The Andorra 2022/2023 Skiboarding Report

[ysb33r]

Kicked off my season preparation by purchasing my season skipass. As from this year we have truly unified skipass that allow access to ALL resorts of Andorra. And it came at a bargain price for us residents - only €378!

Besides that, everything winter is still packed away. A new pair of DLPs and some additional Revel8 bindings arrived in the early summer. They will definitely be tested in December.

[davitorro]

Hi ysb33r,

do you pay taxes in Andorra for the goods sent from the USA?

In Spain you have to pay 21% VAT + 20€ (customs management) at the delivery, and it brakes me in buying a pair of Invertigos.

Thanks!!

[ysb33r]

Hi ysb33r,

do you pay taxes in Andorra for the goods sent from the USA?

In Spain you have to pay 21% VAT + 20€ (customs management) at the delivery, and it brakes me in buying a pair of Invertigos.

Thanks!!

davitorro Yes, but it is like 2.5% duties + 4.5% IGI (VAT)

[ysb33r]

Ski rack mounted on the car this weekend. Pulled the skiboards from storage that I think I am going to use most this season.

Resorts are suppose to open this Friday, but cover is going to be sparse.

Looks like I have a candidate though, who want to learns, so that means beginners' area for a bit and the coverage will be sufficient for that.

[ysb33r]

Already got three days, two of which I was helping someone who has never been on snow before, to enjoy the pleasures of downhill sliding.

Using Rvl8 SIIs, by lunch time on day 1, the person already left the magic carpet behind and was riding the slopes serviced from the beginner chair lift. Meanwhile the people on ski class were still side stepping and snow-ploughing the magic carpet area.

Due to snow during the night, we shifted resorts for the next day. We worked on one long ride the whole day and progress was so great to see.

As usual I started with three techniques - how to fall safely, how to hockey stop and then how to parallel turn - no pizza wedges. The latter just comes naturally at a point.

Anyway, on day 2, the person was riding the full length of our route without falling over or spinning out. Legs were still shaky and body positioning still needs work, but in a couple of more riding days, it will be on the intermediate runs.

On a side news story, I found some on a pair of really short ski blades. I asked him whether he like them and he said they slow in the soft snow. I showed him my Slingshots and gave him a Rvl8 card.

[ysb33r]

And to add, some great conditions today.

[ysb33r]

It is day 5 of the season and my fourth day out.

Went out on DLPs first thing, but quickly switched back to Slingshots. The softer ride is much more suited to me. Nonetheless, those DLPs are of sturdy construction. Cannot fault the Rvl8 risers either.

Met up with Ben & Sylvie later in the day. They drove up from France. Both were on Blunt XLs - they love them more than the SIIs.

I exchanged a pair of Spruce Risers with rental bindings with Ben in return for a pair of Tanshos. Since we were parked on different sides of the mountain, I rode the lift up with the pair of bindings in my hand and skiboarded down the other side. The did the reverse, but this time with the pair of Tanshos in my hands. Not sure what the lifties were thinking. I actually took a small jump with the Tanshos in my hand, and afterwards thought that maybe it was slightly crazy.

Anyway we rode together for a while - 3 skiboarders going around effortlessly.

[ysb33r]

Went out for a little tour up a piste with a friend tonight to catch the moonlight. Walking up was not to bad. We got some moonlight on the way down - it was like daylight. Then the moon disappeared behind another ridge and the rest had to be done by headlamp. Snow sprayers were on which required dodging big heaps of snow and at one place, a pisten basher.

Most of the bottom half was extremely icy. No easy riding by any chance. I was quite impressed how well the Invertigos held edges.

[ysb33r]

Slope day 5 and the morning was spent evaluating a new setup.The keen eye will spot something about the bindings. Yes, they are rental bindings on the new Rvl8 riser. I got SBOL to do a couple, which we are going to use here for skiboard rentals in Andorra.

I mounted them setback on a pair of DLPs. More browny points if you spotted that. I did it for a reason as I wanted to see how the DLPs turn in the hard pack conditions we had today. I generally never ride setback on anything, but the experiment was worth it.

I thought they turned better from the heel and was less grabby. I rode the steep Mirador run, a black that just got opened and it was a beautiful experience.

As to the bindings, they are not as sensitive as Attack bindings, but they do work really well.

[ysb33r]

It was alluded to above, but it is official now. For 2022/23 season one can now rent skiboards from the La Capa shop in Arinsal Andorra. All of them will be equipped with the rental bindings + Rvl8 riser as pictured in the previous post. A big shout-out to Greco, for making this happen.

This might be tempting news especially for European visitors who would like to combine a trip to the Pyrenees and are skiboard curious.

[ysb33r]

Slope day 8: I was out this morning just to skin up the hill in the resort. Conditions were hardpack and the skimo routes were open, although in a couple of places one had to dodge grass and rocks. Well, nothing much different than much of the Pyrenees routes .

I was out on Invertigos and at some point I noticed that the normal joint point of two routes have been moved lower down, but hey there were still some tracks going up the way of the old route. Now who wants to go the easy way - this is a chance to put the Invertigos to test again. Now as I said, the conditions were hard pack and climbing the slopes became tricky with a couple of backwards slips. Crampons sprung to mind, but I perservered up this hill until I got into a traverse. Lo and behold the Invertigos did not have enough grip, I lost my footing and went sliding down this icy slope!

Of course the heels are loose, so it is not easy to dig them in to stop. I still had my hands thought the pole leashes. Hey, I was in-resort - this was not suppose to happen. Somehow I managed to slow myself down to stop. I cannot get up as I will just start sliding again. I pull my backpack off, and pull out some Skeats and somehow managed to pull them tight enough to get them to work. Finally I got to stand up and with a wide turn, angle myself to walk straight up the slope back to the track where I slipped.

I continued on the traverse back to where the big track is. The Skeats saved the day.




P.S. Jack mentioned to me that there are new improved versions out of the Skeats called Claws. I have some of them on order. I hope they will improve traversing, becasue even though I got out of trouble using the classic version, I could feel that they were no optimal on that icy traverse.

[ysb33r]

A couple of extra points about Invertigos and Tecton bindings.

I keep on repeating this, but I think the Invertigos only really work well for heavier riders. They are STIFF. COMing down hard pack I felt every ridge in the corduroy being transmitted through the boards into my legs. On the same surface I would go about 10-20km.h faster on a pair of Slingshots becasue they deal better with the situation.

As to the Tectons, I needed about six attempts on the right leg to get the heel to lock correctly before my descent. SO much so, that I witched boards around, and on the right leg the other boards clipped first time, Then about two more attempts to get the left leg to click in correctly. I don't know if it something to do with the boots, but it was pain. First I've seen this happen.

[ysb33r]

Last slope day before Christmas. Skin up, ski down, have a hot chocolate and then walk back to the car.

[ysb33r]

Nasty surprise this morning. We did a short walk up, because my partner for the day is recovering fitness. We got to the change-over and one of the heels did not want to engage. After a bunch of confusion, I discovered a lip has broken off the heel of the binding in question. This lip is instrumental in locking the heel on the Tecton bindings for descent.

Took the skiboard to my local ski repair shop. Now we wait to see what Fritschi has to say.



P.S. There was a chair lift nearby which starts starts near to where we started for the morning. So we rode the lift down and then walked back to the car. Lucky. Just imaging discovering this in real backcountry.

[jjue]

Yes that is unfortunate. I wonder how often that happens with that binding???? yes having a binding failure in real backcountry conditions can be a catastrophe and cause one to have to bivy for the night and deal with a heinous walk out . We always bring voile straps on our backcountry trips . I had a buddy who had a similar binding issue and we basically strapped his boot to his ski with voile straps so he could ski out . It was really touch and go as we were on top of a big descent when that happened and he had to ski very gingerly basically long traverses across the slope and then kick turn and repeat.