pow4ever

it make perfect sense! thank you for taking the time at the end of long day to shared/write those thoughtful responses. There might be hope for me yet It's a journey - car park (close but no dice) -> stadium(in the ball park) -> designated seat (dialed in) I was stumbling a bit in the "close enough" category but never had it truly dialed in and now fighting with the setup instead working with it (some how end up on the highway/detour when i was looking for bathroom in the ball park analogues speaking) this might be the year... all the extra awareness should come in handy.

great point!! i was thinking about the same; those air edge transition just look "funky'. (the way the board bend in that point in time). Slow motion is interesting in that regard. It show the harmony that is build on top of many violent events(board). Terrible beauty of transient and impermanent...

thank you @David Kirk @nextcarve! Another food for thought - is there only one single set up or maybe it's possible to find multiple equally good setup? i was able to bend but lost it. missed that feeling of snow coming up to you and board just swoosh around using your hand as center of circle back/forth, toe/heel. My back knee is weak/fubar so i just can't get enough pressure on the back foot/heel side turn. My mind want to do what the body unable to perform. Hopefully i can figured it out setup/technique and get back to carve nirvana. might need to focus more rotation as i can't bend/angulate.

For sure! let's plan on it. Otherwise we will be N year older when we do

+10 on Kirby! There are also some excellent snowboard instructor that carve on softboots. Call the Sugarloaf mountain rental shop to speak with Kirby. Amazing fluid/dynamic rider and instructor(some good rider can not teach; it's rare to have both). Super nice guy. He saw my gear on the shuttle and gave me quite a few pointers. I believed Kirby is instructor when Erik was still FT at Sugarloaf so the "method" lives on - Ship of Theseus.

Thanks Mike for the carver snow report!! Hope all is well. Miss you my friend; we still talk about that the ECES trip and that legendary lasagna dinner. Funny on how memory work

very interesting... the hubris in me thought i done enough carpet surfing but since there are no snow any excuse to put on the boots and do snow dance. synchronized straight up/down motion does seem to offer true insight but i am not quite perceptive enough to be able to utilized that info to dial it in. But it does offer new signal on what to look for. This also raised another question. carpet/living room setup are "static" and real carving is dynamic. Board get decamber/bend/arc in various degree when we are in motion/carving. This is one (of many) problem plate system is design to solved - have a stable platform to preserved our optimized setup. Q - do we optimized setup for static? or for motion? or some where in between? I can see both side. having a good/stable starting point allow us to bend the board into carve as early as possible also clean our input so we don't provide lots of noise which amplify and we had to correct mid carve. On the other hand: Often for me what feel good when i am stationary is disastrous when i am in motion. Maybe it's other way around. when i not riding well; i am fighting the setup; when i am riding well the setup seems less important. Tinkering is part of the fun...

that was my dream.... should/would/could in 2017-18 price wise (~300-350 per square foot). Now the cost/goal post have gone way beyond my grasp.... Plan B - Sprinter Class-B RV

Thank you so much for the info!! i am out on Long Island(Lawn guy lend) Distance wise it's only ~75 miles to Rutherford NJ but that could take 4+ hours one way /cry.... Slope Access 6 Pack seems reasonable.

Nice!! can't wait to see your review on this killer combo/setup. been following this one with great interest. I am not a stalker <-- isn't thing something a stalker say?

Ivan at I-carve but Proto not discount is similar to Kessler.

Great discussion!! How does internal boot ramp come into play with toe/hell lift? UPZ/MS951 have steep internal ramp angle. So front toe lift on the binding compensate for that. The rear binding could flat as boot internal have build in lift? That was my understanding but i could be way off base.

Thank you Kneel! throw-away-run is a great concept/term. feel like the past few seasons are throw away season for me. (not making progress but rebuilding foundation)

+1. Jonny/Mr Shakespearean Go for it. i think it would be easy to unload if you don't like it.

i was lucky to experience 30+" of powder at 45 degree North (Maine) Amazing how tiring it get just trying to strap-in in soft snow. Even after the rain/freeze cycle Sugarloaf was in awesome coverage/carving condition. Too bad it's just way to far from "wrong island"... Got some longer wire for the top boot cuff so maybe NJ/Mall indoor have to do to force me to dial in the setting instead of riding. is Big snow more crowd in the winter time? i would think it would be more empty in the winter time?

topsheet I have SG binding but never to -15 degree C regularity. That's cold... once in a blue moon -1F or so (~-18c) but did not experience what you describe. Don't think the primary function of rubber gasket is there to prevent binding angle from changing? How many mounting screw thread engagement are you getting? 3+? On new binding the rubber gasket need to be really compress in order to engage the mounting thread. Under room temperature: can you move the binding angle?

Thank you @Odd Job for the detail explanation. Great point on weight/interesting observation on heel hairline crack. Hope i got the sled walking issue resolve.

interesting to see positive snow report for New England. Please keep the intel coming. Today was a t-shirt/shorts day in NY. I might have to hit up big snow (indoor) if the warm spell continue.

Interesting. May i ask for your reasoning? I know plenty of great riders on either binder; it's interesting to hear different opinion. I start out with stiffer binding - Catek, TD2 In the beginning I gave it too much bad input; so the SW(sidewinder) and F2 was great to filter out my poor input/technique at the expense of responsiveness. akin to trade off between harder/softer suspension. During the heyday of my carving prowess - binding/boots/setup make for little difference. i can over power the setup to do what i intended. Now with a busted knee, shoulder and one too many trip around the sun.... Mostly just preference. I find myself liking TD3 again in recent day. SG is much better at tweaking setup; except the sled keep moving. otherwise it's like the perfect binding for me. (responsiveness, adjustability)

FWIW all these are brand new binding. I did recalled i had to tighten the nut for the slider but never put it to test since i just stick with TD3 for now. Part of the process of eliminating one variable at a time. Once i got the technique down i will go back to try different binding. I did cut my teeth on TD2/3 so back to basic.

On Large sidecut/short board: i recalled some time back. Sean from Donek make some really large side cut snowboard for Super Pipe and those worked out well/podiumed.

https://www.i-carve.com/ Ivan is great to work with.

not to thread jack... on F2/SG type of binding. My standard bail keep on getting looser over time to the point where the boot is flopping around in it (morning it's nice and tight and few runs later). I use thread locker and didn't seems to help. Any ideas? Had to go back to TD3 and the bail position been solid for 10+ days.

+1 on the new F2 Porto 163 SL Amazing board. took one/two run to get familiar with it (For me that's rare). Given the proper input it does amazingly. with less optimal input - it save my ass many time. For me: in SL size - I don't need to look any further. found my forever board.

maybe mystery solved. it's all in the boots. liner - booster strap - tongue - buckle Boost strap move around and wrecking havoc on everything. Goldilock positioning. at least One season wasted.... but the detour is an interesting one. not sure how to solved it. starting with maybe longer ladder on the boots.