your top speed on a snowboard?
I have no idea. Does anyone use GPS or other tracking devices while they’re riding?
My only clue to my top speed came from the radar gun at this one resort in Austria, in a controlled track. With a relatively short run-in, I hit 67 kph, although I have probably exceeded that on groomers at some point.
I have always been curious myself. I would really like to know how fast I ride. Some people have estimated but I take that with a grain of salt. GPS is the best way to do this so I’ve heard, but does it also take into account vertical velocity?
spaz, possibile business expansion? GPS hire? Test your speed, and catch it on helmet cam as proof. 
I have a friend that carried one a few times, I think he used it more as an altimeter, or to track his mileage.
I like the idea of an item like a Forerunner GPS that will map out where you have been. It would be nice to overlay a map of where I’ve rode for the day on top of a trail map. I’m sure the technology is there to do that, but It seems like a lot of work to do.
I think you can hire this sort of tech at Thredbo. Spaz, is this true or did I imagine it?
The boys have a Hotwheels radar gun, I’ll have to dig it out and give it a whirl.
Speaking of speeding, Wildman (11) & Raindrops (14) got busted by ski patrol this morning for going to fast in a ‘Slow Zone’ there were five people on the entire run. Bl**dy ski nazis !!!!!!
In 2006 some people were hiring GPS in Thredbo, KT had a condition that they didn’t encourage using the speed function on it, they had to have it set without that screen. They business failed - not one hire all season!!!
I did get to use their GPS for free as part of promotion and knew how to activate the speed monitor. 2006 was a bad year, though Thredbo was still top to bottom skiing, just all ice and grooming wasn’t great. One morning in August a skier and I took one each and straight lined the Supertrail - he got to the bottom 20-50 meters ahead of me and a reading of 112kmh, my reading was 107kmh. On ice with death cookies scattered over the run at that speed is beyond scary.
Thredbo’s annual Top 2 Bottom race; Course inspection = 88kmh
During the event = 81kmh (restricted by the close racing creating dangerous situations)
It is great to have this idea of the different feeling of speed, +60kmh is fast but easy to achieve, 80kmh I reckon is the max I’m comfortable with, above that you need to be prepared for a ride to the hospital in a bag. Different snow conditions give different perspective of speed as well. In my video of High Noon I complete the run in around 2.5 minutes and probably nudge the high 70’s. With the HeadCam you just need to know the distance your travelling and it’s simple to calculate the speed - I haven’t bothered yet.
I have an interesting contact with an awesome GPS product that has software desinged for snowsports with resort maps preloaded, live tracking, buddy system to see were others on the hill are etc. When he has the units in the country it is likely I’ll be hiring them.
I tried to look it up, but I dont recall what mountain it was that I was at recently and you could rent something for the day that you carried with you. at the end of your day you download all the stats and canprint out your average and top speeds for the day, mileage, altitude etc.
I thought it may have been Killington, Vermont, USA, but I couldnt find it on the website.
Someone’s doing it though, and Im sure more of the nicer places will do that too eventually.
On the topic of going fast, went to Falls today, on Father Fosters, boarders right of Ruin Castle lift, I was able to straight line my board to a point where I could not get to go any faster…...... not a fast board, 159 Skate Banana, but I was impressed that I was thinking, “gee is this as fast as I can go down here?”
I need to get my GPS out now for sure!!!
Given that you are going downhill, if you didn’t have altitude information with the GPS location, you’re not going to get your speed right??
Doesn’t GPS only give you latitude / longitude information?
Without the vertical info the reading is not accurate at all (it would give a slower reading). To answer the other question, I don’t know… but I would really like to find out.
Good points to bring up… I’ve not thought about those things when thinking about this data.
hmm.
Given that you are going downhill, if you didn’t have altitude information with the GPS location, you’re not going to get your speed right??
Doesn’t GPS only give you latitude / longitude information?
yes that is correct if you are using a car style gps.
HOWEVER….gps units like the garmin edge 605 are used for elevation as well as everything else.
“GPS is a system of satellites orbiting the earth sending signals that allow small receivers to calculate the location within 10 meters. Using four simple data points (Latitude, Longitude, Altitude, and Time) collected every few seconds by a GPS device, MotionBased translates this information into compelling analysis and mapping.”
have a look here http://www.motionbased.com/info/homeView.mb
my buddy uses this when we go MTB for keeping a log of climbs etc and to help you stay on trail. then you can record your trips and use the KMZ files recorded by the unit on google earth and actually see where you have been.
we tried using a garmin 760 car gps at perisher last year and got the following results:
Front valley was 45…including turning that was max logged speed.
sun valley was 53.5
top station to happy valley 55.5
O/B mount P was 35.8
i estimate the other run in the morning at pretty valley was around 60-65 ish
most in our group reckoned 30-45 was as fast as i would go.
no-one guessed over 50.
this was after a fresh wax, very good snow conditions and freshly groomed.
after a few runs at thredbo on the weekend which seemed faster than perisher, i reckon if we used the edge 605 we could get much clearer results. closer to what spaz was relating.
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Thanks for that Banger. I was sure there was a way given how the satelites work. This is good to know.
Checking it out now.
91.34 km/h
i know you can get litte electronic devices at the hill i work at in BC, called sun peaks, i think they’re called flaik or something like that. never rocked one myself but i’d be interested to know how fast i’m going sometimes. i don’t go very fast very often, i’m more about messing around and jibbing but i did remember thinking that i was going bloody fast on the run in to the biggest jump in the sun peaks park, its not massive massive but somewhere around 60 ft. anyways i just remember thinking that its nuts that the faster that i go on a snowboard is when i’m just about to go off something thats gonna fling me into the sky. don’t get me wrong i’m not trying to sound clever, in fact i can boast a mean double flail (and thats about it) off such a jump. it was just a weird thought i had (what the hell are you doing aidy!!!) and wondered if anyone else had shared such a thought?
As long as I’m passing skiers, I don’t care how fast I’m going 
As long as I’m passing skiers, I don’t care how fast I’m going
Werd.
As far as I’m concerned I only need to go fast enough to beat my boss(He is either on Standard or Trick Skis) down Mount Perisher and I will be happy.
I’ll show him what minimum pay can get me at the board store…