Mild (Intermediate) Piste

[rcrobar]

On your site you state:

“An extremecarving piste should be steep, wide and smooth:”

Some of the local ski hills were I ride have very few steep sections, they are really one big intermediate run.

I’m wondering if you still perform E-carves on runs that just aren’t that steep?

1. Do you spend less time laid out and cover a shorter distance, but still do an E-carve?

2. Do you perform very inclined turns rather than a true E-carve?

3. Do you simply ride a different board at resorts with mild or gentle piste’?

PS-I am assuming that a groomed run is being ridden on a hard packed day, using the proto boards you have described.

Thanks for the info.
Rob

[nils]

As Patrice stated, its the optimal solutions that is to be looked after, but as always, u can ecarve any slope if you have enough speed.. the problem is with small ° slopes, is that the speed is drained from the first turn and u tend to loose the benefit of it.. and thus cannot recover or make the next turns as efficiently as it can be on steeper slopes...

Its almost the same as in surfing, when waves are weak and small in size, if you "carve" or push the board too much it looses the speed and sinks or looses the wave. Good surfers are building up speed very efficiently and manage to make huge turns in what seem very small and unpowerfull waves.. A good example is rob machado, who happens to creat speed from where it doesn't exist...

Nils

[rcrobar]

Hi Nils

I know exactly what you mean. Some time ago I spent a year in Australia (great country), on the Sunshine Coast, living in a tent and surfing everyday. I spent just as much time sitting on the beach watching some very hot locals rip apart waves that other riders couldn’t even catch. They were able to pump and slash twice the turns of the average rider. These memories have had a big influence my snowboarding style.

I find that I use an accelerated turn (I”m using the CERN web-site definition) to pick up speed when on a mild piste. When I come to a slightly steeper section, or a rolling part of the run that I see as a wave, I try to do a few turns that are as laid out and as low as I can go. A few turns like this and I resume the accelerated turns until I have picked up more speed.

I guess my question was directed at the E-carve board’s ability to assist or help the rider maintain speed when turning hard and low.

Does the proto E-carve boards' design help to maintain more speed when performing hard low turns, if the proper technique is used?

Rob

[bawbawbel]

I wonder if a steep slope helps recovery from the laid position?
After all, at the end of a turn on a 30 degree slope, your body cant be laid more than 60 degrees. So you are still touching the snow as you perform the "pull" of the 'push- pull" turn......

[nils]

Its easier to recover from the turn , but its a long way to the next turn entrance: 90+30 makes your body needs to arc 120° to lay on the next turn.. it makes steeper runs more physical because the snow contact is often more brutal as the bigger arc means greater speed.. this is especially true with short carving boards that need quick edge turn...
N.

[rcrobar]

Hi

I’ve seen guys, on a skateboard, generate enough speed to travel over a flat city block with one push, guys can also go across a flat parking lot on a carverboard, by simply by doing aggressive push-pull turns. Surfers milk a powerless wave for several turns and slalom snowboards accelerate on each and every turn on a very mild piste’.

I’m wondering how far the E-carve push-pull turn can be taken?
I’m also wondering if the E-carve board’s design can/does assist in this?

How SLOW can a rider move on a gentle piste, while still performing and linking completely laid turns.... using more technique and less gravity.

Perform E-carves on any piste, at any SPEED in any condition .... is it physically possible to do these turns at slower speeds on a flatter piste?

Has the Swiss connection played with this idea?

Rob

[rilliet]

Hi,

The push-pull turn is a technique that gives speed acceleration or deceleration depending on the rythme of the "push" and "pull" movement are done. You can see the skier Bode Miller doing it perfectly (note that this technique is new in the ski competition world because it needs the snowboard radius style...).

As a snowboard doesn't slide as well as a skateboard, I'm not sure if it's possible to keep ones speed indefinitely on a flat piste.
Another problem with snowboards is that most of them don't slide on the edge as well as flat on the snow. Thanks to their special construction, our E-carve boards are able to slide with the same gliding capacity on the edge or flat on the snow.

When laying turns, the gliding properties of the clothes are also very important.
Suposing your technique is perfect, the best you glide, the flatter piste you can face.

Concerning the speed, the higher it is, the better it is because there is more centrifuge strength to recover at the end of the turn. But having too much speed makes the laid turn more difficult to control. So, in fact, there is an ideal speed which is a compromise.
This speed also depends on the board radius: the shorter it is, the more centrifuge strength there is. This is why a little radius board makes low speed laid turns and why little radius are bull s***...

Carve lower

Jacques