michael.a

Incorrect title? As the focus is on cross-under turns and not rotation?

Why do you have a (2 cm!!!) narrower stance on the Hot Blast? I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess because you feel it makes the board more alive (i.e. flex more)?

Of course buy used. You dont even know if you'll like hardboots. I have no idea why lowrider is pushing a 173 pure race on you, that's positively insane and horrible advice. Look for a standard production board in the low 150ish range, I can personally recommend a mid-2000 model of the 153 F2 Speedster SL (they are red), it has forgiving flex and soft nose. Avoid metal bindings, any plastic binding (can recommend Burton or F2 Carve RS) will do. Find the softest boots you can, something like Burton Ice or Raichle low model boots. Read this until you have it memorized. http://www.alpinecarving.com/boot_models.html In fact memorize the entire website. It is your new bible.

That's pretty awesome

After using Nikwax for 10 years I decided to try the fluro-side of DWR and settled on Granger's Proofer (and later their washer). Find it to be more effective than Nikwax.

Howdy shred, could you share any more info, esp how it carves on the harder stuff? Is it a direct copy of the Lib/Gnu MTX or something different? What are your feelings when comparing it to a regular tuned edge? Did it require any technique changes?

Since you live in Europe the costs of importing a board from the USA are quite large. If you've got the budget go for it, I feel the boards from the US are far more universal and all-mountain than their counterparts in Europe. Here the push is for more narrower and racier stuff except boards targeting the extremecarving market. The freecarving boards from F2 (El Diablo and Silberfiel) are fine performers and easy to find a good deal on, especially on ebay.de. The Swoard Extemecarver is also very versatile as is the Pureboarding Bastard, these are wider (relatively shorter) boards that make them more universal. You can also look at the Swoard 'copies' by Virus, Oxess, Goltes, or Plasma.

Hi kurt, off topic, but could you just tell me what kind of bindings do you use?

I'm thrilled to see diesel-electric transmissions finally see service in smaller applications. FedEx is planning on implementing a fleet of trucks with D/E drives. http://www.wired.com/2014/09/fedex-wrightspeed-diesel-ev-trucks/

Thumbs up on the linseed oil. You can use the hardware store variety or the more refined versions (bleached) for artists to avoid yellowing. Surprise surprise linseed oil is used by top secret pro detailers to restore faded car trim, bumpers and such, it annhilates anything else on the market. I also use it on wood finishes. Couple of things to follow but it's easy to use and cheap!

General consensus is that magnetraction is a crutch for skidders (not people who can actually carve, and emphasis needs to be placed on carving as I've found softbooters have a really weird way of explaining it as anytime the board is 'on edge' regardless of what line it takes) who need that bite in the snow to preven the board from slipping out from under them. It's said that for carving the edges slow you down way too much and leads to all sort of technique issues. The only thing that I found out that trully works on ice is your technique (perfect balance and very very very low) and sharp edges. Then again, I still havent ridden on a MTX board yet.

I'll gladly take up your offer!! And I will not skimp on the beers, especially if you like craft stuff like IPAs and Belgians :) I'll send you a PM later next month when I finally figure out my schedule. Cheers, Michael

Sure thing, please keep an eye on the review section and hope some snow will fall, right now the situation in Europe is terrible.

A NOS Tanker Crown 200 which I still haven't ridden due to the poor snow situation here in Europe over the past year and... a demo Goltes Supreme Carve 172 with titanal magic and Jani's race plates! :) :) :) :) Again, I'm on the wrong side of the world in terms of snow!!!

I use the Thor gloves with either a pair of thin goretex gloves for warm days or an old glove liner with builtin wrist protection on cold ones. I added a little Sikaflex to some seams to extend their life (at 130-140 days) as a couple of boilerplate days really took their toll but had the gloves stolen so now on a new pair. I've heard positive things about US Army cold weather gloves (the 3 fingered claws),durable yet breatable. I will be trying these gloves next. edit found more info on the us army gloves, it's produced by outdoor reserach, made with cordura (330 though), gore-tex and known as the 'mutant mitt'

Bump bump

No TD1 experience but no problem with TD2 or TD3s. I remember when I made the switch to stepins I had to adjust the toe/heel blocks in regular bindings as the intec heel is a couple mm taller than a standard heels.

Smooooking deal!

Agree with quee (wanted that to rhyme), you want it snug but not tight as in the cold everything contracts. My reference criterion are boot centered over the binding, pins smoothly engaging the binding upon entry (no bind in the boot or binding distortion just prior to click), with the pins snugly pressed against the outside of the receiver holes (by outside I mean towards the binding rear). I have a pair of F2s where the front bail height can be adjusted and it always comes loose after a couple days of riding, it feels nice as you get some additional lateral movement but I'm terrified of accidental release.

Weird everything nicely opens up on my end, it's a standard wordpress site. He also has a lot of chairlift reviews of various boards he was demoed like Never Summer or F2 on youtube, here's the link https://www.youtube.com/user/canmanski/videos

A killer softboot carver friend of mine (http://megustasport.com/) likes the Swoard Dual and Volkl Coal.

Bumpity

Check my For Sale post, Raichle AF600s for a killer price.

You don't have the orange tongues in this size per chance?

Pair of Raichle AF600 in mondo size 26.0 (289 mm shell size). These boots were once on my ex-girlfriends feet, liners were never molded, even left the tag on! I guess the best match to today's Deeluxe would be a step down in stiffness from the Deeluxe 700s so more like the 325s but with the asymmetric shape? 5-position forward lean settings and use standard DIN heel blocks (Fintec compatible). Price $150, paypal only as gift or you pay the fees. Boot are located in Europe, shipping in Europe around $30, shipping to USA $70 by courier (7-10 business days), or $30 by traditional mail (up to 30 days).