KingCrimson

Not to bring the OP's credibility into question, but either there was something wrong with the aluminum, or this is what the bike industry calls a JRA, "Just riding along" story. Guys, keep in mind that's a cant screw with the crack next to it. It's not only the mounting holes that failed. I think this eliminates the Bomber heel piece or it's placement as the culprit. That said, those outermost threads are scary close to the edges. I can't imagine how the canting area broke. Is it possible the plate was ridden with a loose kingpin but super tight and well-divoted cants?

Damn. I shoulda known Ohio would host the best freeride tastes.

Damn Julian, you're worse than me! ;) On topic, as far as Nuclear, hell yeah. I like the concept of using cyclic sources such as solar in conjunction with the electric car "battery" theory. However, I don't think it's yet feasible, nor prudent. I love when people buy freshly manufactured cars to save the world.

Buell talks about carving softies all the time. His wife has a softboot Coiler. You're one of those types who pisses and moans about the price of hardboots, buys some old garbage, complains about that too, and then dismisses plates, but still sticks around to talk about how unnecessary plates are. Yes, softboots WORK. My 180 alpine board WORKS in the pipe. Stop your vendetta too. I don't know what "deep" means. Angulation will get you just as high an edge angle as EC. It will be more stable, and in my opinion, much more aesthetically pleasing.

Valsam, nobody cares about your vendetta. Thanks for the video! For some reason I'm not surprised so many hardbooters shy away from racing after some of the big names post.. Way to keep the race course warm and fuzzy, guys.

Would you consider the Air with plates to be an alpine setup? That doesn't really seem to be a "carving" rig.

That's awesome! Just wait till he learns how to launch the spinnaker! We try to keep the boat flat with my 3 year old nephew because he really doesn't like heel. I couldn't imagine roll tacking!

I wasn't be specific in my first post because I wanted to keep the thread relatively broad. There are some "dark" periods in snowboarding that leave some questions about when the obvious split into dedicated carving happened. For the purposes of this discussion, I think alpine only includes softboots if we're referring to carving before the proliferation of hardboots. At the USASA Nationals, I asked Bruce Varsava what he thought of Hardboot BX racers' extinction. Slightly hunched over to keep the weight of his Apex-topped NSR on the safety bar, he described snowboard racing at a point when nobody knew if hardboots were faster or better. To me, this described a period prior to the obvious division between freestyle and alpine. What happened between this and P&J?

Nobody is going to agree with such an outlandish concept. Softbooters beat hardbooters all the time. In fact, in a "survival mode" course, softbooters often pull ahead with the mobility and flexibility their gear affords them. I'm surprised you have failed to recognize this in your many years. Either way, if they managed to dominate their regional races, it simply means that region is not an accurate reflection of the USASA as a whole.

Some of this is edited in the interests of sanity. Usprosnow- The softie riders are plenty competitive. Alpine events are way too small as is, we don't need more divisions. If anything, you're giving riders less incentive to pick up hardboot racing. Seperating softies from hardboots is only stunting progression. I think the overwhelming majority would agree. I just read the USASA thread @ http://usasa.org/index.php?option=com_kunena&Itemid=144&func=view&catid=8&id=568 I can't believe this is serious.

A fun little summer question.. When was alpine snowboarding widely recognized as a completely different discipline from freestyle/freeride? There was a period when everyone on pointy squaretails with the front foot at 45 and the rear straight, and then some years later, boards like PJs started showing up. There is a large gray area where you had guys like Sanders hitting the pipe in plates, and movies like One Track Mind with softboot racing. It seems like the Safari was the first alpine board, but was that nomenclature around?

Bastids! That is all.

Does that 19m board have snowboard inserts? I'm interested in trying it if it does.. For Lance's (slopestar) board, sneak 20cm waist in there. He needs to ride plates!

Do you have to pick your brake cables out of your teeth after a descent? ;) That's an awesome brazed frame, I love the pencil thin seatstays!

It's SoCal, because it's only easily accessable from the south in the winter. It's about 60 or 70% LA/Riverside county folks up there anyway.

I'd still rock the alpine deck. Not a whole lot of reasons to ride softies in SoCal. If we had more pow, better trees, and you did more park I'd be all for a BX rig, but it just doesn't seem suited to your riding. Even switch on squaretails and 60* isn't a huge problem. Chad, when did this work of art come about? Need a punkass kid to make sure it goes fast in snowboard mode? If you cut that nose square, decamber it 15cm from the nose, 10cm from the tail, and give it a progressive 14/17 sidecut, I'd be all over that. Of course, it needs a companion 163 with 10 cm decam in the front, 5 cm in the back, and a 10.5/9.5 sidecut!

When I started laminating, I opened up a whole new garbage can of failed possibilities. :( Can't wait to see more camber! And rocker of course.

What did you sink? I don't have any cool boat stories, the most dramatic was in a Catalina 22 race. One guy forgot about the right of way (or maybe honestly didn't see me, the boat had way too much activity for the ~10 knot winds!) and tangled his pulput in mine. That was weird!

That's I what I thought bjviricks was trying to say. Thank you.

Way, way, way deeper than in January after the massive storms when I was there. That's amazing!

Off the shelf BX boards will ride well for you as well. Big radii on the current year boards too! I'd stick with your Custom for tooling around and just get used to the alpine stance, in plates, on carving boards. Interestingly enough, it won't make much of a difference in your racing, but your general riding will be much faster and more fun. Not that you don't rip already!

Ohhh you're talking about the weird BX or AM style one. That coild be a good board for switch riding, but I think for an alpine board $300 would go a lot further in buying something like a used Coiler AM that would ride much better in both directions. The weird one is the 160 Soft flex..never seen one in person, but probably not good for you either way.

Well, I don't remember the Valdez terribly well (I was born 4 years after) but I do know that Exxon ended up paying a several billion in punitive damages, on top of the 2 billion they contributed to the cleanup. Yes they can just "fold" on the cleanup so to speak, but that is not limited liability in my opinion. We seem to be quite good at falling to sematics. :) Edit: Change of heart. Didn't want to remove my previous statement.. I guess I understand what you mean. The inability to pay is, in some manner, a release from liability. Certainly taxpayers are then left to foot the bill, but I would not call this "Obama Oil" by any means.

Inspired to ride plates after seeing ME? Easily impressed! :p We'll get you set up making race style turns no problem. You're already most of the way there, and I'm sure you already know most of it and need to time to get back on plates. It would be great to have another MH regular, it's usually just me and George!

One more weekend at Baldy, suckah!