dream. It's a pretty short window that I wish I got to warm up for.

 

[WigMar]

Where do you ride in CO?

I rode Vail, Breck and Keystone earlier this yr (in Jan) and it was crowded from the get-go. We rode mostly weekdays and a Sat. The lines are a lot shorter than Whistler, but the runs were more crowded. At least you can choose between a few resorts.... but the highway traffic. Holy hell... that's a shit-show.

So for a lonely day like this... need to go on a weekday, early and maybe to one of the not so popular resorts.

Those Japan are probably early, but that could be a not crowded resort..... you can find that in the BC interior as well. A few of the interior resorts can have clean groomers all day with good snow. Won't be perfect like that video all day... but at least enough for a few runs.

Weekday mornings for sure- haven't rode a weekend in Summit County in years. Gotta know which runs to hit right out of the gate. There's runs at Keystone that feel like a secret sometimes. Vail has an order you have to hit runs in if you want those empty groomers. But yeah, Summit County isn't great for those uncrowded runs. Gotta be an early bird armed with the knowledge of locals to even get a few of those in.

I'd like to see the drive up to those Japanese resorts too. Traffic on 1-70 up from Denver isn't ideal. Leaving really early helps, but they're always shutting down the roadway. Sometimes we can't get up there when the snow is really good. First world problems.

 

[WigMar]

I'm also struggling with the hula hoop concept. The figure of eight seems to make sense because it's symmetrical. It seems like the hula hoop would have your weight transfer going backwards (from tail to nose) on toe side turns. Normally, my weight is going back to the nose when I'm changing edges... in a figure of eight pattern. I'd love to see this hula hoop technique in action!

 

[WigMar]

Hula Hoop is live! I got it working with some over unders first. While it was different, it kinda felt natural too. It was nice not even trying to shoot my weight forward to initiate toe turns. Edge transitions were smooth. Soul arch felt different but good. Slashes were more explosive. Definitely something I'm going to have to research further. Stay radical Kijima.

 

[WigMar]

There's a culture in snowboarding that's similar to skateboarding culture- which was/is unfortunately very closed minded in general. When I was skating in the 90's, you had to dress a certain way and do the right tricks to be accepted at all. Whole styles of skating were untouchable because they just weren't cool. Everyone would make fun of you to the point of hazing. Even snowboarding in the 2000's, we looked down on everyone who didn't look like us. Thankfully, the culture has opened up a lot, but I think we still have a long way to go.

I hope we can get more radical new ideas like the hula hoop out of this forum. It would be a shame if all we were good for around here was telling people their boots are too big. New ideas always meet with resistance. Let's keep the discussion friendly and supportive around here; we generally do a good job.

 

[WigMar]

stiff boots and bindings were the enemy of lay down carving.
That goes for highbacks too. The highback is the enemy of a lay down heel turn as they increase board angle. Straight up bad shit.

I've been feeling this way too. I can't believe how soft my carving setup is these days. I'm using the softest highbacks I could find. No highbacks is next level. I'd like to try that too.

 

[WigMar]

I like the eagle wing. I usually keep that arm tucked into my side. I think the eagle wing could really help with balance, and it looks like it helps determine overall turn size and timing.

You can see the heel lock you're testing pretty clearly. Are you running the canted riser as well? I often longboard with my rear heel raised. Canted Binding risers could be pretty rad. Was that an experiment worth replicating?

 

[WigMar]

I've got a longer pintail that gets ridden the most. It's good fun.

 

[WigMar]

I was working on heelside carves with grabs early last season, and I abandoned that train of thought after awhile. I was having a really hard time exiting the turn cleanly. I also felt the grab made my upper body too static. Playing around with the grab did teach me a thing or two though.

Most switch carvers I've seen really favor toeside carves. Riding duck stances sets you up for that well. They'll ride switch just so they don't have to carve heelside.

I ride double positive angles and still ride switch occasionally. If the majority of your time is spent riding one direction, shouldn't your stance reflect that? Going double positive took so much stress off of my back knee. Kijima's video explained why very effectively.

 

[WigMar]

So what if we designed a binding that pivoted from side to side that as you made the turn motion your angle went from say -15 to 20 imagine the speed and power that would generate!

Are you talking about rotational bindings? I've seen a rotational binding or two out there in the world already. My initial thoughts were that it could help skating around if you had mobility issues, but I was afraid the binding would turn too much and destroy your knee. If you limited rotation to say 5-10 degrees it might be safer to try out.

Truth is this is a jerry sport and we are the exception, sometimes anyway lol.

This is a Jerry sport! Very few of us are chasing the perfect turn. I'm intrigued by this increased dorsiflexion theory. I'd like to see those modified Now in action. Your ankles and feet could power through and control board angle without it being dictated by a fixed binding angle. Adding heel lift is undeniably radical!

 

[WigMar]

Simplification is key, how many pages does that CASI book have anyway? Ive never seen it.
Lets all just become better snowboarders, and lets all open our minds to future possibilities.

I saved the New Zealand snowboard instructors manual someone posted in an earlier thread. It's 342 pages.

Progression makes me happy. Cheers to being a student of the sport. I'm constantly excited there is still so much to discover.

 

[WigMar]

When Ryan Knapton turns his back foot around we will all know that we have seen the Jesus of carving

I'd love to see Ryan ride double positive without highbacks! That would definitely force some changes in his riding.

 

[WigMar]

I built this crazy turbo system on my race car that most people couldnt get their heads around. Pics of got leaked and went viral around the world in 24 hours lol. 100k shares on fb etc.
Still I get sent messages from old friends showing me some social media link where peeps are arguing if its real or photoshopped.
I used to be a member on here with that name. ETM
View attachment 153907

I think I've seen this car before lol! The turbo instead of an emblem sticks in my memory. That set up is visually stunning.

 

[WigMar]

I wish I could give that two thumbs up.

 

[WigMar]

I generally don't pay attention to my vertical rise much when longboarding. I'm going to feel it out tomorrow and see if I can replicate your method of rising through the toe turn. I'm curious to see how that feels, and what I'm doing naturally already.

Those decks look sweet! I'm stoked to see the progression going on here. Thanks for keeping us posted.

 

[WigMar]

Yeah Ive been playing with angled riser combos, rkp/tkp truck combos, big/small wheels, different urethane compounds, pneumatic wheels.

What I worked out is that risers and truck geometry on a stiff deck is a static change and doesn't give a snowboard feeling.
Allowing progressive change in truck geometry via board flex gives the best results.

I think raking the trucks with the deck is brilliant! I've never seen that in practice before, and I'd love to feel it. Very radical. That camber section looks serious enough to support a big guy too. I like where this is going.

 

[WigMar]

Version 4.0 has some camber! Looking at the thinness of the deck and the video of a previous prototype, I'm assuming it's pretty flexible. Flexing mid turn must progressively change the rake angle on the trucks, right? That would change the turning radius of the trucks, perhaps a lot like center flexing a sidecut. Am I on the right path here? I'm intrigued.

 

[WigMar]

I think making the tail walk out more is key to achieving that snowboarding feel. Those topsheets are beautiful!

 

[WigMar]

I spent all last season around +6, +27. I found it to be a very versatile stance for all mountain riding from groomers to the trees.

I'm looking forward to going more extreme with my angles on my carving board this season. Watching riders ride very FF stances looks more centered to me. Seems like it's easier to lay down those heelside carves. I think the hardest thing to get used to will be the change in splay between the feet.