philw

Here's mine, ha ha. The back one is the Phantom lever maximum 26° and the front the minimum 6°. The standard Backland levers have less range: they do have two settings, but they're not far enough apart. The front standard is fine, but the back isn't leant forward enough. For me, with those boots, standard F2 race bindings, with 1° front and 3° rear lifts. I thought about getting the additional rear lean with a greater "stack height" under the back heel, but the Phantom levers solve that problem and you get some springs too. I'm not sure the springs matter much; one day I shall have to try different springs. Has anyone got anything helpful to say about strong versus weak springs in these systems? I reckon I overpower the springs whatever they are, because I'm a thug, but I may be wrong...

A lot of EU people ride very narrow, typically Virus, snowboards. It's a specific style of riding which those boards work well - hard linked carves, low to the snow, often with air involved in the transitions. The boards look very reactive and the people using them tend to be absolutely on it. That said, they don't bring those out when there's 20cm of fresh on the piste, and I've never seen anyone ride powder on something that narrow. I suspect they're perfect for that specific type of turn. I'd guess you're optimising one specific parameter with any board which is quite so extreme.

I'm riding 40/35, so more "across" than most. My rationale for lean is... If my front boot isn't relatively upright, I find it hard to pressure the front edge of the board. I typically have the front boot in the most upright setting I can get. I've found no boots in which I can over-do that. My rear boot I want fully leant-forward. If the lean isn't enough (eg Atomic Backlands with the stock levers, max lean setting), then the back of the board feels a bit odd. It's hard to explain, but I have to put some extra back-leg effort into keeping the board on the snow, something like that. I've some Iceland video of me riding garbage snow with stock levers and my board "stutters" a lot over the snow, which isn't normal. I use the Phantom levers to get the lean I want, which is the maximum they allow, and it's about twice as much as you can get from the stock levers. Any boot ramp or toe/heel lift will likely affect that. I'm riding with 1° front toe lift and 3° rear heel lift on the Backlands. With other boots I've ridden Flat; it all depends. Whatever, I'd say that's pretty much the same physics as the higher angles discussed above. Steeper angles make boards feel different, but I don't think they affect the basic "fighting stance" thing, if that makes sense. Here you go... this is probably a bit of a "hockey stop" type turn as I'm probably doing that "one big turn" thing for the photographer, but you can see the stance in use and the back leg lean at least. I double checked the angles - the above numbers are correct. bear in mind this is a very wide shot. I think I'm breaking hard on the rear foot to chuck up spray and rotating the upper body (and front leg to some extent) to crank left on the rebound.

I rode Big White just before xmas with some fairly well known washed up Canadian snowboarders. The resort was empty and we were riding with the patrol down wide and easy rolling slopes usually unsafe at mach schnell. I don't think you'll see speeds like those at a resort very often. I had to check, but the biggest of us was riding an 8.75m radius. My own tiny board is 6.6m. I found previous generation short [soft boot] boards "noodly" at high speed. They'd be unsatisfying because the "turn" switch was binary: at high speed you'd be either doing some sort of high speed hockey-stop type turn, or running straight. Whatever, with my 6.6m radius 144, the edge just bites and holds, even at speed. The board's actual turn radius is what I want it to be, from right across the piste to very short radius. I can't speak for the Yes marketing department. "EC" riding looks pretty slow though, from what I've seen. My experience then has been: (1) good riders can make short radius boards work very well at high speeds; and (2) some soft boot boards are much better at this than others.

I'd certainly try them, but I haven't had the chance yet. My own Hometown Hero board's a 6.6 radius, but I'm light at 62Kgs and the board's small at 1.44m. But it rips at faster than resort safe speeds surprisingly well, and surprisingly better than previous generation small boards. it's obviously not a race board, but for resort speeds and everything from short to long radius turns, it's an absolute blast and way more fun than those locked-in "carving" boards of olden days. Entry level? My own board is not holding me back and is a great replacement for my Kessler SL. I'd not underestimate the utility of this type of board just because they seem short. I've not ridden any of these above yet, so I don't know about them. I like it better now carving is a thing again. I can buy decent boards which rip from ordinary snowboard shops once more.

Here's a snow video from xmas 2022 / new year 2023 shot on the Insta 360 x3. That's a Hometown Hero 148, slightly bigger than my own 144 model. It was the smallest they had, but I didn't want to use my own board as the snow depth was less than normal (1.5m instead of 3.0m). In the end I didn't damage the board, although there were some rocks on the high ridge lines (riding tip: ride the ridge lines flat, when it's like that, don't hit them cranked over at 45°). Boots are Atomic Backland Carbons with gold Phantom Springs. Bindings are standard F2 with 1° toe lift and 3° heel. The front boot is maximally upright, the rear maximal forward lean. Stance is about 1cm narrower than reference, centred on reference. The pole was about 20cm longer than the standard Insta, so about 1:40m. I'm not sure if that's necessary and the Insta pole is better engineered & folds smaller, so I'll try that next. Snow conditions... were less than the best, as you can see if you know your powder. We had everything from a bit of jersey cream though... crust. Heard in the heli line: "usually we have to wait for the snowboarder, not the other way around" - skiers ---- The resolution of the Insta 360 x3 is 5.7k, the same as my 4 year old Rylo. However the Insta output is a significant improvement. My Vimeo account has a couple of Rylo videos which clearly show the quality difference I'm getting from the combination of the x3 plus Topaz. Cropping into the Insta spherical video, the largest you can get is a quite clean 1080p... not bad, but not great if you're using 4k displays. There's a fix for that... Tools Insta 360 x3, Insta 360 Studio 2023 Topaz AI (paid-for version) Davinci Resolve Handbrake Workflow Use Insta Studio to track the main ego, or use waypoints. Reframe it, tweak field of view. Export from Insta Studio to ProRes222 (uncompressed) 1920x1080 (1080p) at max data rate (around 140Mbps with snowy stuff). Import into Topaz AI and up scale to 4k. Take Proteus default settings. The 4K files aren't massively different in size from the 1080p sources. Stuff clips into DaVinci resolve and edit. Export finished video as DNxHD 444 12-bit Use Handbrake to convert DNxHD -> H.265, a conversion which uses the GPU and is real-time. ----- Notes Tracking is smooth, easy, and entirely reliable, but it's not "creative". It'll track you, but it'll put you centre frame and has zero imagination. The "extract all the interesting bits from this clip" feature doesn't understand enough about snow to be useful here. Tracking is real time on a decent desktop with just snow, slower with a lot of trees or other detail. On a very powerful laptop with a GPU the frame rate is about 1/15th real time, so this is really a desktop job. The phone app will do the same thing, but my phone isn't as powerful as either laptop or desktop. That's probably for more people extracting portrait videos of their Insta lips. Tracking's "person detection" doesn't always cover snowboards, if they're visible above the powder. You can manually select the whole thing (person plus the board nose) or tweak the field of view a bit after tracking, or use a longer pole than Insta's. Insta Studio's "project" feature means "create another cut from this same video". Videos come in pairs (one per lens). The last number in the name is the sequence number, eg 065. If you want to re-edit a clip ending in that, just "open" one or the other of the files for that in InstaStudio. Topaz is the paid-for component in this work flow. It's not a real-time "wait for it" activity, consuming 100% of my 24 cores and RTX3080Ti/ Studio driver, if you let it. The Insta's frame rate is 29.97 not 30, so ensure DaVinci Resolve timeline is correct on that, plus also the 4k dimensions (typical defaults are different) If you export as H.265 (compressed) from the free version of Davinci Resolve, rendering's inordinately slow as it uses only the CPU not the GPU - it's been nerfed. The work-around is to export uncompressed DNxHD 444 12-bit. Then use Handbrake to quickly do the compression to H.265 [i]via the GPU[/i]. The Insta needs more positive exposure compensation when used on a dull day, same as ordinary cameras. I used +1 throughout and tweaked the dull days in post. Defects Insta 360 Studio forgets the video sort order, and comes up with some weird order [i]which isn't shot date/time [/i]if you restart it. Insta's post production "timeshift" is useless: the preview isn't good, it's simpler to do this in other workflow tools. VLC renders colours slightly video differently from the Insta app, one of them isn't using the OS colour profile correctly.

Hmm. Well obviously you can play around to find what works, if you can't tell from riding it. I couldn't work it out from the thread. At risk of stating the obvious, it's the combination of boots and bindings which matters for me, so I'd check the boots haven't been adjusted or lost adjustment too. Personally I'd be wary of anything beyond the out-of-the-box standard range of F2s - which is 1 degree to 3 degrees... 6 sounds like a lot to me. I've not ridden the Moss, but it's the sort of board I tend to ride. I don't ride those with anything different from ordinary boards, and "tail less" Fish type designs don't affect my angles. So I think "how far back the reference is"... should not be a factor at all.

As bad coders will tell you all the time. Definitely unnecessary comments are a bad thing.

Yeah but... I was just going to say that I'd rather they built something to generate test cases... when I spotted that you have to provide the test cases so it can filter out the bad solutions. That's logically the same as throwing a [natural language] specification at multiple offshore teams and screening what they come back with using your test cases. For sure ML could generate far more candidates... but it begs the question of who writes the test case. To some extent it moves the problem from the code to the "test specification", even if it works. Never had to sack anyone for that, but I would, on the spot. Perhaps a coding standard and everyday software engineering professionalism is probably cheaper than writing garbage, and then using ML to explain it? I mean: that's a problem which doesn't exist for competent engineers and managers. A significant advance nonetheless. I'd like some ML to run government, too.

What he said. The "out of the box" wedges are designed to work precisely that way (alternated), although they're not installed like that by default. You can easily set up at least 1° toe lift and I think 3° heel lift (zero cant) with the standard wedges, but you do have to put them together.

With my Atomic Backlands I'm using the Phantom springs, which those Colorado split-boarding guys produce. I've been running them for a few seasons now and they work fine. I don't really need the suspension - I rode the boots with the standard levers in deep powder - but I do need the increased forward lean I can get from the Phantoms, specifically for my back leg. I ride the exact same set up in back country powder and on piste, although it's taken me some time to tune things so that works. When I rode hardboot snowboard boots I used the stock suspension and it was fine for me, so I'm not sure that one needs additional stuff. Haven't seen the sun for a couple of days, but this is the last time it was out...

I think I'm on 30/40 which works really well - screen grabs from today below. Atomic Backland Carbons/ Phantom springs/ F2/ 148 Hometown Hero. Heard in the helicopter line: "hey, us skiers are used to waiting for the snowboarder, not the other way around". I'm happy with that. A softbooter who initially raised eyebrows at my set up confessed that he'd no idea hard boots could work like this in powder once he saw how it's done.

I'd previously discounted the SG bindings as they were not step in... but now I'm on Backlands anyway, that's no longer an issue. They're about twice the price of the F2, mind. However, toys are toys.... I can't find their weight though: anyone know how their weight compares to the F2 equivalent?

Those look much prettier. Albeit at a price. I guess with that type of stuff the material is pretty critical too... beautifully machined aluminium bindings ended up being too stiff when compared with the F2s, I believe. There's also a bunch of far-eastern companies who ae making stuff. I guess I'm just interested in keeping an eye on this stuff as I think the F2 hasn't changed in about three decades, and I'm sure change is due..

Mine fit fine. I've two pairs of standard F2 Race Ti bindings (the non-Intec ones), one from last season and one from a couple of years earlier, and they fit fine. You have to set the boot length right, but they don't waggle around and don't pop out. For me at least, that's not a problem. I'm just always looking for better toys, so if some split board company was to make something [for split boarding] which worked better than the F2s I'd have them in a second. It hasn't happened, yet...

I used to use silicone spray, which also works for the seals on triple glazed windows, hence I have it anyway. I don't much bother any more... my F2 bindings & Atomic boots don't ice up where I'm riding. I do carry a standard hotel credit-card entry pass which has one specific snow removal function. If you sit on your upturned board at lunchtime to eat... it warms the board up. If you then stick that board in a heli basket and fly it to the top of a mountain, it will have snow stuck to the base when you take it out of the basket. Thinking about it, maybe I should take a box of the plastic cards as I could easily sell them at that precise point

Hometown Hero 144, 6.6m. A bigger board would make illegal speeds easier, and could turn at the same time, but if we were racing then I could just straight line, if I could be bothered. I'll usually be the fastest person on the slope who is actually turning and in control. And I can carve happily even indoors. And ride powder all day. Downsides? Can't think of any. I've been riding steadily smaller boards as I got better. Like surfboards, it's a style thing

My Kessler Alpine 156 (not the same board as this) was factory set for 0.5 base and 3 side. I would ask Kessler what they set those boards at, but the suggestion could well be correct.

I use standard F2 Ti bindings with my Backlands and haven't found a problem over a few seasons now, although I note the OP's experience is different. I'm not sure why that would be, but there it is: perhaps different Backlands are slightly different, or maybe it's the size (I have 27.0 Backland Carbons plus the smaller of the F2 bindings). A shim would be possible, but may be risky. Two pairs of Phantoms is one obvious solution I suppose.

I don't see a fundamental difference. Well not between the way I ride and the way my soft boot buddies ride. From a distance, or to people not familiar with the sport, we look the same. But then I don't do the "snow diving" thing. I also don't ride very steep angles on very narrow boards (like the Virus guys), or large boards on mostly smooth slopes (like many here?), or race. Also my mates too aren't massively ducked-out BASI-style sideways standers not allowed to twist their upper body. I'm saying that you can pick an extreme style (soft or hard) and you're looking at major differences, but for those who are closer to the middle of being expert, we can all do what we all do. In powder I ride the same powder boards the soft boot folk ride, albeit with hard boots. I use the same board (2021 Hometown Hero) with the same boots, stance and 35/45 angles in helicopter powder and also in the snowdome and on piste. Advantages/ disadvantages On piste, well it depends what you want to do. You can snow dive better on a board designed for that - a sword or whatever. You can cruise greens and blues faster on a long narrow board. You can race better on a race board. I ride the whole mountain, like ordinary snowboarders and my soft boot mates. Advantages of hard gear: carving is laughably easy. Disadvantages: I don't have the flexibility to do gymnastic tricks which require ankle flexibility, and riding backwards is harder. I think it's harder to learn how to hard boot, the whole thing is less forgiving of rider error. Bottomless powder? Advantages of hard: probably not much. I can turn quicker in the trees, but that could be because I've practiced more than nearly anyone in those conditions. Comfort: I'm the one with my boots still on in the bar, because I forgot about them. One key thing with hardboots on powder boards on piste is that you can't have your toes/heels much inboard of the edge, so you need to get the right board for your stance, and a powder board on piste also needs torsional stiffness to be good. "why wouldn't someone put plate bindings on a wide board and ride at low angles? Initially with snowboarding using helicopters, there was a mix of people with hard and soft gear, and no one made a big deal out of it. You could either ride or you couldn't. I didn't notice people with soft boots doing better than I was, or having more fun. I tried soft boots (and no boarding...) because I like learning new stuff, but I stuck with hard boots as they just work. I'm not evangelical though - I've no interest in getting anyone not on hard boots to use them. Recently people have started asking me about the hard gear, maybe because of splitboards or Korean carving.

Cool, I don't have the VR stuff though Topaz Labs Video Enhance... is on "black Friday special offer", so $159 instead of $299, although I expect they always have offers, it feels like $299 is too much. I bought it anyway. .. and it solves the general low resolution issues my Rylo 360 had, and generates reasonable 4k/60fps stuff . It's much quicker than Python based Cupscale etc and that stuff is mostly still a pain in to use, where as this isn't. Topaz fixing the main video issues with the Rylo leaves me stating at the blue/purple artefacts you get in snow surfaces with that camera. I can probably fix those with DaVinci and will try to do that. These are typical of what you'd see in early digital cameras when shooting bright things near maximum brightness, like snow. Ugly but probably straight forward to remove. The Topaz footage needs a bit of skill to avoid it looking synthetic.. it's a subtle one. I'll post some stills or video when I'm done if I can get it right.

Oh, Tried that Topaz Labs Video Enhance and that works really well on my old Rylo 360 camera footage. Scary good. I may need to actually buy the thing, but I'll wait and see how good the Insta360 x3 output is first. (You need the NVidia Studio [not game] drivers for the thing to encode output as mp4 using the graphics card as the main engine. The render is fairly compute intensive and hits the graphics card 3D stuff at 100% plus a fair bit of the CPU. Overall it's clearly doing a lot of work, but less than Cyberpunk 2077 etc.)

I just picked up an Insta360 x3, although I'm a month off being able to try it on snow. The overall resolution is the same as my old (4 years old!) Rylo, but the pipeline from sensor onwards should be significantly better. Plus you can run it in 4k/30fps as a traditional single-lens action camera, for when you know what you're shooting and want maximum quality. The workflow software is obviously massively better. The phone app probably works, but I've this big-ass gaming machine with a RTX 3080 Ti in there, and the "Studio 2022" software works pretty well. Sadly they provide one for Adobe, but not DaVinci.... but it's not a massive chore with this software to extract even multiple perspectives from one file (all on the PC) and then mix that in DaVinci. Windows has a new free video editor https://clipchamp.com/en/ which looks pretty capable if people don't want to learn the power tools. Topaz Labs Video Enhance ... Interesting, I shall take a look, because 360 footage is way less than 4k when cropped. Topaz must have a free version for testing. That embedded video isn't selling it though - it all looks out of focus to me. Am I missing something there? Ski pole mount: as demonstrated, a ski pole is probably not long enough to get your head and your board in all at once, with a traditional action camera.

By the late 1990s we were still all using full names in an open public system... a lot's changed. Google's standard search seems to omit old usenet, which I guess is a tiny volume of mostly irrelevant data anyway. I was vaguely wondering what my 1st ever internet post was, but I can't find it there. Looks like it's now swamped with spam.

Whippersnappers, if you weren't in rec.skiing.snowboard. Being able to get trans-Atlantic snow reports from real people (as opposed to tour companies) was a game changer; rec.skiing.alpine however showed that other less pleasant games were also being changed. I never stopped using good boots, just got a lot of practice in.