LoveJohnny wrote:Harris wrote:To old schoolers today's telemark is most often a pseudo-mark. More parallel with fake tele thrown in for style points. But that is another matter.
I totally agree... It's a different sport man... I once had this discussion with a CANSI level 3 member... I was saying how the whole BOF technique doesn't apply on NTN, especially due to the boots stiffness... We were not able to agree on anything...
Rott NTN really feel strange in this regard. It comes on almost too strong and too early before a hard edge can be set
LoveJohnny wrote: Hummm... I honestly like Rotte NTN a lot better than the Outlaw because of that... I think the "pull" activates just at the perfect timing on the Freeride... While I find it way too early on the Outlaw... Well, at least for me...
One of the cool things about tele no matter what gear used is how it can work using personalized techniques. You can take 2 people on completely different gear, using somewhat different technique, and both can jam a slope with authority. I've switched skis with guys and wondered how in the hell they were able to work them like they do.
Admittedly I became scared of NTN after I destroyed my knee. What happened was NOT the result of a catastrophic wipeout. It was weird. I was tired, skiing a last run down to the base. The run was a groomed blue, steepish grade, but was getting icy in certain patches. The light was flat so I couldn't differentiate the ice spots from the non. I was punch turning at a fairly high rate of speed. My downhill ski slid out a bit on the ice, and like I've done probably a thousand times to compensate I threw the shoulders back and went deep to drive my inside ski's edge in for bite. Bite it did like it never had before. Boy howdy. It almost stopped dead, which was a problem because my downhill ski still slid out and away, forcing me into a drop knee splits. It seemed like slow motion, but actually happened really fast. As I went into the split, the inside ski had to roll from one edge to the other, but it couldn't because the edge bite was so good, and so my knee exploded to get the edge to release its bite. Of all the years I've skied I've never had an inside ski bite that hard. It did what I wanted it to but just way too much and way too instantly. Did the binding release? Nope! My ACL did though. And I put so much tension on my LCL it actually fractured the bone around where it attaches. And I punched a significant tear in meaty portion of my meniscus as my femur popped forward. It took almost 2 years to walk without pain, even after the ACL was replaced.
The thing I learned about that is that NTN is not a turn I personally could short hard turn, go deep knee with. It was fine if kept more upright and danced, but I do like to drop deep when I really want to lay an edge on hard instantly, especially when checking speed before a transition or changing lines in the bumps or even setting up for an odd bump on icy steeps. I felt most confident with NTN in this regard using the Meidjo, but going deep was exactly what pulled the mount from the ski. And so I went back to duckbill, and although I get worn out much quicker, I can ski much more fearlessly. My setup is my old "rocker launched" Garment Garas, which are stupid soft, matched with Vices and Axels and the whole rig has almost no resistance until the heel comes up quite a bit, even using stiff springs. In fact at first I thought about making some wedges to help pull the heel down, and I even spent a half-a-day shaping a wedge out of a Stihl logging wedge, but I quickly re-adapted to the sloppiness and came to love it. But, I do not anymore drop cliffs anymore or even pop jumps, so I can deal with that. When I parallel I use a lot of knee bend and hip flex to stay balanced so I don't really need much heel hold down.
Is NTN the thing? I think there are things being done on tele that are amazing, especially in the Freeride Competitions and trick parks, that are mostly facilitated by NTN technology. I agree that I hope the advancements keep coming, and NTN does works wonders for a lot of rippers. One thing that bums me a bit is how there are less boot MFGers staying with it, mainly due to a lack of enthusiasm for the sport, which is sad. I have older, m 2nd gen NTN TX Pro and a newer, 2016 pair, and the newer pair are junk. They are too soft and pinch the hell out of the toes, which my old ones didn't do ever. The only good thing about the newer ones is their liners, which first went into my older NTN shells and then into my Gara shells. With a little custom fitting around the heel I couldn't be happier with boot fit.