Puddy Tat

Forget the crimes against the other skiers and boarders. Did you notice how he was breaking at the waist in those turns?

I agree the switch carving is sick. I especially liked the sequence where you not only rolled into switch but then laid out two or three extremely respectible carves switch (at speed) before whipping back around. Very sweet. Note to self. Don't injure self early in the next season trying to ride switch.

How are your buckles snapping? I just picked up the UPZ RTRs this year, late in the season admittedly, so I haven't had time to give them a solid run, but the buckles are completely metal construction.

I'm not saying I can't carve as hard on soft boots as I can in hardboots. I'm just saying that I think the effort required to carve to the same degree is higher in softies. This statement is far less true than it was ten years ago, because modern soft boots are far more supportive, especially laterally. Ok fair enough the CK board is fourteen years old... I agree the technology changes. I don't have a real problem with this board for soft boot carving. It's essentially an all mountain board that is stiff enough that the nose won't fold and heavy enough that it won't get kicked around in the crud. Back when I was single and buying a board or two every year, I'd look at replacing it and eating mac and cheese for a couple of months. These days it's my wife and kids who have to eat that as well. If I bought a new board to replace this one I won't be riding it much after my wife kicks me in the kneecaps. :). She was good enough to let me replace my soft and hard boots this year. I'm only back boarding because I taught my six year old daughter (and had a friend teach my wife) to board this year. I can't reduce my boot angles because I'm 6'2 with a 10.5 to 11 foot. The Burton Driver X boot is a size 12. At 30/30 angles in softboots I was booting out and getting kicked out of my trench as I went into the midpoint of the carve. The Driver X boots didn't seem to have any problems with lateral support at the 45/40 angles though. Prior to this I was soft boot carving in a boot that was far less supportive than a modern freestyle softboot. So I'm not too suprised that I didn't have too many problems with the high angles. A board can be railed quite well in soft or hard boots. My main point of the original post was that I'm not sure if the softies will remain as consistently stiff over time as the hard boots will.

I agree the number is 121... I took another look at the boots the 1's are extremely stylized. You'll have to give me a break on that I picked them up 74 years ago... err I mean 14 years ago. I replaced these with the five buckle RTR's because the effort required to close the buckles when the boot was getting supportive enough to carve was ridiculous. I like the RTR's though haven't had enough time to get out and give them a serious run. If Rabbit hill in Edmonton hasn't closed I'll take them out on Friday and see what they can do. The couple of runs I have made on them at the (short) Edmonton Ski Club had them performing much better than the old 121s in terms of the support and amount of effort required. 14 year difference in technology (duh) :). I picked the UPZs over going with a Deeluxe (Raichle) AF700 (or Track 700) because I got a really good response from Dan Yoja when I was looking for boots in the last half of this season.

I think that, in spite of the changes in equipment in the past ten years, it still requires less effort for the same degree of railing in a hard set-up versus a soft set up. I'm making much of this comparison based on being out of riding for the past ten years. Got married, had kids, focused on rock climbing for awhile. The first thing I had to do this year was upgrade both my hard and soft boots. I'm now riding UPZ RTR hardboots (up from a set of old 1994 Raichle 727s) and Burton Driver X softboots (up from a set of Burton Comps). I was amazed with what a difference there has been in the past ten years. I'm riding the Driver X's on a 1994 Burton CK Slopestyle (173cm) with 45/40 angles and in the soft spring conditions yesterday I was stoking my ego on a groomed run under a lift with a forearm in the snow on every turn. I left the hill wondering what I could have done with the UPZs however. Because I bought the UPZ's late in the season I've only had a couple of runs this year to try them out, maybe seven or eight turns total. But they were far better to carve on than my '94 Raichles 727s. Back in the early nineties I used to think a hard set-up was required for serious carving. With the really laterally stiff "soft" boots I now see availiable, I question that assumption. I am fairly sure that the UPZ hardboot will maintain its stiffness characteristic far longer than my Burton Driver X boots. I also question whether a softboot will dig into serious hardpack the same way my hardboots have allowed me to. Next season - new bindings. Need something with ratching straps for the softies and something metal and step-in for my 1995 Oxygen freecarving board.