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xy9ine

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Posts posted by xy9ine

  1. Plenty of riders carve on their snowboards. Most do it on softies.

     

    i am seeing more guys dabbling with carving on softies these days - which is cool (i'm back on softies now, and the setup shreds). as blueb suggested, it's really not about the hardware as much as technique. hardboots / alpine boards are always going to be a niche segment due to pricing / limited availability / and a relatively steep learning curve. that said, if softboot carving catches on, we may see a bit of a trickle over to alpine sales, as more people discover the awesomeness of the carve. barring that, it's great to see companies like fullbag & donek building carve-happy softboot boards. like the original poster, i think carving kicks so much ass, i'm dumbfounded why more people don't do it, but i'm selfish, and ok with keeping the secret among we few. don't want the runs to get too rutted up. 

  2. pretty sure the bomber bails are stainless steel. i've broken a bomber bail (which is a good bit thicker than an f2), which makes me a bit scared of any plate binding fwiw. 

     

    i do like the light weight & flex of the f2, but they do appear a little fragile. mine have been problem free, however, so optics only perhaps. 

  3. Ha you parked it right next to my skis on the rack! Awesome looking stuff. Board looks bugger and fatter then advertised. I'm sure it will ride pow pretty good with that rocker nose.

    I was surprised how flexy were those carbon highbacks, though.

    yeah, couldn't miss the virus skis, so parked alongside. how'd they work? certainly look pretty.

     

    i couldn't really discern any binding flex with the stiffness of the drivers; they're near hardboot stiffness out of the box. quite surprising, and are taking a bit to get used to after my (evidently) very broken down old soft boots. i had to dial in more forward lean on the highbacks because the boots were so stiff. 

     

    The carbon version has a "sorta" rotating highback. You can take the female part of the screw assembly and flip it 180 degrees on either side to adjust the rotation. So it only has a couple settings. The pre-carbon versions of the El Hefe allowed for more gradual and noticeable rotation.

     

    i didn't even notice the limited rotational adjustment till i had them in hand. though i am running steeper angles (42-39ish i think), they still seem to offer decent lateral support (again, stiff boots). haven't got things dialed, yet, regardless. more tweaking to do. 

  4. looks like the el hefe has moved to the front of the line, then. cheapest of the lot (based on current cdn online deals), too. the now o-drive does look badass, but again, can't find a good deal on them. 

     

    the ride insanos do look good, as do the malamutes, but the driver is the best price i can find currently (about $300cad). 

  5. time to upgrade my softboot interface. i think i'm somewhat sold on burton driver boots - they appear to be one of the stiffest out there, and claim the footprint measures 1 size smaller than a typical boot; i'm trying to minimize binding angles, so this is a good thing. the salomon malamute was previously in the running, but it's apparently a fairly long boot, so it got kicked too the back of the line. anyone with intel on the 2016 driver?

     

    on to bindings. currently in the running: burton diode, ride el hefe, flux dm. the stiffest, carbon injected, cream of the crop. the diode has a bit thicker heel loop, which takes it down a tick (ie. less snow clearance). the el hefe has an adjustable heel to fine tune fore - aft foot position on the board, though sounds like it might offer slightly less lateral support than the flux & diode (based on randomly scrounged reviews). anyone ridden any of these with real world carving insight?

     

    cheers! 

  6. Just received this neat thing - Fullbag Diamond Blade. been looking for a dedicated softboot carver for a bit, and had no idea these existed until recently. Ticks all my want boxes, and is fait au Quebec to boot. Mig - the proprietor at fullbag is super cool & helpful as well. Will be riding a couple days this weekend & will report back. 

    post-1894-0-23153700-1454695859_thumb.jp

    • Like 5
  7. i've got a diamond blade on the way. funnily enough i just learned about fullbag via this thread. had no idea the boards existed previously, but had been scouring the internets for something like this, to no avail. i've been totally inspired by the japanese kagayaking videos; love the charging softboot style. looks like most of them are running blunt bx shapes, but bx scr's are typically quite a bit larger than what i want (and $$). numbers on this look spot on, and i'm stoked to be supporting a cdn company. 

    • Like 1
  8. yeah, whistler certainly has the snow currently. hard to justify the $$ with a family in tow, though (we've got cypress passes), and it's always such a gong show in terms of crowds (if you're limited to weekends). heading up to silver star in a couple weeks; i like the interior & the relative lack of population. great carving terrain out there; fewer pylons makes it that much better. 

  9. whoa, the diamond blade looks fun. been browsing for a dedicated softboot carver; this sounds cool. how's the liveliness of the hybrid rocker / camber construction? i'm a bit wary of rockered boards (just speaking generally) - not a fan of noodly, and like some pop out of the tail.  

     

    any construction details? where are these built?

     

    thanks!

  10. i need to pick up some new stiff softies. had the malamutes / drivers in mind as well; will come down to fit. 

     

    also deliberating a new stiff binding. i have some burton c60's currently, which aren't bad. picked up some diodes, but the size large was too big for my sz 10 boots (too much heel overhang relative to the toe). light and stiff, but the heel piece on this (and the c60) is a bit thicker than i'd like - having to run steeper angles than i'd like to avoid booting out. seems there's a gaggle of stiffer options out there now - dm flux, now drive, ride el heffe, salomon quantum, union fc, nitro machine... anyone with recommendations based on a carving biased application? 

  11. Ryan's incredible, he proves that even a 30cm wide board can carve well with soft boots. I'm no where near his level.

    I'd consider one of your boards Sean. Do you have any demo boards that are less than 160cm, 26 cm waist? With a flex that'll work for a 135 pounder. A custom board is beyond my price point.

     

    i'd be all over this 29.5 cm incline - if the cdn greenback hadn't been decimated as of late. i have to run 40-45* on my "regular" softboot boards to avoid booting out. would love to try a wide deck & some square-er angles.

     

    demo-P-Front.jpg

  12. Sorry I forgot to answer when you first asked. They are 10 mm. I might also have a pair of fancy gray ones, I forgot what are they called.

    I was going to offer you raisers and Nidecker Carbon 800 bindings with spare highbacks for the F2s...

    Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk

    what size are the nideckers? i bought some size large burton diodes; turns out they're too big for my sz 10 boots, and get too much heel overhang. really light tho. 

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