abakker

drive up to startingate in bonville vt, and demo a whole setup. i believe they carry donkek boards, catek and bomber bindings and head and deeluxe boots. they are the ones who got me into carving and i higly reccomend the service. http://www.startingate.net/ also as important as all the other parts are, i highly reccommend getting your boot thermofitted if you can. it makes all the difference. i now don't have to loosen my boots all day and my feet don't even get cold. in my opinion, the speedster is an advanced rider's board. it is also my first caving board because i was able to get one for rather inexpensive but still new. however, the number of falls i have taken this year because i am not giving just the right inputs makes me fel like i should have gotten a slightly more freecarve and less race board. all that said, good luck and welcome to hardbooting. Alex

well, i'll see you up there hopefully tomorrow. Alex

If i were to buy a set of BTS and get two sets of springs, would there be any detriment to the BTS if i were to switch springs and settings often, because i ride lots of different conditions on a regular basis and would be using the BTS on my boots that i use for both powder and carving. if so, is there likely to be any detriment to taking the bts on and off and switching with the original deeluxe lock lever? Alex

i've never been to white pass but if i could stay up there with you, it might be fun to do that some time. but it is a long drive to do day trips from whitman. without that special deal, what would i have to pay for a room? Alex

i saw a boarder in the park the other day on one of those "wax free" park boards that will remain nameless. anyway, i saw when he took his board off to hike up to hit a rail again, that a whole letter of die cut ptex had popped off, so he had a big E shaped core shot. i have never laughed so hard in my life. Alex

please don't risk youself for a few hundred dollars. it i a setback, and replacing a board is costly, but when you get a new one and it is better, you'll never look back. Alex

i will be in spokane for teh long weekend and going to silver probably every day. Alex

i think what i was doing was a combination of things. first, i am riding an f2 speedster rs, which has a softer than average flex in the nose, and second i am riding fairly weight forward in the beginning of the turn(a habit started in VT) so what i am looking to do is maybe see if i can lighten up in the beginning of a turn and weight the board a little slower, maybe start the turn without such an aggressive dive when the snow is soft. we'll see this weekend. i'll be taking some lessons up at silver and riding with some other hardbooters for the first time in about a year, so we'll see where that leads me. Alex

just tried what you did over the weekend. we had finally gotten some softer snow which turned into slush which gave me a little more confidence to test my edges. everything worked great and i too got some nice Gs building up, but for some reason i kept going over the nose of my board, and landed on my head several times. later in the afternoon when it got slushy i was laying some nice carves out, and booted out a couple of times, even though there isn't any overhang on my board, but i just kept ending up sliding down the hill on my chest or back with no other apparent cause. that being said. it was my first day of real carving. i have never left the mountain so happy before. Alex

try adjusting the screw that is in the toe bail. if the binding is popping off, the screw the screw in further so that the bail leve sits closer to the boot. Alex PS it is very good that you are testing this ahead of time.

just to be sure i understand what you are saying, the l shaped clip goes on the toe of the boot, correct? the single round bail on the heel. if that is the case, and it is loose, move the toe and heel in so that it is actually difficult to close the levers without applying at least moderate to hard pressure. as jack said in an earlier thread, it should almost take 2 hands to close your bindings. while you are at adjusting, make sure that all of the other bolts on your board and boots are tight. checking is the best way to prevent injury. Alex

in hardpack i ride my track 325s locked out with OS2s on an f2 speedster or coiler purerace, in powder i ride the same boots in walk mode on a tanker crown 177, and if i am doing alot of all mountain/trees i ride a rad air reto 164. i use hardboots for everything because in my mind, they are the right tool for every job. the quality of the binding and boot is so much higher, and the boards that you tend to use with hardboots definitely perform better. in softboots, i could never find a binding or boot that really worked for me and felt comfortable. at that point i almost quit snowboarding until i got hardboots. the rest is history. Alex

i ride catek plates and hardboots on my tanker which is an all mountain board. i have had great success, however if you plan on riding powder, i suggest the deeluxe boots because of the easy switch to walk mode which makes powder much more manageable. Alex

for repairing ptex, you get a better bond and a better repair if the gouge is clean and trimmed out. to do this you can either buy a set of expensive chisels from a tuning company or do what i did. linoleum cutters for block printing. they are inexpensive and the variety of bits is excellent. i just grab a bit that is close to the shape of the gouge and then ever so gently carve the gouge out so that it is a little bigger but smooth and free of dirt, rocks, or old wax, then out with the ptex and the repair bonds alot better. i found a set at the college art store for about $8 and it has worked great for me. Alex

is matrix a new company/has anyone ridden one before? that is a pretty sweet board, and it would be awsome if new companies were coming into the alpine board market. Alex

sean, thanks for that tip, i didn't really think about the board breakage before but will factor it into my considerations in the future. Alex

i've never actually been there before. i just started college out west this january, so i am new to the whole northwest resort thing. more used to riding the old hills back east with ice and crowds. Alex

yeah, i definitely meant to a pair of skiboots. snowboard shells are short enough. Alex

well, i'll be up president's day weekend. i'm looking to take a lesson at least one or two of the days, but we could definitely ride if you want. Alex

is it a bad idea to take a set of at boots which you like to ride in and grind down the toe/heel so that they have a shorter sole base. i was thinking it might be nice to do that so that i could run lower angles without bootout, but if it really compromises the integrity of the boot, please let me know. i haven't done it yet. Alex

i'm not a switcher, i have always used macs. but that being said, i think that in terms of photo/video/music editing macs are superior. definitely cast my vote in with them. i also use my mac to program c++ and the app that apple supplies is excellent. for what its worth, i can help with most any mac questions you have if you do indeed switch. as for the usb harddrives, they will plug and play, however it will in the long run be in your best interest to move the files off the drives from one to the other or to your internal HD and once empty to reformat the drive to run in mac os x extended(journaled). once they are in the mac format, they will be failsafe and will also index more accurately so that the standard apple search function in the apple os will work better. Alex

well, the 225 is a softer boot, so maybe get a stiff bts spring and things will be good. just keep in mind that it will be significantly softer than the suzuka, but in the end it might be more what you are after. Alex

where can you actually read up on them or buy them. the deeluxe site is useless. Alex

the track 325 is classified as the same stiffness as the suzuka although since it is not AF the flex pattern is different. however i really like the track series and ride mine on several boards ranging from an F2 and a coiler pure race to a rad air tanker. i ride them in all condidtions and in powder i just ride in walk mode. Alex

i must say that i rode suzukas last year for 15 days or so, and sold them to get a smaller set of track 325s. i really like the track boot better. the SB shells feels more natural to me. the buckles are really nice too. Alex