Transistor Rhythm

Maybe you should keep in mind that for someone not from North America the price difference between TD3 and F2 is much bigger. I would definitely buy TD3's if I would live in America because they're just $70 more expensive, but in Europe you pay €350 for them while F2's are easily found for €170 - that's twice the cost! About new boots: I've tried a few shells buying them second hand off eBay Germany. That way I found out Deeluxe 700's just don't work for me, although it's a good boot. I could only find that out by riding them, as they were right in size and did not show obvious problems while fitting. Also I could get some practice in cutting and modding without the danger of ruining brand new boots. If I were you I would definitely try to hook up with other carvers in your region as most people are willing to let you try their board. I have tried many boards that were bigger or more expensive just to learn I like riding the first board I've bought most on a day by day basis.

Swoard 175XH could be good for a guy as huge as you. Nice width, and the flex is pretty soft (but it can be stiff compared to a lot of factory boards because those boards arent built for your weight/height). But you really need to stick to the rotation/push-pull/extremecarving school of riding, this is not a Kessler-style racing board that launches you into the next turn. Donek and Prior can do a custom board, as well as some more expensive boardmakers (like Virus). If you're looking at importing a new or used board from America already, I would go custom. F2 Silberpfeil Vantage might be good too. But a lot of stock boards might just be too soft for you.

A 179 4WD has much less contact length than the Kessler 180, that exists almost entirely of effective edge because it has almost no nose or tail. The Kessler also has a much bigger radius (I see 17 meters quoted somewhere, 19 for the 188!) than the 4WD. The Kessler 162 has about the same radius as the 4WD and that's definitely a SL board. EC boards are about 12m, but you have to keep in mind that not every radius of 12m behaves the same. Both Kessler and Swoard boards are soft compared to earlier race boards, so they bend more while carving, changing the effective radius too. Still I think the 4WD will be a good crossover board that still sees use after you've bought a bigger board and you should be able to get very low or completely laid down it with it.

F2 titanium bindings are already very good, especially for a beginner. People win worldcup races on them. That's good enough for me ;) What kind of snowboarding do you want to do? Extreme Carving, or short pumped slalom turns, or more like all mountain with some powder and moguls while you're at it? How many years of softbooting experience do you have? Are you already carving? I would advice a SL or more all mountain type of board to beginners, shorter boards are easier to turn and will carve at slower speeds. Riding longer boards while not have the necessary skills was a bit of a waste of time for me. Imagine yourself doing carves on a steep red or black slope with a 20M radius. Even if you do have the muscle to hold those turns you're still scared ****less as a beginner! ----- That 4WD could be a nice board as it's wider, not a huge radius and still a bit bigger and stiffer because you're a big rider.

Longboards have probably been made popular by great riders and homebrew companies, so we need to get more cool riders out. We need more people like J&P or Casper that show new exciting stuff to the people, and how versatile you can be with hardboots. So often you hear "oh you can only do this or that with hardboots", while this is not true. Maybe I wouldn't do pipe or park with it, but the rest: no problem. I heard about nosepress competitions in PureBoarding clinics, or that old video with a rider doing backflips in hardboots, guys like philw riding powder, that's just the stuff we need.

Riding a snowboard with soft- or hardboots is essentially exactly the same thing, just a minor variation in gear. Like a regular skateboard versus longboard. It's just marketing what separates us.

15 degrees isn't that bad if you're knock-kneed, I have 10-15 degrees of splay too.

I think at the moment we pay €1.60 (cheap) - €1.70 (next to a highway) for a liter of gas in Holland. That would be about $2,24 / L or about $8,50 a gallon, am I right? And no, we don't drive any less because of it. Maybe we drive more fuel efficient cars, but not a mile less. ------- About healthcare: my father in law got a pacemaker this week that costs €20,000, excluding four hours of labour to put in. That's worth more than ten years of my insurance. It did put things in perspective for me. @C5Golfer you seem to pay double as much as I do for healtcare. How come?

The nice thing about getting lower and lower in turns is I don't fall from the same height as I used to in my static standing and scraping days. I still fall every day (except for indoor days mabye) but never in a painful way. I once had a head on collision with another goofy footed carver taking over and making the same hard toeside turn I was making regular footed. That's really scary...you see it coming but you can't get out of the way anymore...

Deeluxe must know what a lot of people do to a brand new pair of their boots? If the boots were built with a system like BTS (not RAB ) and a lower heel flap they could make the plastics a lot stiffer while still having a boot that flexes really well.

What kind of style do you want to pursue? Extreme laid down carves, 'bomber style' carving, racing, powder.....it can lead to different kind of modifications, stiffer or less stiff springs. IMHO fit is the most important part about boot selection, for a lot of people the 325's are just more comfortable than the 700s, but I think technically the 700s are the better boot. I also think they are boots that require the least amount of hacking of all boots still being produced for getting the soft forward flex required for extreme carving. Some people like stiff boots, other people want that really loose forward flex. If you buy 700s (without the RAB spring system) or 325s you can put them into 'walk mode', it will completely loosen up the forward flex. If you like this kind of riding, get a BTS with soft spring (I did after trying this). Don't ride walk mode for too long because it will not protect you from hard impacts! BTS is a more a safety measure than anything else to me! I think especially for beginners it is nice to have a lot of forward flex, unless you are a really good snowboarder that wants to start serious racing.

+1 Love the versatility.

My Indy's at M28 are always causing severe pain at my heels, and only halfway through the day I feel the heel has no problem staying in the heel pocket. Also the toes were a bit narrow at the side of my little toe. With my Blax (Head) boots M29 boots I had a really great fit in the morning, but the liners would pack out after a few hours meaning loss of control. I was planning to get some new M28 Head Stratos Pro's to replace the Indy's, but if the heel pocket is even smaller than my Indy's I would have severe problems with that boot. Can this really happen going down just one size I've tried on M29 Indy's that had severe heel lift problems for me just trying them on carpet.

I had softer Blax boots, and the kidney shaped hole was like a hard stop for my forward flex. The flaps in the rear jammed the forward flex a bit but the full stop was because the of the hole. Cutting the flaps only made the motion until the hard stop a bit lighter.

Try to lift your toes and dig your heels in more aggressively to get higher on edge.

A Dutch local trade website, a bit more like Craig's List, but it's also owned by eBay, so I permit myself posting these neon beauties in this thread: http://sport.marktplaats.nl/snowboarden/410553873-zgan-ups-hardboots-maat-39.html Universe Profiled Snowboardboots Asymmetrical So I guess we have switched to riding znowboardbootz? ;)

Just look at the last few registrars: http://www.bomberonline.com/vbulletin/member.php?u=10239 http://www.bomberonline.com/vbulletin/member.php?u=10238 http://www.bomberonline.com/vbulletin/member.php?u=10237 http://www.bomberonline.com/vbulletin/member.php?u=10236 The first one probably did a search for UPS and found a few old topics about the former UPZ ;)

Some skunkworks going on at ExtremeCarving.com: http://www.extremecarving.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8405 There are quite a few people using Arnaud's solution for Head boots already, you could send him a message.

Set up your bindings to look like you're about to totally rock the park, then spend the only week per year you're in the mountains scraping off groomers. After a few years you make the switch to skiing because it feels so easy and natural.

I do remember a forum thread that got totally out of hand on http://www.frozen-backside.de about a broken Virus board involving F2 race intec bindings. I'm afraid it got deleted at some point. Maybe somebody frequenting FB still remembers?

Head boots are still available in Europe? Had to check it to believe it, never noticed them before :) The middle of the binding should be in the middle of those two lines? I must confess I always set up my bindings just by watching how much boot out I want at the rear boot then add a little splay for the front foot, I never remember what the exact angles are, only how much boot is desireable.

I'm not saying the F2 Race Intecs are bad bindings, but the small dampening rubbers won't do much compared to TD3 elastomers. Also all intec bindings are stiffer than their bail counterparts, you're locked in at three points instead of two. Boards are getting softer and more fragile nowadays, so stiffer bindings can cause problems. That's an entirely different binding, it probably has even more flex than regular Titanium bail bindings.

I have been searching for a thread about a broken Virus where the manufacturer claimed the bindings were the problem, can't find it anymore though.

All I can say I've broken a board with them and other people have had similar experiences. Intec bindings are always a bit stiffer, the F2 Intec can get a lot of pressure on one point. I still use Intecs though, but not on more delicate and/or wider boards, I use the regular Titanium bails on those.

They wont stop F2 Race Intecs from breaking your pretty shiney board, but they do dampen a bit as well.