 Poster: A snowHead
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I don't ride my gear to destruction. I don't want it to fail on me, ever. I think nearly broken stuff never works as well as shiny new stuff.
I was given a Hometown Hero in the 21-22 season, which was I think their first full production year. They were black boards with a white-line graphic and fluorescent base. The board was the smallest in the adult range, the 1.44m. I thought it would suck for me, as I'm right at the top of the weight range of it. As an aggressive rider, I'd generally be at the other end of the range.; if I'd had to chose, I'd have gone for the 1.52. But it was free, so I'd nothing to lose.
But it blew me away. This was the first board I ever liked both at a resort and in back country powder. I was riding with some very fast washed up Canadian athletes, and from the first turn this was absolutely up there with them. I retired my Kessler SL, a metal board, after a couple of days adjusting to the HTH. I no longer needed to carry two boards.
I'd ridden other short Burton boards - notably the 1.38 Nug, which I hated. That was a useless floppy reverse cambered board no one liked. The HTH 1.44 is the opposite. It's small, stiff, and takes no prisoners. It's not "forgiving" like that old Nug. If you're a big person riding small boards because you can't turn, this'll have you on face in the snow in seconds. I bumped into the designer the other year, who claimed he had wanted it to be "a Verbier board", by which he meant that it rips both hardpack and powder. He was setting a FWT course on his. We're not talking "park", although it rips back country pipes like nothing else - because it carves hard.
There are no doubt other boards which'll do that too, but I have this one. My beautiful board has clocked up 156 days, 111 of them in helicopter baskets, which tear up the top sheet pretty well, what with those nasty skis and the pointy poles they need to stand up on them rattling around in there. The board's base is still excellent; modern bases get more and more resilient. There are a couple of shallow PTEX fills in there somewhere; I'm a tools not jewels person.
Anyway, I thought it was time to retire the old board. I don't like the last few years' graphics, but eventually I came across a 23-24 (?) model which is a very tasteful black with a dark blue base. And here it is, ready for another 156 days:
And the purpose of the post... I always look closely at the camber and shape of any new board. It needs to lie flat and stable on a flat floor, and the camber should look right. That's an especially important check if the board's not fresh from the factory. The new board is perfect, but I noticed immediately that the camber is larger than on the old board. I expected it to be that way around, if anything, but I'm surprised how much camber the old board lost. It's hard to work out how to show it well, but the spirit level here shows both a slope which shouldn't be there, and the difference in camber height at the mid point.
So 156 days reduces the camber by, what, about 20%? Something like that. What of it? Well nothing, really, except I'm glad I upgraded, as I want my 20% back. If you ride a board hard one week a year you'd get 22 years out of it before it gets to this point, and the board still rips. I'm not complaining; their engineering seems reasonable to me. I think I'll watch my day count and check my camber a bit more frequently in future though.
Time to find another bit of wall to hang the old board up on!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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You are assuming that the old board started with the same amount of camber as the new one. While I tend to think most years the boards are exactly the same, just with different paint, it may be they changed the shape a little.
But it would make sense that boards lose a bit of camber and general stiffness over time.
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If you ride a board hard one week a year you'd get 22 years out of it before it gets to this point
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I'm not sure it works like that. While I'm sure riding a board speeds up the deterioration, time alone probably plays a part. I'd rather ride a board bought last season with 156 days on than a 20 year old board with 75 days on.
It's funny we are probably at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to replacing things. If my current one still works to my liking and shows no signs of damage or being past it's use I'm not really considering replacing it.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Sounds fair for cambering out. It's definitely not something you notice week to week but when you demo new kit I think it's definitely a big part of the "wow I like these".
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Very small sidecut on those HTH for carving .
Hang11 ..what is doing the damage.... is it Rock damage ?
Is the steel edge getting ripped out or split open etc
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@Tirol 164, use them for work.
Basically rocks. All surface lifts, skinny year lower down, so rock strewn lift lines don’t help, but just riding in rocky terrain, ripping edges out or snapping the core.
I’ve done a Rossi xv (snap under the back foot from rock strike and destroyed base), a hovercraft (large piece of edge out and not much original base) and an amplid milligram (snap under the front foot from rock strike).
Occupational hazard, I’m about 105kg with a pack on, so hitting solid objects has a bit of energy  I’ll burn em next year to get winter started.
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@phil_w, Those burton HTH are really good boards. A couple of my regular riding buddies use them and love them, and rip on them. They seem to last quite well too - definitely more robust than jones gear.
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Aye, it's a significantly good design, although it will punish sloppy technique (so try before buying!).
The sidecut radius is small - 6.6m - but it carves circles slow or fast. I rode closed piste at higher than resort speeds with the patrol and some of Canada's quickest, and it did not give anything away. That said, the clothoid sidecut on my Kessler sl went down to 7m.
Burton quality does vary a bit: they produce to different price points. I have seen variation between production runs back in the day, but not recently.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@phil_w, "I think nearly broken stuff never works as well as shiny new stuff."
A good point. We're retiring our 8 year old skis for this season. I reckon 3 years too late. Mine are certainly not as lively as I recall them.
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@phil_w, "I think nearly broken stuff never works as well as shiny new stuff."
A good point. We're retiring our 8 year old skis for this season. I reckon 3 years too late. Mine are certainly not as lively as I recall them. 8 years ~= 320 days which is way too much.
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