BadBrad

I'm wondering about fit. What does your foot measure?

I whacked my head around Christmas time. There is a thread about it with some good advice here: http://www.bomberonline.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=23415 I had some short term memory loss but felt okay the rest of the day it happened, but the next day I had a very bad headache and vomiting, so I had a CT scan done. If you are feeling okay the couple of days after then you are probably okay, but be careful because the symptoms can be delayed. Also, if you have any brain swelling then another whack to the head can be pretty dangerous.

I will be going to the Park City area for the first time. Possible days on the slopes are March 14-17. I will be there with a couple of friends who are skiers. The current plan is to have 2 days at The Canyons, 1 day at Park City Mountain, and 1 day at Snowbird. My friend will be getting discount lift tickets at Canyon Sports on the 13th. I will probably ride with my skiing friends most of the time, but it would be nice to hook up with some other carvers too. Also, is there any good dedicated hardboot carving instruction available at any of these places? Also, what are the snow conditions and grooming like out there? My 3 boards are a Prior WCR metal 173, a Prior 4WD 164, and a Madd 158. I'm definitely bringing the WCR metal, and I could probably be happy with it as my only board there. I'm also thinking of bringing the 4WD in case there is powder or if my friends want to do more skiing in the bumps and off-piste. I'll probably leave the Madd 158 at home.

There is now a power strap on the 700T's, so that looks like a new feature (other than the new colors). Those are almost as ugly as my Burton Winds.

I'm intrigued by the UPZ RX8 boot that I recently saw. Looks like it would be a less stiff version of the RC10. Anyone tried it?

Thanks for the info so far. A few more questions: 1. Regarding fit, I have a fairly narrow foot with a very high arch and high instep. Which boot would fit me best? 2. Regarding sizing, if my foot measures 26.0, which size Deeluxe boot should I get? (I see that the HSPs in size 26 are sold out, at least at Bomber they are.) 3. Would 225s work okay with the BTS, or is the shell too soft to allow the BTS to work well? RideGuy, I too used to ride my Burton Winds in walk mode. I now use ride mode unless I'm riding bumps. I also used to loosen up the boot cant adjusters to allow more lateral flex, but I read that that is a bad idea so now I lock them down.

I've read here that the Head Stratus Pro is very stiff. There are discussions about people modifying them to soften the flex. So I'm afraid that I'd find them too stiff.

With the spring sale going on, I'm tempted to buy some new hardboots. I currently have Burton Winds that are probably close to 10 years old, but still work okay. I upgraded the liners to ZipFits last year, and they feel great, but the boot/liner combo is a little stiffer than I would prefer. I don't see many carvers using the Deeluxe 225T boot. Is this not a good boot for some reason? I'm 160 lbs and like a fairly soft flexing boot. Would the 225T work well for me? As far as sizing, my current boots and liners are 26.5 and fit well. I read that the Deeluxes tend to run large. My foot measures 26.0. Should I order the size 25? Thanks, Brad B.

Yes, I have toured the Martin factory in Nazareth a few times. Several years ago I had accumulated some very nice guitars, and I got to thinking that my dad initially taught me guitar and had always wanted a Martin, but was playing a mediocre Yamaha and an Ovation, so I figured it was about time that he got that Martin. So I took him on the Martin factory tour and then gave him a D-18V (used, but like new) for his 68th birthday. The look on his face was priceless. I became a dad a year ago, and that has stopped my ability to buy new instruments. Luckily, I already have instruments that I am very happy with.

Yeah, lots of great guitars out there, and a lot of it is personal preference. I said that I like the Martin sound, but I had the opportunity to play a couple of good early-40's Gibsons awhile back, and they were fantastic. One was a banner J-45 and the other was an LG-2. Very powerful with a very dry fundamental tone. I'd love to have that J-45, it would be perfect for old-time accompaniment, but they are quite expensive.

Those Taylor electrics are very nice. That hollow body with the Bigsby is especially cool. I play mostly acoustic, and I have a number of nice acoustic guitars, plus mandolins, plus open-back banjos (for old-time clawhammer style playing). I used to play a lot of rock and blues, then got more into folk, then fingerstyle celtic and country blues. Now I play mostly old-time music, which is pre-bluegrass southern Appalachian music, but I still dabble in other stuff as well. I still have one electric guitar, an Ibanez saber from the late-80's, and I have a Mesa Boogie Mk III combo tube amp from about that same time frame. My first electric was a cheap Squier stratocaster. I hated it and ended up giving it to my brother. However, some of the new Squiers are quite nice. They play and sound like a good strat. My nephews recently bought a used one for about $100, and it has a great sound, even unplugged, it plays easily, and even stays in tune. For about $320 you can get a new Squier Classic Vibe, and those are quite nice for that price. Here is the acoustic guitar quiver. I used to have a Taylor 810 dreadnought, which was my first solid-wood guitar, but then I grew to prefer the Martin tone. I still have a Taylor 12-string, and I think that they make the best 12-strings. Bottom row: - Sigma DR7 from around 1981. My first decent guitar. It's a cheap Japanese plywood guitar, but sounds surprisingly good. Not worth selling because it isn't worth much, so I keep it as my beater/camping guitar. - Merrill C18, koa back/sides, Adirondack spruce top. A nearly exact replica of a 1934 Martin D18 (except for the koa). Killer guitar for flatpicking. Super loud, great tone, sounds like a great pre-war Martin. - Martin HD-28V. My wife's guitar. I picked it out of 5 in the store. This one sounds especially good. Very versatile, works for flatpicking, strumming, fingerpicking. - Taylor 555 12-string. - Martin 000-28NB (Norman Blake model). Rosewood/Adirondack spruce. A 12-fret neck on an OM body. Notice the bridge location further down the body. Cool slotted headstock. Very deep rich tone and good volume for a smaller body guitar. Good picked, but exceptional for fingerstyle. - Martin 000-18GE (Golden Era), mahogany/Adirondack spruce. A pretty good copy of a 30's 000-18. Nice dry tone with good volume. Great all-around guitar. Top row: - LaPatrie classical guitar (the token nylon string guitar) - Baby Taylor travel guitar

shrederjen, Like you, my first impression of the 4WD was that it was too heavy. I was coming from an ultraprime, which is a super lightweight board about 19cm wide, so the 21.4 wide 4WD felt huge and heavy at first. But now that I'm used to it I like it as an all-around all-mountain board. The wider width gives more relaxed stance angles, it makes nice tight slalom turns, it works great off-piste and does a pretty good job in powder too, and it doesn't wear me out. Mine is a 164, which is fairly small, but it works great for me.

I bought a used set, and so far so good, but I am a little nervous about them failing at an inopportune time. I just bought another used set so I can have some spares just in case.

I also thought the new ones felt a little stiffer and livelier, but I didn't have a whole lot of experience to say for sure. I test rode one of the older metal-top WCRs (a 173) last year, and it felt kind of dead and unresponsive to me. It could have been the snow conditions or the fact that I had just demo'd a super lively Donek FCII, but that was my impression. But I bought a new '09 WCR metal 173 and I love it. It still isn't super lively, but it does feel livelier than the older one, and it is so easy to ride. It initiates and releases turns so easily, really holds an edge well, and is undisturbed by crud and variable surfaces. I don't know the answer to your problem, but here are a few data points from me on stance widths. - I used to ride 16-17" stance widths until last year, with Burton plates pretty much flat (just a tiny bit of front toe and rear heel lift). These were the reference stances for the Burton boards (UP 156 and Alp 156) and were very confortable to me. - I got some used TD2s for my WCR 173, and I set them up at 19.3" stance width with 3* disks front and rear. Mostly toe/heel lift, but also a slight bit of inward canting. I am only 5'7", but I have long legs for my height (32" inseam). This wider stance feels good to me with the 3* disks or with 3* front & 6* rear. This is the reference (center) stance for the Prior boards. Their specs say the range is 17-22", but my measurements show 16.5 - 21.5 on both my WCRM and 4WD. - On my 4WD 164 I initiall tried 19.3" with the Burton plates pretty much flat, and I got wavy heelside turns. I think the wider stance and lack of cant/lift caused me to twist the board on heelsides. I installed a 7* cant/lift on the rear and it now works great at 19.3". - On my Madd 158 I tried widths in the 18.5-19" range, but even with the 3* disks it didn't seem to work as well on that board as a narrow stance did. I think it is around 18" now, which is still wider than the center stance on that board. My theory is that the Madd 158 has a small sweet spot and too wide a stance puts you outside of that sweet spot. Also, you lose leverage to bend the board with a wider stance, and I need the leverage with that very stiff board. A bigger or stronger rider could probably use a wider stance more effectively.

That's exactly what I did, but both 3* and 6* felt equally good as long as I adjusted boot lean accordingly.

Yesterday I did a little bit of test-and-tune on my setup. I started with 3 degree front toe lift and 3 degree rear heel lift on my TD2s, with just a little bit of inward canting on each. It felt pretty good and balanced. I used to use a 7* rear cant with my Burton plates, so I decided to try a 6* rear disk on the TD2s to see how that felt. I expected it to feel a lot different from the 3*, but it really didn't feel that much different to me. The one thing I did notice was that I liked a little more foward lean in my boot with the 3* than with the 6*, so forward lean seemed to be the real difference, not heel lift. So is it recommended to use less heel lift and more boot lean or vice versa? Or does it not really matter? Standing still on my carpet, the 6* rear lift felt like it was throwing my weight forward and felt less centered and balanced, but on the slopes it felt fine.

Nice specs. I think for me something about 10cm shorter would be perfect, 173 specs in a 167 length package, 20cm waist, ~11m sidecut. Nice and compact and turny enough for the small crowded hills I ride.

Very nice. I love the clear topsheet. I have a standard '09 WCR metal and love the way it rides. Yours looks a lot cooler, and with the hammerhead nose and longer effective edge I bet it performs great too. Is it the standard 19.5 width? It looks like it might be wider than that.

Cograts on the newborn! Is this your first child? I have an 18-month boy -- adopted him last Feb, so it's been nearly a year. I plan to start taking to the slopes next year, can't wait. That's a gorgeous board. Does that tail shape serve any purpose other than aesthetics? Regarding your rear toe overhang, it looks as if you could probably index the binding toward the heel to reduce toe overhang without getting heel overhang, but it's hard to tell for sure without seeing your boot clipped in.

I'll give you $40 for the intec heels if you're willing to separate them.

Fully laid out EC turns are impressive, but not what I personally strive for. It does look cool, though.

I'd bet that a relatively short "turn-schtubby" would be the perfect tool for those conditions. Short enough sidecut radius to make quick tight turns with a short overall length to permit easily throwing it sideways when you need to.

Yeah, I'm thinking that I should get some skis for when it gets crowded later in the day. I am not comfortable carving big arcs across the trail when there are other people around, so I revert back to skidded turns. I think I'd feel more comfortable on skis making the same sort of turns that the majority of the skiers out there are doing. Plus, my 18-month old boy will probably be learning to ski next year and I'll likely be on skis while teaching him.

I'm also in the mid-atlantic, and I don't even go riding on the weekends. It's just not fun for me. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to take time off on a weekday lately, so the result is that I haven't been riding at all. :(

Skiing in Deeluxe boots? How does this work? I'm thinking of getting myself some skis to use while teaching my son, and figured I'd need to buy some ski boots.