Sherpa 130 in pow !

[jjue]

Opening weekend of Mammoth Mountain . and this afternoon we were treated to an unexpected snow storm that dropped 10-12 inches of new powder snow . Some of you may have seen my summer review of the Sherpa but this was the first time I was able to get the board out into pow . As Valmorel and I have found out this board is one hell of a ride on firm , icy snow and cut up crud but take this board out to pow and you will have the ride of your life . Today my son and I were racing each other in low angled pow , you know , the kind of stuff that is death to skiboards . He was on a BURTON fish assymetric tail riding 160 cm snowboard , and I was on my rear Telemark mounted Sherpa , Two other snowboarders were totally bogged down in the pow , while both of us were sailing along neck and neck having a whale of a time . This board is totally the equal or better in float and speed through pow of the Icelantic Scout 143or for that matter of any 180 cm mid fat ski or of a 160 cm snowboard , yet is way more manuverable and yet grips like a fiend on ice . How sweet is that .. !
It was also one of those days with the snow blowing side ways and visability near zero at times but I could just trust the wonderful stable platform of the Sherpa , smoothing the ride out in off piste variable snow , you know bumpy snow , moguls , deep pow stashes mixed with ice and can't see kind of stuff !!
You know just stepping into this board on your living room floor feels like it will be the most cumbersome board possible , compared to a 110 or 105 skiboard with a shorter and narrower shape , but don't let that fool you at all . The thing becomes the most manuverable board ever once you give it some gas , and those 160 tips are totally completely amazing in lifting you up like magic in the pow or crud. I have never, every ridden any snowsliding device that has been sweeter as an all arounder . This board does everyting , it evens out rough terrain like it was groomed snow , it floats you high in the pow dream like , it carves like a demon on ice and has extraordinary hold at speed , and is the totally the equal or better of any other snow sliding board out there in the big moutain arena . BUT HERE IS THE MOST AMAZING AND WONDERFUL PART OF THIS WHOLE PACKAGE . Jeff Singer has engineered a 7.5 meter turn radius into this thing .!!!!
This thing turns on a dime , think turn and it tuns whether in the deep or or the firm pack . With this thing on my feet I feel like I can FLOAT LIKE A BUTTERFLY BUT STING LIKE A BEE !!! ;)!

I know this board will not be everybody's cup of tea , but think of how important this board is for skiboarding as a sport . Up until know , many folks have thought of skiboarding as a compromise sport . Great in the park and on packed and variable snow , but if you really wanted to ride big mountain lines better ditch your skiboards and grab skis or snowboards .
Jeff has designed a board that in one fell swoop defines a new paradigm for big mountain skiboarding .

And think of what this board does , it allows regular alpine skiboarders to ride the thing with a powder plate and release binding in any of three set back positions , it lets backcountry alpine touring types ride it also in any of three set back positons , and for those crazy skiboarding telemakers outthere
hey ( I can't be the only one ???) come talk to me and I will tell you how to design a custom riser mount that makes this board sing !!!

ps . I tried climbing around and walking around in pow with the Sherpa and it is the best flotation device ever for carrying you up a steep powdery mountain , and lives up to its name !

[Manlenium]

.....*DROOL*.....

Keep these adventure stories running. These are magazine quality.....:p

[tyberesk]

wow jack sounds amazing. I can't wait to get some natural snow around here!!!

[VaticDart]

Jack, you're not making waiting for the base to build here in WA any easier!

After a month and a half of teasing it looks like Winter is finally here in the Northwest. Baker is talking about opening this week, and I'm sure the other resorts will be only a week or two behind. My season pass should be arriving in the mail any day.

I'm also getting a pair of the prototype Sherpas, and as much as I loved the Spruce 120s in powder and elsewhere, I can't wait to give them a try. Being a bit stiffer I imagine they will, as you say, be amazing in all conditions.

The season needs to be here, NOW! Okay, I'm going to go and check the webcams for the fourth time this morning...

[Aqua]

Originally posted by jjue
. Up until know , many folks have thought of skiboarding as a compromise sport . Great in the park and on packed and variable snow , but if you really wanted to ride big mountain lines better ditch your skiboards and grab skis or snowboards .


Dude I hope what you're saying isn't true. I thought the width of skiboards makes them viable in powder. I ditched my snowboard for skiboards this year based on other people saying they will be good in pow due to their width, now you are saying all skiboards suck in pow except these particular ones? What gives?

Oh yea, and how did you get the touring riser and the powder plate already? I didn't see them for sale anywhere.

[Roussel]

skiboards do fine in powder, they require a bit more tail riding. whats important is surface area.

and since wide big skiboards have as much surface area as most traditional skis, they are just as good as those,

but, traditional skiboards probably wont outperform a super big powder ski\snowboard (like the Line Prophets for example), unless you are riding 120s or Sherpas

[SkaFreak]

Roussel is right. Just compare riding normal skiboards to riding standard skis or snowboards. They will work in powder, but they are not specifically meant for it. The 120's and the Sherpa's will be powder hounds, like riding a pair or skis or a board for specifically what you want. In the past, it was true that big mountain skiboarding was near impossible, but ever since Revel8, Loken, Spruce, and Summit started pushing longer and wider boards, we've started to see 100cm boards that can handle powder. You have to work by leaning back, but the boards can handle it. The longer spruce's are meant to make powder riding even more effortless and to give the surface area needed to ride lines that even some traditional skis couldn't. In the end, don't worry about skiboards in powder too much, just know that it will take a bit of work and practice.

[Aqua]

Originally posted by SkaFreak
Roussel is right. Just compare riding normal skiboards to riding standard skis or snowboards. They will work in powder, but they are not specifically meant for it. The 120's and the Sherpa's will be powder hounds, like riding a pair or skis or a board for specifically what you want. In the past, it was true that big mountain skiboarding was near impossible, but ever since Revel8, Loken, Spruce, and Summit started pushing longer and wider boards, we've started to see 100cm boards that can handle powder. You have to work by leaning back, but the boards can handle it. The longer spruce's are meant to make powder riding even more effortless and to give the surface area needed to ride lines that even some traditional skis couldn't. In the end, don't worry about skiboards in powder too much, just know that it will take a bit of work and practice.


Thanks that makes me feel better.. I did purposefully buy 105cm EMP's for their length which I am hoping will be decent in the pow. I saw that Spruce makes a powder plates now but how the heck can i get a pair? I'd love some of those buggers.. I see the OP of the thread has em, but where?

Either way I guess later in the year if i really have an issue in pow with my 105's It's good to know I can get some of the 120 0r 130's.

[Roussel]

they will be avaliable in december i beleive.

[Aqua]

great :)

[kirk]

The EMPs are going to be more than enough float to handle powder. I rode those and the BWPs last season, and the EMPs were what I used for powder boards. All last season, everything I threw at the EMPs they handled flawlessly. I'm also pretty big too, I'm 6'4" and about 190.

As soon as you get the balance dialed on the EMPs, you'll never want to go longer.

-kirk

[jjue]

Thanks for everyone for chiming in .... I have ridden everything from a 99cm Canon M7 to Spruce 130 in deep pow , and long skis and a Teleboard ( telemark monoboard ) to boot . My son rides a snowboard , and we ride the same stuff ,so I have a snowboarder to check my skiboard speed against .
One of the big myths around is that skiboards suck for deep pow ... As many of those who ride skiboards know , that is a big myth . Narrow snowblades generally suck in pow .. but wide bodied skiboards from the 90cm Tansho all the way up to the Spruce 130 have been ridden well in deep pow . Generally what many of us have found is that the shorter the board and less surface area , the steeper the slope must be, especially in really deep pow or we tend to get a bit bogged down . Now , in most of the stuff we get at resorts say a foot of pow or so , most of the wide bodied skiboards do great . In the really deep pow ,especially in lower angled , less steep slopes , it is my belief that more float is really helpful to get enjoyment out of riding deep pow especially for bigger and heavier riders .

That being said I have done a lot of thinking about this and analyzing my own experience in deep pow and at least for my 200 pound bod ... a critical float is reached at about 1400 sq cm ... If you look at my previous post about surface area calculations ... the 105cm Revolt/Emp , the new Ktp 101 and the Alp 110 and of course the Condor 110 , the Summit 110 and the Spruce 120 , Spruce Sherpa 130 , and new Summit 125 all have over this critical float .

Kirk is right ! Even for big riders like myself and Kirk , you can have great fun in deep pow on any of these boards . As Kirk and I believe , the shorter the board the more manuverability and the more skiboard feel you get , and the shortest board that does the job is certainly our mantra as skiboarders. That is one of the reasons I am getting the KTP 101 that packs the same float as my ALP 110 into a shorter package. Can't wait to see how that baby performs !

That being said , the thing that is most impressive about the Spruce 130 is that Jeff Singer has designed a skiboard with the surface area of a big ski , that has tremendous speed and stability in all conditions that is the equal in speed and performance in the big mountain arena with skis and snowboards . That is an amazing accomplishment and something we can , all ,as skiboarders , be proud of , even if we choose never to ride it .

Just like most skiers will never ride a super fat Fat-ypus , Line Prophet 130 , or K2 pontoon . and will be happy with their more agile mid fat boards , Most of us will be happy with our 101, 105 , 110 or even shorter wide bodied performance skiboards . . But like skiers we can point to OUR SPRUCE 130 and say that the design envelope has been stretched in the skiboard world just like it has been stretched in the ski and snowboard world and we have our Very Own BIG BOY for the deep and that can only be good !

but here is a huge PS . to this little rant . what we as skiboarders have , is something our skier and snowboard brethren do not really have . Our BIG BAD , SUPER DEEP POW BOARD is also an ice and hard snow fiend .. it is most certainly not a specialty pow board , but can be ridden ,by those of us who choose to step on this thing , all over the mountain in all conditions with that super manuverable skiboard feel . That is truly amazing and something I cannot stop shaking my head about !!

ps Aqua .. re me ,getting this stuff to test early . A little more information about Jeff Singer and Spruce . What many folks do not realize is that Jeff Singer brought the Spruce 120 to the market only after extensive rider input on protototype boards , and is doing the same with the 130 board , his powder plate and touring riser.. Jeff really believes in our input as skiboarders in designing his products and it really shows in what finally gets brought to the market and for that we can all be thankful ! ...

and as to powder plate availability , I think late November is the last I heard .. but feel free to email Jeff Singer at Spruce and he will let you know better...

[SkaFreak]

Yeah, I was told that they would be out mid to late November in emails. I can't wait to see all the new stuff, but unfortunately it won't do me any good as there is little to no snow anywhere within about 5 hours of me so far.

[Mark]

I road waist deep pow at jay least year on rear-mounted EMPS. They did alright.

work them hamstrings fellas ! :D

[SkaFreak]

Mark, I agree can you can ride powder on just about any boards. Several times I've ridden in waist deep powder on center mounted M7's. I just think these look like a good idea because they won't kill your thighs, and despite their length, they still have that tight turning radius.

[valmorel]

I rode my 105 Revolts the season before last on a very deep pow bowl. Too deep in fact to find bottom. The slope was very steep, but those 105s were killin' the long ski crowd. Last season I used the ALPs a lot, especially thru the woods on powder days, and they were way better than me :-).
Jack is right about the 130. I rode them in the summer up on the glacier, which was very hard packed and icy, and they were the mutts nuts.

[jjue]

Originally posted by valmorel
......
Jack is right about the 130. I rode them in the summer up on the glacier, which was very hard packed and icy, and they were the mutts nuts.

Sometimes , I have a hard time understanding Valmorel as he comes from across the pond and lives on that somewhat strange Island from which the forebearers of our nation came forth where the English language is somewhat different from our american version .... Thus , I had a bit of a hard time understanding what a dog's testicles had to do with skiboarding :)!!!
But Google comes to rescue once more , and I found this wonderful site which explains the meaning of this term in perhaps greater detail than you wish , exploring with great precision the use of canine body parts in British slang ,

http://forums.hexus.net/general-discussion/9631-english-slang-terms-explained.html Seems that the " mutts nuts " is British for "very good or awesome" . Although , it can also be used in a rather satirical way , as a chap once remarked , on waiting to hear one of Tony' Blairs speeches before parliament , "Damn if that guy doesn't think he is the mutts nuts!"

Sorry guys and gals , I think I had too much to drink for Thanksgiving dinner ! :)

[valmorel]

Dont believe that coment about "pedigrees plums" being in regular use. Never heard it before...way too hard to say (and remember).......

[valmorel]

Also, UK being a "Real Ale" country, we also have a beer called The Dogs Bollocks. Its a pretty good pint. Here is the link, including a picture of the label......

http://www.beerlabels.com/labels/labels.pl/2623/the-dogs-bollocks-beer.html

[nate]

great review :)

[jjue]

Ok , More on the Sherpa in pow ...
Today , got to ride at Sierra at Tahoe , during an epic storm cycle here in the Tahoe area , 5 feet of snow over the last couple of days , and heavy snow storm all day today . The ski area actually had to close early at 300pm because Caltrans notified the Ski area that they were closing highway 50 at 500pm because of dangerous driving conditions in white out blizzard conditions . ! No lift lines and all the powder you want !!

Totally bottomless stuff through the trees . This is a totally different snow riding experience , beyond anything I have experienced before ... the Sherpa floats high in the pow , as high as my son's snowboard and with exactly the same speed and flow through bottomless pow . This is just amazing for a skiboard ... I am used to my skiboards sinking into the snow , this baby floats high , but is the most manuverable deep pow board I have ever ridden , you just think turn and the thing turns , snaking through trees and around and over pillows of snow , I ride set back , (today with my custom Telemark mount ) and can maintain an aggressive centered stance on the board without thinking about having to weight my heels . This board just flies in deep pow and makes me want to do things I really shouldn't do ... I launched off a boulder with a pillow of snow and forgot to put some weight to the heels on the landing and stuck my tips and went over .. but that was the only fall of the day and other then that little mishap , the board was totally , completely rock solid , and the most amazing platform ever in the steep and deep ...
Hey G , any word when these babies will be available on SBOL ???

Grab one of these babies with one of Jeff's powder plates and Spruce release riser , set your binding back , grab some goggles , pull up your hood and find the biggest , baddest mountain you can in the biggest storm of the year and let er rip !!! I guarantee , you will never , be the same again !!

[SkaFreak]

That's sweet to hear. I'll be trying a pair of sherpa's out for the first time on Wednesday after the leftovers of that storm hit southern colorado. Can't wait to get on em after hearing this review.

[airdonut41]

Oh how I'd love to try some Icelantics in powder...

Dan

[jjue]

Originally posted by airdonut41
Oh how I'd love to try some Icelantics in powder...

Dan

Dan , I own the Icelantic Scout 143 also and have ridden that board in deep pow as well , it is a great board ,.... BUT , in my book the Sherpa 130 is a much better design and a better board in pow , although 13cm shorter , it floats better and seems to have better flow through pow , this has to do with the design , the 160mm tips are amazing and cause a tremendous lift in pow , the Sherpa is much ,much more manuverable than the Scout and much more fun for me . Calculated surface area actually gives the Sherpa the edge as well .. Amongst the Icelantic products ,the Icelantic Shaman with the same big 160 mm tip but in a 161 or 173 cm length would be similar to the Sherpa and be even floatier in pow BUT .... no where near the manuverability of the Sherpa ... I really think that Jeff Singer has outdone Ben Anderson in the Sherpa design .. AND , here is the big one for me ... the Sherpa both in pow and on firm snow feels like a Skiboard , the Scout feels to me like a great manuverable short twin tip ski ... Both great products , the Scout was my first choice for the deepest pow days last season , BUT there is absolutely no question that THIS SEASON that Scout will be gathering dust !

What the Sherpa has done for me is to turn the Skiboard paradigm on its head .. for the very first time I have a Skiboard that ABSOLUTELY gives NOTHING away to snowboards or skis , in speed , float or stability BUT like all skiboards has WAY , WAY more manuverability then snowboards or skis . I loved the Scout last year , especially in deep pow , but this year after riding the Sherpa , I know the difference . I was Riding the Scout , the Sherpa in pow almost seems just a part of my body , I have to turn my Scout , I think TURN and the Sherpa just turns instantaneously , what you want to do and what happens is a totally direct connection .
The Sherpa today in pow , is the VERY BEST snowriding experience I have ever had in pow , bar none , and I have ridden a ton of stuff !

[airdonut41]

This is kinda random, but JJue with all of your impressive equipment it strikes me as odd that you don't have any Bombers. Any particular reason why?

Dan

[jjue]

Originally posted by airdonut41
This is kinda random, but JJue with all of your impressive equipment it strikes me as odd that you don't have any Bombers. Any particular reason why?

Dan

Most of my riding is done in the backcountry where I use telemark or Fritschi backcountry bindings , and I spend much less time at the resorts , and the Snowjam seems just fine to me , I really don't have any complaints about that binding , although I am curious as to what riding my 4x4 boards would be like with a more rigid interface like the Bombers....
BUT , when I look at the price of the Bomber , I keep thinking well , why don't I spend a little more and get another skiboard ! :)!!