Mike Blanz

Yeah, Jim just drove up to Silverthorne to bend a bunch of bails every so often.

Yep, and the bale bender is custom so is still in Fin's shop to date.

Jim had a family business out east and was going to have them mfg'd there...so Fin sold the equipment (sans the bail bender) to someone in Denver. Jim's idea never went thru so they essentially placed orders for manufacture in Denver and likely paid raw material $ and labor/tooling piece $ and then assemble and ship to end user. Same situation moving forward.

I used to use Deeluxe's AF600 boot (my weight is about 150lbs). With the stock mechanism on 4 on the front on 3 on the rear. Had 2 problems with the boot. 1) too soft when it was very warm outside 2) when I would make my first runs on a mountain my foot would ache super bad as I found it was the lower shell stiffness was just too low and the boot would actually bend quite a bit in the binding (TD1,2,3). Solution: T700 boot. MUCH stiffer boot. Never once have I had a problem with foot pain and it's been at least 5 years. But a new problem occurred immediately. My AF600 actually had a failure in March one year in Aspen so I drove over to Bomber in Silverthorne and bought the T700's. Fin didnt have the BTS's in stock. Took the boots back to Aspen and even though it was 60F at the base and 45F at the summit I basically could not bend the boot on toeside with the stock mechanism locked on 4/3 front/rear. Too stiff. When the BTS's came I put all blue's in the front boot and yellow (soft) in the rear boot toeside. Exact flex I want and the shell doesnt deform. Also, the failure of the first boot will not happen (the AF600 is so soft when it's warm out that the hinge pivot rivot joint deformed enough to fail the rivot). BTS also has a more even flex when in warm AND cold conditions as it doesnt rely on flexing the plastic so much...the spring does the work of the flex (mostly). Even with the stiffest springs (red) the boot will be softer than the stock mechanism. I have alot of forward lean in the rear boot and it still works for split boarding too :). Made it to the top of A-basin in my AF700's with Fin in January with no issues with the boot.

46 Started on a Burton Elite 140 in '87 with a 4 inch fin in the middle and concave swallowtail. "seat buckle bindings" Did not carve. We went straight down and made one turn at the end. But mine had edges. My brothers was red in color and just had p-tex to the edge. His had t-nuts thru the board for the bindings too. '88 was a Sims freestyle board. Modified bindings to have the inner tongue from rear entry ski boots to give the binding firmer forward flex...actually raced that thing. In '89 my board was a symmetrical K2 164cm race board on snowpros with Raichle Flexon Comp ski boots and raced that...others were on Hot Logicals but I worked in a shop that sold K2..then on to tons of burton boards over the next 10 years racing here and there.

I've found going to a softer board makes the difference. 6 days at the session charging had all day with a stock Proteus (built for 180lb rider) and my 150lb weight left me barely able to walk down stairs on day 6. But last week I pushed every turn for 7 days in a row in Colorado with a Proteus built for 150lbs and had very little leg damage on day 7..in fact I had no issues on high speed carves at Vail on Saturday.....

My son is using a Pilot 140cm since he was 9. It was a little firm for him at that age but now at age 12 he's able to bend it just fine. He's 115lbs maybe and 5' 0". No issues at all with the construction of the board. Top notch...he's been skiing since 1 and riding softboots since 5. Way back I used to race a 157cm board in SL with a 9m radius on toeside and 8.33 in heel. And I'm 150lbs 5' 11"....the pilot has a SL like radius and I think men still race about 157-163cm so would think the 152cm would be best for her if it is a SL radius....something in an 10m-11m radius in a 158cm would be a more GS like carve for that height/weight.

Nice! PM just sent

My son (12 this season) will need new (larger) boots next year for carving and is in the Raichle 125 right now.

What's even more amazing about her Super-G run is she was on Shiffrin's skis. I'm pretty certain I've never started a snowboard race or mountain bike race using someone else's equipment. ......, and there sure is no way I could get my foot in someone else's short track boot since I can barely get my foot in mine!....either way, wow, that's a lot of talent from that young lady.

Need set of thermoflex liners for my son in MP25.0

Carp, I'm interested in the M25 DC131 liners for my son. Lemme know if they are still available. Thanks, Mike

Thanks for the response, yes very interested. A couple of years ago I bought the 123's he has now from Jorg Egli and got the Intuition liners from Fin. Would buy liners from Jim/Angie if you have 123's in MP25 that you'd want to sell.

Thanks guys, his MP23 intuition TF liners were too small but we were able to "stretch" them by heat molding them for this season. So I think he'll probably be needing 25.0 for next season and heat molding them to fit. I know the 124 will be too stiff for him as he ran the 123's in powder mode this year

For my son who will be 11 next year. Prefer thermoflex liners.