Lib Tech T.Rice first impression
Posted: 28 December 2010 08:57 AM
Hello Rich and Rico!
Your board sticks to the snow beacuse snowcrystals sticks to your base. The base is suposed to be a bit of waterrepellant. That would be a bit of a fatty surface. As the base dryes out the board also get more and more tendency to stick to the snow. Soo if you ride spring corn the dry poor base with no attention during some season will fire back and suck you in to the snow. The more watersaturation the more sucked in you get. This also cals for really cold weather were snowcristals tend to be bigger and so also be “stickier” than normal.
It´s really important that you use block base wax first. That´s what makes the base stay healty. I.e keeps it from beacoming dry. Then you could use some wax for your kind of snowconditions. I stick to cold and warm wax. (Blue and yellow for my waxbrand)
Hydrocarbons should be removed from the board after the ride since they are said to dry out the base. At least that´s what I heard this from the Swedish boarder X-team manager…who proably has waxed a few boards in his active days.
As for me and my K2 Eldorado. I really regret ignoring base wax and mabe also taking the easy way out a few times with fast wax containing hydrocarbons.
Regarding your foot, Rico. Does it hurt if you take a grab in front / midle fot and compress it firmly?
Best regards
MP
Posted: 28 December 2010 09:41 AM
Hi MP,
No, it doesn’t hurt if I grab/press it firmly (at least the way I’m doing it). I just bought new boots, so I’m gonna try it out tomorrow.
What is this block base wax and hydrocarbons? I usually just wipe the base first to make sure it’s dry and hot wax it after every ride. I’ve also heard a lot of complains regarding lib tech bases. The weird thing is, the first day and second using factory wax, the base was fast.
Posted: 28 December 2010 11:47 AM
Sorry…flouronated carbons that should be…..hydrocarbons is for bubbels in soda… I think. Ok. I shall not say anything more in this subject…I think.
Posted: 28 December 2010 02:39 PM
Yeah hydrocarbons are what react with oxygen in combustion!
Posted: 29 December 2010 09:14 AM
Just got back. I think you were right Rich, it was a wax issue. I used the bluebird wax and its fast again. Now, I really need to learn how to ride pow, especially heavy wet pow. Knee deep I’m fine, but once it got to thigh and waist deep I’m fucked. Especially when it got steep, I have no control of the board at all. I’m trying to maintain the perpendicularity to the slope but at the same pressuring the back foot a bit to keep the nose up, but in the end I ended up on my ass =(
Also I got new boots, Burton Ions, and my foot pain now is gone. Feels so much better riding with no foot pain.
Posted: 29 December 2010 10:04 AM
Rico - I have absolutely no sympathy! You’re riding thigh deep champagne powder and I’m riding snow that is so hard that even my super stiff cambered Rossi JDub with sharp as a blade Magnetraction Edges won’t hold an edge on. I’ve retired from snowboarding until some snow falls.
I guess my last tip would be to take more speed into the powder. The board will only float if it’s planing above the snow. For that you need speed. Prepare for lots of tumbles, but it’s powder and that’s half the fun. Make sure that you’re pumping through turns and thatyour weight is much more through the tail as you exit each turn, this will bring the nose up out of the pow to enter your next turn without any catching.
Next time we get some powder (might be a while at this rate) I’ll take the gopor out and see if I can put together a little video tutorial.
MagnePange - I knew you meant Flouro Carbons… for that to be the only mistake you’ve made when your writing in your second language is very impressive. I’m guessing you run cold weather wax in Sweden but how do you know what to use in the Alps? The temperatures out here are up and down like a yoyo and in France it was much worse. I remember having one week where it snowed constantly for 5 days, by the end of it we had nearly a meter of snow, but we couldn’t ride it because it was complete white out. on the 6th day it rained all day. Apart from losing family members it was the sadest day of my life!
Posted: 29 December 2010 12:56 PM
Yes you are right Rich! I really have little know how from your conditions down in central Europe. But we do have wet snow up here in north to. And soo we also have the Norwegian experience with maritime snowpacks. But yes; in middle of Swedish lappland we do use cold wax 99,9% out of the time.
As for conditions: sounds no good. We have had really good stuff comning down in the north. For the last days, however, there has been some kind off true artic winter….. -32 C yesterday. Today -24 C and slow snowfall. And wind about 3-4 m/s. No riding this days…...
I really can feel your pain for that week. It hurts in my guts.
Snow is a bit of a untrusthy friend. My sister whent to Canada for 6 months. Only to find out that back home we did have one of the best winters ever. Some friends went to Wistler to ride ice for a week. Then again. When you get the right stuff its really true and great love.
Hope you get some of it soon!
Posted: 29 December 2010 08:06 PM
I think my main problem is turning in powder, I tend just to dig in (like carving) unintentionally instead of just making subtle movements and also not going fast enough like you said. I guess I just need more practice. I thought Europe was having some snowstorms Rich?
Posted: 30 December 2010 07:20 PM
England has been dumped on! We had a little snow last night but it’s not going to snow significantly for another week. Fingers crossed… might build a jump in the next few days, just in time to launch into 2ft of fresh.
Posted: 31 December 2010 09:21 PM
Went to Cypress last night for some night boarding with some friends and teaching them how to snowboard. I finally learned how to ollie and do small jumps off rollers/bumps (really small haha) and land it. So much fun =), the slopes are mellower than Whistler so I can practice doing small jumps.
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