xy9ine

speaking of which - wish they (ride) didn't ship the bindings in that silly suitcase. more crap for the landfill. drop the price of the bindings a bit & ship in a recyclable cardboard box like everyone else. also - the hardware seems a bit on the fragile side. broke a toe slider and a ratchet last season. and getting replacement small parts is a bit of a hassle. OTHERWISE, they're nice bindings.

i like the ride el heffe (with drivers as well) for a decent combo of light weight, stiffness, and a low profile aluminum heel cup, but the drake you're looking at seems to have a similar build. haven't heard any feedback on these, however; i'm a bit curious.

as per last year, rocking a quiver of one:

i was eyeing up a 170 ultrawide skunk (good deal opportunity); curious to try a superfat deck, but not ready to pop for a custom Donek. does it make for a passible funcarver?

i'd be down with a superfatty DB in the 28-30w range and a bit more length (170ish). a knapton special, if you were. granted, it would be a pretty small niche in an already small niche...

no idea why i'm reading this forum on the middle of summer... mig - i see your board lineup is mostly sold out now; plans for a fresh production run? anything new in the works? cheers!

the sg looks rad; comes in a 275 wide variant as well - intrigued...

not a bad looking board. huh. http://www.sgsnowboards.com/snowboards/soul/ curious if any of the japanese builders in the kagayaking vids are making wides. certainly seems to be some functional shapes.

i'm waiting for mig to produce a big boy version of the diamondblade. say something like 171 x 29. call it the machete.

love this setup. how are the flows working for you? i like the lack of (lower) heel loop, and the joined straps look decently supportive.

this.

Good riding with you - thanks for the tips. Getting the itch to break out the hardboots now...

love your work, Ryan. some very sweet progressive softboot carving. cool to see the idea is (finally) starting to catch on - i'm seeing more softbooters exploring their edges all the time. just need more board manufacturers to catch on.

i saw the mk in the rack @ cypress yesterday - wondered who's that was. looks badass (and sounds like good fun).

i prefer the inclusivity of carving community. hardware is secondary, imo.

the diamondblade is a fantastic / versatile softboot freecarver. lots of effective edge w/ the bluntness, some fore / aft decamber for slarvy forgiveness, and a bit of camber and tighter (than BX race decks) scr giving a quick, playful ride. a fairly unique set of specs - that just happened to be exactly what i was looking for. rad board / great value.

i think there's definitely something to wide softboot carving setups. i've more or less ditched my hardboot gear for soft, so i like something that won't boot out when carved hard. on my 26.5cm wide fullbag, this means 36/30 angles (with shortish sole length 9.5 drivers & el heffe bindings, which have a thin metal heel loop). the stiff boot / binding provide pretty decent lateral stiffness, so this setup feels pretty awesome to me. an even wider deck with flatter angles could be neat though.

on a quest to eliminate boot out as well as reduce angles as much as possible, this is what swayed me towards the driver - the "shrinkage technology" purportedly drops sole length about 1 size. i haven't done any proper statistical analysis, but they are nice & compact, and certainly shorter than my previous boots.

i love my drivers out of the box. really impressed with the support they give - so much so i didn't touch my hardboot setup last year (though mig's kickass board had a lot to do with that as well). also love the (much) lighter weight of the softie setup. not to mention comfort. ease of walking, etc. been on hardboots exclusively for a bunch of years; coming back to (modern) softies was a bit of a revelation. the current crop of light & stiff highbacks rock as well. the seasonal stoke is coming on strong for me...

love the graphic. i think the contrasting logo color works; nice bit of pop. i'd lose the scratched out madd tho; the design is referential in a nicely subtle way without it.

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this would be the bees knees. so to speak.

what's the blunt weapon 4th from the right? and: damn, gone for a decidedly all-mountain selection this year, huh? oh yeah; my 2015/2016 quiver pic:

haha; perfect.

the diamond blade rocks ass, indeed. plus, if you're from the US, they're dirt cheap with the exchange rate.