Activity: Alpine snowboarding
Alpine snowboarding differs from regular snowboarding in that it uses hard plastic boots and stiff bindings. This gear was traditionally used by racers (perhaps you saw some at the 2006 Olympics in Torino), but has a small following among non-racers as well.
Stiffer gear isn't so good for jumping and doing pipe tricks, but it is great for being able to control the board in more conditions. As the feet are entirely on top of the board, the rider is able to tip it on edge and ride entirely that way -- carving a groove in the slope. Sliding a board, the mainstream in regular snowboarding, is considered very sloppy in this sport.
Example of a carved turn
Different aspects of this sport appeal to different people -- for me, it's the G's I feel on the turns that make it fun. Others like to ride fast, lay their body on the snow (the G's are high enough to pick them up at the end of the turn), etc.
Stories
2006 Summit Expression Session: It's that time of the year again -- Scott Firestone of Over two or three days we took a number of runs with Joerg Egli and I saw their movies last year, and wanted to learn how to ride their On our l... |
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Riding with PureBoarding in Aspen: Joerg from NEWSFLASH: (4 April 2006) Check photos from Richard NEWSFLASH: (7 April 2006) Check out the |
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Post-WCS week: After the World Carving Session was done, a few of us stayed and rode for another week. Lisa and I skipped riding over President's weekend, but skinned up Buttermilk one day, and rode the other mount... |
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World Carving Session 2007: My third year at the session in Aspen, this year renamed from SES to Day 1 of the World Carving Session in Aspen -- 2007. Spent that day The day started out foggy, but there was blue sky over Big Bur... |
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Riding "A-style" with PureBoarding: Joerg from PureBoarding and a dozen guests came to Aspen again for a 10-day April trip. Lisa and I had a great trip riding with PureBoarding last year, and jumped at the opportunity to ride with them... |
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Monarch opening weekend 2007monarch: Monarch opened three weeks late this year, due to lack of snow. But |
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Drills for alpine carvingmonarch: One of the main comments that I get on my snowboarding technique is To see the recommendations from folks on BomberOnline, click here. Following are some pictures of what happened, and a video that L... |
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Alpine practice: Switch - steeps - and freshmonarch: Getting better, but still having a hard time dealing with the terrain I have been initiating turns a lot earlier, traversing the hill on Oh, still tons of counter-rotation, but I felt good on my Prio... |
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Fourth anniversary of snowboarding!: Ha! Tempus fugit! Today marks the fourth year that I've been snowboarding -- probably got in some 200-250 days over those four years. I started riding when I met Lisa, she was already a skilled rider... |
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Aspen and Pureboarding 2008: We joined the Pureboarding group on their annual April trip. Here are some pictures... Day 1 was 20" of powder at Snowmass. Day 2 we carved on a nicely set up snow at Ajax. Day 3 was 2-3" fresh over ... |
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Carving Monarch 9-Jan-2007monarch: I've been pretty comfortable riding with hands behind my back, but |
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How to carve a 360 snowboard turn: For me, the most interesting BOL post this year was about carving a 360 turn. In true BOL fashion, although the original poster asked for video, the following 8 pages were full of "i do it all the ti... |
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Carving at Beaver Creekbeaver-creek: My Lisa was a bit freaked with all the people on the slope, and that Scott was ripping it up! We didn't ride a ton with him, but I got a I noticed that I'm still C-shaping a little bit -- especially ... |
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Carving at Copper with Dr. Scottcopper-mountain: I easily settled into the routine of getting up before 5 to get work On Thursday I had the biggest fall of the season -- I was riding down On Friday Dr. Scott and Greg came with us, and Lisa spent so... |
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Follow the carver: I recently bought some motion stabilizing video processing software, |
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Jimmy and Frank hit Monarch: Jimmy and Frank came to visit from Chicago -- first two days they rode at Monarch. Dr. Scott and I joined them, had a great time! |
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John Gilmour carving clinics: John Gilmour wrote on the bomberonline.com forum about being available for coaching in Colorado this season. I thought it would be a great way for me to open yet another "door", get more ideas about ... |
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Learning to carve at Monarchmonarch: Carving -- I saw the movies of Patrice and Jacques on the web (at |
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Lisa's "B" turn: I really enjoyed seeing Lisa's turn on the SES 2007 DVD that can be |
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Profile: Mats: Some pictures I took of Mats, our Swedish carving fiend/friend, during the World Carving Session. |
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Starting 2005 carving season at Monarchmonarch: Whoo-hooo! Monarch opened Lisa got back into the swing of things fairly quickly -- had some I had a harder time -- although there is no doubt in my mind that But with all the falling, I still had a g... |
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Monarch Invasion Session 2008: The Loveland crew decided to use up their free passes at Monarch and came up for three days. A few other riders showed up too, namely newcarver from Montrose, RDY_2_Carve and his friend Shawn from Al... |
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More carving exercisesmonarch: Easter came along, seems like just a few weeks of the season left, Following each of the pictures are my comments on what I think we're Lisa has sometimes a hard time with her heel-to-toe transitions... |
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Practicing push-pull carving turnsmonarch: We got back from Christmas in Europe and were very stoked to finally I am working on three different things at once, hoping that they will I put together a video from a bunch of short clips, quality ... |
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Mountain Dew Vertical Challenge race at Beaver Creekbeaver-creek: Copper was a zoo on Saturday -- fortunately we missed it, running In the early afternoon Jeff and Kim headed over to race -- it was the |
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Angelfire NM: Having the Monarch season pass entitles us to three free days at Angelfire, NM. We found a few days to head down there before the spring break madness starts, and it was a great trip! We loved the sk... |
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Review: Prior Metal WCR: I rode one at A-Basin demos and loved it -- so much, in fact, that I For more info, visit Prior Snowboards. |
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Review: Prior Powstick: I've been going back and forth on whether to buy a powder board -- Read more about the board at the riding swallowtails at Wolf Creek. |
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Review: Pureboarding "TWO": Last year Joerg started producing a new board, the TWO, and in February he kindly left me a 164 board to ride and experiment with. I really enjoyed riding it -- it was a blast. I rode the 164cm board... |
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SES 2008: This was the worst session for me so far -- due to the fact that both Sunday, before we got sick, we spent the morning riding with Joerg |
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Swallowtail snowboarding at Wolf Creekwolf-creek: I bought the Prior Pow-stick swallowtail board, and it arrived two Thankfully, the Lord hath provided, and the weekend brought snow. It was the last day of the season for Wolf Creek -- $23 tickets as... |
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Riding class with Lowell Hart at Vailvail: We heard great things about a hardbooting instructor, Lowell Hart, He had us work on separation of joints and on understanding ways that It was an outstanding day -- we were up on the first chair, an... |
External Links
Bomber Industries is a premier maker of alpine snowboarding bindings.