[16gkid]

I love when the old guys show up and try to tell everyone how they should ride

 

[16gkid]

I had donek build me a board a few years back when I thought I had learned enough (i hadn't)
29.5 waist and vario 9.5 side cut, was not the board for me but it taught me a lot about how width,sidecut and flex all affect the board together, it was a lot of fun while I had it and was a slightly expensive lesson, but no ragrets

 

[16gkid]

As someone contemplating the same, what didn't work?

I didn't realize how much width was gonna affect the flex, made it way too stiff, if I could do it again I would reduce waist, add slight taper, softer flex, about 5cm shorter length, but in perfect conditions that board could rip groomers, live and learn

 

[16gkid]

what board length ?

and your height ?
Weight ?
Shoe size ?
Bindings ?
Style ?

159
5'7
160lbs
Size 8
Now drives/ Flux X
Mostly freeride, sometimes hit the jump line
What I ride now- niseko pleasures, dancehaul, telos backslash, figured out the sweet spot for me waist wise was between 26-28cm at the waist, and that going too stiff is detrimental to lay down carving

 

[16gkid]

Ok, what am I missing here? View attachment 164709

So mine was the donek Incline, basically a directional knapton twin

 

[16gkid]

Not everyone has to like Knapton’s style but I haven’t seen yet any vid that is close to his style with eurocarving frontside, backside, all of that switch, plus having that stable mid air posture with 180/360/540s that looks like MFM
I went from a duck stance to ++ to figure out how to lay it over on on the heeside edge with (way easier). Then I went back to a slight duck that allows me to keep working on fs while still carving hard.

I've ridden with him out in Breckenridge, he's an absolute monster on that board, following him around makes it even more impressive, not for everyone, but it takes massive skills

 

[16gkid]

Did you ride on steeps, trees, moguls with him ?
Did you see he was limited by the board despite his skills ?
Especially carving on medium to steeper terrains ?

It’s hard to guess the pitch of the slopes on which he carvs in the videos…

Because high skillcap board is what I’m looking for. A board to grow with. Even if it’s not versatile.
Trying hard is awesome (for me).

Nope he only rides perfect morning blue groomers or the steeper stuff on powder days
Yes the board will limit you, making sudden changes in direction gets hard, like a boat, don't even think about tight tree runs, tried it once, it was like a pinball machine, I couldn't get the board to turn before the next tree was on me, just dinging from tree to tree
Steeper is fine as long as the run is wide, if it's like a chute then it will suck ass because of width and big sidecut
But saying that, the stability on perfect groomers is another level , definitely worth the experience,
it's not a big deal having a specialty board thats only good at one or two things, most of us have powder boards that only get ridden a few days a season