Alpine snowboards have changed a bit while you were out, freecarve boards are more versitile than their race oriented predecessors. if you want a great carving board for hard surfaces, donek, prior, coiler, madd, pogo, and virus all make great quality freecarving boards. they'll all do customs too if you want. If you're looking for uber strength, i suggest pogos. but others will soon suggest more gear for other reasons as well. the length you'll be looking for (considering you want a turnier board for slower conditions) is between 160 and 175. most boards have a few lenghts in that range.
If you want even more versatility, then the prior 4WD is considered a great board for carving everywhere, but so is the donek axxess. Numerous bx boards might be good too, such as the madd bx, the f2 eliminator, and pogo snowboards makes 3 bx models.
bindings: I like standard bindings, i have more confidence in them than the stepin system and theyre still faster to get on than any softboot binding ive used, including flows. TD2s are the best freecarving binding, thanks to the suspension system.
boots: suzukas are the medium boot provided by deeluxe. great shells, comfterble flex for freecarving, but plastic buckles. deeluxe just came out with two new boots with metal buckles which you may also consider, one beeing a stiffer (race-ish) boot and one beeing a softer (freeride-ish) boot.
there's my input, good luck and welcome back:biggthump