xy9ine

alas, seems all the cool japanese shapes are too narrow for we gaijin of more endowed foot size. both of the above are in the 25cm range. i've got a fullbag diamondblade, which is a sick hammerhead softboot carver (with a 265 waist), just looking at a wider carve happy pow playboard as a compliment.

everybody loves pictures. boom, fatty:

it's pretty! looking for something wider though. squash is 255; jones is 275, bean is 287. want square-er angles and no boot out. k2 is at the top of the list currently. though is quite short, with a long nose; just concerned there's not quite enough edge there for groomers.

all this hot weather has me longing for cooler days again. i'm fully committed to softboot carving currently, stoked on the slashy / surf style / new school japanese stuff that's going on. short, wide swallowtail shapes are kinda hot. powder happy, turny shapes that can rail an edge. boards like the k2 cool bean & jones storm chaser are piquing my interest (there's other more exotic examples out there, but looking at somewhat affordable examples). anyone have experience on these shapes that can attest to their carving ability (i'm going to assume they're more than adequate in the fresh)?

sick. love everything about this board.

had one snap there as well. i'm no machinist / metallurgist, but it looks like a cut, rather than rolled thread, and *seems* like a fairly obvious stress riser. anyways, scared me enough to sell them off and pick up F2's.

in terms of low heel cup profiles - with conventional binding design - it doesn't get much better than the thin aluminum heel loop / carbon highback of the el heffe. not much thickness there at all. the drake podium also looks quite good in that regard, but they're a rare bird.

skiboard / blade bindings. was not aware such things existed:

i rented a burner @ sunshine a couple years ago and was pleasantly surprised. had to run relatively steep angles, but it was a fun ripper indeed.

^love that vid. after dabbling in all sorts of hardware, i think i've found my happy realm.

comes with ginsu edges, alas: "This 195cm tip to tail skeletal bad boy comes with Magne-Traction® serrated edge grip technology a Banana Tech C3 camber dominant rocker/camber bottom contour and hard carving twin elliptical side cut."

sick:

looking forward to seeing what you come up with. the flock of japanese softboot carvers look super rad, but built for wee feet. there's certainly something to these types of designs; which - i think- has the potential to develop some legs in the n/a market as the interest in carving grows. a gateway drug of sorts, offering an easier point of entry than (relatively) unforgiving hardboot gear.

last night was sick. nuking non stop, with wind covering tracks nicely, and (relatively) small crowd = fresh turns every run. so good.

rad looking boards. the japanese are leading the charge. shame about the narrower widths (or my too large north american feet). wonder how long it'll take for the (larger) n/a brands to catch on.

the opera browser has built in free vpn. not sure if it works pointed north to CBC, but I've had no issues streaming US only content from Canuckistan.

that fat flux looks spot on.

yep. we of larger boot sizes need widths pushing 30cms. don't think that's going to happen any year soon w/ mainstream manufacturers, alas. random: i rented a board last year while on an out of town trip; decent spec, the longest & widest they had in the fleet. figured i'd try the default duck stance set up. first moderately aggressive heelside and i was on my ass, rocking down the hill on the heelcups. how do people ride these things?

liking this thread. would like to try square-er angles, but would need to buck up for custom to do so. even on my 265 wide diamondblade i need to run around 30-40* forward angles for my 9.5 drivers. curious if anyone has had success running risers (ie, donek bx plate) to achieve lower angles. bit of a tradeoff in angle vs height off deck, i assume. after a bunch of years oscillating between hard & soft boot setups (and running hard boots back in the 90's well before i had discovered proper carving), i've found my happy place with the contemporary carve happy softboot setup. we're still in the embryonic stages of development, with limited hardware options, but things are progressing in a positive direction. i'm fairly stoked about this.

the ride el heffe is a nice stiff binding with a low profile (aluminum) heel cup.

^that sounds like the bees knees. dream build.

if i had the coin, i'd totally be bucking up for a custom wide flux. not much out there in the realm of stock production boards however. needless to say, i'm very happy that the fullbag diamondblade exists, tho would like to dabble in something wider than it's 26.5cm girth.

love it. alpine hardware introduced me to carving technique, but modern carve-able soft gear is what really makes me happy. would be nice if there were more wide, non-wavy edged, cambered decks options out there, but hey. i am seeing quite a few more softbooters working their edges these days; does seem to be catching on.

yeah the stretchy toe cap is nice, but I'd like a wider ankle strap, and as you say, the ladders are snappy. what are you using for replacements? i actually need to source some new bits before the snow flies.