Posts on slalom decks

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(foot placement)

On 3/3/2002 John O'Shei wrote in from 64.12.xxx.xxx:

consistant foot placement is a key to fast times. It can also be confusing. Several things to remember; tighter cones require more use of the back toe as a lever. Therefore the ball of the foot needs to ride just in front of the back truck and to the rail. For GS ride the instep directly over the rear truck. This is the tested Fat City style and works best on steeper hills. Finally, griptape your deck with non-black tape and trace where you want your feet to be. Split the board down the middle and ski it like a pair of P-20's.

JO\FCR

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Deck width

On 7/14/2001 Don O'Shei wrote in from 64.165.xxx.xxx:

deck width for slalom is one of those things that is a little more complicated and counterintuitive than you might at first expect. I personally could never ride a slalom board without some toe overhang. When things get sketchy I like to be able to feel the edge of the board so I can rally stand on it and force it around if I have to. That having been said there are a number of factors that set the optimal board width for me:

1. Trucks. board width is fundamentally about leverage on th trucks. The wider the board the more you will torque a given set of trucks. For example, when the course calls for Tracker Fulltracks I go with a wider board, currently a wide Comet Graphite Race or in the past an SC Dave Criddle model or SC Graphite Loaded Slalom. Not coincidentally this is
usually required for GS courses.

2. Board height. For a given width of truck a wider board will require more riser for the wheels to clear (assuming the same general shape). There are practical limits to how high a board can be and still skate well.

3. Cone distance. Contrary to what you might expect I do not find that tight cones run better with a narrower board. The extra leverage of a slightly wider deck can often bring you through the fall lin faster in a tight course. Last Sunday at GG Park we had a GS section into a fairly tight straight 8 cone section that I was having a little trouble with on my narrow Comet. I switched to a Gary Cross shape that was an inch plus wider and had no trouble getting through. Board length is a different story for tight cones.

In the end its all a matter of what you are used to but I would not go outside roughly 7.5" to 8.75" unless I had really tried boards in that size range for quite a while with no luck.

As to camber and flex I really do not prefer the Euro designs that have way too much camberand way too much flex. I think a board should optimally be stiff enough that when you weight it it never goes much past flat. That means for a stiff board it is easy to have too much camber. The exception to this is flat, tight ramp start slalom in which a flexier board helps you to build momentum on the pump at low speeds. I do have a Heini Temperli S camber board that I like but it is relatively low camber and Very stiff.

Don O'Shei

Fat City Racing

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(why camber?)

On 11/23/00 John Gilmour wrote in from 64.197.xxx.xxx:

camber does distribute the forces better along an edge of a flexible board such as a snow ski or snowboard to help evenly pressurize the whole edge. In theory this would help for a skateboard and while camber or any kind of flex will help to distribute the weight front and rear to the wheels somewhat, it doesn't necessarily increase traction as much as it does with skis or snowboards. In fact the fastest slalomer I know rides a very inflexible vertically wood laminated board with a kicktail with 95a durometer wheels and skinny tall trucks like acs 430's. Where camber does really help more is in long radius turns as it help compensate or the skater- to even out the pressure delivered to thw wheels for the duration of a long
turn. If you were an amazing skater (like the guy riding the stiff wood set up and 95a durometer wheels) you could simulate this with your legs and get nearly the same results. The difference being if you were to ride very compressed with a flex board, then you could stay compressed and let the board do the work instead of having to extend during a turn, lessening your balance and low cg. This particular italian skater has such great balance that extending in a turn doesn't seem to mess him up much either. For the other billion people in the world- camber is a great tool

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On 7/18/2001 jg wrote in from 63.118.xxx.xxx:

oh, and to answer one question about Camber, camber is a tool in that it allows you to store energy int eh board to aid in traction throughout the turn by compressing the board and allowing the board to push back increasing traction. Camber merely gives you more travel in the "spring". Camber also makes your trucks turn differntly as the geomoetry of the truck changes as the deck is compressed. The front truck will turn more as will teh rear truck when the board is compressed. Then at higher speed when going straighter the board is mroe stable.

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