Aracan
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Posts posted by Aracan
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You are right in guessing that boots are the first order of business. Boots that work and fit well make or break a great day to a far greater extent than any other part of your equipment. Unfortunately, this is also the area where choice is most limited: Leaving aside the Mountainslope boots (unless you want to shell out close to $ 1,000), there is UPZ (two models of different stiffness, same shell shape), Deeluxe symmetrical (current models are the Track 325 and 425) and Deeluxe asymmetrical (Track 700). Head Stratos are no longer being made, but easily found in the classifieds.
Your hunt will likely include some trial and error. Some pointers: UPZ has the most narrow heel. Deeluxe are wider, Head is somewhere in between. UPZ is comparatively narrower in front. Most importantly, do get the correct shell size: Remove the liner, step into the shell so your toes just touch in front. There should be about 1 fingers width of space behind your heel, maybe one and a half. More is too much. To ascertain shell sizes, refer to the sole lenght. It is always printed on the outside, somewhere near the heel.
Fit can be tweaked by a bootfitter and/or by using a thermo-moldable liner. Once you are there, you can start playing with stiffness (tongues, springs ...)
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Not sure for what you need the risers, but anyway ... on the front binding try keeping the one under the toe and remove the one under the heel. Or put both under the toe. The UPZs have quite a bit of a stiletto heel.
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Without ever having had one or the other in my hands, from pics it seems that the Phiokka H1 shares some design characteristics with the Catek.
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1 hour ago, workshop7 said:
Aracan,
No toes have been stepped on.
I stated that the OP’s experience on skis would help more than his time spent other other boards. What I meant by this is, his time spent on skis provides much greater gains toward the mental and physical mastery of edge control than the time he could spend on the other boards he mentioned (wake, kite or long boarding). That is not to say that these other disciplines won’t help. I just feel that his skiing skills will better translate to hardboot carving.
I apologize if there have been one or two misunderstandings. I took "other boards" to include the wider snowboard you mentioned. I wholly agree that time on skis will help more to master an alpine snowboard than times on the water or on wheels - the ability to "read" the snow alone is a big plus. Still, I believe he could benefit even more from a wider board. The OP's whole setup, not just the board, but the bindings and to some extent even the boots, are decidedly on the stiff side of things. It's certainly feasible to learn on that kind of equipment, but it's probably not the safest or painless way.
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2° side, 1° base, recommended by the manufacturer. I plan to change that to 2.5° side while keeping the 1° base, though: I am in the habit of using the diamond (Rotofinish) after every day of riding. By keeping the diamond at 2°, I hope to achieve sharper edges without sacrificing more material.
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Deleted to avoid stepping on anyone's toes.
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Hardbooting is not about speed. Speed is the result, not the method. Once when I already had years of Alpine experience, I followed my then 6yo down a very long, demanding and in many places icy slope. She was an intermediate skier at best, and I was struggling to keep up.
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That is one aggressive board for a beginner. If I were you, I would put the bindings and boots on a wider, more forgiving board and work on my technique. On a long, narrow board you might be tempted to seek stability in speed, which, lacking experience, may well result in you going over the handlebars in spectacular fashion (anyone got the link for Jasey Jay's epic crash?), with the risk of hurting yourself and others.
Edit: found it.
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The foam-injected liner has been around for as long as I remember the UPZ website. Glad to see they are keeping the 8 in the lineup.
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Very cool shot at 0:35
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Definitely start with the boots! Carving in boots that work and fit well is fun, no matter the board. Carving on the finest 5-figure board in bad boots is not.
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By and large, yes. There were some issues in the past, but these days, any current binding should accept any current boot. Most plate bindings will also take most ski boots with no or small modifications. Note that if you want to use an Intec (step-in) binding you will use Intec heels for the boots.
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This can have too many reasons to give meaningful advice over the internet. E.g. my knees are a bit on the arthrotic side, and the doctor told me that muscle is a good thing. Over the years I found that cycling builds those muscles and alleviates the problem. A guy a ride with has good knees, when his knees hurt it's simply a sign that he forgot to properly set the forward leaning mechanism. Stance, footwear, canting etc. can all play a part.
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UPZ sells the Snowpro FAST system, step-in.
Maybe their North American distributor does, if he still has some bindings lying around. Snowpro has not produced plate bindings (bail or F.A.S.T.) in almost 15 years. While I liked the bail version, hardly anyone had anything good to say about the step-in version.
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I have never used the Intec system, but my wife did for a long time. I always found it was a bit of a garage solution. I am curious to see what Mountainslope will cook.
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Reminds me of the Swingbo. They certainly looked impressive, though why one would go to those lengths just to eliminate the advantage of being able to carve ONE edge instead of two is another question.
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8 hours ago, BlueB said:
It's so funny to read all this love for very stiff hard boots
It is. I am quite glad that from what I read, even the softer iteration of the .951 sounds to be far stiffer than I would like, so I am not at all tempted.
That said, I think the stiffness index could use some work. Even my cheapo 80 stiffness ski boots are stiffer than the stiff-as-hell (for SB boots) orange Indys were.
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+1 for checking the shell size as explained by teach. I'd say that 15-18 mm of air behind your heel is still acceptable, but if it's more than that, you should hunt for smaller shells.
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This is the T-bar 200 meters uphill from my parents' house. It's still in operation and looks pretty much as it did back then. They replaced the short-stick T-bars that needed a liftie to hand you the thing with longer-handled modern ones, and they can make snow now (a necessity at an elevation of around 2,500 ft). In the 70s, vacationers would patiently stand in line four abreast, more than a hundred deep, when the lifts higher up couldn't operate due to the weather. When it was less busy, it functioned as my ersatz kindergarten - hike up in the morning, ski until noon with pals, ski home for lunch, hike back up.
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1 hour ago, Jack Michaud said:
The very worst comments still have to be "Is that fun?" or "Do you like doing that?"
One poster on this board once reported that his standard answer to questions of that kind was "no, but my mum makes me do it".
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Not "heard", and not lift line. But I am certain y'all are familiar with the demo effect: You ride at your local hill, you spot one of those rare birds - another carver. Time to really give it your best shot. Time to carve that hill up as hard as you can. Time to - wipe out in spectacular fashion as the demo effect kicks in.
Yesterday I was at the receiving end of the phenomenon, and I have to admit it made me grin.
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On the first two photos it looks as if you ride with underhang on the rear boot. If yes, may I inquire as to the reason?
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IIRC, they used to do two runs per round in PGS and PSL, one on each course. I think they got rid of the format because it was hard on the eyes and on the competitors.
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Myself, I have never had a boot break. But from what I hear, 400 days is decent mileage for those boots. Gray tongues and RTR cuffs sounds a lot stiffer than the red/white T700. Have you re-tried the softer parts?
Newbie needs some boot advice.
in Carving Central
Posted
I am unsure. They certainly do not feel narrow to me. Some (and the boot volume study) say the Deeluxe offer more room, though.