Phil

BryanZ, Where are you in NJ? I teach at Bear Creek Mountain Resort in PA six days a week. You are welcome to try any of my equipment sometime if you like. Shoot me a PM if you are interested.

'nuff said. I checked out my Cartels today and sure enough, there were the detents and numbers. I have size 15 feet, though, so my ramps are moved all the way out. I could see how the ramps may be covering the angle markings. FTA2R - Let us know if you find them under there. (I'll get to your other email soon)

I have an '04 Sienna. I was looking at the Odyssey as well. In the end, only a few personal preferences swayed me toward the Toyota. Like Coke or Pepsi, you can't go wrong with either, it is just personal taste. I wanted the largest family vehicle I could get. That ruled out SUV's. The other stuff on your list doesn't really address cargo needs at all - even the Pilot doesn't come close. I can't believe that people think that SUV's have a lot of cargo room. Only the absolute largest SUV's have anywhere near the cargo room of these two minivans, and those SUV's are pigs. My brother and my brother in law both have Suburbans and love them. They are one of the few SUV's that are at all comparable in cargo room to a Sienna. Both brothers agree that the Sienna's cargo room is still better - by far. I regularly take 6 large, ugly, dirty men on DH or FR MTB trips. We have the 8 pass., but 6 large men ride well in it, including all gear! With proper racks, you can fit a lot of bikes. I think that the most that we have taken is 10 DH bikes (5 on hitch, 5 on roof), but you could fit more with the right setup. I know that I will be flamed for this, but U.S.? Siennas are made here. I know that people are going to argue all kinds of economics on this one, but did someone consider Ford American made? Maybe the F150, but not the Windstar. American made applies to a lot of Toyotas, Hondas, Nissans, etc. more than it does to Fords. I digress. Because cargo is my issue, here is the comparison of the only vehicles on your list that I would consider (actually, I would not consider the Pilot, but I included it anyway). I have two kids, a lot of bikes, and a lot of snowboards. I have no trouble fitting my ~180 length snowboards without changing the second row (I slide them between the seats. Any more than that would either require the 7 pass., or removing a seat on the 8 pass. - not a big deal. Without seats, you can fit 4x8 sheets of plywood. In the snow and ice, I have Blizzaks on and can get around easily with my FWD. I can't imagine if I had AWD how much better it would be, 'cause I never have a problem as it is. Hope this helps.

I have varied base bevel solely for the purpose of riding rails. On park boards, I have gone with more base bevel from the front of the front binding to the back of the rear. On park skis, I have gone with more underfoot. It is noticeable in the ride. I definitely like it more than running a high bevel across the whole board. I don't do it anymore because I generally do not have trouble with catching edges on rails. (I am knocking on wood as I write)

Thanks, WRXracer!

What is this back foot kick that you speak of?

BTW, a decent learn to ride program that includes lift lesson and rentals is usually cheaper than a lift and rental alone, so I would recommend going that route. Remember, instructors teach people every day and "most" of them will do a much better job at teaching than a non-instructor. I've seen Greak's learn to ride program and it is pretty decent.

Greek Peak

Inca Snowboards

Wasn't O-Sin just Dynastar's line of boards? I don't believe that they ever went out of business, but rather Dynastar just started calling them Dynastar - kind of like Atomic with Oxygen and Elan with Nale...?

Yes, and yes.

Thanks for the props Mark. K2skinny88, We are probably the closest decent mountain to you. Where are you in DE? There are quite a few hardbooters at BC. Of course, there are quite a few at Blue as well. Let me know if you are interested in coming up to BC.

It is. As discussed, it works really well for this application.

I think that this is a great discussion. Todd Belt has worked hard to come up with the results that he has. I applaud him for that. I know that the questions and criticisms here must be difficult to deal with, but I also think that the BOL community has been thoughtful about the topic and responded well. A lot of you are suggesting this for adaptive programs. I agree, but it is a little late for that. This kind of design is already widely in use in adaptive programs (see pic). It is tough to see a need for a product like this from inside the industry. It is even tougher to see spending $2000 on it. Of course, it was tough for skiers to see a need to have real sidecut, too. I agree that this should be brought to one of the BOL sessions or festivals. I am sure that everyone would love to try it. I have to agree that having someone in the video who is a more solid rider would be helpful (all due respect to your rider in the video). There are probably a lot of fundamentally sound riders out there who would be willing to give it a go and be video taped free of charge. Todd - I wish you well in your endeavor. Hopefully the feedback here can be helpful.

The Dom Slick and the Easy Rider Tech have very little in common when comparing edges. The ERT has edges that can be carved on very easily. I watched some guys rip some carves that would make most here envious. I've taught thousands upon thousands of newbs in my career and I can tell you that if we are trying to grow our sport, making beginner edge catches less prevalent is a better way to go than this. I am a big fan of growing our sport, so I look forward to having a complete ERT rental fleet - hopefully within the next two years. As for the OP, I would say that you would want that thing ground for carving, but as someone else mentioned, why not ride it first and see what you think. If you tried the convex base, you would have a broader knowledge base of how board characteristics affect ride. Personally, I like a flat base - even for the park.

Those with mad skillz never have a hard time. ;)

Not true at all. They carve just fine for a the kind of board that they are. Have you ridden one?

That is exactly what I thought when I saw the original post. Sever other companies have done this and/or are doing it. A lot of riders really like these boards. They are especially adept at rails, but several top notch riders have told me that they really like them everywhere. Have you ridden one? I just got back from a demo day of easy rider tech. I did not hear a negative comment from anyone other than a few that said that they would not want it as their main ride - but still liked it for some applications. Everyone there (mostly instructors) agreed that it would make learning a lot easier. Beginners should progress nicely on these boards.

Ink, I just received my stuff from H& H. I am planning on doing the fingernail polish to seal it. Is there a poor man's version of the primer? Thanks, Phil

Here is an old post that shows a couple of pics and gives some instructions.

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My inseam is 38", so I just throw bindings on as wide as they go on EVERY board that I own.

Show me a pro that is as big as me and I'll be fine with that logic. That being said (we are still using EST incorrectly - the board with the channel is ICS and the semi-baseless bindings are EST) I think that EST is fine. Two screws on the outside of the binding seem better to me than two screws in one disk (if you are using the disk, you are not using an EST binding).

Ink and xxguitarist - since you did not already do the primer, maybe it would still be a good idea to do the sealer? I was wondering how I was going to seal it. I remember years ago we used clear nail polish to seal stickers on boards. Obviously this stuff should work better. Ink - is there any other place to get this stuff? I ordered some vinyl from HH, but they do not have the stuff (at least that I could find) on their website. Would this be something I could find locally?

You can drudge through this masterpiece: http://www.bomberonline.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=21447 and, as usual see the widely varying opinions on BOL.