SunSurfer

Just keep working on your lumbar spine flexibility. Older, stiffer backs love step-ins!

@Carvin' Marvin Was your rutting a problem before you became a Banana Bender with that yellow topped board of yours? You may have to sell it

Before you do anything else check that your boot cuff canting is optimised. 1/ Stance distance: Your stance distance should be in proportion to your leg length, NOT i) the reference stance for the board II) your shoulder width, your tibia length, your shoe size, the length of your erect p***s, or any other body part! The whole of your leg joins your pelvis (where your centre of mass is roughly) to your feet. To get you in the right area, I used to use 50cm, when I made the video above 54cm, and I'm now out at 56cm, on an inside leg length of 90 cm, and a top of greater trochanter to floor distance of 95cm. With greater distance has come better balance when absorbing bumps and better edge control. You will need toe lift under your front boot and heel lift under your rear boot for stance distances in that sort of proportion to feel relatively comfortable. Assuming your board will accommodate YOUR stance distance, place your bindings so that they are equally away from the centre of the front and rear binding insert packs. This will give the weight distribution the designer of your board intended and is a reasonable starting point. 2/ Binding angles: Now using the method from the first video, work out what binding angles will not result in boot overhang. Assuming your feet point relatively straight forward (not pointing inwards or outwards) the the front bonding being 5 degrees more angled towards the nose of the board than the rear binding is common. Softbooting with your toes and heels hanging over the edge of the board in duckfoot or even mildly directional stances is very different to alpine snowboard carving. One fundamental difference is that in a carved turn you DON'T turn the board, THE BOARD TURNS YOU! The video below describes skiing but the principles of edge engagement are fundamentally the same.

https://www.youtube.com/live/bJpa_60UlNE Eddie Aikau Big Wave comp live stream. Your local Jan 22 2023 start time will vary.

Not sure what sources of information you have consulted prioe to setting up your board, so I'm going to link you to a range of resources. https://alpinesnowboarder.com/tech-articles/ These were written some time ago and have been variably kept up to date. https://beckmannag.com/hardboot-snowboarding This was also written some time ago. Erik is a highly respected snowboard (and ski) instructor, who also makes custom boot insoles. His writing style sometimes makes what he is trying to express hard for others to understand. His boot setup notes have helped many. Finally, you almost certainly need a set of lift wedges for both your front and rear bindings. Even with your smallish feet you probably won't need canting after you've setup your bindings as per the first video above. Since you already have a Donek, I've linked to Donek's Parts pages. https://www.donek.com/product-category/accessories/parts/

A whole discussion thread about the interaction of SCR and flex.

Drooling! Google Earth tells me I'm coming just over 7,500 miles on a great circle track @228 degrees to get to MCC 2023. My boards are sharpened, waxed and packed, coming via Aspen, a conference, and a couple of days of @slopestar AFC session 2023. Boots and essentials as carry-on luggage just in case of baggage SNAFUs. Midsummer here in New Zealand, and flying out Jan 27th still seems unreal!

RATES, LYNCH, OPIUM

I always have to translate into American spellings! I aim to have used all the vowels and "Y" by the end of my second guess, and use "hard" mode. (all partially/fully correct letters retained) Tricky (good) Wordle words are things like "fluff" and "myths", while "bayou" got past me a while ago. Try Quordle if you want a slightly harder word puzzle. https://www.quordle.com/#/

Enjoy. Won't happen to me until ADIEU is the word.

If you can't do it on the beginner slope you won't be able to do it on the advanced slopes. Sounds to me like the muscle-brain links need to be rebuilt. That may take humility, deliberate practice and time.

On the other hand looks like NASTAR has a sponsor, at least for Aspen. NASTAR racing is shown online as FREE this year at Snowmass and Aspen Ajax.

I'm with @jim_s I don't own one but if my Kessler 162 ever dies ..... PS: weigh 180 pounds, contrasting @jim_s @Odd Job

Your'e presumably Dutch given your location. Dutch men are tall on average, and a 50cm stance may be too narrow for you. I'm 182cm with a roughly 90cm bare leg inseam measurement and ride a 56cm stance. Your stance distance should be in proportion to the total length of the levers (legs) that will be attached to the bindings. Your boots are listed as a type of UPS boot (? UPZ). Hard to know what the insole ramp angle is for them. You probably want to aim for a lift slope between 4-6 degrees front and rear. From your avatar it looks like you probably have a degree of boot overhang at your current listed angles of 57 Front & 54 Rear. Adjust your boot angles as per this video Your final bindings angles are still likely to be close enough to 60 degrees and the combination with a stance distance appropriate to your physique is likely to mean that you just need lift and NO CANTING in your wedges. So the long axis of each wedge needs to match the long axis of the front or rear binding in their mounted position and angles. If the axis doesn't match you end up with unintended canting. The Bomber bindings in the video have an elastomer base that a) spreads the forces the binding applies to the board and b) grips the board surface so that the binding doesn't rotate under load. See the recent thread on SG bindings rotating under load. Which CAD software you use and final materials you print with I can't advise you. You will probably need to make a completely original design to mesh neatly with your current Nitro Silver bindings.

Sincerely hope they work for you.

There is a current warm spell of weather in Europe that has caused quite a number of resorts to close for lack of snow midseason! https://www.theguardian.com/travel/gallery/2023/jan/06/alpine-ski-resorts-snow-shortage-in-pictures

I'll be waiting for next season's BarryJ thread "I should have bought UPZ!"

If you are more visually oriented this may help you understand the interaction between your body shape and your boots/bindings/stance. https://youtu.be/mBTTJMo6Me4 The video lays out what canting is, what lift is and why you might need either. It also contains a link to an ASB thread on 3d printing binding wedges. I have homemade binding wedges on my F2 Intec bindings. I made mine from exterior plywood with a sheath of fibreglass cloth/resin which I already had in my garage. Buying a second set of F2 wedges may be the fastest/simplest option.

I know that many recommend the Booster inside the tongue but I ride with my Booster straps outside the plastic tongue. Would that help the discomfort?

As another experimenter, I'll congratulate anyone who has the courage to show their experimental setups. The riders look relatively short for a 53cm stance (watch the vid with English captions). Lots of rear heel lift will make a long stance feel less stretched out. But the extreme canting also drives the riders rear knee forward and across the board towards the heelside, and the other knee. The resulting stance seems dysfunctional to me, with twist and slope of the rear leg forcing the rider to put most of their weight onto the front foot. The design of the cant/lift may have utility for someone trying to correct for one short leg or with significant skeletal misalignment.

@TopboostMaybe you could try searching the Forums for "hand armour".

Compare the angle of pull of the ankle level buckle for the Mountain Slope vs. the UPZ RCR 2023. My view is that the heel hold down in the rear boot is likely to be better with the MS boot due to this difference. The original Northwave .951 shell didn't suit my wide forefoot. (I've not had the chance to try an MS shell of the appropriate size). I've modified my rear UPZ RC 10 2016 shell to change the angle of the ankle buckle to more like the MS/Northwave with improved rear heel hold down the result. The UPZ shell does suit my foot with a wide forefoot and narrow heel. The UPZ shell also takes Intec/FinTec heels which is a requirement for me given my aging and inflexible hamstrings and lower back. Given the limited array of boot choices you have, any boot upgrade will be a compromise between factors that are modifiable and choice factors that are non-negotiable for the individual rider.

@pow4evero Compare your Mountain Slopes to your previous boots that presumably worked well. Both sole ramp angle and heel position are significant variables that may affect your relative position to the board edge. I've just been trying to find a thread where @Coreytalks about the technique things he reminds himself of when his riding isn't going the way it used to. New season and new equipment not riding well makes it a good time to remind oneself of the foundation of technique. Merry Christmas from NZ.

Illustrates at least one reason for "wind holds" on chairlift operations. A detachable chair, loaded with one person, generating a twisting force during a gust and detaching prematurely. Great the rider skied away unhurt, but operators everywhere are likely to take note and reduce their wind safety range for operating.

So many different possible reasons for knees to hurt that others experiences count for little in solving an individuals pain. Arthritic worn out knee Damaged meniscus inside knee Damaged ligaments inside and around knee Overweight (well known in medical circles that losing weight markedly improves knee pain) Poor quads strength Knee too flexed when under strain (saddle too low on a bike / trying to get too low on a board / front boot flexed too far forward) causing pain behind kneecap Misalignment of binding canting/boots/rider causing ligament strain and lateral knee pain. Etc.