GV27

Sucks for you guys. I'm going to Taos for three days this weekend. Supposed to snow Sunday and Monday. I'll be thinking of you snorts on the hike to the top of Kachina! Chris

That is pretty good. All the stuff they're talking about with leading with a pole plant down the hill translates into keeping your weight forward - for those that don't ski the pole forward is used as a cue to keep your weight where it should be. You have to keep your weight forward to make your edge really grip.

Loveland Pass on Saturday, I was sitting on the wood rail at the top getting my bindings situated and this group of 20-ish folks come walking by to get above the traverse. The guys are talking about my setup, the usual "wow, look at that race board" comments, etc. But the (quite attractive) girl with them speaks up and says "no way, man - that thing's for powder!" then turns to me and says "that's a powder board, right?". I never thought I'd hear that - people don't even say that when they see me riding powder! Meanwhile the 16 year old kid in my group is looking at this girl talking to me and giving me "go for it" signals behind her back. LOL.

Well, it won't be as hard as fixing a boat. You'll probably want to cut it at the "hinge". Trim away any deformations at the edges. Clean the "hole" and the "patch thoroughly. Then just a very thin layer of epoxy. Hold it down with something heavy. Then fill the gap at the back where you had to trim with P-Tex and finally flatten the base on a base grinder or other means. You'll want to allow a little epoxy to cover what gap there is a little - the melt-in p-tex will adhere better. How old is the board? That's obviously a warrant-able defect if the board is still covered.... Chris

+1. My setup is not THAT obscure, but I still reckon my board is safer without a lock than a high-end Burton is with one. Maybe it's a Colorado thing then. Don't want to jinx myself but in 40 years of skiing and snowboarding I've never had a rig stolen. Only had someone in my party lose a pair of skis once. At Vail, naturally. Like 20 years ago. I just see boatloads of super nice skis an boards all over the place and very rarely see a lock on any of them. Heck, at Loveland people don't even bother to rack their gear. They just click out and walk into the lodge!

Not a very precise answer, but I have size 24 boots in Burton Performance plates and they fit, with room to adjust a little smaller. I have Deeluxe 225s. My bindings would take a size 23 Deeluxe for sure. Chris

I dunno what the conventional wisdom is on making the switch to hardboots, but a day with them on a board you're used to might not be a bad idea. I switched to hardboots like 15 years ago, but the thing I remember most about the transition was that the hardboots made my setup WAY more prone to "biting" me when I screwed up. Get lazy, catch an edge and - WHAM! - body slam! They beat the crap out of me on the first day, and I had nearly 15 years of snowboarding experience by that time and had been working toward the stiffest soft boot setup I could create for a couple of years. A more forgiving board might make for an easier transition. LOL on learning on a 197 Burner. I've been doing this a LONG time and that thing scares me! Good idea going to that "shorty" Volkl. That's not going to be the easiest either though. C

Man, I dunno if that's going to be a good introduction to an alpine board for you. That's a little slalom race board. Not sure of the specs, but I think it's really narrow and probably pretty stiff too. That'll require high binding angles and a lot of power transmission and that's probably not going to work so great with softies. What kind of riding are you looking to do? If you're looking to do the same stuff you do on your current setup but want to go with something stiffer and more aggressive, you might be better off looking at more of an all-mountain alpine board - like a Prior ATV or 4x4 or a Donek Axxess - rather than a race-specific board. As mentioned, alpine boots and bindings on your current board might be a better taste than your boots and bindings on a race board. It should also be mentioned that while 153cm or so might be close to what you're currently riding, it's really short for an alpine board. If I were you I'd look in the BOL classifieds and find an entire setup for that price or less. I just think you're going to try it all wrong, it's not going to work, you're not going to like it and you're going to be out 500 bucks and turn your back on alpine without really giving it a quality try. Chris

I've done more than one. I've bought stuff from BOL classifieds, ordered stuff from Bomber (they're like an hour from my house and can't always take time off during the week to drive up there) and I bought my boots at Bomber in person. Had a great experience every time. Fin's a heckuva nice guy.

Dunno what happened with the OP, but for New Mexico folks I've heard good things about Boot Doctors in Taos. Never used them - I'm a Larry's customer - but have heard good things. http://www.bootdoctors.com And Larry's easy to find. Just Google "Larry the boot fitter" or: http://larrybootfitting.com/ Chris

Tell your cutie to get her hands out in front of her. Have her drill holding her polls horizontally with both hands straight out in front of her while skiing. I'd be happy to give her some private lessons if you'd like...... ;)

Yeah, I'd second that. I spend a high percentage of my time back in the steep trees, and my family and (non-skier/snowboarder) friends worry about me because of that. But while my ribs have become overly familiar with wood a couple of times and I've gotten lots of scratches on my face from twigs, the times I've really "rocked" myself on the board or skis have all been on hard snow. Most commonly a blue groomer. The highside is a bitch in a lot of sports (speaking of sport bikes.....)!

Those things are used all the time on rentals. They don't seem to have a theft problem. I always figure my alpine setup makes my stuff pretty undesirable. There just aren't that many people out there who even know what the thing is, let alone want to steal it.....

Or instead of a bunch of F-ing around not really knowing what you're doing, make her an appointment with your local boot fitter. Also, does she have a foot bed in there? A lot of thermo liners don't come with them and she should really have one in there and (obviously) they take up volume.

Nah, anyone who says you shoulda been closer isn't a parent. You gotta let the kids have a long leash and let them have fun. My 7 year old will go off and leave everyone if you don't get a move on!