Switchblade for ice riding
Written by Administrator
Monday, 12 December 2005
I finally got a chance to ride a snowboard with an invention from MN"s own Todd Hason. The Switchblade. It works like a dream!

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Todd Hanson got sick of seeing the lakes freeze and not having any snow to edge on his snowboard. So instead of just sitting around waiting for mother nature to dump some snow on us, he went to the drawing board and came out with The Switch Blade.

The Switchblade is a blade and mounting bracket that when screwed to your snowboard allows you to grip the ice like you were edging on a hockey skate. By tilting the angle of your board with your feet you can slide too. With the little resistance of ice and the speed of edging on a blade you can get moving to really fast speeds! When there is patches of snow or very thin snow cover you can adjust the blade depth in order to plow right through them where on skates the resistance of the snow would cause you to fall over if you didn"t anticapate it well enough.

Aside from the speeds you"re able to reach, you also need alot less wind to have fun. Once you start moving you"ll find your kite working on apparent wind speed and the little resistance you give in turn makes the kite move faster. I was out on a light wind day, that had there been lots of snow, I probably wouldn"t have been able to get a session in! With the Switchblade if you can get a kite in the air, you"ll be moving!

I found the Switchblade to be an essential tool for snowkiting. This tool gives us more riding time. When you have time to kite and the wind is blowing you want to be able to get out and ride. With the Switchblade you can garuntee good sessions whatever the conditions and proves to be a valuable addition to anyone"s kite tools.

To get yours head over to www.boardsportsusa.com . Todd and Boardsports are the only place to pick these up currently and they do offer a demo board to ride and try it out. I highly recommend giving it a whirl. Check out the following interview with Todd Hanson to learn even more about it.

Todd Hanson"s detailed description of the Switchblade

EDGING/CONTROL: Do you have control on glare ice? Yes. The blade grips the ice, so you can cruise on anything from black ice to powder. Edging on the board with this control allows for higher speed and the opportunity to fly bigger kites on ice without feeling slippery.

SPEED: How fast can you go? Depends on your cajonas. You can go any speed you want. The blade allows you to track based on how high or low you adjust it. For harder ice conditions, you want the blade a bit lower. For softer ice, you want to raise it up. I call this projection...how much the blade projects from the bottom of the board determines how hooked up you are...it is like hot/cold wax for your skiis. You need different wax on different days. Small increments make big changes.

JUMPING/LANDING: How hard is it to jump with the Switchblade on your board? Is it hard to land the jump without falling? Jumping with a Switchblade is the same as on any board without the blade, but you need to load up on the nose of the board a bit more than you would without it. If you don"t, you lose your grip earlier, when the kite is half way to the lifting point, causing you to lose a lot of lift in the jump. Loading the front half makes the board stay on edge longer so you will be powered-up when you are ready to release. As you release, you use the spring of the tail of the board for added boost. Land like you normaly would, flat with your nose downwind, lead hip pointing. I like to land with a bit more weight on my back foot, allowing for a slightly cushier landing.

TURNING: Is it possible to make smooth, fast, powered turns? Yes. The key when going into the turn even at a high rate of speed is knowing how much to compress the nose of the board. (Putting pressure on the nose of the board releases the blade). With practice you will learn how much to release the blade allowing it to glide effortlessly into the turn without hooking up. It is like riding a water board, except you need to be more aware of the pressure on the nose and tail of the board. Turning is also greatly affected by blade projection so you want to make sure you have adjusted it to fit the ice conditions.

PUTTING ON THE BRAKES: How easy is it to stop without falling? Very easy...with practice. You can stop on a dime if you need to, or you can ease into it. Keeping your blade sharp is the key to high performance. Again, projection affects everything.

MOUNTING: How does the Switchblade attach to the board? Due to insurance reasons, I can not mount the Switchblade kit on anyone else"s board. Mounting instructions for the kit will be included. Mounting the Switchblade on your snowboard will almost undoubtably void the warranty on your board, so make sure it is one you are willing to dovote to the kiting cause. It needs to happen this way till I find a board company willing to make boards with insert capabilities for the Switchblade.

Last Updated ( Monday, 12 December 2005 )

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