SunSurfer

Hi @TLN, I'm saying that there are commercially available footbeds, at a reasonable price that may well support the soles of people with varying height instep, without needing to go the full custom footbed route. The insoles can be trimmed to fit the silhouette of a boot liner sole and with a little imagination one can tweak them in other ways. I use them in my own boots, tweaked of course, and find they provide me with adequate sole support. Cyclists need good foot support to pursue their sport.

The cycle company, Specialized, make footbeds with a range of instep support heights. https://www.specialized.com/us/en/body-geometry-sl-footbeds/p/130590 I use these, as well as Intuition liners in my UPZs.

Not always make or break if you get behind at the start. From a couple of years ago, I don't suck quite so much in the first few gates at Snowmass now.

Just tell the skiers to do the course without poles and on one ski!

And a maple leaf!

Just learned that there is serious evidence that movements made in time with music tend to be made more efficiently, with greater endurance and less oxygen consumed. https://www.minervamedica.it/en/journals/sports-med-physical-fitness/article.php?cod=R40Y2012N04A0359 I've stayed away from music when I'm riding to be more aware of my surroundings/other riders etc. I might have to reconsider.

No internal dialogue. Consciousness is filled with the sounds of wind and edge, sensations of balance and gravity, and eyes searching for space and smooth snow.

https://www.completeoutdoors.co.nz/search/?search=rad+air (Cleared with J Michaud) Came across three 192cm Rad Air Tankers, dating from the early 2000s, described to be in near new/shop soiled/demo'ed condition, for sale from a reputable NZ shop. They will freight to Australia and to some international destinations (not specified on the website). They apparently recently sourced a load of NOS stock (skis, boards etc) from Europe. I enquired about possibly buying just a Tanker board and was offered NZ$400 (US$270 approx. at current exchange rates) as a price by the shop. In the end decided against it as I don't see enough powder, and have a different purchase in mind in the near future. Figured there are people here who even at that distance might pull the trigger for a cambered Tanker in good condition. There are also a couple of Rad Air WorldWide boards in the linked search result at the time of posting. Enquiries should be direct to the shop. I'm just letting people know this stuff is available.

@Eric Brammer aka PSR

Just looked at your profile to see the likely bindings and angles you'd use for hard boots on a BX board. Your step in TD3 Sidewinders should give you some useful side to side flexibility at the 30/21 to 27/18 angles you list using on a BX style board. Playing around with some inward canting on both bindings may well help with the comfort issues on the inner aspects of your legs/feet. Using any residual tilt as toe lift on both feet would be my recommendation given you're in UPZs with an 11 degree zeppa and as your feet are going to be more beside each other rather than left in front of right. Given that you are trying to solve a comfort/fatigue problem then experimentation aiming for a comfortable & relaxed stance seems the way forward.

Not in Central Otago till August 2020. Glad you got to make some turns Nigel!

Martyn Ashton is a former World Expert Biketrials Champion. In 2013 he suffered a spinal cord injury while riding that left him paraplegic. A mountain bike video about good men, everyday heroism, and friendship.

Modern boards don't need to be monsters to have edge hold that will leave you weak at the knees. I own a Coiler Nirvana Energy Torsion + 174, with a 12-14m radius that turns pretty tight and holds brilliantly. It was the board I was riding in the video. I borrowed a Thirst Superconductor 174cm (thanks Pat C, the memories of that afternoon's riding are sweet) and was blown away by how tight it turned and how well its' edge held. Or go the Kessler route, either a 162 slalom or the freeride 168. I love my KST 162 for tight turns and heavy traffic but again edge hold that will leave you thinking "Damn. I should have spent more time building my quads over summer!" Edit: OR - Slim waist, turns so tight you'll see your own backside, and a lot of fun. The Donek Madd Killer.

I bought my UPZs from the North American UPZ dealer, taking advantage of an off season sale price. Prompt delivery to me in New Zealand. Bought the same mondo size as my old Head SPs and didn't regret that. Lots of threads on optimal boot shell sizing prior to installing a custom moldable liner. There are at least one pair of essentially new RC10 2016 model, the same model I own, in the For Sale section currently. Might be about your size given your height. Trench Digger (TDs) bindings are very strong but not indestructible. If you buy UPZs and then TDs try to get 6 degree cant discs to help compensate for the approx. 11 degree zeppa/slope on the boot inside sole. TDs have the virtue of being easily able to produce a wide variety of combinations of lift and cant. Given your preference above for lots of options TDs are probably the best for allowing relatively easy experimentation with lift and cant, compared to the F2s or the Sigi Grabner equivalent design.

Making do with 2 weeks in Aspen as a year's worth of hardbooting.

Just sent Led Zeppelin's "Physical Graffiti" through the DAC, but got to "In My Time of Dying'" (1975) http://youtu.be/kTdvekG949c and once the first few bars had played thought it sounded like a great Aussie band riff "Rock n Roll Ain't Noise Pollution". (1980) Judge for yourself http://youtu.be/X_IWlPHMziU

I respect your past experiences and riding style preference noted above. In the intervening years stance distances have increased. A longer stance increases the size of the base of support over which you balance potentially giving you more stability. For comparison I'm 182cm tall and run a 56cm binding centre to binding centre stance. Using that stance distance I run NASTAR at platinum level. There are new ways of thinking about how all aspects of your stance interact and therefore the effect of differing amounts of boot sole lift and canting. Much has changed since you last ride hard boot gear. To get the most out of the modern equipment will probably need modifications to your riding style as well. PS: replied too fast without noting that you were aiming to keep riding the Volant. Your stance length options may be much more limited as a result. F2 bindings now have the option of custom 3D printing wedge/cant combos to match the range of options available from the Trench Digger design.

Mario, you are a rich man!

A small resort has a concentrated risk going into a global heating future, a conglomerate with lots of resorts is presumably hoping to spread that risk. At some point however Vail will be left with a whole lot of resorts that are uneconomic and no one will want to buy them out. Not sure I'd want to be a shareholder in Vail.

So what do you think persuaded all these resorts to sell to Vail? Besides the actual money?

Dual cat drop racing? Which cat fur type drops faster? Does a live cat bounce more than a dead cat? @lordmetroland, where are you?

Watch carefully and the rotation of the skis, then body happens almost at right angles to his main direction of motion/ momentum. Like a rifled shell rotates along it's direction of motion.

Utilisation of any 4x4 insert plate system then depends upon what the actual spacing is between the front and back insert sets and what the designed offset is from the centre of the effective edge. I own a snowboard where the max C to C stance distance using the 4x4 inserts is 48cm, and another where the distance is over 60cm. Any design is a series of tradeoffs and compromises. Long isolation plates with long interaxle distances give greater torsional resistance but need to have their inserts in a thinner part of the core. Most plates have a restricted choice of interaxle distances determined by the holes that allow the plate to be screwed to the isolation mechanism. Bomber's 4x4 mechanism has considerable positioning flexibility to allow a working combination of the boards 4x4 insert packs and the BBPs interaxle distance options. But I still struggled to find good combinations on some of my boards. The advantage of a 12.9 cm X 3 cm pattern (Apex/UPM/????) or the AllFlex pattern is that the board designer has optimised the board's whole construction around a plate being used and fitting a plate is then generally very straightforward. 4x4 setups, in my experience, take much more fiddling to get the best performance.

Love the process occurring here i.e. some critical thinking about what the boot/binding interface between rider and board should achieve. Some other points to consider. 1/ The position of the pivot point between shell and cuff, relative to the rider's ankle joint. 2/ The position and angle of the straps/buckles that restrict the shell/cuff movement to minimise rider heel lift. 3/ Which axes of the boot do you want to be able to have significant movement, as well as being able to exert force. Current designs with spring systems allow fore/aft movement with variable force, while laterally very limited movement. Think about what a Bomber Sidewinder binding achieves and whether this is useful.

There are some YouTube videos up. Reality falls a little short of the CGI concept.