SunSurfer

I suggested the idea of using more screws to Jim C when I first discovered the problem, in particular a centre screw at the rear of the ring. Jim didn't think it necessary, but I'm weighing up a range of reinforcement options for my replacement base plate.

Saw this baby in Snowmass Village. Half the time I think it's great, and the other half I'm struggling with the idea of the roofbox & driving a Lambo on winter roads. Ah well, if you have plenty of money .........

Bomber TD3s are built pretty solidly, "bombproof" construction, the website says. Yet I've just discovered that my riding style produces significant bending forces on the rear of my rear binding, and over thousands of turns over 4 years metal fatigue and failure finally occurred at the points where the mounting screws go through the baseplate to the cant disk. On my last day in Snowmass after ATC I thought I wasn't riding as well as usual and then I felt an odd "crack" under my rear boot. When I finished riding and the snow melted I found what you can see in the photos. I've e-mailed Jim Callen and he replied "I see it a couple times a year. It's usually from bigger riders who ride hard, after a couple years of riding them." I'm 182cm and 82 Kg (6 feet, 180lbs approx.) In a while I'll order a new base plate. The failure is clearly wear and tear. I'd never seen anything on the Bomber Forum about this kind of problem. So, periodically check your TD3 binding plates for cracks, because, strong as they are, they are not indestructible.

Ice Axe

Have had double elastic Booster straps on from the word go. I suspect that part of the reason it's only a issue on the rear boot is that I ride with the springs set to allow a lot of fore/aft flex on the rear.

A shout out here for Richard Knapp who took the Steeps Clinic at Snowmass in 2015. Learning to gently lean onto my downhill edge on a traverse, feel it grip then downweight into the 'stacked" body position, lean into the turn and ride it round transformed my riding. Slot and Ruthie are fun now, to be carved not slarved.

Two days (28th January 2017) into a 16 day snowboarding trip to the USA and I develop a reddened, almost blistering area over the front of my rear boot shin, just below the top of the boot cuff. The boots are UPZ RC10s that I've only recently bought to replace my Head Stratos Pros. I'd developed a similar problem after 8 days riding in the same boots last August in NZ. So I put my thinking cap on. This has the potential to ruin a much anticipated trip. Blisters are commonly caused by a shearing/rubbing injury on the damaged tissue. Hypothesis: The problem is being caused because my sock & the boot liner cuff material are sticking rather than sliding past one another, and the subsequent movement of my leg as the boot is flexed/deflexed is creating shearing forces that are directly transferred to my shin skin as a result. Experiment: If I protect the reddened area with a blister pad, then decouple sock & liner with some thin friction reducing layer, the problem should settle down. I take a Glad snap-lock plastic bag and cut out one wall, then attach Velcro hook dots to each corner to hold it in place against the sock. Result: It's now Feb 7th, and I've ridden every day since. The reddened area had completely healed within 4 days, I've continued to have a blister dressing over the spot just in case, and there has been no recurrence. I've been riding 25,000 to 35,000 vertical feet every day in between and pushing the limits of a new Coiler Nirvana Energy.

Took delivery of a Nirvana Energy 174, 20cm waist, 12/14m SCR, 0.4mm Titanal, P-Tex top on Jan 27. Had been hankering after one since SES 2015 when I rode and loved an NFCE T+ (.3mm Titanal) of the same dimensions. Snow in Aspen has been more of the hero kind than Ernie's experience above, but I'm not complaining. Superb edge hold, I evenly wore away the base wax from around the corner of the hybrid nose to the tail for 2-3cm in from the edge on it's first day. It digs great trenches! I found it easy to manoevure at lift queues, sideslip/hockey stop. My poor technique led to one episode of control loss where just as I'm about to lose the edge completely, I feel the nose grip and then the rest of the edge just followed down the line and I was back in control. I have ridden it predominantly without a plate, which is very unusual for me. I tried it for a day with my 4mm BBP and it's Cadillac smooth, but I actually prefer it without. The 0.4 Titanal and the P-tex make it very damp so it soaks up the afternoon crud with aplomb. It still has enough pop to make for an airborne transition if you want to go that way. I am a better rider when I'm on it. I have carved runs like Slot @ Snowmass with afternoon snow conditions that would previously have had had me slarving my way down. My ride report Summary to Bruce echoed Ernie's first picture above: "I'm in love!"

Even Benjamin Karl, who started the whole isolation plate revolution off and who has ridden that same plate design from the beginning, was on an Allflex plate.

Sitting here in Southern Hemisphere summer mentally drooling! I'm not jealous, really, not at all!!!!! :-)

If it feels good, do it! (Actually, that applies to Max and his girlfriend too ;)) ) Jack, I agree with you, but up to a point. It is a whole lot easier to breathe in when your abdominal muscles are relaxed than when they are firmly tensed and bracing your core. But the whole cardio respiratory response to sustained exercise is incredibly complex, and still relatively poorly understood. A myriad of sensors, effectors, and feedback loops, all happening without conscious thought on our part, deliver vastly increased amounts of oxygen to our working muscles, and deal with the carbon dioxide produced, as well as buffering the lactic acid when we're really going for it! The respiratory centre in our brainstem does the job of controlling frequency and volume of breathing. I know from undergoing formal cardio pulmonary exercise testing that at peak exercise I can move in excess of 120 litres per minute in and out of my lungs, compared with 5-6 litres at rest. And it will all happen automatically, without any conscious thought on my part. So, don't overthink it. Your body knows best.

Don't overthink it. Breathing is too important a function to be left to the conscious parts of our brain for final control. It's got to keep on going when we're asleep, drunk, or even completely preoccupied with driving the heelside edge in....... If you really want to get into what happens to breathing, heart function, blood flow, and oxygen transfer during exercise at altitiude you could do far worse for an authoritative source than reading what the Centres for Disease Control have published. https://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/sgr/pdf/chap3.pdf Personally I'm with Jim & Mario. Singing is good, making Ferrari Testarossa at full noise exhaust sounds is better, just having fun is best of all!

Just measured the diameter and thickest & thinnest points of my 3 and 6 degree TD3 cant discs. Have done the maths and the discs have, as close as makes no odds, 3 & 6 degrees of slope. Can't say I'm surprised that Fin was right on the button with his machining.

Are you making the measurements with the bindings mounted on a board? Even with board base pressed down onto a flat surface the changing core thickness will alter the apparent angle. Also have you zeroed your angle meter before making the measurements? I have made both of these errors in the past.

Hot still have an online archive of 90s and early 00s models. I'll post the link later. Edit: http://www.hammersnowboards.com/Archives/site2006_2007/products/hotsnowboards/hot_archives.php Full Archive http://www.hammersnowboards.com/Archives/site2006_2007/products/hotsnowboards/1994_1995.php (You'll find your Spot here) Hot made good boards. I've just picked up a 1996-7 Blast 168cm (13m SCR) in good shape, and I've ridden for a number of years a red 2003-4 Blast 160cm slalom board.

Ryan, that's just high speed manspreading.;-) Where's your beer and TV remote?

You could always try asking if Transworld have it on file somewhere..... http://snowboarding.transworld.net/contact/

:-)

Unless you understand what you're trying to achieve with boot flex the process of altering it has no direction. Boots allow a rider to apply controlled pressure to the edges of the board in order to make it carve. The boots and bindings together allow a degree of motion that allows us to soak up the bumps and ruts a rider encounters while in motion, both carving and skidding. Hard snowboard boots flex primarily forwards and backwards. They are not designed to flex sideways. People ride loosely set-up bail bindings or save up and buy Sidewinders for serious lateral flex. BTS and other spring systems, as well as the inherent rigidity of the plastic in boot shell, cuff, and tongue, plus the liners, all contribute to how much fore and aft motion is possible. How much is desirable depends on which style you are riding, and may differ between front and rear boots. Are you racing, riding binding angles > than 50 degrees or < 50 degrees, riding in Pure Boarding style, or an extreme carver. Your boot flex needs will vary depending on your style. A stiff forward flex allows precise application of pressure in the toe of the boot. A soft forward flex makes it less precise but allows a greater range of knee bend and possibly a lower body position. A stiff rearward flex allows precise application of heel pressure. Finally note that in the original description of how to set up the BTS system Fin has placed a photo showing different coloured springs on the same boot, allowing different flex fore and aft. If you don't know where you are going any road will do. As an example, I ride 65/60 degrees and apply edge pressure from the lateral parts of my boots. I have BTS only on my rear boot with it set very soft to allow lots of rear knee bend to soak up the bumps and allow me a lower body position deep in my turns. My front boot is locked in position allowing precise weighting of either front edge. This set-up is not applicable to someone riding lower angles who weights their edges with the front heel heelside, and the rear toes toeside.

Try setting it up next time with fixed axle at the front, between the ball of your foot and the last bone in your big toe. Set the rear axle so that, if possible, the bindings are equidistant from the plate centre and their nearest axle. This gives a very direct feel under the front foot. For many riders this will mean setting their plate at the maximum interaxle distance their UPM/4X4 inserts can manage. I now have a number of old boards with an extra set of inserts to allow a UPM plate to have a 68cm interaxle distance.

There are distinct differences between riding shallow binding angles < 50 deg, higher angles 50+ deg, Pureboarding style, and extreme carving style. Corey was not taking a Pureboarding clinic. I've been on one of Joerg's clinics and Corey's clinic. Aracan, you are conflating two different styles.

And as your knees get older, and with climate change snow conditions will gradually worsen, you'll appreciate an isolation/isocline plate more and more.

Sitting here in the Southern hemisphere summer, I need a beer after reading your posts, to replace the fluid lost from my jealous salivating!

The inverting of the nut/bolts that hold the toe and heel blocks in place on the SG design, nuts now in the blocks rather than the base plate, is a significant improvement in the ease of adjustability.

Yamifumi, Glad to read you've found a sweet spot. What are the cant/lift disc angles you are running with those binding angles? That will tell your readers precisely what lift and cant combination has worked for you.