Boardercross Setups

[Comrade]

Okay, I watched the ESPN "PGS" race and I saw the two runs that they actually showed. Other than being disappointed with the limited coverage, I was left to wonder a few things about the BX.

Why do they use soft goods? It seems to me like plates and hardboots would be a much more stable ride. I didn't see the televised race last year, but it seems like I heard that winner was on plates. Also, it seems to me that on those 15 second Jeep races they used plates as well. Just wondering.

->Eric

PS Why are the guys at Jeep so cheap? They give the winner of the “Jeep King of the Mountain” a 2-year lease on a Liberty. What's that about? I think they could afford to actually give away the stupid car.

[NateW]

The real question is, why do they build berms at the turns?

Answer: so people in soft boots will be competitive.

I'd wager that the softbooters would be left in the dust if BX were run without the berms. Heck, let's put some jumps on a super-G course. :)

[jason_watkins]

I dunno, to me BX is not a (giant) slalom with jumps. The more wide straightline and jump heavy courses you see in this year's xgames seem to provide more passing oppertunies and better sport. If that means hardboots arn't the best equipment for the situation, so what... I think it's the best move for the sport. The alternative of 4 racers going though a narrow heavily gated course where the hole shot determines the winner seems to be a lesser competition to my eyes.

[lonerider]

Originally posted by Comrade
Okay, I watched the ESPN "PGS" race and I saw the two runs that they actually showed. Other than being disappointed with the limited coverage, I was left to wonder a few things about the BX.

Why do they use soft goods? It seems to me like plates and hardboots would be a much more stable ride.

This topic has already been covered almost to death in a recent thread. http://www.bomberonline.com/VBulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1938

It was noticed that most World Cup racers who normally ride in hardboots switched to softboots for BX. And in general, softbooters tended to win. Most people decided this was that the courses were not simply not optimal for hardboots because were designed for softbooters in mind (see below)

This seemed natural to me since the first popular BX races (X-Games in my mind) were done by people riding softboots. Why would you design a course for a tiny portion of the snowboarding population that didn't even participate initally in BX (I could be wrong about this).

In response to NateW, my thought was that boardercross was derived from dirt motocross, and has lots of berms and tables - so it would be only natural for boardercross to have them there.
I just feel like since most boardercross designers (and original competitors) are/were softboot riders, it would only make sense that they would bias the course towards softbooters and not some insideous conspiracy.

Obviously if you changed the course so that it was more like a hardboot race course... a hardbooter would be more likely to win. But that's like crashing someone else's party and complaining that the music stinks and demanding that they play your type of music. Softbooters invented boardercross (am I wrong on this? if I am - correct me and I will change my perspective) and they should get to choose courses that they like. How would you feel if a softbooter complained about a SL or GS course and wanted to change it to suit his/her riding style? I feel this is kind of the same thing in reverse.

Again, this is my understanding and my opinions - I could easily be wrong.

Other thoughts:

In boardcross you often get less than ideal lines and will rarely actually be carving clean/tight compact turns since you are muscling around with 5 other competitors and will need to skid to stay in prime passing position.

Many of the more recent courses have whoops and gaps that are easier to take in softboots especially when you land short and off balance (again in traffic).

Apparently softboot setups are faster in fresh snow (according to Bruce Varsava).

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Heres some interesting BX news for you folks. Over the last 2 seasons I was working with Jasey on developing BX boards His ride ended up being a 182 with 160 running length and rounded off nose and tail, 18.5 wide with 16m sidecut. Superhuman for sure but it was working for him to a degree. The only concern was that in fresh snow, the board always lagged behind most others especially in gliding on the flats. We tried different bases and still no luck. Recently he had some tech help and they came to the conclusion it was not the base material but was the long narrow shape of the board. The shorter soft boot boards seem to glide better in fresh snow and flats. They apparently did a quite thorough job of eliminating the variables and that was the conclusion. Hate to say it but it looks like in those conditions the soft boards have the advantage. He figures he will have to ride both set ups depending on the course layout and snow conditions. Hmm, should I start making soft boot boards;)
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Bruce Varsava
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This all seems reasonable... it's just seems like a some hardbooters get defensive at the very idea that a softbooter could beat them - even on a course a race designed by softbooters for softbooters.

[Hugh]

Ok, from what I know to be fact: bordercross boards MUST have round tips and tails. That excludes all traditional carving boards from entering. The reason is other riders thought the square tail was dangerous, but really they didn't like the fact that the carving boards were winning races (lonerider's comment of crashing their party and taking over).

So, now to enter a carving board in a BX race, it needs to have a rounded tail, like a 4x4, Coil, Axis, or other all-mtn board.

On the other comment, a 182 board with a 16 meter sidecut is a huge board to enter into a bumps race, also the 18.5cm waist is too narrow for good float in fresh snow. My 174cm Prior 4X4 with a 21.5cm waist floats very well in the powder, why wouldn't that be an excellent choice of board? A few months ago, I sold my Burton Coil to a guy to ride BX, I haven't heard yet how that is working out. Steve, are you out there?

Hugh