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Big sierra storm cycle last few days and my son and I went up to Sugar bowl after the biggest dump for a little white room session !
Here is the magic carpet transporting us up to the white room ... .
Here is the morning ride , folks just couldn't figure me out , weird giant snowblades on my feet , telemark boots but no telemark binding , weird front bale binding , WTF is that ???????
This was the first time I had the Condors in deep pow and they lived up to all my expectations .. . wonderful dropping in on the white room , got some untracked steep and it was smooth as silk bouncing from turn to turn down , later the stuff got tracked a bit , and when a big dump like this gets tracked it gets to be a serious undulating ocean with big drops were folks have cut the snow with their skis and snowboards, mixed with huge mounds of untracked in between . I was amazed at how well the tiny Condors navigated the stormy ocean , just pick up a bit of speed and plow through .. Yes , not as well as the Sherpas ( more on that later ) but simply astounding for such a tiny board.
And yes I MEAN tiny . The Condor was defintely tiny compared to the monstrous powder skis lots of folks were sporting today . My son on his big powerful Winterstick pow snowboard , felt I was going too slow and should switch to the Sherpas post haste... but I was having too much fun to do that ...
see on a shortboard like the Condor I just love making tons of turns , it just seems to be more fun that way , so of course on a 110 skiboard I make twice as many turns as my son on his 168 snowboard , and yes it takes me a little longer to get down the slope but who is having more fun ????
(Condor set up :Line ff pros , with telemark t2 boots , set back 2 cm on the binding )
In the afternoon it was time to switch out to the Sherpas .. Wow these things feel BIG compared to the " tiny " Condors that I had on my feet all morning ..
BUT taking them up to the white room , let's me understand the magic, once more , of the Spruce longboard project .. This was to give skiboards a bit more length to give them added stability in variable snow and some increased speed but to retain the magic skiboard feel . Jeff , of course , managed , that in spades with the Sherpa .. It feels and turns just like a skiboard , just like my Condor , just bigger . The increase in stabiility in variable terrain of 20 cm extra length is not a small matter , it is huge . There is a whole lot less work to control fore and aft pitching in variable terrain . This leads to a more relaxed ride . Think of short board surfers , compared to longboard surfers ...
shortboarders make shorter turns , are more active ... longboard surfers have a classic smooth style ... on the Sherpa my turns are wider in arc in the snow ,
Float in both boards is about the same .. I really do not need to weight the tails much on either board .. but I do have to shift my body weight on the fly more actively front and back to control fore and aft pitching in variable broken deep snow on the Condors , this is not hard to do and actually is fun , but it leads to a different FEEL to the ride .. Which board is better ? There is no better board , they just have a different feel .. the Condor is way more skateable and more manuverable especially with a non releaser binding , it responds quicker to my body motions then the Sherpa , but the Sherpa is more stable in variable terrain , they are both all terrain boards and equal favorites of mine . In their own ways with the design of these two boards G and Jeff Singer have hit bulls eye with producing true all mountain skiboards that are fabulous in white room conditions and yet carve up a storm on ice and groomers.
On the Condors in deep pow " I float like a butterfly and sting like a bee "
on the burly Sherpas I AM the TERMINATOR ready to roll over anything in its path , on the Condors I am on a super fun all terrain motorcycle , on the Sherpas I am on a HUMMER...
Later we go from some side country exploration outside the ski area boundaries. and suddenly realize why I carry collapsible poles on my pack .. it realy is helpful walking on flat backcountry trail cut my some previous riders ...
Here is my son trying to take his snowboard off and walk a bit and instead sinks into the snow ...
I lend him a pole and he scoots a long the trail on his snowboard
Powder is a rare commodity and out west we can get big dumps of the stuff and when that happens , the white room is open for business !!!
One of those real special days today ... thanks G and Jeff for making such fabulous boards , that help making playing in the white room so special !
Here is the magic carpet transporting us up to the white room ... .
Here is the morning ride , folks just couldn't figure me out , weird giant snowblades on my feet , telemark boots but no telemark binding , weird front bale binding , WTF is that ???????
This was the first time I had the Condors in deep pow and they lived up to all my expectations .. . wonderful dropping in on the white room , got some untracked steep and it was smooth as silk bouncing from turn to turn down , later the stuff got tracked a bit , and when a big dump like this gets tracked it gets to be a serious undulating ocean with big drops were folks have cut the snow with their skis and snowboards, mixed with huge mounds of untracked in between . I was amazed at how well the tiny Condors navigated the stormy ocean , just pick up a bit of speed and plow through .. Yes , not as well as the Sherpas ( more on that later ) but simply astounding for such a tiny board.
And yes I MEAN tiny . The Condor was defintely tiny compared to the monstrous powder skis lots of folks were sporting today . My son on his big powerful Winterstick pow snowboard , felt I was going too slow and should switch to the Sherpas post haste... but I was having too much fun to do that ...
see on a shortboard like the Condor I just love making tons of turns , it just seems to be more fun that way , so of course on a 110 skiboard I make twice as many turns as my son on his 168 snowboard , and yes it takes me a little longer to get down the slope but who is having more fun ????
(Condor set up :Line ff pros , with telemark t2 boots , set back 2 cm on the binding )
In the afternoon it was time to switch out to the Sherpas .. Wow these things feel BIG compared to the " tiny " Condors that I had on my feet all morning ..
BUT taking them up to the white room , let's me understand the magic, once more , of the Spruce longboard project .. This was to give skiboards a bit more length to give them added stability in variable snow and some increased speed but to retain the magic skiboard feel . Jeff , of course , managed , that in spades with the Sherpa .. It feels and turns just like a skiboard , just like my Condor , just bigger . The increase in stabiility in variable terrain of 20 cm extra length is not a small matter , it is huge . There is a whole lot less work to control fore and aft pitching in variable terrain . This leads to a more relaxed ride . Think of short board surfers , compared to longboard surfers ...
shortboarders make shorter turns , are more active ... longboard surfers have a classic smooth style ... on the Sherpa my turns are wider in arc in the snow ,
Float in both boards is about the same .. I really do not need to weight the tails much on either board .. but I do have to shift my body weight on the fly more actively front and back to control fore and aft pitching in variable broken deep snow on the Condors , this is not hard to do and actually is fun , but it leads to a different FEEL to the ride .. Which board is better ? There is no better board , they just have a different feel .. the Condor is way more skateable and more manuverable especially with a non releaser binding , it responds quicker to my body motions then the Sherpa , but the Sherpa is more stable in variable terrain , they are both all terrain boards and equal favorites of mine . In their own ways with the design of these two boards G and Jeff Singer have hit bulls eye with producing true all mountain skiboards that are fabulous in white room conditions and yet carve up a storm on ice and groomers.
On the Condors in deep pow " I float like a butterfly and sting like a bee "
on the burly Sherpas I AM the TERMINATOR ready to roll over anything in its path , on the Condors I am on a super fun all terrain motorcycle , on the Sherpas I am on a HUMMER...
Later we go from some side country exploration outside the ski area boundaries. and suddenly realize why I carry collapsible poles on my pack .. it realy is helpful walking on flat backcountry trail cut my some previous riders ...
Here is my son trying to take his snowboard off and walk a bit and instead sinks into the snow ...
I lend him a pole and he scoots a long the trail on his snowboard
Powder is a rare commodity and out west we can get big dumps of the stuff and when that happens , the white room is open for business !!!
One of those real special days today ... thanks G and Jeff for making such fabulous boards , that help making playing in the white room so special !
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