Are you an alpine snowboarder?
I thought I was...
A new direction...
Edge control
Edge control (cont.)
Flex?
Inside edge!
Liner molding
A little home cookin'
Canting
You can if you cant
Deeluxe Boots
0708 Comparison chart
0607 Comparison chart |
I may have had an unusual start to snowboarding. I'd just turned 33,
didn't snow ski, had hung up the steel-shoe synonymous with dirt-track
motorcycle racing and tossed away the studded tires that are essential
for motorcycle ice-racing. How was I going to get my speed 'fix'? Where
was I going to find the adrenaline rush that comes from being just on
the edge of… of what?
Enter into the picture Kevin Delaney. Some of you may recognize
that name as the television colour commentator during the PGS
Alpine Snowboard events at the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002.
Kevin, and his brother Brian, owned and operated a snowboard
camp for adults. It was this camp that sealed my fate during
the winter of 1996. They put us into hardboots and fastened us
to freeride boards with plate bindings. Three days later many
of us had not only mastered getting down the Colorado slopes
unscathed, but were able to do it with linked turns.
It was at this camp that I knew I was hooked. At some point
during the camp at Buttermilk, I managed to get my board up on
edge, albeit briefly, and felt the indescribable feeling that
comes from a clean, carved turn. Not only was I hooked on snowboarding,
but I'd also found my old friend, 'the rush'. Although I didn't
make it to the slopes again that winter, I could hear them calling.
Since that first season, there has been a slow progression in
my search for 'the rush'. First came the seasons of being speed-freak.
Try as I might, I just couldn't control the speed. Then came
the seasons of gear-freak. Try as I might, I just couldn't control
my spending in hopes of getting the best equipment! It wasn't
until I met up with a group of seasoned carvers that I made the
next step in my progression, that of carve-apprentice. It still
amazes and humbles me when I realize how little I knew about
making clean, pencil-thin lines in the snow and how willing these
journeymen (& women) were to offer guidance, support and
even their equipment to ride.
During my carve apprenticeship I've learned to control speed
by carving across and sometimes even up the fall line. I've learned
to read the terrain, looking for rollers and banks that just
beg to augment a rider's carving sensation. I've learned how
to share my equipment with those looking to give alpine boarding
a try, but more than that, I've learned there is a whole other
side to alpine snowboarding... the racecourse. This season I
took my first run through the gates. Amazing. Humbling.
Suddenly my apprenticeship has taken a new direction… just
when I thought I was an alpine snowboarder.
– Dave Morgan |
 |
