leeho730

I respect both brands, although I ride Virus more often than Swoard...

Hi Caspercarver I'll take one. Shipping cost to Portland OR 97203? And if there are two I'll take both.

Bummer about the board having broken... I love it, it's a great carving board that floats on powder that does not require usual weight shift. I also have terminator 165 that seems very nimble, can do really narrow turns and has a very good pop... Someone was selling it for 900 last year, steal for that price...

I and Ladia. My 163 was built for a 150lbs guy, and Ladia might have similar weight too. I recon with your height and weight, 173 might be more suitable or you might have to get a new custom 163... Frank builds his boards customised for rider's weight... So unless 163 you're looking for was built for the guy with similar weight to you, flex might be wrong I'm afraid... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I believe there are two forum members who have it but they weigh around 150lbs I recon... Will be too soft for you... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Zipfit gara limited 24.5 on UPZ 25.5. Warmth around toe area is ok.

long one....

I use POC Cortex DH MIPS and Giro Remedy S... My head measures 57cm and has been using medium (55-57) and is ok to use all day long... The helmet needs to fit reasonably tight yet comfortable but it depends on the shape of helmet and the head, much like relationship between our feet and boot shell/liner... According to the rule/book your head I recon might be better suited to medium size... But what can I say in real life things hardly occur according to the book... So if you like large size and they feel comfy, go for it!

Not needed on my upz rc-10 boots.

For TD3, $260.2 Lug washer x8 - $1.6 Td3 lugs x8 - $32 Heel bail x2 - $20 Toe bail with clip x2 - $38 TD3 Lug Shaft x4 - $16 M6x16cm x2 - $6 TD3 Sole Block x4 (2x heel 2x toe) -$48 TD3 Lug Shaft Screw x4 - $3.4 TD3 Base Plate x2 -$96 Add 2nd board kit for $119 =$379.2 But, Td3 lugs are sold out. The cost of buying whole TD3 and buying things seperately, same (slightly cheaper buying a whole set by 20 cents). Might as well buy the whole set so you can get 2nd board kits, that you're likely to need in the future?

Hakuba was a bit on icy/slush side in February due to low altitude (800m above sea level) but quite English friendly resort town with one English pub (might be more, haven't checked) and a few restaurants near Happone have English menus and one can speak English in Hotels no problem. Some of the workers at Happone (pronounced Ha-ppo-ne but many tourists say Happo One) speak English so buying tickets no prob, they also offer English speaking snowboard/ski instructors. For me, I'd go to Shiga Kogen. High altitude means snow is usually softer (I had waist deep powder in Feb for 2-3 days), resorts are a bit easier to get around, plenty of good carving slopes, foods on slopes are better, lift tickets are a bit more streamlined compared to Hakuba resorts, lift facilities are more modern. But if you're into freestyle then Goryu/47 in Hakuba is hard to beat. And Hakuba has better night life if you're willing to use bus.

Donek custom 155 Saber Coiler custom 155 softie Moss TWFD 155 Moss Twister 155 Ogasaka FC-X 154 Someone did a review comparing Donek sabre with Yonex rev. The reviewer found that Donek Saber was heaps better at carving than Yonex Rev. So I believe if you're serious at carving, at least teaching carving or maybe participating in gijutsu taikai, then boards mentioned above might suit them? They're all hammerhead boards except for fc-x. About Donek my incline is around 7-8 out of 10 so def not 5-6 out of 10 you're looking for unless you're quite specific about flex when ordering. In japan it would be easier to get hold of Japanese boards but in Tokyo majority of shops seem to stock freeride boards not carve-friendly boards but I might not have looked enough. Wish you luck.

I have wide (between D and E) 25.4 feet and use Head Stratos 24.5 and UPZ 25. Both UPZ and Stratos doesn't feel narrow in toe areas. UPZ boots have much narrower heel area though. I like it... Surprisingly both boots have same liner length, i.e, UPZ boots are of right size whereas Deeluxe and Head boots may be half to one finger too big, so one may need to down-size. I use 24.5 zipfit Gara liner on Stratos and will use 24.5 Gara on UPZ 25... Spring system of UPZ works like BTS with smaller range of movement but with added advantage of easier forward lean adjustment and walk mode. With BTS one can change forward lean setting with spring combinations and lower nut adjustment but more fiddly. But in terms of flex during riding I like Bomber BTS better, very smooth... So no one system is perfect... But have the boot shells changed in terms of size over the years? I don't know but it's unlikely...

The idea of heating the shell is that by heating the shell it adapts to the shape of the foot and the liner. I managed to fit 24.5 head stratos and 24 Raichle boots into my wide 25.5 foot using heated shell and zipfit liners. I've got a snug fit now. Actually I want more foam on rear foot for better heel hold. The disadvantage is my front big toe nail is getting damaged... No wonder some racers (some of them go two size smaller) remove toe nails... Sven (or anyone who do zipfit liners) is the person to talk to if you want boots to fit your wide foot really well, especially if you had similar problem in the past. But you might get sucked into buying zipfit liners as well as getting shells at least one size smaller for performance, at least for Deeluxe boots (UPZ boots have right shell size BTW). They're very good but they ain't cheap and they're very good at convincing that those stock liners are crap (which is unfortunately true). You've been warned ;-)

The best thing would be to talk to Sven in Aspen... His idea is to heat the boots not liner...

German company produces jacket for carvers, but price seems very high. http://www.carvecompany.com/index.php?id=rcs-perfection&L=1

I haven't. I lock it though, if I go to places like cafeteria or bathroom where I can't see my board. I use the one that Bomber sells for 15 bucks.

Well, Mt Hutt on Sunday two weeks ago. NO NEW SNOW SINCE 14TH JULY, BTW. Went to Mt Dobson today. There was some surprisingly good trails for beginner and intermediate carvers, and thanks to high base altitude of 1727m (in NZ standard anyway), snow was fairly ok. Good beginner and intermediate trail: FLATOUT next to Triple Chair. Wide groomed and uncrowded run, but lower half consisted of narrow trail and some upper sections were way too flat (<10 degrees, on average 15-19 degrees) and chairlift was slow as. Trail itself was really short, too. So I got kinda bored after maybe 2 hours. Good beginner trail: 3RD VALLEY next to the Platter lift. Fairly wide, mellow gradient, groomed, uncrowded but platter lift was slow! The operation of the resort itself is subject to wind condition as much as Mt Hutt. Quite often the mountain shuts due to wind. Roundhill is a good hill for beginner and intermediate carver (15-20 degrees wide groomed runs) and Lake Tekapo is a good place to stay with thermal pool/toboggan/ice skating resort and fairly OK night life. Recommended runs are OUTER SPEEDWAY and AUD'S WAY off T-BAR LIFT and OZZI'S WAY next to T2 LIFT (wide nice groomed run but too short). On powder day, Rope tow (if you can handle it) provides steep wide powder runs. Canadian and US ski teams often train here. went there 4 weeks ago on powder day, and seriously it was like heli skiing whole day with no crowd and fresh powder whole day. Probably one of the best skiing days I've ever had in NZ... So skiing in NZ is like gambling; on powder day it's awesome but we rarely get it. Get your crystal ball....

For donek, bamboo core (one has to ask though), non-toxic and biodegradable ink for base and 50% non-oil based resin?

http://www.carvers.it/nuovi-scarponi-scarpa-da-snowboard-hard/#more-3813 To me it looks like an attempt to copy Northwave .950? Might come with similar price tag...

I'm not sure if skiing in NZ is worthy of being your dream. At the moment the real snow base at Mt Hutt would be around 70-80cm, the snow cover is worse than what we had in 24th of June and I'm not quite sure where the resort gets the measurement of 3-metre base from. However, Mt Hutt still boasts largest number of alpine carvers at any given time... 4-7. At the moment there are 4 Japanese carvers riding SG and Moss, me and a German riding Virus, a local bus driver riding old Burton. And the off-piste snow is firm so it's no fun. We seriously need another dump or two but the freezing level doesn't look good. Also I'm not sure surfing is a good idea in NZ during winter, since water is usually freezing cold. Tauranga Bay at the West Coast is a good spot, but far from everywhere including ski fields. I'd say if you mainly wish to alpine carve Mt Hutt might still be your best bet, followed by Roundhill. Otherwise both are quite boring. Not sure about Turoa, High Noon express chair serves some steep and well groomed runs and if snow cover is good it also tends to be wider. Alan, how does Turoa look? Haven't been to that place for the last 4 years, my life pass is rotting away... -Howard

NZ condition: ****e. Mt Hutt claims over 3 metre base, but that's complete BS I can tell ya. High temperature (5 degrees for the last 6 days) resulted in melting of most of snow outside the resort and even on the resort I can see rocks and pebbles at the unloading area of summit six, which is the highest point. One chairlift is down for rest of the season and the slope gets crowded and groomed slopes are ruined by lunchtime. Other resorts are not fairing much better... Had some good early snow coverage but high temperature is ruining them. For example at some stage Turoa recorded 11 degrees at 1,600 metre level in the middle of freaking winter. And that's after warm northerly wind has gone. I'd say for carvers go for roundhill.... Fairly good snow, fairly uncrowded. I've heard Aussie resorts are not going well. Well NZ resorts aren't going well either, Methven is unusually quiet at this time of the year.

Methven was ok, but 6 inch of snow. Bugger best day in a decade and I'm working!

1. Is 24- hour resin curing at room temperature superior to 30-minutes curing at high temperature? Compressive, tensile, shear bond strength at 24hr, 12- and 24-month period? 2. Does pre-milled cambered wood core retain camber and longitudinal stiffness better than traditional wood core? Cyclic fatigue testing at 6,000 cycles? 3. Appropriate torque for tightening binding into glass/carbon/metal boards? Maximum torque? Should number of turns for the binding screws be around 5 as some suggest?

Hans, you surely love to show off your Zylon board! ;)