SunSurfer

In NZ on Mt Ruapehu we recognise "Turoa powder". It's blue, transparent, and melts in the afternoon. Marginal temperatures will do it for you every time with thaw/refreeze cycled repeatedly. I think ice skates are the only appropriate equipment for it!

To get the boot sole to sit flat on bail binding heel and toe units the answer is that a sloping shim is necessary at both ends. Intec heels are more forgiving because the heel rides on the Intec pins, not the boot heel sole.

For F2s, the absolute height of the higher wedge, for any given degree of lift, varies with sole length. In my experience, and I've tried it, angles of lift greater than 6 degrees start to run into issues related to the angle between the now sloping heel and toe units while the bolts attaching them to the metal base are still perpendicular to the base. That's in part why I, only slightly tongue in cheek, suggested Bomber might want to look at some more cant disc angles including a 9 degree for racers rear feet. I source my extra length bolts etc. from a local stainless steel fastenings company. Almost everything I want is in 304 or 316 grade marine stainless. I then trim the bolts to suitable length so they don't gouge my boards using a hacksaw, then file, then thread die to finish, for the wedge/binding I'm using them in.

I must have heavy F2s. My metal base plate large F2 Intecs are essentially the same weight as my non-sidewinder TD3 Intecs. TD3S are able to produce nuanced lift and cant within the range of the 0, 3 & 6 degree base plates. Their toe and heel pieces stay firmly in place. F2s can be canted and wedged outside that range if you're prepared to fabricate your own parts. Now, if I can just persuade Jim C to produce 4.5 and 9 degree bases for me to have a play with on my TD3S. ;-) I have a theory, linking anatomy & geometry, that predicts if your boot shells are canted so that your boot soles are flat on the floor (with feet same distance apart as if you were straight line gliding on skis), then for binding angles 60 deg +/- 5 most people will need no canting. At lower angles progressively more inward canting will be helpful. At higher angles progressively more outward canting will help comfort. Strangely enough with the Trench Digger bindings setting the 3 or 6 degree cant discs to 60 deg and just rotating the binding plate to the desired angle produces this result as a first approximation which can then be tweaked to the riders final preference. Playing with Scott Firestone's Trench Gear 3D app is the best way to appreciate the fine tuning that the Bomber bindings uniquely provide in today's market.

Corey, get back into your workshop and build your own wedge/cants. Exterior plywood and epoxy/fibreglass or Dynel makes fine and durable heel and toe blocks for F2. My biggest gripe with F2 Intecs is the creep I get in the toe bail position over the course of a day or so's riding.

Thanks John. 2 big quakes about 4 months apart hit Christchurch, The second was the more destructive, and hit just as people thought the aftershocks of the first were dying down. This quake sequence, with its initial quake(s) 30 times more powerful than Chch 2nd quake, is hitting a much less populated part of the country but has blocked the main road and rail route in the northern half of the South Island with lots of very large landslides. Kiwis are also mentally giving thanks for a building code that is well regulated and results in modern buildings that rarely catastrophically fail in a major quake. You may not be able to use them without extensive repair but at least you can walk out rather than come out in a body bag. We're practiced at this, though you don't get used to it. A national insurance scheme for earthquake damage underpins people's personal insurance. Our schools teach what to do in a quake. All part of living in the Shakey Isles on the Pacific Ring of Fire. Or California.....

Watching a hard boot snowboarder carve beautiful turns is a danger to your mental health. Deciding you'd like to learn to do that is even more dangerous to your sanity and your wallet. You'll start hangin' out in places like Bomberonline, where the crazies are. I was once like you. Turn and run now, before the addiction to the edge bites. To follow this path is the way to Maddness.

28 recorded quakes in the last hour alone on official GeoNet app along a network of faults 200-300 km long. It's like the whole northern half of the South Island is creaking and groaning.

Just another way to keep challenging yourself.

All my family safe after last night's big shake. It was the strongest and longest I have ever felt. At the worst I didn't want to be standing and was crouched under the lintel of the nearest doorway.

Place: Captain's Basin @ Cardrona in Central Otago, NZ, It's 9am and the run has just been opened by ski patrol, midweek, mid-August. Board: Coiler NSR 182 extended UPM inserts, Bomber 4mm BBP interaxle distance @ 69cm, fixed axle at front, TD3 Intecs. Bindings @: 54cm (approx 0.6 X my inside leg measurement) C-to-C, 7cm from front binding centre to front axle (so it sits underneath and midway between ball of my foot and the tip of my big toe). 6 deg rear heel lift, 3 deg front toe lift, both discs set at 60 deg. Front binding plate @ 65 deg (effectively a tiny amount of outward canting), rear binding plate @ 60 deg. Rider: 57 yrs, 182cm, 82kg, 90cm inside leg, heavily modified Head Stratos Pro boots, fixed position front with lower leg approx. vertical, BTS blue rear. And all the tech melts away and in 2 turns we are flying.................

I was thinking more of the video I posted at the start where there are a range of angles in use, and the riders show static stance poses at the end. Agree the female rider in the second vid has forward facing bindings, and the guy in the 2016 Infinity vid has a front foot angle up around +45 degrees. Whatever, the riders are far more flexible and rotated than my 57 yr old spine is capable of riding comfortably (60Rear, 65Front).

I had the same thought, carving optimised boards being ridden well in soft boots. Also impressive core rotation flexibility to manage the sideways stance and the mostly forward facing upper body position.

If it was me, if i was happy where I had my boot flex, and didn't have a specific change in function I wanted to make/try, I'd leave well alone. Spoken as someone who likes to analyse/understand his equipment, has made numerous mods ands likes to experiment.

Have to drill some holes.

Hi Duncan, great to see a Kiwi doing well! From your blog it looks like the boards you have for sale are with you in the USA? Might help the chances of a sale if you make that clear.

Like b0ardski I go outside the square. Hand armour. If your curiosity is piqued search BOL "hand armour".

Saw this and thought it deserved to be here. These riders carve with impressive style.

Ski poles & a hookah? I'm so tempted now!

I'm always amazed at how much deshaking the human eye and brain manages to produce in real life. I generally set Deshaker, when using a GoPro or other fixed focal length camera, to make no/minimal zoom compensation of any kind in either the first or second stage of Deshaker processing. Try playing with the motion smoothness, I quite like 200 for taking out the worst shakes without making the black borders too big, while 10,000 makes for very smooth video but large borders. I set the zoom motion smoothness to 0.0001. Get hold of the Cineform codec to use in Deshaker to allow your .avi output to be directly accepted by GoPro Studio for further editing.

This is a good place to start reading.

Noticed that cracker has no cheese on top. I've found that mature NZ cheddar has great damping properties when the groom gets chopped up later in the day. But hey, if you only get to ride perfect groom you'll probably prefer a "naked" saltine.

Loved the bodysurfer and the rage scene!

To be consistent Jack's 2016 Poll thread should probably be locked or removed.

SES 2013 Intermediate & Steeps Clinic videos have been reuploaded to YouTube.