Jonny

Garrick Dardani at Steiner Sports in Valatie, NY (just off the thruway near Albany) is skilled, meticulous and daring. He took my size 27 Deeluxe 425s and blew them out to fit my 11.5 EEEE feet. I think the right boot is around 110mm at this point, which further than a lot of guys would dare go. He also does my ski boots. In both cases I'm happier than I've ever been in my sixty years on snow. I buckle the boots loosely, take a run and then latch in all the way, and only unbuckle at the end of the day. Never done that before in my life. Of course I'd go to Beckmann if he weren't eight hours away.

Sounds awful - sorry if I steered you wrong... I often go over to the old Carinthia side which is less crowded and has two excellent carving runs and good trees too. The upper Sundance lift is slow and is often not running, but if you don't mind the long ride up it serves really marvelous rolling terrain - both Ridge Run and Sundance itself. I wouldn't dream of riding hardboots there on a weekend holiday - I'd just sprain my neck looking over my shoulder. If I am on that hill on a crowded day I'm on slalom skis only.

Generally ride a BBP V2 plate, but I have the plate mounted backwards, with the slider in the rear, which gives a slightly more direct feel somewhere in between plate and flat board.

Nice vids! You're definitely bending the board more on toeside - those turns are great. Heelside it looks to me like in the first two videos you're banking your whole body which at low speeds like these doesn't put much pressure on the edge, so on steeper terrain or especially on ice you're going to slide out for sure... In the third video your upper body remains almost vertical on the first turn while you angulate from your hips and the turns are much more solid. the last turn is a slarve, though - you can see where you lose edge pressure and the track goes from pencil-thin to wide. You could try the skiing drill where you hold a pole out horizontally in front of you, perpendicular to your body, and keep it horizontal as you go through the turn. Alternatively try reaching for your outside edge with your outside hand.

Could be - my outside hand is generally right down by the heel of my front boot unless I'm fooling around with Euro-style.

At least, I think it's setup. I get so few days on snow now that this may just be rust, and it may have to do with riding basically ice so far, but this year I'm finding that in order to finish the turn strong and make a really semicircular track, I need to be way on my back foot 3/4 of the way through the turn - this applies both front and heelside. I'm almost pulling UP with my front foot to keep the edge engaged and flexed and grinding. I commit to the edge really early (across the hill or even headed uphill slightly) and get a lovely smooth, tight line all the way past the fall line, but then it really wants to straighten out unless I bully it. Makes it hard to control speed on steep pitches. I'm on a Proteus 180 which normally makes a really circular arc, so I'm blaming some of the many setup changes I made this year (I know, I know...). I'm on the Lite BBP and I have it set up with the slide in the back because it just felt too wobbly last year the other way around. 57/57 with toe lift on the front, flat on the back, slight inward cant on both. It feels perfect riding flat, and actually better at really high speed than any board I've ever been on, so don't suggest outward canting. 425 Deeluxe (GREAT boot!) are also new but they're pretty similar to my old AF600 so I don't think it's them. Anything else though? Move the mounts back somewhat? Switch that plate around again? May all be silly since my job takes me back down to Florida in a few days, but your thoughts will give me something to daydream about on the drive...

I love mine - OS2 step ins and my third or fourth set, each better than the last - but they are 100% better now that I've finally replaced the aluminum receivers with Bomber steel, and replaced the stock Intecs on my boots with Fintecs. Connection is immediate and incredibly solid, and there's no sense that the boot needs to be compressed longitudinally in order for the mount to be secure, it's just a solid, no wiggle latch which clicks in audibly. I modified the Bomber receivers using a drillpress to start the new hole in the steel and a Dremel for chamfering the aluminum top piece, and it took some time, but was really worthwhile.

At 65, I aim for small victories and savor them. Today was icy as hell, and I can no longer get through a full run in those conditions without sketching, but I can make a good turn, or maybe link up three good turns, or maybe find some aggression on the steep pitch on my third run I couldn't find on my first, or maybe find enough strength to take an extra couple of runs after my quads start barking. So, I concentrate on those victories and don't worry too much about the fact that my quads are barking after two hours when they used to be good for the whole day. And the hoots from the lift or the thumbs up from the groms all feel even better than they did back when I deserved them more.

For me the key is to tip it early and get the whole edge engaged long before I get anywhere near the fall line. If the back of the board is passing over the same groove that the front of the board just incised, I can vary turn shape continuously with pressure and tilt angle. However, if there's any pivot at all going into the turn it's really strenuous to get the whole edge to hook up again. The racers can all do that jam and slam thing but five turns like that on my old knees and I need a bowl of Wheaties and a nap. I don't think about it mechanically, though - any least not on a good day. I do best when I'm trying to make that SOUND right at the top of the turn, and keep it sounding like that as long as I can. On my board (Proteus 180/BBP Lite/60-60) that means my weight is moving back progressively through the turn just a bit - if I stay forward I'll wash out the tail. Lately I'm actually more secure heelside on really firm snow, but today - pretty icy - I just locked up my front boot and that helped me start the aggression early on toeside too.

Check on Vermont COVID travel restrictions which right now require a quarantine. Okemo and Stowe are terrific of course, but Mt Snow is great carving hill on weekdays (only!) unless the limited use during the pandemic makes the weekends ok too. Tons of wide, rolling cruisers all over the hill, including one which is a hundred yards wide. Sunapee has improved their conditioning recently and is now on a par with other mountains.

The Underarmor mask works well and in fact is my favorite for other purposes also. It forms a good seal around the bridge of the nose and causes no fogging with either the Smith I/O or the OutdoorMaster goggles. It's available in a range of sizes - I wear XL/XXL for my size 7 7/8 head.

welcome!

Anyone ridden there yet this year? Going to give it a try on New Year's Day - probably just doing laps on Main Street and Cruiser if the snow's ok there. New boots and a new plate setup are begging to get tried out. I'll ski if it's too sketchy and bail if they're not doing right by social distancing...

Dude! Get that thing out today - it's gonna be really cold this weekend!

Great boot - I really like mine - and that's an excellent price! For those of you on the fence because of the relatively narrow toebox when compared with UPZ - my boot guy blew mine out to 110mm for my EEEE foot. If the length works for you a good fitter can get the width right.

New old stock set of 425 Deeluxe shells because my AF600 were basically coming apart after far too many years of service. 425 seems to be a great design but significantly narrower throughout than the same size in AF600 or Raichle 325, so I'm going in tomorrow to see if I can get some room blown or ground into them. Anyone done much modifying of those shells? The front buckle sits right where I need more room so that may be an issue, and there's a lot of overlap right where talus/fibias is, too. I've put Fintecs in and Intuition Dreamliners and will install my BTS as soon as I'm sure the shells are going to work. They're 27 shells for my 11.5 EEEE feet so it's a race fit, which I prefer, much like my ski boots, but they're going to need to get wider by at least 3mm (left) and maybe 5-6mm (right). Post-fitting edit: Wow! The dude was able to blow out and grind the right boot from 98 to 110 and it feels amazing. Left boot went to around 106 and likewise. Also did some magic around the ankle bone. Carpet-surfing there is no discomfort, no heel rise, no wobble at all. Garrick at Steiner Sports in Valatie, NY, if you ever need that kind of work done. Now all we need is snow...

Missed out, but I'm sure it's going to a good home. Have fun, whoever got it!

Another thought - If it's not the riding position which is driving you nuts but the inability to rest during a run because of too much forward lean, then there are worse things than riding with ski poles. After knee surgery some years ago I was really unhappy about getting up from sitting, with my bindings at 60/60. Just a really awkward move. So instead I rode with poles, holding them by the middle in my back (toeside) hand. Then I'd take a break by planting the poles and resting while standing.

You can do it (I do in really soft snow) and you get frontside pressure through the soles of your feet using some of the residual stiffness of the hinge and some muscularity in the lower leg. People say you can break the boots but I weigh 215 and haven't broken mine that way.

Good call and if I happen to win it I certainly will make a contribution to the site - I wouldn't have known about it otherwise as I don't visit the 'bay much.

Good lord, what's the holdup? If I didn't already have one I'd be all over it. Proteus 180 is versatile, smooth, with pop, loves to finish the turn, great beer-racing board, likes high angles and tolerates low ones, stable at speed... Somebody jump on that thing!

Good lord yes - see my avatar. I think that was at Okemo. My most rewarding day at my local hill (Bousquet in Pittsfield, MA on fresh groom over decent base for once) was when I came to the bottom and the lift had shut down. I asked the liftie what was wrong and he said: "Nothing - I just didn't want the people on the chairs to miss you." An hour later the whole slope was shut down and I asked the patrolman what had happened and he told me the trenches were getting so many complaints they had to re-groom. Most satisfying.

I'm having trouble picturing how this is happening - is your back foot forward lean adjuster set very loose perhaps? I will say that with the BBP 4mm Lite I found myself MUCH more comfortable when I turned it around and rode with the fixed axle in front and the back foot floating. I'm on a Proteus 180 which likes a fairly centered stance, but in this configuration I feel like my long-ingrained technique of pouncing on the front foot to initiate and then progressively weighting the tail to really finish the turn across or even up the hill works more naturally than when the front foot is floating.

I agree with the comments above and would add that you're actually initiating both sides with a skid, which makes it harder to hook up hard later. Try riding under a lift on a gentle slope and see if you can commit to the new edge really early - somewhere right around 90° to the fall line (or even earlier if you're turning up into the hill for speed control). You'll think you're going to fall to the inside of the turn but you won't. If you're doing it your tracks will show a hard line on the old inside edge and then a hard line right away on the new edge, separated by only a board length of neutral.

Excellent - Paypal sent. I included a street address in case you use UPS or Fedex, as well as my PO box for USPS. Ship via ground or whatever's least expensive. Priority will cost a fortune and I have no chance of getting north to ride them for a couple of weeks at least. Thanks! Jonny