I recently found myself landlocked in Colorado, about 1000 miles away from waves of any kind, but surrounded by water in its solid state. Always looking for surfing substitutes, I stumbled upon these guys out of Vermont.
Anyone ever hear, or better yet try, or even make (!!!) something like what these guys are doing? Im thinking of trying to do something like this, and hey, it looks no harder than a glassed alaia.
I am also in Colorado. Looks like the woodys burton used to make about 25 years ago. If you are just going to make one for fun go for it, but you will only be able to use it in the back country unless you put some edges on it. Depending on where you are there are some good standing waved here in CO. No substitute for the ocean but helps to keep the stoke up.
Have you seen these:
http://youtu.be/TXetFIID65c (video)
Photo site:
http://www.gizmag.com/signal-hybrid-surf-snowboard/21226/pictures#2
But if you have steep winding pavement with drive aprons on either side, you need one of these:
VERY interesting bgsurfer ...thanks for posting that clip !
reminds me a bit of mick mackie and the concept behind his sidecut ['winterstick'] fish ...he ALSO being a surfer / snowboarder , here in oz ....
I'll link that at 'Facebook' , as a couple of my east coast [oz] mates surf and snowboard , and it might interest them
one word to those guys that put all that money and time into the board , though .....
L E A S H
["doc lausch" musta been spewing , when he saw it upon its return , eh ?!]
cheers !
ben
if you want to SURF on snow you need one of these
nothing else comes close
dont forget your helmet
no one i know surfs in a duck stance btw
If you mean my street mountainboards, I don’t keep the bindings tight enough to lock into a “duck stance.” Also I can get a 4.5- to 5-ft turning radius with tight tracking and no drift. Ain’t surfing but it feels damn close. Try it, you might like it. Of course you will need a custom rig to get surf-like performance.
Can’t match snowboard speed. But with the exception of Jaws, Teahupoo and some others, most waves-surfers-surfboards can’t either.
I’ve gone lower. But my hands and arms don’t like it when I have gone too far. At 60, I’m content with 30-45 degree leans and tight 180+ cutbacks, year-round, week-after-week. Tight tracking:
Looks kinda “Ducky” to me:
Burton Fish = as close to surfing in powder as you’re gonna get…
Lots of flights from Denver to Cabo and other locations for waves. I don,t need to imitate surfing when on snow. taking a 1000 vertical feet drop or more is it's own reward. Think of tight shut id like a tube now when you blast out you have a lot of apron to play on like the face of a wave. Going over the edge of a steep cornice is like going over the edge a slab wave. Bac country skiing/ boarding is like being a big wave surfer. It takes knowledge and skill to survive.
many of the top notch skiers and boards Have a great deal of respect for thier Surfing counter parts. Makea few friends and they will be stocked to know you surf. might fond that they will be willing to do an off ski season road trip to some surf location with you. I lived in Utah for 15 years love the mountains and commuted to get some longboard sessions in.
learn to snowboard for real man - the no-boards and other binding-less boards out there are cool, but you’re gonna want a real snowboard… especially at first. Trust me man I know, I lived in Tahoe for 6 years! If you want a true surfing experience get really good on a standard board in all conditions, then head out into the back-country. Once you do, this is the board you need to use:
http://www.saltypeaks.com/product_images/full/0708TravisHammock.jpg
That’s the Lib-Tech Bananna Hammock - the Travis Rice pro model. The board is reverse-camber (has a rocker) and reverse-sidecut (wider in the middle than the tips) and a perfect twin-tip for going switch or regular. Contrary to other powder boards, you ride this one perfectly centered (duck stance, wider is better, and center the bindings as opposed to setting them back). The thing floats like no other, requires little tail pressure to keep it above the snow, and cuts turns in powder just like a surfboard. The reason I say to get this instead of a “noboard” or other binding-less snowboards, is because dropping cliffs is the best part about snowbaording (and unless you’re really good, like Jeremy Jones good, you’ll break yourself off on a noboard doing that).
Once you’re in the backcountry, it’s just like surfing. You hike a few hours but you get un-touched snow all to yourself. Seep lines with spines and cornices make for incredible slashes and nothing is more fun than throwing a cloud of snow and them bomibing through it blind. You’re gonna want way more than a helmet though - if you do this, make sure you get that, a shovel, an avalanche beacon, and a first aid kit…
…snowshoes and snowmobiles don’t hut either - or if you want to go green and have less crap to carry invest in a splitboard
http://venturesnowboards.com/helix-splitboard/
The bindings come off and the board separates into two “skis” which you can use to skin around much faster than on snowshoes - great way to keep up with your skiing buddies.
Also, watch this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh29_SERH0Y
This was my life for the longest time… I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
Funny you should post a link to Salty Peaks. I believe one of the biggest pro mountain board clans (and snowborders) affiliates with them. They sell mountainboard (offroad) equipment also:
http://www.saltypeaks.com/mountainboards
EDIT: The biggest mountainboard manufacturer is MBS in Colorado Springs – where I got all the parts (except tires) for my custom rigs. The founders, Jason Lee and Patrick McConnell, invented the mountainboard to feed their off-season snowboard Jones.
The Snurfer was created in 1965 by Sherman Poppen in Muskegon, MI. Burton built a modification and showed up at one of the annual Snurfer competitions. The rest is history.
And it all started because of surfing.
Here’s a few more tips I forgot to help you survive your new snowlife:
NEVER EVER EVER use step-in bindings or flow bindings - they are flimsy, fail often, and all-around gaperish. The best bindings on the market are made by Union Binding Company, followed secondly by Technine - also, toecaps give a much better experience than traditional over-the-toe straps.
DO NOT BUY INTO THE BURTON HYPE! Seriously, those guys are pure evil. They’re in it for the money, a majority of their components are manufactured at low-cost overseas and are not reliable, and they have put many good small companies out of business. The guys are like the Nike of snowboarding. Anybody who says otherwise has not been around the snow industry long enough.
DO NOT BUY INTO THE BURTON HYPE! - I guess I can’t stress this one enough
SHAUN WHITE IS A PIECE OF SHIT! - The guy is an asshole, and an all-around dirtbag. Do not emulate him or ever let anyone hear you respect him as a snowboarder. The guy has turned the sport into a circus, and is just plain rude on the slopes. He cuts in line, wont say a word to you on the lift, and snakes people in the park all day.
Get into park snowboarding - I know, I know… it’s nothing like surfing, but being a good park boarder will make you a better, more well-rounded snowboarder and make your time in the backcountry that much more fun. Great park boards are made buy the guys at Smokin Snowboards as well as Lib-tech and GNU/Rome. Plus, when there’s no powder it’s pretty much the only fun thing on the hill.
Go to YoBeat.com for all your snowboard shennanigans (sp?) - I used to write and take photos for those guys and they’re great. They focus on the grassroots riders, shun the X-Games and have some of the best, funniest edits around.
HAVE FUN! - Above all else, snowboarding is one of the best things around, and even with surf I miss it dearly
Unfortunately leashes in snowboarding are one of the most dangerous things you can introduce - they get snagged on trees and rocks, and can wrap you up. Also, they’re dangerous for the same reason skiiers don’t use them… you don’t want that thing attached to you with a rope when you’re tumbling down a hill at mach-5 after a wipeout
yeah i wear a short leash that attaches to my front binding and around my calf. doesnt catch on anything as it is too short… much safer with hardplate bindings as they can fail at times and break. nothing at all like a surfboard legrope tho
Leashes on bindings always cracked me up… I mean, the odds of both of your bindings failing at the same time and your board getting away from you are about the same as having a tiger shark serve you sashimi in the lineup
Nothing says “I’m a gaper” like leashes on bindings and a gap between you goggles and hat
Thanks for all the help guys. I’ve been snowboarding for years and while I’m no means exceptional, I can get down basically anything I find myself at the top of. Unfortunately, I bought into all the burton hype (you can blame my parents for that), but soon enough I’ll figure it out and buy some good gear.
I’ve done a fair bit of sidecountry stuff, so I know the feel of bombing down a steep, powdery run or snaking through the trees with noone in sight.
As for a slplitboard, Voile sells a kit that lets you turn any snowboard into a splitboard for about half the price of a new one. I’m pretty sure I can get a board from a friend for about $60, so hopefully this winter I’ll hack it up and have a functional splitboard by the time the resorts have real snow. With skins and all, it should run me about $3-400 bucks, which for a broke college kid is ideal. (This is also the reason that all those flights out of Denver are out of the question) Plus, who doesnt like making things?
I’m taking an avi course later this year, and am well on my way to aquiring beacons and a shovel and all that, so hopefully I’ll be skiing down 14ers fairly soon.
I do love real snowboarding, and definitely see it as a different sport than surfing with its own pros and cons, and this was by no means a rejection of normal snowboarding. I just miss surfing so god damn much that I wanted to see if I could get the feeling back from something as simple as a glassed piece of wood.
Oh, and hey cnacc, if you ever want to share some beta on those standing waves, or even need a buddy to surf them with, I’m always down…
Oh yeah that’s another thing - people snowboard Ala’ias in the powder, and I’ve even gone snow-yaking (kayak on snow) and once busted out my surfboard on a powder day… all worth a try if you have a fun local powder spot thats easy to get to
As for standing waves, not sure about ones in CO but you should definitely give that a try… I was a whitewater guide for about 3 years and surfed plenty of river waves in my kayak - now that I’m surfing again, I cant wait to shape a board specifically for a river wave (high rocker, wide shape and PLENTY of carbon/kevlar re-enforcement)
Eisbach Munich – River Surfing
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTTct6xBIc8]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTTct6xBIc8
Wow man… watch the video for “Amazing tidal bore surfing” where Curren and the guys go surf the Bono… SOOOOO sick
An article about the Prororoca caught my attention several years ago. One of the longest rides was 35 min and 10 km.
Time (9:01)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-6N1436Ink
I haven’t been up the mountain or on a lift in years, but it used to be you had to have a short safety leash between the foot you leave in the binding - the front foot as far as I ever observed - and the binding. In case something went wrong and your board fell off your foot on the lift.
