~tb

you obviously have more direct information than I ever will on this one randy. Does anyone know if details of case like this become public after they are decided? I really hope we average joes can get some insight of the details of the case. Once again, I hope that Joel is recovering well!

Randy, I ask this in a very serious and polite (read:not flaming) fashion: How do we know that the toe had nothing to do with it? There are several classical case studies in engineering ethics that site situations where a design flaw, compounded by tolerance stack up have caused monumentail failures (picture large damn breaking). Most bindings are designed to use both the toe and heel block to share the loads. If one were to fail, the stresses on the other may be significantly higher and cause a failure. Possibly there was a partial failure of the toe that began to allow more stress to be delivered to the heel. In this proposed case, the heel might fail before the toe ripped off, but it would be the initial partial failure of the toe that was the root cause. Has someone qualified inspected to boot closely enough to ensure that there was no failure elsewhere that could have allowed for a potential stress (over)concentration on the heel? ~tb

Thanks for the post Neil. I guess I need to get out west again and ride both of these boards again! Gotta love excuses to travel ;-) ~tb

having ridden both out west and on the east coast (USA) I think the above statement from sean sums it up PERFECTLY. I would add one other peice of feedback. with both boards (at different times) I was out west when we had several large snows, and they then groomed. This resulted in beautiful, yet soft groomers. Too soft for a race board. When I was on the prior, I felt that the nose was a bit soft and folded up a couple times. On the axis, the nose was stiff enough to keep driving the board hard. As stated abov, 4X4 = powder+tree board for hardbooters. Axis = carving board, that can do trees and powder. Get the board that best fits your intended use. For me, it would be the axis. The prior felt slightly better in the powder, but the axis felt a LOT better on the groomer. qualification: the Prior I used was built circa 2000 and I was riding it in the 2001 season. The donek was a 2002 riding it in the 2002 season. Either manufacturer may have changed their designs since.

Fleaman, I have thought about doing the same for quite some time now. I had a slightly different concept I wanted to try with a plate, that I am sure mike and others have already tried. I have the entire vacuum bag set up in my basement to do the small work, and even a cambered mold. (carbon work is another one of my little hobbies) The issue I hit is that I think that the additional attachment points are important. Until this is overcome, I am not bothering looking into building a plate. NO, I will not t-nut one of my good boards! I am considering having my next board made with several additional inserts already in place. Without these, I believe a top plate would be little more than a fancy, expensive ornament. Contact me offline if you want to talk building concepts. ~tb

alright, you locals that complain about shops with only skinny boards. . . .where are those shops? I have 48 hours left in tokyo and would like to check one or two out. Pretty good with a map . . . but having section of town and two cross streets would really help. Currently in Shinjuku in the Keio Plaza hotel. shotty access to e-mail, so post here. ~tb

Apparently you do. Seems to have your undies in a bunch. So they put on their website more info than you wanted to know. We dont know that much about Bruce @ coiler. Maybe bruce's previous job was being a ballerina. If he had that on his website, would you say that his boards must ride like poo? after all, a coiler is admittably a piece of poo! Sean Martin is one hell of a bag pipe player. we dont hold that against him. My guess is that there are others involved that are actually making the boards, not the few people on the site. I guess my lack of point is that if they removed this information, you would be more interested. Dont hold this additional disclosure against the unknown technical merit of their boards. Pass judgement on no piece of equipment until you have atleast held one in your hands, or hopefully ridden it.

couple things. first, if you have hairy legs, shave your shins. MAKES A HUGE DIFFERENCE. second, the right socks. third, bootfitter and or thermoflex liners. in what order. . . the first is free, the second costs about 9-15 bucks, the third will cost about 100+. I would go in that order. ~tb

at stratton. Not sure if he is teaching at any of the actual schools though.

there are several good instructors on plates associated with the school, or you can contact Eric Brammer (PSR) who used to work for the school. I would say for your level, that Eric will be the best bang for the buck. Great teacher, and very patient. ~tb

I know you asked for a 210. . . I have a 205 that I would consider parting ways with. It rides notably better than most of the existing 210 designs. there are a couple 210 boards that I personally believe were ill concieved by the people ordering the boards (built wonderfuly by the builder, but a bad combo of specs). e-mail me: brownt(at)alum.rpi.edu

It sure did start becuase of the "children that didnt want to play by the rules." These people cared enough about their cause to effect change. They organized, tried to effect change through political means, and when that didnt work, they bore arms, declared independance, and eventually, fought a war. bitching in a snowboarding internet chat room is not effecting change. If you really feel this way, get in a position to do something about it (might I reccomend that that position is not sitting infront of your computer on an internet chat room). Im almost disgusted that you are drawing a parallel between the actions of someone complaining in this forum to that of those people bold enough to draft the decleration of independance. Do you have a legitimate proposal to how this should really be handeled? Every system in the world is flawed. I have the right to bare arms dont i? Shouldn't I be allowed to carry my gun on a plane?

. . . ditto . . . you ever notice people like to complain just for the sake of complaining? Lets say that they did let someone on with a big ass T-handle allen wrench. Somone used it to impale a member of the flight crew through the temple to instill fear, and then grabbed the next member of the flight crew in attempt to hijack the plane. . . What would have happened. The same people would be on this board posting how crappy of a job TSA does and that they should have stopped someone from carrying on that tool. They would then probably take the next step and say how obvious it is that a T-handle allen wrench could be used as a weapon and how DUMB these people must be to let it past security. These people would probably go even further and theorize how easy it would be to shapen a point on the tip of wrench while on board the plane to make it an even more effective weapon. Im glad that they didnt let you carry this on! Im glad that they restrict some of the items I would want to carry on. As my parents would have said, "you know what the rules of the game are, if you dont like them, dont play the game. Furthermore dont come home crying when you get in trouble for not playing by the rules." rant over. . . Wanna hear dumb though?!?!?! One week before a business trip I used my work bag to clean out my car. Through a whole bunch of extra crap from my car into my bag, went into the house and emptied out the bag. Re-packed my work bag an left for my trip. Got to security, put my bag through the scanner, and get a really wierd look from the individual on the x-ray machine. "please come with me sir." (GULP!). Turns out I never managed to get my spare tire iron out of my bag! now that thing is a weapon!

Back when I was riding burton race plates of similar construction, I wieghed 175lbs (if I went swimming in my gear before getting on my board) . . . if I was lucky. I got about a year our of my first pair, and about a half year our of the replacements. Both broken bail issues. Sell-em. Someone will buy them and then you can get some TD2's or OS2's

if the tongues from the 225's are compatible. I have an extra pair of those.

Mike, I think you conceptually have a a decent idea with that set of adjustments. The only thing I would consider if I were you would be to change one first, followed by the other. I really dont like changing two things at once. I guess this is why I like the cateks. . . I can make one change easily every run until I am happy, where as with the bombers you have to get down to the base plate to make incrimental adjustments. If you have a full day, take 2 runs on your current set up. Change your back foot only, take 2 runs and note if its is good change or bad change. Then make change to your front foot.

I tried completely flat, and close to flat last year on my cateks, as well as on a pair of phiokka's. Same experience as jack, did not like it at all.

I will go on record of saying that I can change one bindings cant or lift by about .5 degrees in approximately 30 seconds (assuming I already have the wrench out of my pocket).

Mike, I have been riding with outward cant on my back foot for years now on my cateks. a lot of the bomber crowd thought I was huffing glue at the time, but now with the TD2. . . they seem to be diggin' it. My philosiphy is as follows. 1) if my toeside turn initiation feels weaker than my heelside turn initiation, I cant my front foot towards the heel (strong) side. This seems to make my toe side turn initiation MUCH stronger without taking much away from my heelside turn initiation. 2) if my heelside turn initiation feels weaker than my toeside, I cant my front foot towards the toe (strong) side. This seems to make my heelside turn initiation MUCH stronger without taking much away from my toeside turn initiation. 3) if my toeside turn feels weaker than my heelside through the middle of the carve, I cant my back foot towards my heel (strong) side. This seems to make my toeside turn and finish MUCH stronger and stable without taking much away from my heelside turn. 4) finally (you probably guessed it) if my heelside turn feels weaker than my toeside through the middle of the carve, I cant my back foot towards my toe (strong) side. You guessed it, this seems to make my heelside turn and finish MUCH stronger and stable without taking much away from my toeside turn. I guess the softboot analogy I would draw would be the Gas Pedal Toe wedges. If your toeside felt weak, one would place wedges under the toes of the boot to increase one's ability to pressure that edge. Think of adjusting the cant as adding a wedge to the weak side to enable you to better pressure the edge. The truly wierd thing is that I find that this changes from day to day for many reasons. The balance between my toe and heel side seems to change dependant on temperature, how stiff or loose different muscles in my body are, the snow conditions (soft, hard, ICE, chalk), how much I ate for breakfast, the moon's alignment with jupiter, the current mentality of my wife, who im riding with and whats going on between my ears. The fact that these shift from day to day is the primary reason why I personally currently ride cateks. If something doesnt feel right, I take a gondola ride up, make a very small tweak to push the cant in or out (based on the above 4 cases) and voila! all better. Thoughts, opinoins, rebuttals? ~tb

Serious. Where are you located and where do you ride? I bet someone on here could meet up with you. I will go out on a limb here and disagree with D-sub. I think that you can gain alot from an individual when it comes to getting as comfortable and as powerful as possible on your set up in short time. I will qualify that statement with the fact that I feel that it needs to probably be in person and on hill. Make sense? ~tb

Sito, Prior makes an excellent board these days. Durrable, Great looking, great performance. In North America there are 3 source for boards of similar quality. Donek, Prior and Coiler. All are excellent, all just have a slightly different feel to them. You cant go wrong with ANY of them. I have my personal preference, but you should develop your own opinion. Look into all three of them. -Todd

Ill be heading tokyo way come christmas. If you need goodies imported, let me know. If you are willing to meet up, I can probably carry over. ~tb

I dont think I have had my back foot on my board in the past 3 years. . . . maybe once. Getting off the lift I always hold it off to the side. My wife has already picked this up. The last time I needed to do this it was on a 40+foot (vert) exit ramp from an old chairlift at Bristol in upstate new york. Give it a little time and put some effort into it and you will not need the stomp pad. practice. . . do a green run with one foot. ~tb

Im probably no expert. . . but I have interest in this conversation and have been meaning to reply to bob's quote below with some opinions and observations. I would however like to wait until I have a couple free minutes to do justice to the subject matter. -Todd

It is my belief, that if a board is designed correctly, you should ride it centered on the inserts. I would like to think all the people I would buy boards from would have designed it correctly. That being said, I always mount my bindings centered on any board I ride. If It feels off, I change my riding style a hair. For example, madd's. . . I know that I have to ride that nose aggressively. So, I drive the nose harder and feed the board to neutral through the turn. I find that by moving the bindings forward, to get the full potential out of the board, that I end up too far in the back seat at the end of the turn. A board with a forward loaded camber should be easier to ride with the bindings moved forward, but at some cost in my opinion. Once again, just my opinion. ~tb