snowboardfast

It is somewhat crowded at Abasin. Rode there today and had fun again. Short board Oxygen 164. Rode with Shredder Jen. She will be up on Thursday as well. It was not as crowded as last Wensday. It s going to be busy until more terrain and lifts open up at Abasin and other resorts. Just ride slower and do short radius turns down the hill and don't try to carve all the way across the hill when it is busy. That is why I ride shorter boards this time of year. I also look around while I am riding to avoid hitting people. Again the shorter board is eaiser to ride and will let you do this when needed. Sometimes it is good to stop and let the run clear a little bit. Doing short radius turns right down the fall line is good practice for riding moguls and steeper terrain when it becomes available.

Went up to Abasin today. Best October snow I have ridden on. It was pretty crowded and the snow got bumpy real fast but that did not bother me as I rode my Burton 164 Alp and did not try to make long turns across the hill. The new lift is real nice and was made right here in Colorado. Had to wait about 15 minutes in the single line per run. Rode until about 3 and then bagged it as my legs were getting tired. Ram rod is supposed to be open this weekend. Hopefully they are going to have some of the upper mountain open as well in the next week to 2 weeks? Of course that is if it stays cold? I imagine it will be stupid busy on the weekends until more terrain and lifts are open. I have Sundays and Wensdays off and will be going Wensdays only until things are better. Ride a short board for now and have fun!

Never got to ride an aggresion board but I rode several asym boards back in the day including the kemper apex. I think those aggresion boards were made in Boulder Colorado? The ski screw mounting is a problem for today as you would have to find a shop that has the proper tools and knowledge to do this. Maybe it still could be done? The aggresion board was high quality. Of course asym boards are still available as Virus makes a asym 185 which I got to demo at Loveland 2 years ago.I don't know what it would be worth to sell. You might contact old snowboards.com and ask Brian what it might be worth?

No those boards had a 5 hole insert pattern that will only work with Burton variplates and good luck finding those?

Of course years ago in this sport most of the boards were fairly stiff and that was all you could buy. I did not know that you could buy a board built for your weight and riding style. I never knew much about board stiffness other than I would buy a board and ride it because most shops only had 1 or 2 in stock for you to buy. I mostly rode shorter boards then. You didn't think you needed a stiff board because that was all there was. I guess being heavier helps because you can bend a stiffer board better due to extra weight. Of course now the newer boards are better designed and work better. Now is a good time to be involved with this sport with all the choices of gear.

Of course I asked last season about the side winder binding being way way better for all mountain riding and after demoing it I thought so. The plate I think might be too heavy and not be much of a benefit if you are cranking small radius turns on steep un groomed terrain and softer snow. I might demo a plate anyway just to see if it will work better for me? Maybe a plate would be better because your stance stays the same and would allow you to have more balance and control in uneven snow conditions? I am interested in the Donek plate for now as it is more affordable at 380.00 and the other plates are more money. Also the Donek plate will work with 4X4 which is good because I don't own a board with UPM right now. Yet another reason why it is good to be an alpine snowboarder now because we have companies that are able and willing to keep making better products to help the sport be better and better.

Will riding sidewinders with a plate be way way better than just sidewinders or not? I feel that the sidewinders are making a big difference especially on my old Nidecker 183 tornado gs. They took the harsh ride quality out when the hill gets chopped up. I was able to ride all day on peak 10 at Breckenridge in April because of those bindings even when it was choppy. I wasn't carving perfect turns all the time but it was comfortable to ride in the chop and bumpy snow and I could just keep riding and riding. I suppose I would have to demo a plate to find out?

Glad to see you have another dog. Half the fun of going to Bomber is getting to see the dogs. I have 3 cats due to negligent owners.

I see in your profile that you ride at Winter Park. If you can go to Winter park this year arrange to demo some gear from Bomber before you buy. Make sure and contact them before you come out to CO so they know when you wil be here.

I have intec heels you can borrow as well if you would want to try out step in if your boots are compatible. If you want to stay with bails that would be fine. The bindings I have are 3 degree and 6 degrees. I am not trying to compete with bryan's sale offer here- Just would let you borrow to try out. His price and offer is very fair. Also you could buy a set of his bindings with different cants than mine and try out 2 types of cants if you wanted to. Also this would give you the chance to try out both step in and bail on the same type of binding. Or you can borrow my discs and try out the different cants as well also. What brand of boots do you have?Let me know if you need help with this.Matt curtis 303-783-2867 Welcome back to hardbooting-you are going to have fun!

+1 in flying to Montrose. It doesn't make any sense to drive from Denver to Telluride. Great mountain. I haven't ridden there since the asym board days. Have fun. I last rode there with a kemper apex 160 asym. Would like to go back again to see how much everthing has changed both town and mountain.

Where are you in Colorado? I have some td 1's that might be for sale. I would let you try them for a while before you would have to buy them. They are set up for step in and you would have to have a pair of boots that are compatible with intec heels. If you are close to Denver or in Denver let me know as you are more than welcome to give these a try. Have you done a lot of hardboot riding or are you new at this? also what kind of board do you have? Let me know.

You should go to a good boot fitter and explore all possibilties of a solution to your fitting problems if you haven't done so. I have made the mistake of buying boots that are too big and the only solution was to buy another pair that are the right size. If you are not using a custom insole you need to get some made as this will help with fitting and performance. The boots I have now are getting loose because the liners are getting packed out. I may try using some thicker socks for now but at some point I will have to get new liners. I would like to find a heat moldable liner that does not pack out real bad . I have a pair of intuition liners in one pair of boots and a pair of thermoflex in another. The intuition liners are thicker and have given me better results than the thermoflex which tend to pack out a lot because they are real thin. Maybe the newer thermoflex liners are way better? If I buy another pair of liners for my Susaka boots this will be the 3rd pair. I am not ready to do this just yet. I would like to know more info about injection foam molded liners. They are a lot of money but If they last a long time and retain proper fit better maybe better? They are going to have to be really good for me to spend 400.00 to get it done. Maybe more now as this was a few years ago.Bily Bordy suposedly did this a while ago? Would like to know how that worked out? If I find out I will post the info. I hope you can get your boots to fit right with out having to buy a new pair.

1978 starting date for me on same gear. Of course I did not have snow that nice in Iowa . 10 years later 1988 and I moved to Colorado and started riding hardboots maybe the next year 1989? Still in Colorado. Amazing how fast gear got better back then. I am glad we can ride at resorts now. Yellow Snurfer was 20.00 back then.

I think you could stock up a lot of snowboard shops with alpine gear and it still would not sell that well because most people that snowboard are afraid to give it a try.Burton and Rosignol used to demo alpine gear for free back in the 90's and they didn't get very many people wanting to try it back then. Most people think hardboots=sore feet which is not true anymore most of the time. Of course the cost of alpine gear is way higher both new and used which does'nt help but you simply can't produce alpine gear as cheap as softboot even if sales volume was way higher. I think alpine will always be a minority sport regardless of the cost or availabilty of new or used gear.Enjoy the sport and try to promote it when you can if a person shows an interest.

Go to the hardbooter.com site and ask the same questions. I am sure that Billy Bordy and crew will be glad to help you out. I rode at Brighton back in 1985 or so with a Burton Elite 140. I was trying to get a job which I did not get and have not been there since. The hardbooter crew will be able to help you with racing advice and where to ride. Have fun the snow is good in Utah although when I was there it was spring no powder but fun.

Don't forget Sean as he could build you a custom board that would be as good or better than any tanker out there. Your preference for lenght width and flex.

I do remember the 2 being stiff but I thought it was easy to ride and I took it down a pretty steep run on my 2nd run and did not have a problem. It felt comfortable right away. I think I only did 2 runs on it as it was very cold that day.

Anyone ridden both of these boards alot so that they could tell if there is much diffrence between the 2 or are they pretty close? I have ridden both but would not mind trying the 2 again. I own a 172 AX and only tried a 164 2 once.

Yes we took a run at Loveland and you let me ride the Tanker. Thanks again. It was fogged in off of chairs 2 and 6 so we rode chair 1. Last time I rode a board similar to a tanker was at Snowmass.The board was a Nitro Eldiablo 186 with nitro plate bindings and Burton mega flex boots. Might have Sean build me a board similar to a Tanker someday? Maybe we will see you soon in Colorado?

Go to the hardbooter.com website and watch the video on how to make your own risers out of 5 mm plastic. I forget what kind of plastic it is but Billy Bordy says what it is and has full size templates for you to download to make your own. Of course you will have to buy longer bolts to use these plates. Billy explains this all very well. He recomends using a riser plate on all metal boards and has a kessler in the video that is broken because a plate was not used. I would make these plates if I were you just to be sure. They look like they are easy to make with minimal tools. I demoed a prior board last year with Bomber bindings and was fine but bombers have more cushion between the board and binding. When I get a metal board I might do this anyway again to protect it more. It also gives you more leverage because you are a little higher off the board.

You might try posting on the racing and coaching section on this forum to see if you get an answer to your reply.Also if you could go to a boardercross race to watch and see what people are using?

I just don't understand why most of the people that tend to be a problem on this site are those that ride softboots and come on here and have to brag about well they ride in softboots compared to most hardboot riders? This site is to promote snowboarding using hardboots and plate bindings . There are people on this site that ride both hard and soft boots and they do not brag about how well they ride. I have spent the last few years trying to ride soft boots but I have too many problems with foot pain and will be riding hardboots 100% from now on. I am not going to say that I ride that well in any setup because I don't.I have been riding snowboards since 1978 and have ridden lots of different types of gear and have had fun doing it. I hope to continue to ride for many more years. I don't understand what kind of recognition a person wants to achieve by bragging about how well they ride on this site? Just go ride and have fun regardless of the gear. How about riding all mountain in hardboots and telling us how it worked for you and spending the time to get a pair of hardboots properly fitted so your feet won't hurt. It can be done today with heat moldable liners and boot fitting. Most people that ask me about my gear are afraid to try it at all. Most softboot riders think that their feet will hurt more in hardboots which is not the case anymore. The reason why I rode softboots again was because the gear is cheaper but I could not solve the problems and my feet hurt the same way no matter what kind of boot or binding I tried to use. I have used the driver X boot and think it is well made. I had my boots heat molded and custom insoles. So I have put in a lot of time and money to try to make it work. Soft boot gear has and continues to get better every year. Maybe after you try to get a pair of hardboots working well for you it won't work and your feet will still hurt but at least you tried. I can do more runs per day in hardboots because it is eaiser and my legs last longer especially on steep terrain.

Thank you for the info. I will call to find out when they will be open again for sure.

Any one know when All board sports will be open again? The window says they will be open 3 doors away in 2 weeks. I wanted to buy a pair of skate shoes today but they are not open. 2 weeks from when? I hope things are going well?