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You’re probably right. I think it highlights of value of having a quality one-man ship like Coiler nearby. Bruce is a legend and provides tremendous value. We’re going to miss him if he ever takes his own grumbling seriously….

Super expensive. $1400 including tax. Or I could get a Coiler and a season pass…..

Are the wings removable?

“You want old guys? We got old guys”

Had no idea Yonex also makes snowboards! Peeking at their alpine model — the 172 has a dual 16m/17m sidecut, ballsy AF!

Damn that 157W looks sweet, 10m too…

Hey Gerry. Fellow GTA resident here. Perhaps we can have a quick chat. Do you know if this requires a special hole pattern or if it uses standard? Cheers.

Hahaha the right answer in both cases is “two”. One to rip and one to party!!!

Geez what a bunch of hoarders……..

Yup, nothing particularly unique about snowboard hard boots — if the bootfitter is good they’ll do a great job. And stay away if they’re not. I agree that bootfitting might be the most important thing about alpine boarding. I’ve ridden all types of boards and bindings, but ill-fitting boots that start really making your day painful after a couple hours is truly the worst. Last year was the first time I didn’t have to switch over to soft boots after 1pm, and it was glorious.

Yesh, the manufacturer recommends to change the bails after 50 days of “regular use”……. They probably have to state that outright on their advertising or else potentially be liable under consumer goods laws around durability. Honestly, wtf kind of product is likely to break within a season? And I find it amazing that the solution has never been to make larger bails that could be more robust, because apparently that would be a bridge too far…. I see zero reason to ever buy their bindings over an F2 Carve RS, if even more binding flex is what you’re after.

Agreed that after a few years and/or getting up past 100 days, I’d be checking any new binding carefully on a regular basis, even more so if you’re a beefy guy or ride heavy. Nothing lasts forever, especially when you’re levering it a few thousand times a winter. I will point out that a some of those bindings first listed are 20-to-30 years old (I remember lusting after the “new” TD2s after they came out, what, 20+ years ago?). And some of those bindings had thinner bails in the first place. The IBEX/Carve Company Bindings had notoriously terrible bails and I still can’t believe they made a product were they used to tell you to replace them 1-2 times per season. Personally I wouldn’t touch any Burton Race / IBEX / Carve Company products with a proverbial 10-foot pole regardless of use history. And I’d even be pretty careful with the otherwise bombproof but getting-super-old Bomber and Catek bails, too. check ‘em twice and ride hard!!

What bindings?

I agree on Nakiska! But I’m sure the math must be fairly easy to work out, so it has to all come down to money.

Obviously the real question you haven’t answered is budget. What’s the absolute most you’re willing to spend to buy board, bindings and boots? That’s the real question here (keeping in mind that alpine equipment is significantly more expensive than regular snowboard gear).

Enjoy! I got a 163/28.3/10m last winter and other than occasionally second-guessing my request for Bruce to make it stiffer than he wanted to, I had a blast on it this winter! Zero boot out on softies with BX-type angles is pretty amazing.

Stunning

What did you order?

I honestly don’t know why those guys don’t just get hard boots. They’re running super high angles anyway; it’s not like they’re hitting jumps or riding all-mountain with 30+ degree angles. This approach kind of confuses me but hey

I looked at the Pentaquark last year and leaving their questionable “designed only for the real men” macho marketing aside, I think it had like a 260 waist with an 8.5 sidecut. Those numbers may not be ideal for all riders; and it’s designed for all types of riding, not carving-specific. The big benefit of custom is to be able to tweak those numbers to fit your preference.

Hopefully this is a good thing for everyone. I’d be curious about any long term erosion issues but many hills have been doing both for decades so that’s likely not a huge problem. I went biking at Windham this summer and have never been there in the winter. So that’s pretty cool.

What happened to that Casper guy?

Eh, you stick a good carver on a mainstream board and they’ll rip it well enough. Small builders simply allow the pleasure of tweaking to exactly what you’re interested in. “I wish this was a bit softer but felt more lively with a bigger sidecut.” Boom done.

Hahaha, I have to ask…..is this wise?

Yup, I played around with this as well a while back to try and get the higher CV heelcup. I didn’t like as much forward lean on my front leg and I ended up with CV front, XV rear. It worked but I’d be a bit curious about longer-term highback torque stress from the alternate positioning.