Carver quiver (Or other surf trainers)

in fact, just read the Q & A pages on the carver site and the main "grombrah" in charge described the difference in the same way! Said he's only been riding his CX.4's since they developed them...

 

It's a lot different man. It's still a Carver in the good ways and pure uniqueness but it's a lot closer to a regular skate truck than the C7. Much stiffer than the C7, although all of the trucks can be loosened on the two bolts worth adjusting (don't touch bushings). You start defeating the purpose of the CX when you loosen it more than stock.

Just like different people like different boards and riding styles, so there is also a spectrum of Carver riders between all facets of setups.

 

Got my carver Taylor Knox. To wet today and surf looks good next couple. Gonna give it a ride after tomorrow or Sundays surf session.

 

Coop, are you a long-time skater? I'm not. If you're also not I'd love to hear how this goes for you. All this hype has me dreaming about a carver. What isn't included in my dreams, however, are all of the curb-side face-plants and road rash I'll have to endure to become proficient.

 

Been skating since I was a kid...old school...skated a lot in late 70 and 80's...still can do an old school hand stand. You get some funny looks when an old, or should I say, older dude is cruising down the street on your hands. One way to show up those young whipper snappers doing that crazy a** stuff.

No reason not to give it a go even tho you've never done it...no matter what sport or hobby you do...you gotta just jump right in and do it...everyone has to start from the beginning, no matter what you do...road rash is part of the learning curve. You live once and just do it. Iam a jack of all trades but master of absolutely none...but sure is fun.

 

Ok I could take the best bank, ramp, lot, or street in Laguna, Phoenix Mountains or anywhere else that has unreal pave and the 59th best (insert asphalt structure named above) in Seattle blows it away. I just ripped pave through the downtown here for 3 hours straight. No breaks. I've never done downhills in true downhill fashion keeping top speed and I did tonight. Add that to shredding every concave alleyway on a gradual decline that's connecting two parallel streets that are each dope for slamming the Carver on and it was the Port of Stoketopia.

I may literally sell all my possessions aside from my surf quiver, Carver quiver, DC sneaks, and a raincoat and live on the streets of Seattle taking bi-weekly bus trips to the coast to surf. That's how good it is. Damn brah. Big day planned, Bed Bath & Beyond, don't know if I'll have enough time!

If you like ripping pave, get here. SF was way too steep and granular. Carver shredder's paradise is Seattle.

 

dang, that thing is squirley at first...whole different feel...took a few minutes to get the feel...like it!

 

Get that front foot pointing more forward than to rail, bend knees in the same angle of protruded decline like you would with an Ollie, get those arms out ready to fly, and ALWAYS look where you need to go. To avoid the pothole or pebble, fixate on the destination not the obstruction. Sounds intuitive but wait and see how you can tend to fixate on what you don't want to happen rather than the solution.

You're stoked breh. That stokes me even more!

 

Went out last night for an hour...my legs ache this morning...as soon as it cleans up, gonna surf today tho iam hurtin a bit...and yes emass, iam stoked. Unbelievable workout and tons of fun. Going up a slight incline is a killer workout. I throw in foot plants, handstands and slides while jamming to my iPod...all old school stuff and never had so much fun with this board as opposed to a regular board. My bro is into skating, nuttin fancy just cruises for exercise...he is 54 and told him he needs to give this thing a whirl.

 

Digging my carver!

http://youtu.be/dpPOxdQLAZQ

 

Saw this online, was looking at it for my daughter.

http://www.perfectsurfer.com/default.aspx

$349? Screw that. Built this instead...if I put enough bungees on it will support me too.



Built an indo board out of scrap wood and such in the garage + some grip tape. I'll throw up a pic later.

 

crossfit and whatever

 

coop, you are killing that thing. How much skating have you done in the past? Your surfing must be on point too. I'm impressed braddah! You just got that and already ripping serious pave.

You are laying it back hard and that's one of my favorite things to do in the rain with harder duro wheels. There's mad technique that you're displaying that's taken me time to acquire and consciously work on given no prior street skating pre-Carver days and only a half year of surfing at my onset of Carver riding. For example, the inward bend of the back leg and "giving" weight to the front foot on pumps and trims is just something I've recently started doing well.

The things you'll need to put in next are way easier than what I need to keep adding since your base looks damn good. Seems you generate power lots with that rear arm and I'd suggest getting that lead arm in the action and spread those wings. With a tightened core, you'll throw the upper body (including shoulders) in a pendulum forward and not need to touch ground on those frontside turns. I also try to stay as linear as possible when building up and keeping speed as zig-zagging seems to slow me down. I'm able to do that with a tighter trim and little "jabs" of weight from hips to that front foot and reaching my lead arm forward for the follow through of the trim or pump.

Your use of legs is helping you big time and I had to learn how to skate squat whereas you do it naturally. Watching my own film, I see that my smoothest and most complete movements are when I keep the lower body as the powerhouse (engine) and upper body as steering wheel. The core is my transmission. You'll know what I mean by that when you see how different (and complete - in a hack or chop fashion) your rotation is when climbing hills with pure pumping and no push with foot.

Keep those eyes on where you're going instead of at your feet, which will happen with time. Just like surfing - where the head goes, the body goes. On my video the last few weeks when I've really started putting it all together, my head does a great job leading on snaps and I really look forward quickly to where I'm going. So fast that I start to look back as a check to make sure I'm still on my line and balanced, but perhaps that rounds out my snap when it could be more on a dime, so same thing with where your eyes are going. Your kinetic chains look very familiar with the board and gravity and inertia. You're gonna do wild things on that bro, and it's gonna be re-installed back into your surfing.

Man, I'm impressed. You just got me more stoked. The Carver food chain gets slipperier to climb when there's comp to your left and right!!! Keep it up breh.

 

Yep it's a beat up 6'8" Cannibal. She has a 6' Lost I picked up for $50 that's seen better days she puts on it too. It was her first "real" board.

 

Thanks emass...when I watched the video, that's the first thing I saw...why in the hell am I looking down...gonna stop that cause it looks goofy and not correct. Iam going to work on those other things. I got the layback down and also got the tail slide down too without laying back...got the frontside slide too. My old school tricks came back like second nature...foot plants, handstands, etc.

Use to skate back in early 80's when I was in high school and competed a bit and one a couple times on a local level, we are talking really old school stuff...but stopped in mid to late 80's and started surfing...surfed all the time and only skated off and on since then. Did skate for about a year 15 years ago at an indoor park until that closed up. Really haven't skated for the last 14 years except long boarding around the neighborhood. All flat here...then I saw this thread...figure it can't be like surfing...so I you tubed it...and my jaw dropped and had to give this a whirl.

It really is amazing how similar it is to surfing. I didn't believe it until my first ride. Thing is crazy fun and feel like a reborn pavement surfer...IMO, regular skating just doesn't have that surfing feel and flow...like carving turn to turn and the pumping action is just about spot on for surfing down the line for speed...and the frontside and backside bottom turns and even cutbacks, whoa, very similar in that you get low and compact and release..amazing...this thing is great for flat areas too...sometimes I don't push at all...someone earlier said about a lack of speed. I can pump this thing and really get rolling...my son couldn't keep up with me with him pushing on his long board...but my tank emptied way before his...I was exhausted.

May have to take this in town and find some concrete inclines. All I have is this little shoulder in our neighborhood for wave like action...works and still feels as tho iam riding down a knee high wave, but would like a taller and steeper shoulder.

Iam hooked and thanks to whoever started this thread. Otherwise, I would be beating my head up against the wall when it's flat. I actually don't mind those flat spells anymore.

 

mrcoop, got any new vids of your progress? You must be murdering your streets by now after seeing what you were putting on them in a matter of days bro. The quality of your laybacks prompted me to work on mine and in two weeks I've upped my game on those a ton.

A bunch of you cats over the months have talked about when you reach this critical point of surfing progress you now start to get A LOT better very quickly. That's recently happened with my Carver skills. The best part is that the more skilled you get on the Carver, the more of a surfboard feel it becomes in all ways. Would you guys say the key to surfing progress is being able to find the speed in the wave and use it to full benefit? Because that's what I would have to point to as the impetus for my Carver improvements as of late - I'm creating, conserving, and not destroying (by zig-zag/tic-tac) my speed and energy which therefore allows me to make a 10 degree incline of smoother pave serve as a clean chest-high wave.

I can't get enough of it. Between quick lunch breaks from working during the day then my evening pave rip then my late night clear street sesh, I get about 2-4 hours a day back in EMass and that's been in 12-32 degrees for months. When I'm out west, I don't stop. The swell here has been less than impressive the last several days, so I've just hammered the Carver endlessly. I'm talking 8 hours on Saturday total including 5.5 straight at Honeyton. Then on Sunday surfed for 3 and ripped pave I think for 5. And hard the whole time too, not this "cruising" crap. Pumping for full speed, then treating the street like it's sections and then hacking multiple maneuvers on it and repeat the other way.

If there's an equivalent of throwing buckets on pavement, then I'm heaving gravel by the ton during sessions now. Every street or lot or post or bench is a wave, section, obstacle, and purposeful instrument in my surf training. I've really loosened up the whole body during pumps and maneuvers on the pave and that single-handedly gave me some of my most fluent and controlled wave rides ever out on the water on Sunday. Staying loose throughout the whole takeoff and drop, then banging down the line stat, then finding speed to make the section and complete the section then ride off the shoulder when the wave ends. Simple rides to full completion with smoother execution throughout is something new to me.

I've always known that more skillful movement patterns actually contain less movement and tension than less skillfully executions of the same movement patterns. However, I'm finally feeling seamless at all times on the Carver and now that's transferring to some seamlessness on the wave.

Most notable changes as of late: greater compression/extension/re-compression and reliance on changing levels and height throughout a ride and maneuvers, sending my speed on a linear path at all times towards where I want to go rather than zig-zagging (what onlookers would call "wiggling" when you're not up to speed on the Carver yet), improved arm placement and movement prior to and throughout maneuvers front and back, weighting on front foot for drive, weighting on rail strategically rather than excessively (transferring weight to flatter ball of foot rather than side of foot than I'm turning, snapping, or trimming towards), bending back knee down and inward towards front leg when transferring weight and pivoting on instep/arch of back foot rather than always keeping it flat, and finally, throwing the whole body into movements fully without holding back.

It's purposeful time on the pave that elevates your Carver (and therefore surf!) game just like it's purposeful time in the water for surfing. Find smoother pave, hit banks and slight ramps, throw snaps around obstacles into tail slides, and basically make the concrete/asphalt environment your bish. Go HAM the whole time, every time. There's no other way. I don't care how good you get either - if you don't eat schitt or at least have to do a hard runoff once or more in a session you're not gonna end that sesh a better charger.

NOTE: Experiment with varying tensions in the spring bolt on the C7. This will have everything to do with the hold/looseness continuum not only on power moves but also in your generation of power for those moves during your pumps and trims. Don't go too long either without re-checking just how tight or loose you have it. I keep mine loose as hell on the 34" Green Room but gave it a twist again finally two nights ago and damn did that make all the difference. Know your gear and make the board an extension of your body. Zen, bro.

 

If you wanna really test your carver try skating a pool like I did or a good old fashioned bowl