dshack

My guess would be that the burton plates would work ok...my unicant seems to have a pretty big surface area.

Excellent! Let me know.

Anyone going to meadows? If so, anyone driving with a seat from Portland they might trade for gas money?

I've just messed around with it on my freeride board, which felt more carvable to me after I switched it from 0/0 to 1/2. I wasn't polishing the edges, though, just filing and periodically removing burrs with a gummi stone. Having gotten a new board, I want to do the edge tuning thing right. Is there a downside to a 1 degree base angle? From what I've read and experienced, it just gives you a slightly easier release without hurting the board's grip.

So I got myself an Ultra Prime. I think it's got a 0/0 bevel, and I want to put a 2/1 on it. All I have is a 'tools4boards' edging tool with a file and sidewall planer, and gummi stone. Should I wait until I can get a good edger with diamond/ceramic stones to change the bevel, or go ahead and do it with this one? Do you have recommendations for edge beveling tools?

I had the same problem for awhile, but someone laid it out pretty plainly: Toe/heel lift is the difference between the angle of the board's surface and the angle of the sole of your foot. It's measured along the long axis of your foot. Cant is just whatever angle change happens perpendicular to that. "Outward cant," as far as I can tell, is towards the buckles of your boots.

Anyone have a free seat up for gas money?

So the Internet can lie? I don't believe it. Next you'll be telling me not to believe everything the televison tells me, too.

Popped up in a google sidebar, I think. It's an edging system that uses a rotary tool and 220-grit ceramic stones. Has anyone used this or something like it? http://www.edgetune.com/

Took my Burton UP, suzukas, and race plates to Mt. Hood Meadows yesterday. It was crowded for the first few hours, but I think the heavy, wet snow tired most people out so the express chair lines cleared up by noon or so. I spent most of my time just practicing basic, wide, cross-over turns, leaning over and letting the board sweep me across the mountain. The first few times I couldn't quite get the edge to hold, but then I focused on angulating and getting my shoulders parallel to the slope and it worked fine. The board carries speed incredibly, though I think some of that was zardoz notwax on the wet snow. I had taken my Suzukas to REI earlier this week to have them molded. My left foot felt great; it was probably the best fit of any ski or snowboard boot I had ever tried. On my right, I had major outstep pain, feeling like the ankle buckle was crushing the outside of my sole even when it wasn't buckled particularly tight. I also got a big blister right on the ankle. I'm taking the boot back to be remolded; any advice on what to ask for? I was thinking of a patch on the ankle for a little more volume to reduce rubbing, and maybe molding the liners with the boots less tightly strapped, so there's more pressure applied by the liner and less by the buckle. My softboot buddies convinced me to try the trees, which turned out to be a bad plan. No actual catastrophes, but I realized a stiff 162cm board with a large sidecut is not the easiest thing for a 125lb guy to toss around. The steepest part was very stop-and-go and slidey. Near the end of the day I started trying out cross-under and attempting some Euro-carves. The cross-under worked ok, and I noticed it was really easy to catch air on my toeside-to-heelside transition. The board seemed to just launch me into the next turn. I couldn't quite figure out how to replicate the effect going heelside to toeside. I never managed to lay down an EC, but trying for it did give me lower carves than I had been getting before, so I think it was a positive exercise. I'll probably be going back up Wednesday, if anyone wants to ride.

Wet and a little choppy. Didn't make it over to the left side, where apparently the good groomers are, but the right side of the main express and the Hood River express had nice runs. It was my first day out on hardboots, so I didn't really have baseline carving conditions to which I could compare this.

Looking to meet and maybe ride with some of the Oregon hardbooting community after the crowds rip apart the groomers tomorrow. Catch me at 415.608.9267 tomorrow morning, or reply and I'll check tomorrow morning.

Excellent; that's exactly what I needed. 1st day tomorrow at the Meadows opening! w00t! Anyone want to meet up around lunch, when the groomers are all trashed?

I've been messing with them some- there's a top black spring and bottom silver one, bolts through each, and little adjustment things at either end. It seems like adjusting the bottom one changes forward flexion, and the top one backward flexion. I was trying to stop my front foot from being leaned so far forward, but it seems like the RAB only affects stiffness, not the actual neutral stance, if that makes any sense.

Bump?

What do the adjustments do? Which way do you turn which spring to make the front and back flex harder and softer?

Does 'lift' on bindings mean along the axis of your foot, or the long axis of the board?

As far as the front page goes, I feel like the typefaces of the logo, the text next to the logo, and the left sidebar don't really coordinate well. Personally, I'd have the sidebar text match that at the top.

I've got good conversation, bad jokes, and gas money if you need it.

Anyone know the factory angles on these?

Anyone got a ride from Portland anytime this weekend?

The pro-pricey deck people have a good point: innovation in boards and the like requires people buying enough from the innovators to support them. Economically, though, it doesn't make sense to mess with the free market. There are more beginning carvers out there, and rising demand for cheap gear. Either manufacturers can follow the examples of Donek (with their Pilot) and make competitors to the cheap, used gear, or they can continue catering exclusively racers/hardcore enthusiasts/the financially secure. The more people that get on boards and ride, regardless of what boards they are, the more people will take their skill past the level of their 'mediocre' equipment and want to upgrade. I'm with you, bob, on the people who keep an unused quiver of old boards around. Economically, again, this is matress money- uninvested capital that should be under the feet of beginning riders, getting them hooked on the sport.

If you want people to invest in a hobby, and you want to build your base of participants, there has to be an accessible price point for entry. Every single new alpine board (save the Donek Pilot) costs more than my entire setup did combined. There are a good number of people out there, I'm thinking mostly high school, college, and graduate students, who can't exactly drop $600 on a board. It's fun to talk about the perfection of the sport, pushing your limit with better gear, and the advances boards have made in ten years, but I've seen a good many posts by people who started out on a $150 FP or alp, had a great time railing turns, and moved up to one of the pricier boards. I'd argue people plugging cheap gear are advancing the sport plenty.

If you just had heel lift or toe life, the unicants would just slope along the long axis of the board, right? Because you can rotate the discs between lift and slant, should I go the full 7 degrees? Halfway?

Does shoulders parallel to the slope mean that, if your body is facing longitudinally down your board, and you're traversing, a bar balanced on your shoulders would be parallel to the slope? That seems to be what I'm getting from the photos, but I'm still not totally sure.