Old School or No School & Swallowtailing

[ws.org]

Hey all,
I was reading some past posts and noticed that some swallowtailers are around in the forum, mostly the O'sinners. I have a 4807 168 that I pretty much ride everywhere pow/gran/hard, and a winterstick 185 swt which has only been tapped twice last year, hopefully more next year if I find the time.

Anyway, I'm posting for 2 reasons.First I'm just pluggin in my old school site www.winterstick.org . Trying to preserve a few aspects of snowboarding's roots, had some good response with a lot of old schoolers helping out with pics, stories and all that other stuff, also some newer riders who are just curious and want to know about it. If you're not too aware of Winterstick, it's possibly the first real snowboarding company, not counting snurfers/skifers and the little toys, but real back country and powder riding type stuff, before Burton and Sims.

Secondly, I'm putting together a little swallowtailer map. Already had a bunch of peeps added to the list. Basically its gonna be a little rollover of north america where each rider on the list is mapped out, maybe if you ride the swally you can find somebody in the area who also rides, maybe meet up, think something like that would be kinda neat. If you want to be added send the following;
- Name, Location (city,state),Home Mountain(s), Board(s), Pics if you got any, Other addt comments etc...

email info to swallowtails@winterstick.org (not .com, i dont work for em)

Later all,

Mark

www.winterstick.org

[NoKnees]

Cool... I'll have to check the site out and shoot you some info. You should pop in over at splitboard.com as there are a fair amount of splitboard swallowtail folks there as well.

Anyway, it'd be nice to see an active ST dedicated site around. There was the swallowtail.org or what'ev, but that site doesn't get much action these days. Nice reference pics and a more Euro-centric view of it all.

[ws.org]

Yeah, swallowtails.org has been down for a few years now. I think the webmaster was having problems transfering some of the data from one server to another, so alot of the stuff is prolly lost.

I'd be up for gettin a little swallowtail site goin, epsecially covering the north american aspect, . The riders are out there just gotta find em, i'll check out the splitboard site and get a post goin to call em out. Maybe for now make a section on ws.org dedicated as a modern swt page for all the swally riders out there (not just limited to winterstick but all swt's in general), if it gets decent reponse and participation maybe get something more high end. I'll draw something up and see what works in the next few days. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll message you later Gregg. I don't really have reservations about doing things one way, if anyone wants to help out or just give ideas then let me know. Participation and submissions by others only help make sites better, I know from getting huge amounts of donated pics for winterstick.org.

[ws.org]

Okay, it took forever but I finally got a small forum for my website up. I also included a section for Swallowtails (all makes not just w'stick). Its in the 2nd catagory of topics.

www.winterstick.org/chatforum

Hope to see you there Gregg, I know you like taking out that O'sin.

[jibnot]

1234 It was snowing outside my door.


Honestly, today!

Photo not from today

[ws.org]

Sweet, I've been meaning to try out the Nitro last year but didn't get a chance. Hopefully see you in the forum Jibnot.

[mehugtree]

just a general question: why swallowtail (easy Canuck..this is a family forum)? is the ride different? lighter in the pow? more flexy?

curious minds want to know!

-mht

[elex]

just a general question: why swallowtail (easy Canuck..this is a family forum)? is the ride different? lighter in the pow? more flexy?

curious minds want to know!

-mht

There a boards that ride well in powder if you mount your stance all the way back & then there are Swallowtails(ST). You don't have to lean back at all, the tail naturally sinks. A ST is also much faster than a regular board in powder, since that's what it's designed for. When my buddies are leaning back & having to go straight to keep the nose up, I can just relax, make some turns & still pass them. Once the snow gets chopped up, the ST just takes in all the tracks & it feels like your on powder, where a normal board you have to suck in every bump or track. The other thing is that you don't get tired, most of my friends after 3 hard runs in powder on challenging terrain are exhausted. Their backleg hurt & so on. On a ST, you don't get tired as easily & you never have to lean back, so your back leg feels find. Anybody who rides powder at least once in their lives needs to have a ST.

Downfall is that most STs suck in regular terrain or even on groomers. They usually have massive taper at the end of the sidecut.

[elex]

Sorry for the long response, I'm still catalog writing mode. ST is gooder than regular boards in powder, more fun less tired.

[mehugtree]

Sorry for the long response, I'm still catalog writing mode. ST is gooder than regular boards in powder, more fun less tired.

no prob! thanks for the explanation. I thought it was something like that, but didn't know how substantial the benefits were. Looks like I've been wearing myself out in the pow for no reason (other than it's fun as hell)

do they ride shorter or longer than your normal board? I would guess longer...but then again, I'm an idiot.

-mht

[canuck]

They would be sweet at your local resorts there, I'd suggest a 225 for you.
If you dress in bright purple or maybe orange, you'll score with the chicks too!!

good luck bro...

[elex]

no prob! thanks for the explanation. I thought it was something like that, but didn't know how substantial the benefits were. Looks like I've been wearing myself out in the pow for no reason (other than it's fun as hell)

do they ride shorter or longer than your normal board? I would guess longer...but then again, I'm an idiot.

-mht

Kind of difficult to say since it's a different feeling & each ST is different.I have a 177(which is actually pretty short) & a 164. For most resorts the 164 is perfect, but didn't quite have the float of the 177. The only time you will notice anything would be in tight turning areas on the 177. But really tight trees has really more to do with the rider than the board, soon as you slow down in powder it's over on a regular board. Prior snowboards has some shorter ST's but he does cost a little bit more since he builds them himself. If you have an old board that has a decent powder nose, you could just reshape the tail into an ST. I wouldn't go to drastic since that split would really change the flex on the tail.
e wrek shin

[ws.org]

no prob! thanks for the explanation. I thought it was something like that, but didn't know how substantial the benefits were. Looks like I've been wearing myself out in the pow for no reason (other than it's fun as hell)

do they ride shorter or longer than your normal board? I would guess longer...but then again, I'm an idiot.

-mht

like elex mentioned, typically swallowtails are a little longer than regular boards. The american ones are around 183-187cm (Winterstick, Nitro, Rossi), in europe where they are more present they range from 185-205cm on average. But there are some up there around 220-230cm as well.

My first time I started on the Osin 4807, which has a less pronounced tail compared to something like the winterstick, I was a little nervous at first so I wanted a board I could have confidence in riding since the Osin is a bit of a hybrid between swallowtail/freeride. I actually had no problems riding it on the groomers and hardpack. The only drawback with the 4807 on the hp was there was a little bit of nose wobble at higher speeds, but other than that I have no complaints. Afterwards when there was some decent powder I took out the Winterstick and had a blast on it.

There is a nice little quick FAQ to swallowtails at www.swallowtails.org , it should help give you some insight.

[elex]

swallowtails.org is a great site, too bad it hasn't updated in a long time. Good to see you have a site up, browsed through quickly, good stuff with good links also.

Do you go up to Quebec to ride or do you make special trips to areas that tend to get more powder? I'm a huge fan of the ST, but I haven't had a chance to ride one in awhile, plus I've been trying to find time to make a new one. One cool board to check out is the Volkl Selecta, not sure if you have seen that or not. Somebody on this forum has one.
later,
e

[ws.org]

Hey elex, thanks I appreciate the feed. Yea, its too bad swts.org is down, there were some cool pics when it was running. I think there were server issues when Nils (creator) switched servers to a home server. Who knows though, somebody might get something up in the future.

I'm in the south most of the year for school, but am originally from just outside Toronto. What my group (brother and skiier friend) found works best is just going straight to Jay Peak, just under 7hours to drive. Firstly, Jay Peak in Vermont gets the highest annual snowfall anywhere east of the rockies. "340" (more snow than any other ski resort in Eastern North America -Goski.com)" so if there's one place where a swallowtail is a legitimate choice in the North East then I think Jay Peak is a great place. Secondly, its not very crowded like Montreal(Tremblant, but I'm not sure about other mountains) and I think the snow qual can't compare. I'm not really into the whole resort feel, I just want to ride for a reasonable price, not wait long in lines, and hit some nice snow. I think that's what's great about Jay Peak. Just a few miles from the Quebec border its about the same distance as going to Tremblant. With a college student ID a lift is only 35USD (or 40CAD which is cheaper) so that's a pretty good deal. For now Vermont is pretty much where I go when I go back home to visit for holidays and long weekends. Still figuring out a way to get over to the West after school though.

[elex]

Going west is easy, if your looking south just take a right & go till you hit mtns. You should just save time & go to Baker. 7 hour drive to go riding, ouch. I am a wuss, I take offense at anything over an hour. Which what was nice about Seattle, big city with a short drive to the hills.
e

[ws.org]

Yeah, when I find my way west I'm sure I'll definitely be more thankful for easier access to bigger mountains. I mean, I do hit some smaller mountains closer to home about 1.5hours away, but if you want some real snow its worth making the trip down 7 hours for 1-2 days riding the swally.

[elex]

Yeah, when I find my way west I'm sure I'll definitely be more thankful for easier access to bigger mountains. I mean, I do hit some smaller mountains closer to home about 1.5hours away, but if you want some real snow its worth making the trip down 7 hours for 1-2 days riding the swally.

I feel the pain, I now live in SoCal. Keep finding myself looking at weather cams from the NW. They keep getting snow up in the higher elevations. I need to move out of here. Soon I hope.