Originally posted by Quattrofan
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Sherpas - A Quiver of One
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Sherpas in Spring Conditions
Despite the big winter in my area spring conditions are here. How quickly things can change. Warm temps and a little rain has softened up the snow an amazing amount. Was out last night for a session. 50 degrees F during the day and 42 degrees when I started riding at 7:30pm. The snow was very soft and had been skied hard all day - cut up, rutted up, mounded up. I know how the ski racers in Sochi felt - the top snow surface would just push out of the way as mush often exposing a slick hard base. Had to adjust technique a bit on the steeper sections - no slow controlled carving turns - pretty much a night of letting it rip.
How did the Sherpas do? A joy to ride. Damp ride, smoothed out the terrain and bashed through everything in their way. They have such good momentum and don't get kicked around much. They were leaving an impressive huge spray of snow behind them too. I can see why my friends don't like to ski behind me. There is no doubt these ride like skiboards - in the soft I was driving even more from my boots and keeping my hands much lower than I normally would on groomed corduroy or frozen hardpack - guess trying to get the center of gravity lower so as to not overpower the mushy snow when edging.
I had a great comeback to a comment I got on the lift. I was riding up with a lady maybe in her mid-40s and her teenage son. She was on pencil skis from the 80s and rear entry boots and he was on a snowboard. The lady, who was very nice, asked me how I liked my little skis. I hadn't noticed what she was on but took a quick look before replying "I am not sure I would call these little skis. They are short but certainly not little". She kind of looked at her skis and then my Sherpas and said "yeah, those are really wide". Then she proceeded to chat me up the entire ride up about why I ride skiboards, how I like them, how they ski, etc. I told her to look up Spruce Mountain Skiboards. Lots of interest in the Sherpas this season.In pursuit of Peace, Harmony and Flow.....
Think Like a Mountain
Boards ridden, some owned: Sherpas, Spruce 120 "STS", Blunts, DS110 custom prototypes, Rockered Condors, Revolts, DLPs, Summit Custom 110s, Summit Marauders, Head 94s, Raptor prototypes, Osprey prototypes.
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Originally posted by Bluewing View PostDespite the big winter in my area spring conditions are here.....
Sent from my iPad using TapatalkBoards:
2016 Spruce tuned Head Jr. Caddys - 131cm
2013 Spruce "CTS" 120s
2010 Spruce "Yellow/Red" 120s
2018 Spruce "CTS" Crossbows - 115cm
2016 RVL8 Spliffs - 109cm
2008 RVL8 Revolt "City" - 105cm
2017 RVL8 Sticky Icky Icky - 104cm
2011 Defiance Blades - 101cm
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Sherpas Met Their Match - Almost...
I was out on Wednesday night for a session and the Sherpas almost met their match. The conditions were rock hard. I am talking frozen like an f'ing glacier. A lot of areas were ice - not icy but ice - skied off, shaved down, smoothed out to a nice mirror finish ice. It was cold - about 10 degrees F. First run on the first steep pitch I came to hit ice and the Sherpas slide out a bit. Hmmm...maybe the Sherpas are not good on ice after all. I was "soft pedaling" it for a bit after that - keeping the boards pointing down the hill, shallow low angle turns and basically just ripping. The conditions were rocket fast. The Sherpas did great - super stable and nice dampened ride. But, it was boring just ripping runs at the little resort. I could do nice slip turns and the Sherpas would slide consistently. But I wanted that Sherpa grip back.
So, about half way through the session I manned up, hunkered down a bit to lower my center of gravity, lowered my hands and pulled my arms in tight to my sides and basically jammed my weight down right through my boots. The Sherpas responded like champs - I was carving rails in everything after that. Completely addictive. The stream of ice chunks coming off the inside edges of the boards and flying up over the tails was spectacular.In pursuit of Peace, Harmony and Flow.....
Think Like a Mountain
Boards ridden, some owned: Sherpas, Spruce 120 "STS", Blunts, DS110 custom prototypes, Rockered Condors, Revolts, DLPs, Summit Custom 110s, Summit Marauders, Head 94s, Raptor prototypes, Osprey prototypes.
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just purchased my first pair of Sherpa's. I've only been a RVL8 fan boy till I tried the Carbon Lacroix 125 and that was the first time I spoke to myself in amazement "Holy eff these are amazing" After quite a bit of consideration and reviews I'm going to try out the king of longboards. The only thing that stopped me before is longboards offer to much stability. I only have small hills (same hills as Slow) and long boards make these run feel wayyyy to short and easy.Last edited by Greco; 03-18-2014, 11:15 AM.
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Originally posted by Air-Rik View Postjust purchased my first pair of Sherpa's. I've only been a RVL8 fan boy till I tried the Carbon Lacroix 125 and that was the first time I spoke to myself in amazement "Holy eff these are amazing" After quite a bit of consideration and reviews I'm going to try out the king of longboards. The only thing that stopped me before is longboards offer to much stability. I only have small hills (same hills as Slow) and long boards make these run feel wayyyy to short and easy.Last edited by Greco; 03-18-2014, 11:15 AM.In pursuit of Peace, Harmony and Flow.....
Think Like a Mountain
Boards ridden, some owned: Sherpas, Spruce 120 "STS", Blunts, DS110 custom prototypes, Rockered Condors, Revolts, DLPs, Summit Custom 110s, Summit Marauders, Head 94s, Raptor prototypes, Osprey prototypes.
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Spring has Sprung - Riding the Slush
Spring has sprung at my home mountain, which is at a SITA (shot in the @ss) status right now. We had something like the second highest snowfall total in a lot of years and despite that, as always, the season starts to wind down in a hurry here. My friends that I ski with and I always say that no matter what the winter weather was like, Bear Creek and the other resorts at low elevation around here will be closed or just about ready to close by March 15th every year. Today is March 15th and Bear Creek is hurting for sure. Lots of warm weather, lots of sun, a bit of rain and lots of wind has really hammered the snow.
Got out today from 9:45am - noon. Sunny and 50 degrees F when I started. 58 degrees by noon. Melting, melting, melting. Not sure how long the resort can stay open. How did the Sherpas do in the soft, the slush and areas where it was close to a standing water condition on the trail? Very well indeed. The medium flex and moderate rocker was shining today - about as bright as the sun. The tips planed up over the soft stuff - I didn't need to watch my line at all - just point them in a direction and let them bash through everything. Getting across the flat top of the mountain was getting tough - very little glide in the snow and areas of deep mush really just sucked the life of out my legs. The medium flex came in handy here - was able to adjust my skating to get my weight a bit more rearward and get a little pop of energy by loading up and flexing the tail out of each skating stroke. I didn't need to ride the tails of the Sherpas at all on the trail - just let them rip. No issues no matter how deep the slush or how wet the snow.
Some photos from today. It will be 30 degrees F overnight and staying cold tomorrow morning so taking my daughter out one more time for her season. I will try and get out 2 more times before putting the storage layer of wax on the Sherpas and putting them into hibernation.
Sasquatch looking down:
Sasquatch from lift:
Extreme:
Lower Extreme:
In pursuit of Peace, Harmony and Flow.....
Think Like a Mountain
Boards ridden, some owned: Sherpas, Spruce 120 "STS", Blunts, DS110 custom prototypes, Rockered Condors, Revolts, DLPs, Summit Custom 110s, Summit Marauders, Head 94s, Raptor prototypes, Osprey prototypes.
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Riding the Pendulum
I got out with my daughter this morning at Bear Creek for her final day of the season. What a morning! It was a complete mush pile yesterday with temps in the upper 50 degree F range and bright sunshine. The forecast overnight was for temps below freezing with the temperature predicted only in the mid-30s by noon so we decided to go. Glad we did. It was thin frozen corduroy that skied off to corn snow on a hard base with plenty of grip. We almost had the place to ourselves for the first 2 hours. We met up with krillinakw and rode with him, which is always a blast. Riding with him is like riding with a kangaroo - you never know what he is going to jump off of, jump into, drop under, spin around, etc. I wish I had one thing on video this morning - coming down to the lift on the runout at a pretty good speed, he lines up the "Slow Skiing" sign, drops flat on his back, skis right under the sign and then pops up on the other side while tracking in a perfectly straight line the whole time. The people skiing behind him were very impressed.
I have been experimented with the Sherpas a lot probing their performance envelope, which I have not found the boundaries of yet - it has more capabilities than I have guts for sure. This morning to make the intermediate cruisers more interesting I was purposely carving with my weight in a rearward balance - I wouldn't call it riding in the backseat - more intentionally positioning my body rearward of the neutral point in the carve to load up the tail of the board. The Sherpas have good edge pressure and grip the entire length of the edges, but there is a distinct power zone from mid-boot to the tail.
I was really pushing the limits of this today and was rewarded with a "pendulum" feeling. As the carve would build toward the apex of the turn I would intentionally progressively shift my weight rearward of the neutral point and I could feel the back of the downhill board load up and it felt like the boards would get a burst of acceleration. Then, as I started the transition to the next turn it would feel like the boards would "sling" across the transition point. Once I set the edge for the next turn I would repeat the movement shifting my weight rearward of neutral as the carve progressed.
It was a ton of fun. I was riding them so far rear weighted that I kept waiting for them to "run away" from me but they never did. I just kept getting that pendulum feeling turn after turn. Really cool. If I would have done that on skis it would have become a negative reinforcing loop with the skis running farther and farther ahead and eventually I would have skied off the back of them.In pursuit of Peace, Harmony and Flow.....
Think Like a Mountain
Boards ridden, some owned: Sherpas, Spruce 120 "STS", Blunts, DS110 custom prototypes, Rockered Condors, Revolts, DLPs, Summit Custom 110s, Summit Marauders, Head 94s, Raptor prototypes, Osprey prototypes.
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Originally posted by valmorel View PostLOL, it's called popping the tails. Tried it on RCs once. ONLY once LOL.
Sent from my LG-V500 using Tapatalk
I have fooled around more on the Sherpas than anything else I have ever ridden, which is ironic given their size and reputation. I can't tell you how many times this season I have said "that is stupid fun!" this year.In pursuit of Peace, Harmony and Flow.....
Think Like a Mountain
Boards ridden, some owned: Sherpas, Spruce 120 "STS", Blunts, DS110 custom prototypes, Rockered Condors, Revolts, DLPs, Summit Custom 110s, Summit Marauders, Head 94s, Raptor prototypes, Osprey prototypes.
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Originally posted by Bluewing View PostSpring has sprung at my home mountain, which is at a SITA (shot in the @ss) status right now. We had something like the second highest snowfall total in a lot of years and despite that, as always, the season starts to wind down in a hurry here.Boards/Bindings:
2013 Spruce Sherpas w/Tyrolia Peak 11s
2023 Spruce Stingers w/Tyrolia Peak 11s
2015 RVL8 Blunt XLs w/Tyrolia Attack 13s
2020 RVL8 Sticky Icky Ickys w/Tyrolia SX 10s
Boots:
Salomon X-Pro 80
Past boards: Salomon Snowblades, Line MNPs 89 & 98 cm, Five-Os, Bullets, Jedis, Spruce 120s, LE 125s, Ospreys, Crossbows
Summit 110s, Nomads, Jades, RVL8 ALPs, BWPs, KTPs, Tanshos, Rockets, DLPs, Blunts, Condors, RCs, Revolts, Spliffs
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Originally posted by sempai View PostThere's nothing sadder to me than the inevitable end of skiboarding season.In pursuit of Peace, Harmony and Flow.....
Think Like a Mountain
Boards ridden, some owned: Sherpas, Spruce 120 "STS", Blunts, DS110 custom prototypes, Rockered Condors, Revolts, DLPs, Summit Custom 110s, Summit Marauders, Head 94s, Raptor prototypes, Osprey prototypes.
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Originally posted by Bad Wolf View PostI think today was our last of the season as well. It's been a great season though.Boards:
2016 Spruce tuned Head Jr. Caddys - 131cm
2013 Spruce "CTS" 120s
2010 Spruce "Yellow/Red" 120s
2018 Spruce "CTS" Crossbows - 115cm
2016 RVL8 Spliffs - 109cm
2008 RVL8 Revolt "City" - 105cm
2017 RVL8 Sticky Icky Icky - 104cm
2011 Defiance Blades - 101cm
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Year End Review Wrap Up
I spent the majority of the season on the Sherpas - I skied a total of 44 days and I am guessing at least 30 of those have been on the Sherpas. Long story short - these are the skiboards I was searching for. I had them in all kinds of conditions: beautiful corduroy, frozen hardback, ice, refrozen junked up rutted skied off snow, soft junked up rutted skied off snow, spring mush. They performed great in all conditions in all types of terrain. I described them to people all season as super stable slalom skis - that is what they felt like to me.
Want to carve rails and ski them hard? No problem. Want to relax and cruise? They do that too. Want to relax and cruise and then turn it on and carve on rails - they will do that in an instant. Sideslipping, pivot turns and sideslip turns (slarves) are all flawless. Want to ride fast? I set a personal speed record on them of 57mph and they felt great doing it. There is more speed there for sure. Want to ski slowly on steep nasty terrain and use small radius controlled turns to navigate down? They will do that too.
Only complaint - and not from me - is that my friends and daughter have complained about how much debris is thrown off the back of them. They will carve trenches and even in corduroy can dig down deep enough to pull out chunks of ice and hard stuff and hurl it high off the inside of those big tails.
Everyone is different but if you think you might like the Sherpas, I say give them a try. I was reluctant to try them because of what I had read about them being big, burly, best if driven hard, etc. I took to them right away and they are easy for me to ride.In pursuit of Peace, Harmony and Flow.....
Think Like a Mountain
Boards ridden, some owned: Sherpas, Spruce 120 "STS", Blunts, DS110 custom prototypes, Rockered Condors, Revolts, DLPs, Summit Custom 110s, Summit Marauders, Head 94s, Raptor prototypes, Osprey prototypes.
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