dshack

Has anyone tried thermo or other race liners in normal snowboard boots? I realize you couldn't just swap them around because they mold to the inside of the boot, but what about a pair of thermos (or standard raichles) for the softies?

Do y'all get MLK day off work? Anyone going to Mt. Hood Meadows with a free seat?

If you were adding volume, does it make more sense to try to add it above the foot or below? Could you also add a little padding above the instep to achieve the same effect?

I'll take whatever cants you have left.

I've got a pair of Suzukas with thermoflex liners. I got them molded at REI by a guy who came recommended to me by several skiiers, and seemed to know his stuff pretty well. The left boot feels amazing. It's perfectly shaped to my foot, it's comfortable all day, no noticable play or pressure points. The right foot, though, has more heel lift than I'd like, and when I tighten the ankle buckle, it really hurts my instep. Tell me if any of these seem like a likely cause: 1) The fitter cranked the buckles down really tight when molding it; he said that it avoids the normal short packing-out period you get it you mold it with looser buckles. I wonder, though, whether cranking them down tight prevents the liner from filling in all the space it should, and making my foot loose. 2) I somehow over-arched or didn't keep my heel back enough when he was molding. 3) The boots are canted outwards (which I don't need) and have a stripped cant adjuster, and that's somehow messing with the fit. 4) I've got superfoot blues in there, which might not be high or supportive enough for my medium but easily-collapsing arch. My plan at the moment is to fix the cant thing, see what the guy's got to say, and maybe get them remolded. Any other thoughts?

Far from intermediate, methinks. I've spent about two days on my alpine board and have just been wasting away snowless winter-vacation time on the forum. I can probably get a good deal more performance out of proper angulation and thinking about body position than the angle of my edges.

How did y'all figure out what base and edge angles to use? The Almanac lists 2/1 as a good starting point; does this vary based on what sort of carving you want to do?

Bump, and another sort-of question: As a beginning carver that just wants to lay deep trenches, what tuning at what intervals is really necessary? Riding an Ultra Prime, will I notice a performance difference between a fixed file and an adjustable one? Between a single polishing stone and several? There's lots of information out there on how to perform an optimal tune, but what do you all (especially the non-racers) do on a regular basis to your boards? What did you do when you first got it?

I'll second the 'no race boards in the trees' sentiment. Scared to take my 162 ultra prime on the plane, I came back for break with my 156 salomon 450 (freeride) board. What a difference in the trees and narrow gulleys! I'm a pretty amateur backcountry boarder, and have a lot of stop/start and falling when tree runs or gulleys get steep, but using a softer, turnier board with lower angles helped my tree riding incredibly. As a bonus, you don't risk scratching up your race board....if my new UP had gotten the scratches my old freeride board did these last few days, I'd be pretty depressed.

So EasyOut the bolt, reset the cant, and put a sturdier bolt in? Sounds good.

I bought some used suzukas, which have been very comfortable and responsive, except that I noticed my front (left) quad burning at low angles. Looked at the boot today and, lo and behold, the left boot is canted outwards. This leads me to a few questions: 1) The cant bolt is completely stripped. Do I have to use a dremel or something to destroy it, or is there another way to get it out? 2) Anyone got a cuff cant assembly lying around? They seem to be sold out at the Bomber store. 3) I figure some inward cant should compensate for the outward boot cant until I can replace the assembly, but I'm home for the holidays with my freeride board, and left my burton cant plates up in Oregon. Would it make sense to ride higher angles so that my left knee isn't pulled so far away from my right?

So those are harder to use, even if you attach the files with a thumbscrew? I'm hearing skisharp > swix, though I haven't heard much of a qualification. For either, if I'm looking to set and maintain good edge bevels on a Burton UP, how many and what grit of stones would I need to get? I'm not racing, I'm just going up once or twice a week and trying to teach myself to freecarve and have fun.

Which extruded aluminum guides are you talking about?

Consensus on this board last time was that it's a bad plan.

Maybe this is a silly question, but with one of the 90/88 side edge file guides (dakine, bakoda, or burton; they look like a 'T'), is the angle one side of the guide cuts determined by the number marked on the side in contact with the edge, or the side you can see when using it? The structure's kind of like _|_ and you put a file through a slot at the bottom of the vertical part, in contact with the horizontal part. One side says 88, the other says 90, but I can't figure out whether the numbers refer to the angle of the side they're marked on, or the side that's cutting when you can see that number.

5'3" or 5'4", I think.

I think my stance was a little narrow. With 6 degrees toe and heel lift from the unicants, I was on the holes closest to the center. While it certainly felt comfortable, I suspect it's a little narrow to be really stable, and it probably keeps me more upright than I need. That said, factory stance + flat feet kills my quads (I've got a 26-inch inseam). I'm going to try to move the stance a little closer in, dial back the forward lean on my suzukas, and see what happens. I'd like to avoid having to use the unicants, if I can.

'after you started riding flat' being after you dialed back the lean on the burtons?

I thought taper was different than sidecut. Doesn't a progressive sidecut get deeper as you move through the turn, whereas a regressive one gets shallower?

I can't stand the unicant; the rotational play, tendancy for screws to loosen, and general shoddy feel of the thing really turns me off. Does burton make more solid canting devices?

Do you think there's one chief factor that would kill your front quad (to the degree where the pain was all that was going through my mind)? I was thinking it might be an angle a bit too high, along with the bindings possibly an inch or two too forward. I'm taking my freeride board and raceplates home for the holidays, and I'll play around with the stance and angles in Tahoe.

Are the UPZ spoken for? Can you post pics?

I've been out two days on hardboots. I started riding with about 6 degrees of toe and heel lift, achieved with unicants (the screws of which loosen annoyingly). Met a guy on a tinkler on the hill, and he suggested I might try riding flat and widening my stance some (it was set up on the two most inner positions). I think the widened,flattened stance, in a good carve, did let me get a little lower, and it eliminated the rotational jiggle and setup hassle of the unicants. However, I encountered three big problems with it: 1) When carving, it feels like the tail is going to wash out on me, like my back foot is going to push the tail into a skid. I didn't have this problem with the narrower stance and lift. 2) Somehow, sitting in the snow, standing on the board stationary, and other situations where I'm on the board but not carving now feel a lot more awkward, and take a good more muscle energy (mainly my front quad, I think). 3) I'm getting tired out ridiculously fast; this is probably the biggest problem. I have to take breaks a lot more frequently than before. It feels like I'm often using just my front foot to support myself, and its muscles, the quad especially, just start to burn. I realize there's going to be some fine-tuning to do, so I'm just looking for tips. I'm thinking that cant/lift in the wider stance might ease some of the pain, and maybe moving the front foot back one hole would prevent the wash-out. Any thoughts?

Used shells in your size, with thermoflex's. I got moldable suzukas for $200. You could probably find older raichles cheaper, but to get them to fit the same would cost at least as much as the $50-$75 difference.

Have you ever sent a board on an airplane in an unpadded bag? I'm going home for the holidays and was thinking about bringing my freeride board (mid-90's solomon 450) back, but only have a basic cordura boardbag. I was thinking of hotwaxing it and waiting until I got home to scrape it to protect the base, and maybe putting some clothes or something around it. Have you ever had a board snap taking it on a plane?