Jonny

JG often seems to have typed so fast and with such volubility (to use a polite term) that the accuracy sometimes suffers. Here's a fairly clear quote: "OVERHANG IS INCREASING ON ONE SIDE ONLY. Of which ever foot. In this case heel overhang on the front and toe overhang on the rear." For my size 27 boots and preferred 19ish waist width I can set my rear foot with toe and heel right on the edge at around 55°. Then if I look for moderate 3-5° splay, it'll mean some underhang somewhere on the front boot because the toe is on a wider part of the board. How I distribute that underhang depends a lot on the board but generally I'll try to have equal amounts of underhang toe and heel. I've tried a version of "G Bias" by setting the heel right on the edge which means significant toe underhang on the front foot. It's nice for traversing but that's about it. Might be nice on very soft snow though, which I rarely get. I never think about where the center of the boot is with relation to the center of the binding - only about the ends of the boots and the edges of the board.

Feet are L/R 28.6/28.2. Deeluxe 27 shells with Intuition Dreamliner LV. Toenails intact and feet much warmer in the Deeluxe than in my very cold Nordica Speedmachine ski boots. A couple of things may be making this possible: First of all the Deeluxe can't really be a legit 27 - I don't have half a finger barefoot in the shell but I do have maybe 3mm. The boots have been blown out for width to 107/110 so there's no constriction whatsoever in that respect. I wear thin wool Injinji toe-socks instead of any ski-sock, so my toes aren't compressed at all by the sock - this seems to make a big difference although it doesn't help much with the ski boots and in fact I have to be a little careful not to injure my little toe when cramming myself into those. In both boots I am, for the first time in my life, completely comfortable all day. No cramping, no slop, rarely a need to unbuckle on the lift. I can feel the toe against the front but it isn't curled under at all.

There kind of is, but it depends on your setup. If you're angles are fairly low, and the middle of the board relatively soft, then as you come down on the new edge you can be deliberately squeezing your knees together. The idea is to take all the camber out early and even create some rocker before that edge is even really heavily weighted. Doesn't work, at least not for me, with angles much above 55, but is amenable to cross-over or cross-under. In an absolute emergency (avoiding a tree or civilian) you can commit to your back foot and PULL your front foot back and up as you commit hard to the new edge, which does the same thing but even more strongly. Not desirable as a standard technique of course because you're 100% back-footed.

The Ligety video is interesting. It may be difficult to ski like him - highest edge angle at midpoint of the turn, but if that's what you're aiming for it you can do it. My two sessions with (borrowed) CARV footbeds in my boots that's what I aimed for, and could extend the period of full-rail very late, as long as I was on relatively straight skis (old 23m Head FIS GS skis). If I tried to extend the period of deepest angle on carving skis, though (14m Head iTitan) they would either wimp out completely or blast me into the air at the transition. The main takeaway for me was that my old-school A-Frame style was inefficient and that aiming for more even edge angle inside to outside ski felt weird but was much more secure. On snowboards, most of us ride like that anyway, in fact get highest edge angle even later - well after the midpoint of the turn. What was most impressive to me is how consistent his technique is no matter the pitch.

Head on a swivel ALL the time. Ride early in the morning or late in the day. Ride steeper terrain - no one straightlines serious pitch. Never be going across the hill below a knoll or drop off - you're invisible. Ride REALLY aggressively rather than defensively - big deep carves at the highest speeds you're comfortable with - my experience (I'm kind of large) has been that people stay away for the most part. Riding in a nice, contained, predictable rhythm really should work but doesn't - there's always some fool trying to fit where there's no room. Random aggression and a sense of ownership works better in my experience

Don't have my boots here (stuck in Florida for the rest of the winter) but iirc I open the latch, click into my bindings and sit back all the way, then close the latch. I think that's the 5th position but can't be sure. It's definitely not past vertical but still has a little forward lean if my bindings were flat. With some toe lift and inward cant it's pretty close to straight up and down I guess. Gives me more positive engagement onto toeside and smoother but less dynamic transition to heelside which is ok since my heelside turn is somewhat stronger anyway.

I've also gone back to the 5-position buckle from the BTS on my 425 Pros. I lock the front boot as upright as possible and leave the back boot with the knob turned sideways so, limited backward movement and free forward. I may go back to BTS on the rear boot but I really like the locked upright front. Running 57/54 on a Proteus and a Madd.

At 68 I still ride pretty steep angles at 57/54 or thereabouts. I rode 60/60 20 years ago. I do favor shorter-radius sidecuts than I used to - my Proteus 180 is at 13m and I wouldn't care to go longer unless I were guaranteed the slope to myself!

Insightful - and entertaining too, because your love of the sport shines through. I haven't ridden soft boots since 1989 but this made me just a little curious to try again.

Boots are critical, and they differ greatly from soft-boots. For one thing, any good ski-boot tech can modify them IF you start with the right size, which means smaller than you'd think. If you're a normal size 10 the absolute biggest hard boot shell you can consider is probably a 26. The general brand attributes Aracan delineated aren't inaccurate but equally important is where the ankle hinges. A very wide foot like mine can love a boot which started with a narrow forefoot but nothing will make a too-large shell usable. In choosing a board, consider where you'll ride it most. If on smaller, narrow hills, and predominantly hard snow, you'll look for something slalom-oriented - short sidecut radius under about 13 (and as short as 9m like a soft boot board), and shorter length around 165 or less. IF you'll be on bigger hills, and on softer snow, you can go longer and especially wider. At your boot size you don't need to look at anything wider than 20cm unless you expect to be riding a lot of powder. The Classified section here is a great resource. You can always ask in Carving Central about a potential purchase, but such is the nature of the stoke around here that most sellers will give you a very unbiased view on their own offerings' suitability. I don't think you need to look for a particularly beginner-oriented rig, given your previous experience with softies.

I'm praying for them - it looks horrifying

Yes - I've ditched BTS and have my 425s locked at max upright front foot-max forward back foot for everything except very soft snow (when I use the setting with the knob turned sideways on the back). Feels much more positive than with BTS although in crud or on death-cookies it's more tiring. These days, though, I generally ski rather than ride in those conditions, if I go out at all.

So. Slick.

Mine is the reissue so my comments may be irrelevant, but I suspect it's a very weight-sensitive board. At 220lb I find it a very well-mannered if not sedate ride. I've ridden Doneks of the same vintage which had so much energy in the tail that they really would blast me out of the turn. The Madd is actually an easier cruising board than my Proteus 180 which even at my weight likes to be pounced on. I have the Madd set up at 20.25" stance width pretty close to the middle of the inserts. The board still has good camber.

Certain old-school approaches can really help with back knee issues, although by current standards they can look pretty weird. You might try adding inward canting on the back leg (and the front leg too if you like), lots of toe-lift on the front, AND significantly reduce the distance between bindings. This sort of gives some of the back-leg work to the front leg because it gives you the ability to lock your back knee right into the hollow of your front knee and creates a self-supporting triangle which you can maintain all the way through the turn on both sides. In the late '80s we all rode like this and made some very nice turns, too. I ride all my current boards at 20.25" between bindings, but once in a while I'll take out an old Hot Logical which is set up (drilled) at 18", and it still feels pretty comfy.

Loose pants at the waist or my back will blow up. Basically if I slip the suspenders off my shoulders and the pants don't fall down, they're too tight. Carving at my age and girth is really aerobic and if there isn't room to breath all the way down to my groin, even when my chest is right on my front knee, I'm screwed.

Are you wrapping the Boosterstrap around the outside of the shell? For the last couple of years I've been wrapping my (aftermarket 2-strap) Booster around the top of the liner, inside the shell. Takes a little fiddling to get it all organized but once it's there it stays all day. Seems like ti shouldn't do much but it stiffens the Intuition Dreamliners just a little and for some reason resolves all heel hold-down issues. When I wrap around the shell I often have to undo it every couple of runs to get circulation going. Same idea works great on my ski boots also.

Similar results, in hard mode. Typically I start with Stair, Stare or Story but sometimes just whatever word comes to mind that doesn't repeat letters. Elbow works well for some reason.

Phew! That was close! I was all set to send Ivan my money when I realized that the board I was looking at was the Eliminator (BX) not the Speedster slalom board. He has the 22/23 Speedster in stock, also at a very good price (700 euro) but with my season over that's probably not the best use of available cash right now. Ivan was very understanding of course - my own idiocy - there is a WC Titanal 163 in both styles.

Sorely tempted - $540 right now including shipping - but I ride so rarely these days - basically Dec 15-Jan 6 because my job has me in Florida the rest of the winter. My little board is a MADD 158 reissue - is the 163 WC a huge upgrade, would you say? My big board is a Proteus 180/BBP and that setup isn't going anywhere, but I've recently switched my skis from older Head race stock to newer Supershapes, and there have definitely been some improvements baked into the new sticks, so I wonder if the same applies to boards...

For those of you in the neighborhood, the new management at Bousquet in Pittsfield has done a major update of both the base area and the snowmaking and grooming setups, and it's making a big difference. It's still a very small hill of course, but offers terrific terrain for running laps and working on technique. They weathered last week's rain/thaw/refreeze without a stumble and the few open slopes were chalky again within a day. By contrast, for instance, Butternut today was crowded, pricey, and basically dust on crust. The base area is now really airy on two levels, including a shop with a Montana machine and a couple of options for food and drink. Walkways and outdoor dining areas are heated and pleasant, where they used to be dangerously cramped and often icy. It's a nice, priceworthy option for northern Ct, Albany area, and western MA, if Vermont is too far or expensive and you don't like the drive through banjo country to get to the BEast.

I haven't had that issue with my 425s but I did years ago on a very tired pair of Race Plug ski boots. I slipped a neck-gaiter over my calf before putting on the boot, then did the boot up and slid the gaiter down over the offending buckle. This was the ankle buckle not the one over the instep but on snowboard bindings it would work there too. Didn't pick up much snow and kept the buckle from unlatching.

Used to be more of an issue for me but last year I took the springs off my front boot and reinstalled the stock Raichle forward lean adjuster, which I have locked in the most upright position. It's much easier to find a relaxed posture when skating, traversing or just standing around, and has no real effect on either side when carving.

I think my Madd 158 reissue is supposedly around 8.5m scr I think and very good fun. It's stout enough that at anything like a normal speed I don't find it to be trying to send me into the woods. It'll growl at me if I try to stretch a turn too far. My Proteus 180 is 13m and needs a lot more commitment to make a sharp turn, but will hang in on really long turns somewhat better, and blows through variable snow way better also. My favorite board ever was a custom Coiler Racecarve - 180cm, 12.5m radius which, although it was quite stiff, for some reason would turn inside almost anything on softer snow, but was nowhere near as good on ice as either of the other boards.

My 425 are very similar and my guy punched them to 106/108mm to accommodate my 4E foot. He took it slow so as not to get them sloppy but never got panicky about breakage. My feet are 11.5/4E and the 425 are size 27. I use them with Intuition Dreamliners and it's a great setup.