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First Ride - Spruce Sherpa 130

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  • First Ride - Spruce Sherpa 130

    This may be old hat for most readers of this forum as many of you will be very familiar with these skiboards.
    Last evening I had my first ride on the Spruce Sherpa 130 skiboards on the indoor snow at Ski Dubai. It is probably not a fair test as the indoor slope is a far cry from their normal big mountain environment. I was concerned that these wide boards would feel big and clunky, especially indoors. However I had a ball. They are nimble carve monsters and spin on a sixpence/dime (delete as necessary), without the fore and aft balancing issues I sometimes feel with short boards.

    Anyone want to buy a pair of Revolts?

  • #2
    Welcome to the club. Warning the sherpa's are highly addictive, you will find yourself comparing very other ride to your Sherpas.

    Enjoy the ride

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    • #3
      Sherpas are like driving a Cadillac at slow speeds. You have to give definite steering commands, but they go anywhere/ through anything, and speed increases are deceptive. But, when you're at higher speeds you still have to tell them where you want to go. They won't read your mind on where to go like shorter boards tend to do.

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      • #4
        I find the shorter skiboards fun but hard work. I am not actively aware of it most of the time, but there is a constant requirement to keep adjusting balance to keep the weight centred. After a while my quads feel it and I need to get back on long skis to chill out and relax. In powder, my quads really suffer a pounding. Although I only did 2 hours on the Sherpas, I didn't suffer any quad pain. I feel these boards are on my wavelength. Or should that be board length

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        • #5
          Originally posted by nwhitta View Post
          I find the shorter skiboards fun but hard work. I am not actively aware of it most of the time, but there is a constant requirement to keep adjusting balance to keep the weight centred. After a while my quads feel it and I need to get back on long skis to chill out and relax. In powder, my quads really suffer a pounding. Although I only did 2 hours on the Sherpas, I didn't suffer any quad pain. I feel these boards are on my wavelength. Or should that be board length
          I can relate to what you are experiencing. Glad the Sherpas are showing promise for you. Please keep us updated.
          sigpic


          Osprey, Sherpa, Custom Coda 120WT, Custom DS110, Condor (Green), Spliff

          Custom Twist Out duck foot bindings, Bombers (custom duck foot base plate and 3 pads), releasable S810ti on custom duck foot riser

          Nordica N3 NXT ski boots (best so far)


          Wife: 104 SII & 100 Blunt XL with S810ti bindings on custom "adjustable duck foot" risers

          Loaners: 125LE, 105 EMP, 101 KTP, 100 Blunt XL, 98 Slapdash, 88 Blunts

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          • #6
            The thing about the sherpa's is you can count on having fun no matter what the mountain throws at you. I think there are a few boards that can handle anything, but when I'm on the sherpas I'm confident I''ll not only handle it but have lots of fun in the process.

            Now my 1 quiver skiboards

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            • #7
              Quick update on my Sherpa experience.
              I have returned from a week in St Anton in Austria and I now have some real mountain experience on my Sherpas.
              First off, what an amazing place, this is Party Central and the hard core (not me) can party from early afternoon to 4am.
              Second off, what an amzing place, the skiing is fantastic with 200+ km of groomed runs and a similar amount of accessible off-piste, before you get into the heli-skiing.
              I am impressed, even compared with Espace Killy, Trois Vallees and Portes de Soleil.
              Word of warning however. It is not very beginner friendly. The slopes drop very steeply into the valley. There don't seem to be any green runs and many of the blues would be classified red in France. Nevertheless a fantastic experience.
              On to the Sherpas. Great boards, especially on soft snow. I have little experience in off-piste skiing but they were very kind to my tentative efforts at following my experienced son on his 90mm wide skis. I even manged to glide past him once as he was eating snow :-).
              On very hard snow, they also performed fine although perhaps too wide to be comfortable in edge to edge turns on hard pack. Slalom skis probably have the edge here (pun intended).
              I really enjoyed them and they suit me better than shorter skiboards which I find hard work on the quad muscles.

              Comment


              • #8
                Some more thoughts on the Sherpas:
                I tried them using both the centre-mount binding position and the set-back binding position when on the indoor snow. To be honest I didn't notice a huge difference between the two positions but that may be because I ride them like skis using an upright position pressuring the tips with my shins against my boots. I find the typical skiboard "gorilla stance", which is necessary to maintain a centred position, to be very uncomfortable. When I was on the mountain, I only used them in the set-back position figuring that would be the best place to be when off-piste but still OK when on-piste. I have no complaints, they were great.
                Now I'm back in the "real world" sadly dreaming of the mountains and planning my next trip.

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by nwhitta View Post
                  Last evening I had my first ride on the Spruce Sherpa 130 skiboards on the indoor snow at Ski Dubai.
                  Hi,
                  Do you live in Dubai?
                  I have just ordered my Sherpa (my first skiboard) and I intend to ride @ Ski Dubai!

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