"Slarving" turns on the Rockered Condor (Tips from Shane McConkey)

[jjue]

As I spend more time on the Rockered Condor it has become clear to me that one of the main differences with this skiboard and all skiboards which have come before is its prowness in making the "Slarve" turn .. this is a sliding/partial carve turn , that was popularized by Shane McConkey with his rockered ,reverse camber Spatula ski in powder .... the Rockered Condor does that same type of turn in deep pow but also in broken snow and even on groomers and ice....
Here are Shane's tips on doing the "Slarve" which also apply to the RCondor ...

Shane
1/) SLARVING 101
Pontoons — and other skis without traditional camber, like the Goode Scoop and the older Volant Spatula — make skiing ungroomed snow blink-turn easy. To shred them on the hill, you have to open your mind and throw away everything you think you know about pressuring a ski. If you leave your preconceptions in the lodge, and keep these points in mind, you'll be skiing powder and tight trees faster and with less effort.

Jack ...
the same can be said of the RCondor in ungroomed snow but also on groomed snow


Shane
2) FIND YOUR CENTER
A rockered ski has a smaller balance point than a cambered one, so stay centered. You don't have to pressure your downhill ski or angulate; just slide or carve your turns as you choose. Or do both and "slarve" 'em.

Jack
This is very true on the RCondor . being centered is everything ... all else follows ... you can carve like a traditional skiboard .. but the RCondor really likes doing a partial carve and partial slide better ... this is the defining turn of the RCondor .

Shane
3/ RETHINK YOUR TECHNIQUE
Stop bouncing and forget about the up-and-down motion. You don't need it to actively float rockered skis because the opposite camber keeps them on top of the snow. Don't be afraid to go fast. If you need to control your speed, just throw them sideways.

Jack
yes , in deep pow . there is none of the bouncing up and down on the tail that I do on traditional skiboards... it is all amount smoothly riding centered in the pow .. and drifting them sideways as necessary to control speed.

Shane
4) USE YOUR ANKLES
Pivot from the ankles instead of trying to pressure the whole ski. Your tips and tails won't be pushing into the snow, so this is the easiest and quickest way to get your skis around.

Jack
Yes,, on the RCondor , I am really pivoting my ankles and smearing , in firm snow i ride with less of an edge angle and turn more by just pivoting at my ankles and doing a partial carve with a bit of smearing or sliding thrown in to the turn

Shane
5/ KILL IT
Don't fear crust or wind slab. Without camber and a deep sidecut, you're far less likely to hook an edge. Jump into narrow chutes and slarve. Rockered skis will be in constant contact with the snow — just swish them around.

Jack
Yeah .. . go ahead skiboarders and KILL IT . you have a new tool with a whole new tool set ... practice the SLARVE and then go KILL IT....

And from Teton Gravity forum

Originally Posted by JimLad
The slarve fills the gap between pop and carve. Any turn size should be possible.
I agree. I had Praxis Powders (185) and the closest analogy I can think of is Ice Skates. When you dig in and turn by rolling up on edge, you are locked in. When you "release" your ankles a bit - rolling them downhill, and flattening the ski- then you can feel the "slarve" better, like a hockey stop on skates, where the edge releases and you begin to slide. I could only just start this type of turn, hadn't really learned to control it yet. I worked on it last week on my b4's (it is possible, but you need more speed to flex the ski in each turn) I think big wide skis make it easier - looking forward to the 110 + waist category for me, and I think rocker makes it easier still.

You have to turn the same way you slide a box -- which was entirely foreign to me until I learnt how to, errr, slide boxes. On a box it's much more extreme -- you hope sideways, legs apart, and pressure the leading foot FLAT, skis FLAT, upper body facing downhill. In a slarve / McConkey turn, you throw the skis sideways while keeping the upper bod facing downhill, and let the edges drift without catching. Works best at high speed in deep pow. But you can basically incorporate a slarve into a midsize carving turn in a rockered ski by kicking the tails out as you initiate the turn; OR, keep the knees together, and twist the ski sideways by rolling the ankles into the slarve.

You'll get it. Lots of shapes are possible ..


Jack ...
study this video over and over , this is the first step


And this is how the guys on rockered pow skis do it in the deep pow ...

DPS' Stephan Drake tests the Spoon behind Alta, Utah. from DPS SKIS on Vimeo.

Jack
you can get the same feel of this on the RCondor on steep groomed slopes .. watch carefully how the skier is sliding down hill fast sideways and angulated.. and then off to the other side sideways ... same kind of "slarve " sideways slipping fast turns on steep icy groomers... with the RCondor as well as similar turns in deep snow ...

Guys and Gals the Rockered Condor is a glimpse into the future of skiboarding .... hope to get some video this season ... and I hope Brett and others will show us what can be done .. the possibilities for a new look to skiboarding is huge.....

Riding down steep slopes in all conditions sideways spinning around into fakie , wow possibilities are endless....

[Greco]

Great post Jack. I've added a link to it from the Condor description.

[CrazyBoy-1]

It's kinda funny, because that's how I've been riding the 08 Condors on groomers all along. The soft flex makes them really easy to skid through turns. Now I'm interested to see how the new rockered design will feel in comparison.

[shortydude]

I'm just glad there's finally a name for skiing like this. I skied like this for years and years. It drives instructors nuts. But, it's served me well.

[jjue]

Vids of Slarving Drills on Rockered Condor

Sorry about the video quality. The light was very flat .. But I think you get an idea of how the turn is done . The video is of me doing slarving drills on the Rockered Condor on moderate icy slope . This is very easy to do on the Rockered Condor and allows you to descend all manner of nasty icy slopes with control ..... Thanks to my brother in law for shooting some vid.
Real Time ..



Slow motion ....

[ysb33r]

OT: I feel sorry for the person in the background snowploughing straight down the slope. Those thighs must be hurting! She(?) should get some skiboards.

[sempai]

OT: I feel sorry for the person in the background snowploughing straight down the slope. Those thighs must be hurting! She(?) should get some skiboards.

I think this all the time as I'm riding the lift up and seeing people snowplow back and forth down the run. They just don't know what they are missing out on.

[sempai]

Sorry about the video quality. The light was very flat .. But I think you get an idea of how the turn is done . The video is of me doing slarving drills on the Rockered Condor on moderate icy slope . This is very easy to do on the Rockered Condor and allows you to descend all manner of nasty icy slopes with control ..... Thanks to my brother in law for shooting some vid.
Real Time ..

Nice video Jack. You really have that slarving technique mastered. I must admit though that it doesn't look like much fun. If conditions were so icy that I was required to do that a lot, I think I would just go home.

[jjue]

Nice video Jack. You really have that slarving technique mastered. I must admit though that it doesn't look like much fun. If conditions were so icy that I was required to do that a lot, I think I would just go home.

Actually , I find it a lot of fun ... it is not an exclusive turn but just one of many in the toolbox ... in this video I deliberately was going slow and demoing a lot of those turns... even though that slope was icy I could have just made about two carving turns and be done with it LOL ... also the turn is great practice for the way you pilot the RCondor in deep pow .....

[sempai]

also the turn is great practice for the way you pilot the RCondor in deep pow .....

Do you mean that you have to slarve in deep powder with the RC's, carving won't work?

[jjue]

Do you mean that you have to slarve in deep powder with the RC's, carving won't work?

in deep powder all skiboards turn by keeping the boards together and turning them as a unit, drifting from side to side , in really bottomless powder there really is no carving .. this is dfferent then in broken pow at ski resorts where carving works fine . ...
on regular skiboards you turn by putting your weight to the tail of the board and kind of bouncing up and down on the tail ,
on the RCondor you remain centered on the board and turn much as I am doing slarving turns on groomers...

[jjue]

More on Slarves (side slips )

The more time I spend on my Rockered Condor with my snowboard boot set up in all conditions, the more I am realizing that the defining skill of this board is learning how to Slarve well in all conditions .. this is also called a pivot slip or side slipping turn . Here are some more drills from the skiers perspective. In the video you will see the skier hopping to initiate a change in directiion , what is really cool about the Rockered Condor is that there is no hop necessary , because of the zero camber short base directly underfoot , it is dead easy to just pivot around and slide with no hop ...
Skiboards have always been hugely efficient carvers... the Rockered Condor has the carve in the tool box but it adds the ability to be the most efficient pivot ,slip sliding snow sliding tool ever invented. What is for skiers a limited and defensive manuever , can become a really big part of the tool box on the RCondor .

http://ultraskier.com/alpine/let-it-...ivot-drills-57

[jjue]

Flat boards ....

The defining skiboard technique in real powder , is keeping your skiboards flatter and together and moving the two boards as a unit in a "surfy " type flatboarded turn , pivoting from side to side .. this is different then how we go up on edge and carve on firm snow ... what the Rockered Condor does . is to allow the skiboarder to practice and use two footed flat surfy type turns on hard snow as well as in soft snow ... this is certainly not to the exclusion of carving and I can carve my Rockered Condor as I do other skiboards .. but the two footed flatter sliding type turn is super fun on the Rockered Condor where it is not much fun at all on cambered skiboards or traditional long skis .. this has to do with the fact that the design of the RCondor lends itself to smoothly pivoting and sliding without cambered tips and tails catching in the snow and without the board catching an edge , unless you really want that edge to hook up ..... I feel like "surfing " in firm snow as well as in pow which is really a unique and highly enjoyable way of riding my skiboards and something dramatically different on my Rockered Condor ... having more "feel" in my ankles with a soft boot set up really helps me enjoy this surfy ,sliding kind of riding better and I prefer the soft boot set up because of how it really lets me enjoy the feel of this kind of riding ....

[jjue]

Out today in the backcountry in 3 inches of new over breakable crust ... not the best conditions LOL but great for the rockered condor .. It suddenly occured to me that I was making exactly the same kind of slarvy sliding two foot turn in the soft backcountry snow , that I do in firm snow. Riding the Rockered Condor slarve style on groomers is fantastic practice and transfers directly to riding difficult backcountry snow ....

Here is more from Shane McConkey from his Spatula manual . the Spatula was the first reverse camber rockered ski What he says about the Spatula converts directly to riding the Rockered condor ... Interesting what he says about practicing the turn on groomers and boiler plate ...

"""Slide instead of carve!

Yes, believe it or not this is something that you should be trying to do in the powder. Sliding will be the most difficult of Spatula techniques to learn but you should be able to get the idea in time. Even if you never attempt to learn slides you will still be able to blow doors on everyone else without the Spatulas. Who knows, you might just naturally start doing them anyway. The more dense and compacted the snow is the easier it will be to perform slides. Sliding will greatly improve your maneuverability and control. Begin your powder turn and then instead of hitting your edges hard to carve a turn, stand up on two feet and let your skis slide or skid diagonally across the fall line. It will be harder to perform a slide directly down the fall line. Start off doing them diagonally.


For me, a slarve is a soft carve. Best way to experience it for yourself (imho) is to take a pair of reverse/reverse skis (Spats, 'Toons, etc.) out on a groomer. If you try and rail 'em up on edge (what I like to call a "hard carve") they will throw you into the hill (i.e. they will whip out from underneath you and slam you down). To prevent yourself from getting bucked you have to soften your carve. To this extent you still want to do everything you would for a regular (i.e. "hard carve"), but you just soften it up a bit, loosen it up. As a result you slide a bit more than you would in a hard carve, but you're not just side sliding, as you are controlling the ski and essentially doing what I previously refered to as a "soft carve" (I would also describe it as a limp-wristed carve or a muted carve or a mellow carve, if you are looking for an alternate explanation). The angulation is there, the rolling of the ankles is there, but it's all muted. Again, best way to understand it is to experience it. It took me awhile to really understand it and a lot of that came from taking my Spats out in hard-pack conditions, night skiing on Tahoe Boilerplate, and on cordoroyed groomers. And this experimentation came after Brooklyn suggested that I "carve" my Spats instead of strictly smearing/sliding them. Trying to ski them like a "normal" ski on normal groomers really opened up my eyes to how they handle and what you can do with them. And it helped me grasp the concept of the slarve. In turn it made my command of the ski that much better when I got them into their intended playground: powder. "

[jjue]

Nice picture of how skiers do the Slarve on rockered skis in pow ... today I was doing the same kind of turn in pow on crust with the RCondor you enter the turn and slide sideways bleed some speed and then rock over to the other side and slide ..... look at the body position the position of the rockered skis and hand position and just imagine that the poles are not there and you can understand the body position doing the slarve on the RCondor in pow ...