Aracan

Only one way to find out. Personally, I like a lot more splay - something around 15-20°, if memory serves. It helps to have a wider board for that. Did you ride with the forward lean system open or locked? Some riders I know get knee pain if the ride with rear boot locked.

The thermo-moldable liners can be cooked about 5 times. However, with each iteration they lose some volume. If you don't need that volume, you can buy secondhand and re-mold them.

Definitely start with the boots. The first order of business is getting the correct shell size, determined as follows: Take out the liners and step into the shell. With your toes touching the front end of the shell, there should be 1-2 fingerswidth of space behind your heel. Less would be cramped, more would be dangerously loose. Custom liners are only necessary if the stock liners don't work for you. You'll feel it if they don't. If they do, count yourself lucky and enjoy. As for which board: One possible starting point would be Pureboarding. The TWO is built as a do-all board with the former softbooter in mind.

Truly? I recently had occasion to try skiing in moderate pow (daughter wants to hone her skiing skills because she doesn't care to go on school wintersports week as the only boarder), and my suspicion was confirmed: Fresh pow on skis is okay, fresh pow on the board is much better. Less-than-virginal pow on skis sucks, is great fun on the board.

I use Tooltonic. The stuff is not cheap, but very easy to use. Excellent idea! I'll give it a try - although I would have thought the workhorse is too light. Or do you use two?

I have many things in my cutlery drawer. I really only need a bread knife, a big kitchen knife and small knife for peeling onions and stuff like that. But since I cut nothing but snow with my board, I don't need a bread board ;-)

To each his own. I get bored and tired just from imagining the logistics required to keep a whole quiver in shape. I'd rather ride (said the guy with one board).

100 % hard. Come to think of it, I have never even worn softboots.

See if you can find a 2nd hand Pure Boarding stick (tough order, I know). They are dedicated AM boards designed with "one man, one board" in mind. Not meant for softboots, though.

I see a carver about every second or third day on the hill. Quite a few of them are on very old equipment and tuck in the knee ... Yesterday a carver greeted me in passing, like bikers do. Is that common where you ride?

Ah, Silvretta. Never been there, although I grew up in Vorarlberg - but in a different corner.

Just out of curiosity: Where in Austria were you?

Okay, I'll bite: So if I get hit from behind it's my fault because getting hit shows I shouldn't have been there? What kind of rationalization for being an * is that?

Do you have the softer springs on your DGSS? Do you ride with the stock black tongues? If yes to both, the tongues might be the limiting factor. I felt the same as you, bought red tongues. Happiness ensued.

Came here to see wrenching with 3 nm wrenches, presumably on nanobots. Was disappointed to see it was all about 3 Nm wrenches.

Yes and no. Definitely DO NOT set angles at an arbitrary number. Definitely DO consider the possibility that carving, especially on the heelside, might come easier with a +/+ stance. I do not doubt breeseomatic's ability to carve "a reverse camber twin tip board with duck stance". But I can also carve a turkey with a butter knife, given enough time and dedication. Given the choice, however, I would opt for a different tool.

... depends. I have been riding alpine for 20+ years. I have one board that I use, and while I sometimes do ogle boards, the urge to get another one is very weak. Reason: My board does not perform optimally in most conditions. But it performs well in almost all conditions. I am just not interested in the hassle. I want to ride boards, not lug them around, because look, the morning groom is gone, I need to get my next board. I love snowboarding, but not to the point where I would have to work more to afford more boards. I'd rather work less and have more time to ride the board that I already have. Bottom line: It is possible to be a carver with one board.

Just of curiosity: Do you sometimes "fold the nose", a.k.a. "go over the handlebars"? I ask because I do more or less the opposite - drive the rear knee towards the snow in toeside turns, the front knee in heelside turns. A few weeks ago, prompted by a fellow rider, I tried to weight the front knee more in toeside turns, and that old dread of folding the nose came back to me.

The Snowpros have built-in canting, which can be neutralized by using wedges. Some versions came with additional under-the-sole rubbers with higher nubs for lift. Lift can also be achieved by stacking wedges, of which only two came with one set of bindings, IIRC - two less than are needed just to run both bindings flat. Also, the Snowpros have been out of production for a long, long time. My second pair lasted significantly shorter (part of the lenght adjustment slide broke on the rear heel broke) than my first pair, and I ask myself if that was because they had spent so long on the shelf. I'd stay away from them.

Make that "The only new snowboard hardboots" as you listed all current manufacturers except the Koreans and the Japanese, which, to the best of my knowledge, are really, really not available in the West. cin, I think you have it right, although I am anything but an expert on boots. Personally, I have progressed from very stiff boots to much softer ones. It is no coincidence that the new top-of-the-pops Mountainslope boots come in rather stiff and very stiff and their communication often cites race successes, while the EC guys (who have been deeply, madly in love with the Northwave .900 instead of the stiffer .950) are still waiting for "their" boot model from Northwave. Also note that plastic stiffness (where the responsiveness/flexibility results from bending/deforming the boot under load) is harder to tweak than tongues and springs.

Racing and recreational carving are quite different, in that racing is about finding the quickest way from point A to point B, while carving is arguably about making the biggest possible detour. So unless you are into racing, take all race-based insight with a grain of salt. That is one. "Boot stiffness" is a difficult proposal in and of itself. Are we talking about the stiffness of the boot plastic? The tongue? The spring system (if there is one)? Fore-aft or lateral? That is two. Personally, I like a boot with a lot of flexibility fore-aft, meaning the softest (red) UPZ tongues and an aftermarket spring system with softer springs and more travel than the stock system. This is because I prefer a style of riding where I flex the rear boot a lot in toeside turns. But that may be just me.

My daughter uses the girl version of this one: http://www.komperdell.com/en/protectors/men/produkt.php?id=6275_206 It's anything but bulky (which is saying something, given she weighs about 80 lbs at 5'1"). According to her it's very comfortable to wear. As you will notice, it does not have hardshell segments, but consists of a material that stiffens under impact (also popular with bikers, I'm told). I wear an older model from the same company, which is noticeably bulkier, but still nothing to get hung up about.

Oh. I thought it was an arcane brand name of bootfitting paraphernalia :-) The "hot spot" is less focused in my case. It doesn't seem connected to a bone nub. It seems I rather need something like a 1,5 x 4 cm bolster, longitudinally applied, starting behind the metatarsal joint.

I wear a helmet and a back protector, and I recommend you do too. The more you progress in carving, the more time you will spend perpendicular to the fall line, which, in a backside turn, means you are blind too all those speeding more or less along the fall line. I hope that if I do get shot down from behind, the helmet and the spine armour will help a bit. I also wear wrist guards, but more out of habit than because I feel I really need them.

I have to ask, what is an Eichel?