bigwavedave

Forget about the degrees and just set up like everyone says with toes and heels near and equidistant from the edge. A little overhang is ok. Forget about bias. Each of my boards are different enough that I try to avoid having to move bindings from board to board. When starting from scratch, I usually set the rear boot angle first and then set my forward foot with 5° splay. I have M28 boots and ride close to 57° rear, 62° front, on 20.5cm waist without overhang. Just go ride it!

The FG looks similar to Donek F plate. I have no personal experience with "Vist-type" plates, but my daughter raced with both and told me she much preferred the Donek F compared to the Vist for similar reasons you mention.

Decided to put these up for sale again. Feeling confident & comfortable in my new setup, so I'm ready to let these go.

Happy New Year! Another foggy day, thicker than yesterday. So thick, the lights were on. 1st tracks, 3rd chair. Almost done with snowmaking, except for BigAir. Gandy, Juggler and BlueRuin should open soon. Nice groom could be found, but it's firming up with all the moisture in the air. Nicest on ScissorBill & left side of 4Pipe. Other runs still have icy chunks of man-made snow exposed here & there. Let's hope mother nature provides some, now that they've finished laying down a firm base. Inspecting the 1st track in the good stuff...

Iris and Lily, Minnesota flower power!

The small version of the Thirst 181 PC (powder Carver). Riding it on ScissorBill the day after the blizzard: And yes, it carved real nice on today's groomed powder too. Now I'm wondering why I waited so long to try a swallowtail?

Fog and flurries, no sun. Perfectly soft 1st day groom, yes! Had about an hour of traffic-free carving. Riding the turny 171 XC so as not to override the limited visibility. Yes, 1st tracks again. I do believe I was getting air in my transitions. There are still occasional ice chunks from the man made snow churned up by the groomer, and you can't see them in the fog until they jar you out of your carving bliss. Yet, there was plenty of plush groom where carving bliss could be found. Ken & Jane were there. I rode for 2½ hrs. That seems to be about when the crowds show up. Forecast looks to be about the same tomorrow. I will of course try for 1st tracks for New Years day. Ken & Jane will be there too. PS: Also took the PCjv for a few runs on the groomers, just to see how it liked 'em.

About 6" of dry fluffy snow overnight!! On & off flurries all morning with some peeks of sun. Drove to the top for 1st tracks. Rode for 2½ hrs until it started getting too busy for me. Summit & express chairs were running. No new trails opened today, but JugglerJoe and Blue Ruin look close. All the runs were mostly ungroomed It was a really fun day. Nice to have soft snow at last. Started out surf carving on the 169 PC swallowtail in the fresh stuff, and finished the morning with a Cadillac-ride and poppy turns on the 185 Contra AT to smooth out the tracked out mashed 'taters. Did I say it was a really fun day? Forecast tomorrow: sun and soft groom. Definitely a day for 1st tracks. Hope to break out on the 185 8rw

That's where I got into trouble, by simply switching bindings from similar width boards without changing anything. Check that there's no toe & heel bias to one side or the other. A difference in sidecut shape between otherwise similar boards may account for this. It's one reason I have gradually collected bindings for each board over the years. Regarding Mark's post above, I do usually start at his recommended binding placement, it's usually near the center. After taking a few runs, I often end up shifting fore or aft a notch to suit my peculiar* taste. I do this on all boards, not just Thirsts. Gotta find that sweet spot for groovey turns. I guess I have always prefered riding neutral & balanced, maybe to save energy. I used to ride from 1st chair to last. I didn't know when to stop. It may be why I loved the Thirst ride from the get go. Anyway, if I find I have to drastically shift my weight forward to get a nice turn initiation, I try moving the bindings forward a notch to make it easier; if it feels like the tail is washing out, I try shifting my bindings back a notch. This isn't just a Thirst thing, I do this on all new boards. *My 67½ yr old joints (yes, those fractions of years seem to matter as much now as it does to a toddler) are less tolerant of minor stance irregularities that didn't bother me before.

Use whatever stance width you normally find comfortable and start with equidistant from the middle, same way as you would with any board. Set your angles based on having no heel & toe overhang, starting with the rear binding, then set the front binding with your 5° splay. I don't like to have any heel or toe bias from the edge, equidistant, no overhang. @lonbordin's Fuego Box wine method is an easy and accurate way to visualize this... From my experience, any wine will work, but some swear by Fuego. Just don't drink it first. Once set that way, it's good to carpet surf to check for comfort. I often find after riding on snow that I want to move everything forward or back a notch. I'd say this is my process with any board, but with Thirsts there is a sweet spot where you really feel one with the board. And, to paraphrase @Carvin' Marvin , don't curb-stomp the nose of the board like it owes you money. Don't even think of using the Boilerplate on there.

Drove to the top again. -5°F at start this morning with light overcast and a few peeks of sun. First tracks riding the 175 Super. Rode 4pipe to the bottom. The snow was a little more consistent today, but still pretty hard. Pencil lines. Express chair wouldn't start, so had to hike up to load the Summit chair. Rode for 2½ hrs, switching to the 162SF and lapping SkyHooker. Started to get busy and the Express lift never moved. You pretty much had just BindleStiff and SkyHooker usable. Hope they get it fixed by tomorrow. Supposed to get a few inches tonight. They're knocking down the snow piles on BlueRuin and have moved guns over to Gandy, which has pretty big mounds of snow already. On the other side, it Looks like they've moved guns over to JugglerJoe.

Finally! You're gonna love it! I was riding mine today. All of mine have come with a professional tune by the builder himself, so check with Mark to find out the angles. And I think he's giving them a Faststik® treatment before they go out the door too. Ready to ride. Now let's see what's inside.

Wow! With the promise of sun, I drove to the top to get first tracks. Rode for 3 hrs before it started getting too busy to get a clean run. They've been making snow everyday and night, right through Xmas. Sky Hooker to Double Jaw open now. Scissor Bill had the best snow. It's where the wind didn't scour it down to ice. Rode the XC(171) then SF(162). Snow was very firm groom with occasional invisible jarring ridges. Overcast gave way to sun. Jane was there! Ken was late. Wonder when the boarder patrol will show up.

Something like this maybe. If it's still available, make an offer.

When? Where?

Pretty sure we can assume it's everywhere already.

That's what I thought , until I turned one over Of course you're right there, it's just the way they are commonly referred to by the racers who ride them and could be helpful to know when shopping for a used race board--look for ones with with the smaller waist (under 20cm) for smaller feet=smaller rider. There are many custom 162 Kesslers out there custom made for lighter (women or young) racers. If it has a waist less than 20 cm, it's probably for a smaller rider. Regarding the OP and Shred's Thirst SF, you should contact Mark at Thirst to see if it might work. While Thirsts are great boards, that one might be better suited for a larger rider. Look at the stance width and weight it was made for. Also look for used F2 slalom race boards in that 157 range. Anything made in the past 15 yrs or so will be way better than what you've been riding. I bought and sold a lot of used boards on this site and learned a lot about what I like and don't. Then you have a base of beneficial info if you decide to order a custom board. And you can get that blood spatter design

Moved to its own separate review. The 169 PCjv is a different board.

Flat light & crowds this morning, so waited to go up for a few runs this evening--lights on, crowds thinning. Rode the 175 Donek Rev with boilerplate and I still got bounced around. There was enough loose snow on top of the frozen base to make moguls everywhere. At least I didn't feel it in my knee, so that was good. It rained for 4 hrs before the blizzard really kicked in with wind, snow and plummeting temps. The hill was open during the rain, so it was skied in and then froze like that. So, there's some solid ice under there. 1st runs in the morning might be nice before the surface groom gets scraped off. I find myself looking forward to the next time the hill is closed and I essentially have the hill to myself to hike & ride. That's when I've had some of the most satisfying turns so far this season.

If you're about 170 lbs or less, look for a used "women's" race SL board. Typically about 157 or 156 with a narrower waist than the men's, about 19-19.5.

That reminds me of a pe-covid video that I liked that combines my 2 favorite things-sailing and snowboarding. Nicer boat, no noisy heli's, plus you can dry your socks in the sauna. Looks like you have to catch your own dinner though.

Hiked up after lunch for a late afternoon run. Snowmaking on BlueRuin too. Riding the scissor-tail on SissorBill...This thing is awesome.

Nice! I didn't need my snowshoes to walk up today, even though the snow was 1½ ft deep in places, it was interspersed with wind scoured boilerplate, but mostly snow. Hiked up to the top of ScissorBill, which had better protection from the wind (and deeper snow). Cut over to 4pipe to finish at the bottom in the pic here....it was pretty sweet... Soft pillowy turns were had in the deeper snow on the steeper section of SissorBill. Tracks of the PCjv swallowtail carver... There were a few others out on the hill today, but there were fresh tracks to be had. And snowmaking over on DoubleJaw.

Spirit decided not to open today. It's cold (-6F), sunny and not too windy. Winds buffeting my tiny house last night were reportedly gusting in the 50-60kt range . Reported snow totals this morning are only in the 4-6" range. Most of it blown off into drifts. Mini sastrugi on the river are interspersed with bare ice. It would be good for ski sailing. But that can wait, since nothing is as satisfying as making some nice turns in fresh untracked snow, even when you have to hike up the hill for it. Just checked webcams at GR and BigSnow. Both have chairs spinning and very few people. Ironwood reports 9+ inches and it looks like lake effect snow is still falling.

@bobble Nice going. You're on the front page of Buck's website! https://buckhill.com/