Skwal riders?

[sabestian]

Toe sides more difficult than heel sides... That's our alpine habits playing up. You're trying to initiate the turns like it was an alpine board. Which it is not.

I think the problem is that the skwal is percieved as an alpine board because it looks similar. Your body does not necessarely recognize it as something different and tries to adapt to it with a known technique. And that creates missunderstandings and errors. One should start from scratch and forget most of the alpine technique.

Try to follow these excellent explanations by ObiOne: http://www.skwalzone.org/forums3/vie...php?f=9&t=3396

[zarkod]

Yup. Thias Easy Jungle

The easy jungle is a limitated board especially if you are used to alpine boards.
According to me it is not well balanced, turns are not natural and personnaly I had great difficulties to ride it and I would not recommend it.
I did not experienced such problems with other skwal boards I tried (FC180, Sk200, contest, Mpride, Oxess, 173°F, RS176, ...)

[obi one]

when is it a skwal and when is it a skinny alpine snowboard? Seems like angles of 80/80 still give you a heelside and a toeside. that seems antithetical to the skwal thing, no? I also thought stance width was supposed to be a lot narrower, if not heel-to-toe...?

correct Jack!

what is a skwal?

From an "equipment" point of view (considering the actual major skwal manufacturers in the world e.g., M-pride, Lagriffe, Lacroix etc...) a skwal width "at the foot" ranges between 11cm and 13.5cm approx...wider width is ideal for skwal powder.

Modern skwal lenghts ranges between 173cm and 183cm (we are testing even 190cm with some manufacturers, but just for GS races...). Stance is approximately 4 cm or less...why?...you should ask to our friend Thias (one of the two skwal inventors in the early 90'ies) ...but as I said elsewhere, stance is highly personal. In any case if you stand up and put your feet perfectly in-line (90/90) with a very large stance, look at the angle/degrees between your ankle and calf of the front foot...no hard-boot is designed for that positioning - even in the walking mode... To respect phisiologically the lower body joints cants (from 3 to 6) are applied. The "heel-to-toe" stance makes you converge your weight and spread it into the smallest possible single place (possibly the smallest one) over the skwal base in order to absorb the maximum energy and to unleash it thanks to the camber-flex dynamics (the "bow and arrow" dynamic if you like). Short stance is the most used stance as far as we skwal in Europe...but Ace could be right to enrich skwal community with wider stances...why not? in fact nothing is written on stone to me...

mm...the only stone I would put is this one:
From a "technical" point of you it is skwal when you do not have angles on the front foot (0 degrees) and no or some angles (generally 3-5 max) for the back foot, as perfectly described by Zarkod before...I generally use 0/0 and I am happy...to clarify..."when you master a skwal you are lined up and you do not feel any strange pressure or traction heelside or toeside..." all turns are simmetrical except for style".

From a "ride" point of view it is skwal when you feel you are making a turn and you feel like you are making that turn as you would be riding a street motorbike into the turn...if you do not have a bike ...a bicycle is the same.


Combining "equimpment", "technical" and "ride" elements you might get the response on what a skwal is with respect a skinny board...

but, all in all, we are first carvers, bloody carvers...being either soft, moderate or nasty carvers...(and from here skwal and snowboard are the same)

to me...skwal is a frontal mind for a frontal turn

obi one

[mikel45]

Any suggestions to stop snow sticking to top sheet?

[zarkod]

Any suggestions to stop snow sticking to top sheet?

Perhaps you should go faster?

[Andrew]

Any suggestions to stop snow sticking to top sheet?

I think I read once about lemon pledge working

[xy9ine]

pam. extra vigin olive oil.

[mikel45]

1. Pam
2. Extra vigin olive oil
3. Lemon pledge
4. Go faster

Thanks all!

[mikel45]

Hey guys (Tufty, RobertAlexander and Ace), have been meaning to make a connection, we have a common interest - building our own boards.

Just wondering what kind of press you've built or are building?

[corey_dyck]

1. Pam
2. Extra vigin olive oil
3. Lemon pledge
4. Go faster

Thanks all!

The best method I've found:
Let the board cool down in the rack while you put your boots on. I found that putting a warm board in the snow means the snow sticks on the topsheet very well, which means more can stick on top. If it's the same temp as the snow then that first layer has a harder time sticking.

[RobertAlexander]

I tried my first real day on skwal today. After a cautious few runs, trying this and that, i started to feel good and then turned the heat up several notches. I was throwing it around like it was a toothpick. I like it and want to do more. I used the same cut and flex as my alpine and it performed as expected. Front=85/3 deg rear=80/3 deg with a 16.75" stance, felt strange at first but after a bit I was ok w/ it. It forces you to ride with a forward stance all the time and turn by angulation, both hands over the board on turns, no back seating it here, pumping on turns where I could. The next one will be a 12 cm waist, I have got to see how narrow I can go.

[kieran]

I have got to see how narrow I can go.

buy a ski and t-nut it.

[*Ace*]

12cm is pretty much the limit if you are using the Bomber TD3 Skwal bindings.

Hey guys (Tufty, RobertAlexander and Ace), have been meaning to make a connection, we have a common interest - building our own boards.

Just wondering what kind of press you've built or are building?

I am building my press out of I beams that I was able to recycle. My press will be similar to this one...


The paint is drying on the press as I type. Still a while until the first board is built. A learning process for sure. Should be able to squeeze up to a 210cm board! I have a lot of shapes I want to experiment with. A great excuse to travel to South America this summer, R&D.


What do you have up your sleeve Mikel?

[RobertAlexander]

about that press in the pic, P1/V1=P2/V2

[tufty]

I'm using a screw press.

[*Ace*]

about that press in the pic, P1/V1=P2/V2

...and that means? Something about pressure and volume, but what about it?

[tufty]

...and that means? Something about pressure and volume, but what about it?

Boyle's Law, innit. Although quite what that has to do with the gif above I don't really see; it only applies to a fixed quantity of ideal gas at a constant temperature - pneumatic presses deal with varying amounts of real gas, and don't worry too much about temperature except in terms of heating the epoxy to cure it.

[mikel45]

What do you have up your sleeve Mikel?

Ace - Experimentation with vacuum pressed maple veneers as core. - Mike

[tufty]

Ah, horizontally laminated cores. You'll get flamed for mentioning those around here, of course, but the results are pretty good, if the "pop" remaining in my 2003 Hot Blast is anything to go by. I was considering that approach, but to get full benefit, you really need to laminate in the camber form, which makes subsequent core machining a bugger to do unless you happen to have a 5 axis CNC "lying about" doing nothing.

I'm doing "standard" vertically laminated cores that I steam-form to the camber shape before layup.

[obi one]

skwal USA is going big!

one of them is a skwal legend, the other a big champion ...we need a "europe-usa" skwal event next year...asap

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8ViXxEmtGU

obi one

[mikel45]

2011 Lineup: Carver & FreeRide
Here is SkwalUSA first run video with final production prototype @ Buttermilk - Aspen, Colorado.
Thanks for heads up Obi.

[mikel45]

2011 Skwal Free Session
nice youtube video footage

[RobertAlexander]

Over a few days I slowly bumped up to Front= 0 and Rear= 87, feels great

[zarkod]

Now ou are part of the fight club!

[obi one]

Over a few days I slowly bumped up to Front= 0 and Rear= 87, feels great

stance?

[RobertAlexander]

16.75"c-c, 3 degree front/3degree rear

[obi one]

a clip of what we are up to in Europe when we come down to skwal as a community...

download and enjoy

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http...11.wmv&h=5a940


obi one

[sabestian]

Downloading the video... cannot wait!

BTW What is the common knowledge on heel/toe lift? I am using 3deg both feet, but I have been thinking of changing to 6 deg (both), but that means that I have to fabricate the wedges myself.

Obi One, have you experimented with this? Is 3deg toe front and 6deg heel back beneficial in any way?

[*Ace*]

Bomber makes a 6 degree Skwal cant for the TD3.

[monodude]

I ride in ski boots. I really like Catek OS 2's. I'm running around 10* rear and around 3* in front. (ski boots don't have the forward lean like an Alpine boot) If you can get them I highly recomend the Catek's. You can dial in anything you want.

Don

Feed the addiction...