Jonny

With rare exceptions (older Salomons for instance) they'll work just fine with ski boots. You'll usually need to ride somewhat steeper angles than you would with snowboard boots, and you need to be careful not to set them up TOO tight because you'll squeeze the soles out of true. The setscrew on the front bail will beat up the top of the toe of the boot somewhat also.

I have two pair - each with maybe 50 days on them. Wear to the finish of the receiver is immediate, but functionally they're 100%. Geting the correct distance bail to receiver is a little fussy, because you don't want the boot getting compressed but you do want a secure solid lock. Once you've got that it's easy, though, to move things around.

Isn't that funny? I think of it as endless toesides (or more accurately, a toeside turn feels to me like a ski carving). Probably means I'm too front-footed on a board. With respect to the OP's question, I think the fitter's skill, knowledge and familiarity with the product is more important than the brand, as you're getting started. The key is to get shells which are SMALL enough, or progress will really stall at about the level you see most skiers stay at their whole lives. You really should be able to ski pretty well with the boots unbuckled completely. A boot which really holds you whole foot down can make intrusive heel-hold-down add-ons unnecessary. Next most important for me is always to have a cuff structure which really tracks with my leg. My skiing has a lot of range in ankle flex, and if the cuff doesn't come along you get poor response and also shin-bang. In the same area, too stiff a boot will slow your progress down, but too soft a boot can put a real ceiling on it. If you know you're going to be skiing a lot of bumps, go softer. Lateral flex should be essentially nil no matter what. Next most important is the angle of the sole, for me. Too much heel-lift and I'm never in a happy position. Sole canting which angles your whole boot-binding assembly in or out CAN be important, and addresses a different issue than shaft-angle adjusting. The more you ski on ice the more important canting becomes. You'd wait to deal with that until your skiing advanced quite a bit, assuming you're not really bow-legged or knock-kneed. It's rare that you'll find a fitter in a big city as good as those you'll find near the hill. Steph's setup at Stratton (Equipe Sport) looked really good when I stopped in last week, and my experiences at The Starting Gate in the valley and at Great Outdoors near Mt Snow have been successful also

Has to be close. Switched from frozen rain to just rain in southern Berkshire County last night and I'm expecting Bousquet and Butternut to have lost half their terrain by tomorrow (I hope they have the sense not to open today.) Conditions were pretty good last weekend but rain on Monday and today will really have set us back. I'd love to hear reports from Berkshire East, Jiminy, etc, as you guys have a chance to look around, and of course from Stratton, Mt Snow, etc. We may have to be heading WAY north before we're out of the wet zone, by the looks of my weather map.

1986 Cruzer, fin and bindings removed, set up as a backyard Snurfer. Pretty sure I still have an all-wood Backhill around somewhere too, but it hasn't been on snow in a while.

Just another EC video...

It's not so much what's the advantage, it's avoiding a big DISadvantage which is that with the high stance angles you're forced to use by the narrow waist, your back knee and ankle are forced to carry a lot of bend all the time just to keep you over the middle of the board, with resultant fatigue and loss of power. Take the extreme opposite case of 0°-0° or even 10-10 duckfoot, at as wide a stance as you like - you could ride, if you wanted to, with both legs virtually straight and your weight balanced, and you could drop your butt all the way to the snow without losing that centeredness. At 90-90 as on a Skwal, with your body in riding position the back leg is always way more bent than the front. The closer your feet are, the less difference there is, so the less excessive back-leg fatigue becomes. It's less stable for sure, and you have much less leverage for skidded turns, so it's always going to be a compromise to some extent, and you'll need to be comfortable with a lot of waist angulation. However, with a narrower stance you are able to drop much lower without running into the limits of the back boot and back ankle. You're also centered over the sweet spot of the board, and as you compress into the turn you stay centered. As a demonstration, put yourself in a 70-70ish stance at 20" or so just in bare feet, and drop down to where your elbows are below your knees. Impossible without either an absurd amount of bend in you back ankle or letting your weight get way back. If you narrow your stance a bit you can get much lower without strain or excessive shift backwards. I love to ride a 17 (15 is too much for me) but because I so rarely get on truly open slopes on truly good snow, at my age I compromise with 18-19, for better manueverability in tighter conditions, and more chance to rescue myself if I hit the slick stuff.

On really narrow boards I actually like toe-in (negative splay if you like) with the back foot at a higher angle than front. I also reduce stance width by at least an inch and usually even more. I kinda like the outward cant idea if your body geometry allows it, although I've never tried it (mine doesn't really - blown pelvis, blown knee - getting my knees locked in is about the only safe way for me to ride, oldfashioned though it is). The point being I guess, that heelside is always going to be magic on these setups, and finding a way to get early leverage toeside is the tricky bit.

Would you be interested in an Oxygen 160 LE Carbon/Kevlar SL as a partial trade for your WCRM? I'd add cash of course. I have two identical apart from LE numbering and one's been just hanging around since I bought it a few years back - used but not abused at all. Has a Alu X-wing layer, cool carbon/kevlar weave, good base and camber. At my 215lb weight the sister board (I haven't ever ridden this one) is very smooth but not a lot of pop out of the turn, holds extremely well and carves inside anything else on the hill - anything. Can be stretched out for longer turns as long as you're not at Mach 3. Let me know if it has appeal and I'll email some pix. Here are some not very clear ones in another thread - scroll down about 2/3 of the page: http://www.bomberonline.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=35056&highlight=oxygen

Saturday for me, then recuperate, then ECES monday, then the boards get hung up for the year:mad:

The van sounds awful (sway bar bushings are toast) and I don't want to drive for an hour each way through banjo country before having it seen to, so I'll be at Bousquet today. Hoping to get to the BEast wednesday though...

I'm leaning toward the Beast, just because it'll likely be less crowded and is certain to have better snow. Butternut's a lot closer for me, and Bousquet closer yet, so I'm kinda waffling.

I assume it was awesome today? Who's riding tomorrow and/or Monday? Should be able to come up one of the two I think...

Seems to me the idea was to get the sidecut more centered between the toes on one side and the heels on the other, given about a 45° stance. In practice certainly, my experience was that I really needed to move fore and aft to get my weight over the center of the sidecut on each side - basically just behind the midpoint between my toes on the one hand, and slightly ahead of midpoint heelside. Riding regular, firing hard left from above the fall line as on a modern board would really catch the nose hard. The move which worked best for me was a slight backward slide at the edge change, which would put me right over the sidecut and create massive acceleration. On a modern board you'd be hoplesssly back-seated by the same move. Even more fun was a forward dive into a right turn, and I'm afraid that even 15 years after I last rode an Asym (A PJ6.3) I still do that more than I should.

Those boards can be really really fun. You'll have more fore and aft body movement than is fashionable now, but if the snow's firm that's OK too. Hindsight isn't all that reliable, but as I look back to 20 years ago, my recollection is that I've never ridden better than I did on an original Hot Logical - incredibly lively pop off the tail heelside and some really deep initiations toeside. If it's an older board just be aware that it may have broken down quite a bit.

Very fun, and very weird and wild conditions. Amazing watching you all ride, and Ben I think you're right for sure about the new setup - change one thing at a time and I bet it'll all come together. Wacky ride home. The road in Pownal hadn't been salted at all, and there was a car just marooned on the middle of that big hill - couldn't get traction, and the police with shovelsful of sand couldn't even get close enough to help without sliding too. Glad to be home safe....

I'll be heading up for the day tomorrow - should get to the hill between 9 and 930. What lift might you all be on?

Anyone planning to ride Friday or on the weekend? How's the snow? Haven't been there on a weekend recently - not too crowded?

Noooo! No bumps to the top! How am I supposed to get any sleep with this thing sitting out there???

Not good, Bobby! B-East this week in the cards? We gotta get you on the snow. Rode today at Butternut on true Ice-Coast crispies - never fell but feel like someone hit my left buttock with a baseball bat just from getting sooo low all day.... First day with BTS installed on my 325s. Felt great about heelside but toeside seemed slower to initiate - wonder why that was? Liftie asked "Is that a lot like a snowboard?" Made lot of turns on my 160 so wasn't riding too fast - some guy on skis followed me down for half a dozen runs and then rode the lift up with me. Interesting chat. Dude joined the Navy in 1939 so I figure he was 90...:lol:

Jyepstein(at)gmail(dot)com but BlueB jumped on the board - on it's way to WA at the moment...

I think there's a 7 listed up above - looks like the gold '94...

I'll be at Mt Snow on Friday - not too crowded this year with college kids, from what I hear - the conditions are scaring everyone away, but the word is that what's open is good - Mineshaft to Gulch/inferno was very good even after the rain last week, and Canyon is solid too. Stratton's probably the better call, but I need to be in Dover. Stratton next week for sure!

I have a green 6.3 (1992 maybe? 1993?) with good working bindings. Base is white with a big pink sprocket...

A little like what we used to call an "outrigger" which was an inside ski turn with the hips below the knees. The outrigger, though, was still a hip-angulated turn - the body stayed relatively upright as the uphil knee and hip drove toward the inside, with the outside leg straight and virtually unweighted. This guy is taking all the power out of the turn by lying down like that. The holy grail was to blast from, say, a left-turn outrigger straight up into a clockwise helicopter, landing in a right outrigger. Oddly enough it was easier to do backwards, like a figure skater. Horrible load on ACL no matter what, of course....