 Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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hibernia, they've been around for a while, but have never really caught on. I thinkit's just too hard. Some of the old alpine carving snowboarders do it. Very graceful when done well.
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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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The state of the art in alpine boarding is here
http://www.extremecarving.com
They have some really good quality movies to download. The latest, "Lifted", was featured on Eurosports Watts program.
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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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That's a cool site, which I've seen before (stumbled across it a few months ago). But what they do is alpine boarding with super-low turns: they are not riding "Skwals"
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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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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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ponder, just thought the OP might find extremecarving interesting if he thought Skwals were cool. Alpine style doesn't exactly get a lot of exposure to Brit skiers. This reinforces the Brit view that snowboarding is all skate park jumpy spinny, putting a lot of older skiers off.
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neilswingler, good point, boarding for me is carving and powder, the half pipe stuff just looks too pedestrian.
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This all looks very similar to one of these 
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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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Dave J, Those guys came over to the Mondial a few years ago. We had a go on them - I felt very wobbly but my friend Maryline (French Europa cup skier) loved them. We met with the guys and got a shop in LDA interested in stocking them; Maryline wanted to teach instructors to teach it, and then we never heard another dickie bird.
So much for american marketing! 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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ponder, no worries. Just don't want the skiers to think that Skwal and Teleboard are the only alternatives to soft boot freestyle. Alpine boarding is way bigger than either of those and yet still unknown in the UK.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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I tried a skwal a few years back and really enjoyed it (read my report here). There is an active community of skwalers at Skwalzone which would be a good place to find out more about it.
While I loved carving the skwal I did find it a bit inflexible as an all mountain ride and having recently stopped and chatted to/watched a teleboarder I think that might be a more practical vehicle for carving and riding powder, moguls and whtever else you may find (I'd lose the sticks though).
Then of course there is alpine snowboarding which I have sadly limited experience of due to equipment availability and cost .
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You know it makes sense.
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There is a skiwal community in La Rosiere, the resort hosts one of the rounds of the Skiwal championship and one of the ESF instructors, Christelle Gaidet, is the current European Champion.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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yes, thanks playdreamer, really good action scenes and groovy sound-track on the video section. It looks very stylish. Can it really be more difficult to control one plank rather than two?
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Poster: A snowHead
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hibernia, I tried it with a friend who is a very good skier and, as a snowboarder, I found it slightly easier than her but neither of us found it difficult. Once you get over the initial hesitation to just lean over (providing you have a little speed) you will carve rather than topple as you might expect.
Interstingly, my skier friend thought it more like boarding than skiing and I found it more like skiing!
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FAQ
I'll stick to my skis I think. 
But half-pipe's look to me like injury incarnate.
