lonerider

I totally think it's possible... like Vahur... all I keep seeing people post "I saw someone do it once." That's not what this post is for... either post a video of it... or go out and keep practicing.

Indeed I am. My pair arrived yesterday at the shop. I hope to get them fitted in a week and then ride them after the holidays (I typically avoid the mountains because of the crowds). Here's to hoping that finally I'll have a pair of comfortable, responsive hardboots.

I would say the Tanker then. The specs changed quite a bit between the 04/05 and the 06/07... I think the 04/05 was around 9-9.5m.Here's what I said in my first post to this thread.

Hey... RDY_2_Carve... I thought we weren't suppose to blatantly tell anyone who wanted general advice to buy a hardboot setup... wait... did the memo say "regardless of question... suggest alpine setup!!!" damn i keep mixing that up! Back to topic... nice setup... I have a very similar setup I'm 5'9" 145 lbs, I ride 32 Forecast size 8 and Nidecker 800 Pros. I have ridden a Timeless 152 and owned the Donek Phoenix 155 and Incline 155 and 05/06 Tanker 172 and ride at Tahoe... so I think I'm about as best qualified to answer your questions as you can be. First to confirm your doubt about the Donek Wide. Yes, I found the Incline to be tough in soft snow and difficult to flex and snake between trees, I suspect the Wide is similar. The Incline also had very little floatation, even in the heavy Sierra powder (I hear the Wide is better). So between the Phoenix and the Tanker it depends a lot on your preference. The Phoenix is a very fun board, great on groomers, great on jumps, great in powder. It is very light and feels very short (my 155 felt like a 150 in weight... I might have been happier with the 160). It is a very lively board with good snap out of the tail. The Tanker is also a fun board, even better on groomers (mainly because of the extra length) and much more damp... you can blast though virtually any type of snow... or various conditions from wet/soft to frozen/firm with out a problem. The bigger length makes straights air very easy to land... (spins are not hard either once you adjust to the higher swing weight of a 172cm board) but jump turns get a *little* more difficult although the Tankers are VERY light for their weight and only in the tight trees and narrow chutes do you feel a little unwieldy. What I didn't like about the Tankers is the relatively dead tail... there is very little pop out of it and that's half the fun of riding for me. Trampolining dynamically from carve to carve (with that weightless feeling in the middle)... ollieing over stuff... etc. However... if you are more of a lasering down the slope type of guy, the Tanker is an excellent board for you. Another two boards to consider are the Madd TT158 or FR/FS 162 and the Rad Air Reto Lam LSD 156 or 164 (there are a few used ones that go around this forum as Rad Air doesn't make them any more). Both the Madd and Reto and CARVE up the groomers in all conditions. Both are damp and can handle soft or firm snow. Both have a LOT of pop. Both will float as well in powder as your current boards... but perhaps not quite as well as the Tanker. The Madd are slightly easier to run in the trees than the Reto Lamm or the Tanker. For you... if you stay on piste more... maybe the Reto 164 although I think the Madds are very very good (if they only made a 152 TT I would love to ride that in the park). They have a 30-day return policy if you ride the board and you immediately realize it is not for you (obvious it has to be in near mint condition... no trashing it for a week and then saying you didn't like it). I've owned two Madd TT158's and a Madd 170 f2 alpine board. Let me know if you have any questions and realize that my preferences might not be your preferences.

No and No. You need a new pair of bindings.

The foam liners are actually only $300... still pretty pricey... but after several sets of boots, thermoflex liners, and years of boot fitting... I still haven't gotten boot that hasn't been comfortable to wear (they hurt as much my rock climbing shoes after a few hours).I hope foam liners are the answer - and I figured if I'm going to get foam liners... I mights as well get a nice shell to go along with it.

Lol... and this is the secret reason why you can never afford a nicer boot setup With "tremendous discipline," I forced myself to only have ONE metal board (I'm holding off on a Metal Coiler AM for at least a season) and with that money I will soon have a pair of Head Stratos Pros, Comformable Foam Liners, Surefoot Custom Footbeds, BTS (will mod the Heads), and Intec Heels.

Thanks for the info! Have you ridden any other Titanal boards (Prior, Coiler, Kessler)? I think a lot of people would be interested in a compare/contrast type of review as most are sold on Titanal... just wondering which one to get!

Says video is no longer available. :(

On that note, I have recently been using CW-X long underwear and I REALLY like them for *slightly* supporting your joints and your muscles for reduced fatigue. I emphasize the slightly because they are in NO WAY a replacement for an actual brace (I have, but no longer use a DonJoy brace for my partially torn ACL). However, I have found them superior to the type of support your would get from a neoprene sleeve.The stuff is pricey, but I think it's worth it. I bought a pair of CW-X bike shorts and shirt at steepandcheap.com (part of backcountryoutlet.com) for like 50% off before my bicycling trip across Italy and liked them so much I recently bought a pair of stabilyx long underwear for FULL price (I can count the number of times I have paid full price for gear in the last 2 years one a single hand).

I have a pair of 25 Thermoflex liners (I think, molded once) that I'll sell for cheap (like $50) if you need them.

Tried it, didn't find it useful for what I wanted.

Ah that makes sense. That's ok, in most cases for me my camera person will be stationary... so no really big jolts or anything. We might even get a tripod in there. We'll see how it goes, I'm not too worried as getting someone to film use will be a bigger issue than the quality of the video I suspect.FWIW, this is where I did more of my internet research. It mentioned among other things that in reality 3-chip CCD are not always better overall for the lower end models as in low lighting the single CCD performs better and is almost as good as the 3CCD (almost is debatable) in good light. Obviously it is just one person's opinion.

I see you are a professional. Why is DVD not good for action? It uses the same PEG2 compression settings as the hard drives doesn't it? Both have a 20-30GB storage limit.I'm not too worried if I got the wrong model as I got a good deal for it ($250 brand new) and anything is better than the 15fps digicam movies i was taking before. Plus it has the following ability for slow motion. Also... if you convince me... I can always put it back into a box and give it as a "gift"

I used to have a miniDV about 10 years ago and from what I read online before making my purchase was that for the last 2 years, companies have essentially frozen all development on miniDV (just like how the Deeluxe hardboots are virtually the same as the ones from several years ago). Of course, most of those features you don't need so who know. Cost-wise the miniDV tapes are the best option.I just got a Sony DVD408. I got the DVD version because I'm primarily posting to the web (so the DVD MPEG2 compression isn't an issue). Also I wanted to have the ease of navigating between recorded clips and being able to delete the ones that were bad (a problem I use to have with my old miniDV tape camcorder). Finally, I read that hard drive camcorders are not rated for about 6000 ft (at least that what the Sony models say). Which pretty much prevent me from using it where I most wanted to... That's just my thoughts as a recent buyer and I'm not at all an expert. I just did some internet research before buying myself and having used my camcorder (got it last week) enough to say anything except it is much niftier than the model I have ten years ago (duh).

I had a great experience with RJ with my Tanker 172 even when Rad Air sent "him" the wrong board twice (on it's way to me).

Those were EXACTLY my experiences with the Donek Incline 155 and the Phoenix 155.

Is there any reason for this? Because they use a shiny CNC machine to shape them?

Are you done sticking your fingers in your ears and singing "la la la?" All my smiley faces are added to add a sense of humor to my post (at least attempt to do so). I only point it out because people seem not to be paying attention to what other people are writing before disagreeing with it.You obviously didn't read any of my previous posts either about how I have purchase three Prior boards (Prior Khyber 160 split, Prior Majestic 143, and Prior WCR-Metal 177) and personally never had a problem. I repeated it my last three posts, because I knew most people are lazy and prefer ranting to actually doing some research and thinking about issues before posting. and so I forgot to mention it on my last post... thank you for reminding me that excited BOL members have the attention span of a teaspoon (again that's a joke... if you really thought that was insulting... or if you even thought that made sense, I have no hope for you). ... Probably by now, Brian has stopped reading and is already crafting a no doubt witty reply post. So now I can say all the bad things about him... yea! um... um... well I can't really think of any. Um... he has too many nice snowboards for one person to morally own! Yea... so there! *SELF HI-FIVE*

Yet another person who doesn't even bother to read the thread being discussed. It wasn't one person, it was five people who had problems, most of the boards custom made for over a $1000. To BALANCE the issue, there are already several posts (in the original thread) by people saying how Prior made good when they delivered a defective product (misaligned inserts, inserts drilled backwards, etc, uneven edge) as they usually a replaced board in a few weeks.I posted that thread in the original post for people to READ it and then decide for themselves and now I keep seeing more and more people just take an opinion without taking more than 30 seconds to read at least a couple of the posts in the thread. DON'T POST, READ AND DECIDE FOR YOURSELF (that's it).

I was the original linker to the Prior splitboard thread. My apologies as I was using just to point out that all companies have production/customer service snags and not at all to deter people from buying a Prior (its their own choice). I personally own three Prior boards (WCR-M 178, Khyber 160 Split, and Majestic 143 for gf) and I am happy with all of them and would not hesistate to buy from Prior again. However, as with "any" company I do not take it as a guarantee that I will get amazing service should a problem happen. Anyways... before dismissing the thread offhand, I would suggest people read most of the thread, including Prior's reply post and decide for themselves.

To be fair, all of these problem were mainly related to ordering splitboards, which are hand cut from a solid board when you order it. I have purchased three Prior boards without any problems.I'm just saying that Prior isn't without problems as well.

That was a few years ago, since then Prior has moved to a new factory and increased production by a lot. I don't know (I haven't had any problems myself), but it is possible that customer service has degraded as a result. All I know if that there were several people there that were unhappy and if any of their accounts are true, I can understand why.

Well, Chris might be very nice to talk to, but should there be a problem with the order... Prior is a big hassle (see link) where as Sean in my experience goes the extra length to make things right.I would definitely go with the wide. Sean prefers to ride very high angles (35/30 according to his bio page) and so his boards run pretty narrow. I have size 7.5 feet (25.5cm versus your 28.5cm) and even then boot drag was a big problem for me with the Donek Incline 155 (24cm) and the Donek Phoenix 155 (24.8cm) with freestyle angles (15,-3). Even with the Phoenix I would get significant boot drag in the soft snow we often have here in Lake Tahoe. The longer board will also be a bit stiffer (the Phoenix line aren't super stiff to begin with).

My first one I sent them an email with the board/size I wanted, confirmed the order and then sent them my credit card via email. The second one I talked via email, but sent my credit card over the phone.Like Bobdea, I am surprised as in general I preferred Donek's customer service to Priors although I personally have like Prior's boards better (for what I was looking for).