abakker

try yahoo people search. http://people.yahoo.com

money order sent, thanks for the fast shipping.

in a video, you don't need super high resolution. many cell phones now can take reaonable decent length low res videos easily. that should be enough to let you do an on hill diagnostic of body position, even if you can't see the facial expressions you are making.

get some high density foam, and make a couple different thickness insoles and try them out. have you tried shimming the sides?

i have the thule box. it is really good for trips with multiple people and lots of equipment (usually 5 pairs of skis and 2 boards), but without alot of gear, things tend to slide side to side. also, the box limits the length of board you can put in. i have a 177 tanker which fits fine, but my coiler is a no go. as for taking it on and off, my thule doesn't requre tools, it just has hand tighten knobs inside that attach to the roof rack, so on and off is really not that hard.

i recently enjoyed my 177 in some deep powder as well. 30 to 36 inches. rode it with hardboots and got to enjoy some trees, steeps, powder and still carve some groomers. i love my board, but a 200 wide would be amazing...

when i bought hardboots, i bought them to replace softboots, and as such decided that they could do it all. my first pair of boots was just too big, heel lift, uncomfortable. i rode them 15 days and sold them. i got a new pair of boots that fit, but also decided that maybe hardboots couldn't do it all. well i have ridden 32 days this year. i am never going to own a pair of softboots again. so, finding the right equipment is good in that it makes what you are doing more fun/comfortable, but time is a critical part of it. if you do want to spend any money, the thermofit liner was the biggest contribution to my sticking with hardbooting out of all of the gear that i have amassed

i believe www.raceboarding.com has the deeluxe/raichle bindings, maybe give them a check.

man, i know how you feel. i wanted so badly to skip classes for SES but no go. my goal is to take one semester at westminster college in salt lake and do alot of riding...maybe next year, or the year after and make it to WTC.

are they sold yet?

is that a day trip only? if so, i may be interested, let me see how my class schedual is going. and i may join you.

you really should use water with your diamond stones. they are suseptible to damage from friction and also clogging unless they are kept wet the whole time. i keep all of my stones in water while using them, just soaking in a cup, and then when i need them it is easy to get one out and use it. do not let them get dry as they will load and then not cut true or well. if they get loaded, use a plastic scrubber and some grease cutting soap and warm water to get it off. this also works if you get wax in your stone. as for the base tape peeling, i only use it for my side edge tool, where it will definitely not affect my angle measurement. for the base edge, you should really be very careful about not rubbing in any bits of metal. if your side edge beveler is still sticking to the tape, consider adding a small amount of water to reduce friction. but yopu shouldn't be putting too much pressure on your base anyway. it should be enough to keep the guide true, but the pressure should be agains the edge you are cutting.

i would highly recommend not using oil on a snowboard. it is possible that the oil would either soak in to the base and mess with wax absorbtion, or at the least would flux any wax that it came in contact with and remove it with the slightest friction. cutting oil is not good stuff and would probably cause problems with ptex. water is inert, and your ptex is designed to repel it. use water, and consider using base tape to prevent rubbing filings into your ptex when using files.

well said rj. i found that most "at the resort" shops are mostly worthless with one or two good techs. i had one where i went in and asked for edges, and the guy circled "base grind" and tried to charge me $45. i just said no, because it took part of my board away and that i didn't need a base grind as my structure was still fine. the tech replied "it doesn't really matter. you can't sharpen edges without a base grind." i just took my board and left, and then drove to a store and bought all my own tuning equipment. the only shop i allow to touch my board now is Startingate.

keep in mind, that if your edges are dull, and you make them razor sharp, you tend to remove a substantal amount of material. as D-Sub said, unless there is lots of ice, there is really no need. just make sure they are deburred and reasonably sharp, then you are fine. i personally keep my edges pretty sharp, and the trick i have is polishing them with 3 diferent diamond stones, as well as an arkansas stone so that they are really smooth. this also keeps them from rusting. if your edges are burred, and/or rusty, use an aluminum oxide stone with yur guide Before the files to remove most of the burrs and rust. burrs put undue stress on a very small amount of the file and if you have paticularily hard edges you can feel the file "scate" over them without really cutting. that just dulls your files. rust on the other hand is harder to cut with a file, and you are better off just gringing it off with an aluminum oxide stone. Best of luck

"Maybe you can reduce that friction if you cut up a 2 liter soda bottle and make a cover layer and glue that to the foam." i actually like teh change in flex, but i think that your idea would work great if it ever became a problem, i guess if anyone else makes this mod and wants to prevent friction, they could let us know how it goes.

i got it at a craft store. i think i paid $1.50 for a 8" x 10" piece. good luck.

well, i had a second day on the mod today, and it was a powder day. i rode them on my tanker, and the mod held up all day again with no problems. the only thing i have to comment on is that it adds more friction between the liner and the tounge, so the flex changes slightly. you only notice when you are really free flexing the boot in walk mode though, and that is what i use for powder.

honestly, it was a mistake in reading the date, without the year. just ignore it.

well, its too bad you have to sell it. i have the other and it is a great board. may one find you again in the future.

i miss stratton. the grooming here is done rarely and poorly. Alex

i think this problem arises from the following. each part of a raichle deeluxe boot is compatable with a range of sizes. my boot is a 28, and the cuff part of my boot fits a 28-30.5 so my guess is that a 27.5 would in the end be a better fit, but i am happy with the boots i have now. Alex

well. fisrt, i will say that i do have thermofits, and they are formed correctly, and i maxing out the straps after drilling and moving them back twice. now for the good part. the insert worked exactly how i wanted it to. it took up enough space to give me a perfect fit without compromising the flex, and prevented the cuff from touching in the front. the first 2 runs, there were some slight pressure points, but they went away quickly, so something gave somewhere and settled in fine. interestingly, the foam also seems to act like a shock absorber and more evenly distribute the pressure of the straps to the whole front of the liner. i am going up again tomorrow and will give another day of opinion tomorrow night, but as of now, it is a success, and if you have the same problem as me, i think this may be a good solution that is very inexpensive ($1.50 for foam, $3.00 for spray glue.) Alex

if your toeside feel late or that you really need to work to get them to engage, try moving your front foot slightly more forward, often this helps you naturally pressure the board more evenly in your stance. when i first started i was coming from a background in riding mostly powder and consistently mounted my bindings too far back and as a result really mesed up my carving technique. best of luck Alex

after about 30 days of riding on these boots this season, i realized that while the fit was perfect, the cuff was a little too loose. so after puzzling around a little, i came up with what i think is a good solution. i inserted a 6mm thick foam pad on the upper part of the tounge of each boot to take up just a little space and prevent the cuff from touching in the front. it works great here in the dorm room, but we'll see on the slopes tomorrow. Alex