at 48, the old body doesn’t seem to want to tuck into the right position!

Nah! … I’m 50 this year and still like to ‘throw some shapes’ from time to time!

Granted, not as many tricks left in the bag …

Do you have your bindings +15 +15 ?

To be fair the binding angles in the picture above do look very ‘euro-carve’ :-)

… I’m guessing +24 +18 … and given the amount of upper body rotation and the impending body/ground interface, I’m also guessing ‘faceplant’? ;-)

Hope you got up with a big old smile on your face! :-)

Will i notice a big difference in a new board compared to my 10 year old one

That depends to some extent on the condition of your 10 year old board. Since the core is [probably] made of wood this can sometimes warp or deform over time thus losing its original shape/camber etc. The conditions your board has been stored in can effect its useful life – e.g. damp garage, hot attic etc. whether the ptex base has been stored with wax on it can also impact ‘useful life’.

Not quite sure what you mean by ‘modern angular tipped boards’ – do you mean powder boards with a ‘pointy nose’?

There is a plethora of quite inovative snowboard designs at the moment, with a move away from the standard directional twin-tip, however many of these boards have specific uses such as carving or powder, although to be fair there is often some cross-over and a decent rider should be able to adapt most boards to a variety of conditions … but a pointy nose fish-tail board is always going to be best in powder and perhaps not so suitable for rails and kickers! ;-)

If you still want an all mountain board, then there are plenty of directional twin tips still around. In terms of ‘effective edge’ then perhaps ask want you want from a board? Do you want stability at speed? Control on steep/mixed conditions? Float in powder? Is carving important to you? Flatland tricks/butttering ? Side-hits? Spinning off those bigger kickers? (in which case a board with less difference between contact length and effective edge might be considered).

Interms of camber/rocker then [in quite simple terms]when looking at the profile:

Camber is a traditional snowboard shape where the centre of the board is raised off the snow.

Rocker is where the centre of the board is on the snow but the ends are off the snow – i.e. shaped a bit like a banana

Hybrid incorporates both of the above, but the permutations for this are too numerous to mention. the rocker could be at both ends or just one:

Whitelines did an article on this:

https://whitelines.com/snowboard-gear/before-you-buy/camber-rocker-snowboards-differences.html

However if your old board is still in reasonable condition fun to ride then why not use that? Or replace it with something very similar if it worked for you previously – if you are hitting the bigger kickers then you are clearly used to ‘charging it’ on a board! ;-)

No, seemed to be a bit of a tear. felt healed then would “pop” about 1 mile into my run. Seems better now, nother 3 miles tonight just trying to hold back

Interested to know what your physio recommended to regain full range of motion etc?

Eccentric/Concentric strengthening exercises? Proprioception? … stretching? ;-)

Good luck with your return to form surfer.

edit – oh btw – dunno if it was your gastrocnemius that you damaged but:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3845475/

“In the sub-acute phase, rehabilitation should consist of passive and active stretching program, soft tissue techniques, and proprioception training”

Just saying … ;-)

I have never been anywhere colder than Fernie

To be fair there was only one week and another weekend out of the entire 6 weeks that I was there when it was super cold – the rest of the time is was the usual -4 to -10 or thereabouts (and it only rained twice this time – once to the top of the ski hill!). Although I didn’t see the sun for the first 3 weeks!

Like most continental mountain ranges, the East Kootenays where Fernie sits will have a few cold spells each season when a ‘modified arctic air mass’ sits over the Lizard Range … and when it does it’s bone-chilling!

Looks like it is the convex slope that goes first then pulls the rest with it

Aye – it looks like a ‘remote trigger’. The skier appears to be on a concave section just below the large convex area (skiers right), that slides first before the whole slope goes from the top as it propagates … fortunately the convex area that goes first, appears to be a relatively slow moving slab avalanche … the slide from the top is much faster and catches up with the slab. Hopefully the skier was well clear of it and could exit skiers right and there were no terrain traps.

New physio located the problem and after 3 painful sessions managed to clear the issue (fingers crossed)

Crossing fingers to clear an injury is hardly ‘scientific’ is it? ;-)

Only teasing Surfer. Pleased to hear your physio help sort it and you are back out running again! Was the calf injury related to the Achilles problem you were having last year?

Speaking of physios, I badly sprained my ankle (damaged anterior talo fibular ligament etc – so the base of your foot and toes go black with bruising) whilst out running on New Years Eve – I couldn’t even bare putting weight on it: Shaved it and taped it as per my ‘Wilderness First Aid’ book and luckily got an appointment with my physio as I had a big snowboard trip 3 weeks later.

I had 4 physio appointments before I left for Canada and can happily say that although I had to take it steady with the drops and landings on the snowboard for the first few weeks of the trip, I made a pretty quick recovery thanks to the physio. I am also now back out running (with an ankle brace).

So yeah – let’s hear it for [quality] sports physios!

Double hoodie Digby? Blimey! Never had to resort to that. Brrr.

Aye – first time for me riding whilst wearing a double hoody – twas pure baltic for a while… I didn’t even ride with double hoody in Greenland!

You can layer appropriately to the temp, insulated jackets are less versatile

Absolutely.

On a really cold day in Fernie B.C:

1 x Merino Shortsleeve

1 x Merino Longsleeve

1 x Arc’teryx Fortrez Hoody (with handy intergrated hood and neck gaiter)

1 x Arc’teryx Proton Hoody (breathable low bulk synthetic)

1 x Arc’teryx Alpha SV Shell jacket

On a less cold day in Fernie B.C:

1 x Merino Shortsleeve

1 x Merino Longsleeve

1 x Arc’teryx Alpha SV Shell jacket

So that’s pretty much every temp from minus 20 to zero celcius. I don’t think you can get that flexibility with an insulated jacket.

Top work with the airbrush there HtS! Nice one! :-)

Regarding board/ski bag usage, as GrahamS says, just keep an eye on the weight. (Park Tools Bike Scales are pretty useful for this – and accurate).

Flew out here to Canada with 3 x boards 1x bindings 1 x boots and assorted kit all under 23Kg:

I frequently fly with multiple boards and backcountry kit like ice axes and crampons etc and I’ve never had an issue or had to have my bag inspected as long as I’m within the carrier’s specified weight limit.

I have both the Dakine High Roller and Low Roller – the High Roller is more robust but eats into your weight allowance. Both bags are good and have lasted years of baggage handlers abuse.

Bring on the snow. Three Valleys here we come!

Good decision … [whilst being considerate of others] regret the things you do … not the things you don’t.

Whichever way you look at it, we’ve only got so many winters on the snow left …

and snowcard – I wonder why they bump snowboarding up a level from skiing – even including the on-off piste bit. Weird

As was mentioned earlier BMC do this apparently because of a number of big snowboarding claims from North America. Seemingly big claims = increased premiums for that ‘risk group’.

Whilst in Europe I’m not sure much distinction is made between Skiing & Snowboarding (from an insurance perspective at least), however in North America you frequently have to sign a number of additional ‘waivers’ if you are snowboarding.

Some of this is concerned with the rise in Backcountry adventures and based around the notion that in an avalanche skis will come off, but a snowboard won’t – thereby potentially dragging the person down.

They were Motorhead. They played rock n roll.

The likes of which I doubt we will ever see again …

RIP Eddie

I always liked the story about him working as a painter & decorator when they first appeared on TOTP (as recounted in the film ‘Lemmy’ from memory)

From a quick glance the first is just a physio site with generic stuff.

Have a look at the references at the bottom of the article

And for the record I’ve never claimed that stretching can help with injury prevention.

edit: just read the 3rd one. It is very short and would be interesting with more explanation.

Fill your boots surfer … there’s loads more on the ncbi website. I only posted those links to refute your claim that I’d previously failed to provide any ‘evidence’.

you failed to provide any evidence then if I recall correctly?

erm … not really – these are the links I provided last time in this thread:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/knee-pain-after-running-1/page/3#post-8155210

http://www.southperthphysio.com.au/the-stretching-debate-what-does-the-evidence-say

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3273886/%5B/url%5D

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15126706

– there are plenty more if you can be bothered to search.

Sorry to hear you are still bothered by your Achilles. So did you see a Sports Physio or not?

which seems to involve placing a soft ball in your tender spots for a few seconds

As others have said a good Sports Physio should help.

I suffered from patellar tendonitis a while ago. A series of exercises, routines and a foam roller really did help.

But the use of a lacrosse ball to target certain areas/trigger points really really helped. Not sure if this constitutes ‘myofascial release’ though as what you are trying to target with a ball is muscle ‘knots’/scar tissue etc- similar to a sports massage in order to (inter alia) stimulate blood supply and promote healing

I think you are misunderstanding how this works. If you assert something is true, you provide the evidence, not the other way around.

How’s those achilles aches & pains surfer? Did you see a Sports Physio in the end.

Message from one of your heroes Kilian Jornet for you – he says you should look after yourself and stretch … ;-)

Your ‘evidence based’ approach is commendable but I think you are missing something. And this is recovering from injury. The same US national library of medicine has studies about injury recovery using stretching – as you well know as we’ve been here before haven’t we?

As people get older they pick up injuries/imbalances/niggles along the way. Yoga & stretching can help address some of these imbalances alongside strength and conditioning.

Kilian is now 30 and has to take care of his body as minor twists & sprains take their toll … be like Kilian! :-)

Didn’t the BMC also have an issue with a celebrity and Antarctic?

Aye … it was rumoured to be TV’s own Bear Grylls … his rescue was said to have pretty much have wiped out BMC’s coffers …

Whether or not it was his actual claim that bumped up the premiums I have no idea for sure butt he BMC did say this about the increase in their cover:

“> Secondly, we’ve had several particularly large claims: a £210,000 bill for a rescue from Antarctica, a number of high-cost snowboarding claims from the USA and some big hits from accidents on cruise ships. These claims weren’t from our core members going climbing, hill walking or mountaineering, so we’ve addressed the issue by introducing a detailed questionnaire for polar region cover and increasing the policy loading on snowboarding from 35% to 50%.”

BMC’s insurance has flitted round a few different Lloyd’s syndicates in the past few years

I’m interested Ned! ;-)

I can’t find the link at the moment and you may already know the backstory, but a few of years ago a couple of climbers got off route in a bad storm in Italy and called for rescue. One was with AAC who paid out straight away. The other was with BMC whose underwriter tried to wriggle out on a technicality (they hadn’t been declared missing)

In a nutshell there was a big fuss over on ukclimbing.com with the BMC understandable concerned so from memory they paid up and changed underwriter.

I know what you mean about the Snowcard levels.

Thankfully my trips tend to be either cruising the groomers with the missus and staying inbounds, or clenching my buttocks following McNab …

This year though I had to go for ‘Extreme Adventure’ which makes me sound more ‘Radical’ than I am … :-)

Edit … found it:

https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=585185

I just tend to do a search on travelsupermarket and pick a cheapish policy with a decent defacto rating which covers me for offpiste

But do check the small print as you might find that you are actually covered for very little … for example one of the biggest costs can be ‘repatriation’.

I’ve used ‘Snow Card’ and BMC for a number of years. BMC is very comprehensive (especially if you need SAR) but penalises with higher premiums if you are a snowboarder.

Snow Card is very flexible depending on your needs/destinations with sliding scales with their online quote for the amount of cover you want for various items etc.

Thankfully I haven’t had to claim with either so I can’t comment, but I do remember reading the small print on a long haul flight a few years ago to discover that the online discount insurance I’d bought was probably as much use as the sick bag in the seat pocket in front of me!

Spray painting this weekend if all goes to plan.

How did the spray painting go – have you done more than the primer? Hope you are getting on ok with the airbrush!

No sign of the police at all as of yet btw.

I’m disappointed but not surprised – when we were robbed a few weeks ago, it took them 3 days to provide a Crime Reference Number – despite their supposed policy of responding within 24 hours. I raised a complaint and was phoned with an apology blaming a new IT system.

Both the Insurance Company and Loss Adjusters couldn’t believe it.

I reported the 2nd break-in to the police shortly after it occurred Thursday evening and despite being assured that the ‘Crime Bureau’ would be in touch I haven’t heard anything and it’s now nearly 3 days again. I don’t even have a Crime Reference Number for this report.

I’m fully aware of the pressures on SYP – my early comments about the Seat and planks were because of the apparent disparity in reporting crimes:

I’m aware of at least 12 mountain bikes that have been stolen within a couple of miles radius of my home within the past few weeks, but looking at SYP’s Facebook and Twitter feed, back to the beginning of December I couldn’t find a single, solitary mention of mountain bike thefts, whereas other thefts, both big & small are mentioned …

Granted, some people might not want it advertising that they have had high value items stolen from their property but the only reference I could find was back in August last year when SYP were warning bike owners to be vigilant.

According to the Sheffield Star:

Sheffield Wednesday’s home games proved easily the most costly to police, at more than £430,000, though the Owls did provide nearly £200,000 towards that sum.

So at least I know where some of my Council Tax is going …

James – I’ll message you again later with some of my other thoughts regarding security, but sadly I’m coming to the conclusion that the hobby that I love very much has made me a direct target for the local Criminal fraternity and compromised the safety of my home and family – and I’m struggling to find a solution that doesn’t mean not having a bike – and that means the ***ts have won … :-(

So a cautionary tale to residents in NW & SW Sheffield: If you have a mountain bike, they know about you, have probably already scoped out your property and you are no doubt on their ‘to do list’.

Keep ’em peeled …

If they were smart they’d have nicked the parts.

Trust me … they will be back for the parts … their van was probably already pretty full from all the other bikes they’d nicked on Thursday …

I have lots of sympathy for James

I said empathy rather than sympathy … and whilst I can’t speak for James I can tell you [some] of what’s going through my mind:

– what if I’d disturbed them whilst taking the rubbish out to the bins
– or worse, what if the missus or my daughter disturbed them whilst taking the rubbish out to the bins
– what if I returned from a night ride to find them breaking in …

Judging by the foot prints on my neighbour’s garden they are big fellas. One I might be able to tackle but two?

These ***ts are proper tooled up …

it’s much easier to trace a car than some bikes so it’s an easier “win” for the police.

I really do hope that SYP don’t prioritise their workload based on ‘quick-wins’ and picking the ‘low hanging fruit’ …

I’ve offered to design and build a steel cage for his shed

That’s kind of you – but you do realise how quick the angle grinders these scumbags are tooled up with can cut through that kind of steel don’t you? Once inside the shed/garage/outbuilding etc they can close the door and cut through pretty much anything in seconds.

And before anyone chimes in, keeping your bikes in your house isn’t a deterrent either as they don’t have any qualms about breaking into that.

A dude had his Transition nicked in the last day or so from the garage whilst he was in the house.

It was one of Podge’s mates who sadly had the Transition stolen

It’s happening far too much in Sheffield

yes – it is .. .I’ve had two break-ins in the past month. My out of pocket costs so far are way in excess of a Seat Leon, (not to mention the sense of violation at having your home & property broken into) but South Yorkshire Police don’t even attend the scene anymore. I had to raise an official complaint with the first break-in. I’m still waiting for a response on last night’s (I was hit just after Podge’s mate).

Bikes are a toy and treated as such

maybe … but someone’s home is someone’s home. Have a little empathy Podge – your mate was robbed whilst he was having his evening meal.

Looking at South Yorkshire Police’s Facebook page, you could easily arrive at the conclusion that mountain bike thefts (irrespective of value) are not a major concern for them:

However, newsworthy and notable recent thefts include a Seat Leon and some scaffolding planks …

No wonder the local scumbags doing all this bike thieving think they can get away with it …

Really hope Airdrop get some progress with SYP

ok – thanks andyl that’s interesting and good to know there was a positive outcome.

Pook – I’ve pm’d you.

I guess the lack of responses speaks volumes …

Well done the Sheffield Mountain Bike Community … well done! – your apathy does you proud! :-(

A I posted on one of the [many] other Sheffield bike theft posts:

“Also – genuine question here – does the sharing of the stolen bikes on social media like Facebook actually do any good? or does it only advertise the theft and make it easy to trace the owners via their public profile? “

Does anyone have any anecdotal or personal experience of bikes being returned to their owners after the theft was shared on Social Media?

as far as I can see, the posts are met with a small amount of well meaning attention, but are largely ignored by the local cycling fraternity.

also grinded through a gold standard pragmasis chain

I feel your pain James – I’ll message you privately later but interested to know which Pragmasis chain they cut through?

There’s an alarming amount of bikes going missing in Sheffield

FFS – They aren’t going missing – they are being stolen with alarming regularity: I would go as far to say that it’s pandemic. And the low life scum bags know that SYP don’t even attend anymore.

NW Sheffield especially S10 & S6 seems to be the target.

The ‘2nd hand market’ must be flooded with ‘bargain’ bikes at the moment …

Anyone with experience of Patellar tendonitis?
Going to see a physio,in the next few weeks,to confirm my diagnosis.

Seeing a proper [Sports] Physio is definitely the right approach I reckon.

I had this doing a Winter season on the snow in Canada:- Foam Roller, Lacrosse Ball, wobble board, stretching and strengthening exercises sorted it.

Also bike rain capes seem to have vanished

Carridice still make them:

https://www.carradice.co.uk/products/rainwear

where to start! Looks like a lot has changed and I need to revise kit and equipment tech

Nah … it’s not changed that much – ok, so some of the designs have got quite groovy, but essentially the concept of side cut, edges and four ‘initial contact points’ still exist.

Unless your 7 year old board has warped or de-laminated then I’m sure it will be fine.

Never any harm in getting some refresher lessons though!

What happened to raincoats?

Good point actually – and links in with the earlier cagoule comments … my cagoule in the ’70s felt like I was wearing a huge tarp tent – the only things missing were the guy ropes and pegs. Many raincoats were actually better made than ‘cagoules’

Late ’70s/early ’80s and raincoats were still de rigueur for some elements of the post punk/goth generation – and very useful they were too in the gloom of Northern Drizzle. And you could sit down without getting a wet bum, and could also be useful for alfresco shenanigans – the same can perhaps not be said for some of the modern short mountaineering jackets! :lol:

. So say you and I half way up a gulley in 50mph winds and it’s -20, what’s the difference?

You may well be right and if both jackets were brand new then the difference might be negligible … but what about after 5 years of heavy use? I want a jacket that costs twice as much to last twice as long … otherwise I will be looking elsewhere!

Hah.. Most expensive item under men’s clothing on Cotswold Outdoor is a Fjallraven Parker for £1500!

Justify that! It’s not even waterproof.

Most expensive waterproofs seem to be £750

I can’t justify it … and I wouldn’t pay it as I don’t see it as value for money. However for some folks that isn’t the reason the buy stuff!

Out of interest, I can’t think of many of the Pro or Semi Pro Winter Sports people that I know who use the ‘ultra’ top end gear – whether it’s skis or boards or clothing – with the possible exception of those who get everything for free/are paid to use it or wear it.

I’d be interested to know exactly what real actual difference there is in alpine conditions.

From my perspective it’s things like attention to detail and using different technical fabrics for different areas depending on intended use:

For example:
Harder wearing fabrics in areas such as shoulders and waist where a heavy backpack can rub
Harness compatability
Breathability/venting
Hoods & cuffs
Lightweight materials if weight is relevant.
Well thoughtout pockets

It’s quite hard to find a £1,000 technical shell jacket – I’m not even sure one exists, link? The most expensive Arc’teryx shell is £600

^^^ exactly … not sure where this idea that top end technical jackets retail @£1000 came from …

I bought an Arc’teryx Sabre Jacket 9 years ago. It’s too heavy & bulky for splitboard touring but it has survived multiple mini-seasons featuring numerous close encounters with tree branches, ice, rocks, & burred snowboard edges etc and pretty much every type of weather from high alpine to mud and ice ‘commando exits’ – and it’s still going strong as I will be wearing again this season as I head off to Canada again.

This is the reason I buy the higher end jackets as previous to the Sabre I was buying a new £200ish snowboard jacket almost every season – as they would end up falling apart.

I thing the fabric manufacturers deserve a lot more credit than the clothing manufacturers TBH

Well to be fair I bought a Gore One GTX jacket last year and both the fabric, manufacturing and attention to detail is pretty impressive! 8)

But the question is wether or not the staff were comfortable and happy with their clothes.

With windchill below -40C you are going to be cold pretty much whatever you are wearing …

A friend of mine used be a TNF brand ambassador – he always rated their Summit Series kit quite highly. The top end technical clothing is developed and tweaked with feedback from the brand ambassadors.

However the lifties on the ski hill will often be wearing the ‘hand-me-downs’ from the previous season …

Now I’m sure there is a commercial agreement in there somewhere but I’m also sure that at that temperature it’s not just fashion wear

Yeah – there’s a commercial agreement in place and the clothing frequently remains the property of the ski hill company: Staff aren’t really allowed to deviate from the designated uniform (although some allowance is occasionally made for trousers)

RCR staff used to be Helly Hanson for lifties, tech crew and instructors with the Pro Patrol wearing Arc’Teryx, but I think everyone is on Helly Hanson now.

I guess since RCR/Charlie Locke sold and re-aquired Lake Louise a couple of years ago they’ve now done a ‘gold partner’ deal with TNF.

But you’re right – it isn’t ‘fashion wear’, but then it isn’t necessarily always the first choice of the people who are wearing it either.

Same situation when someone is a ‘brand ambassador’ or sponsored by a tyre company etc .

HtS – nice work on the Fairey Gannet so far!

how are you getting on with your new airbrush?