bigwavedave

Kind of a joke, but it actually works pretty well....two birds with one stone....Fire up the sauna, liners and shells on a shelf near stove, maybe a hot rice sock in the liner for any hot spots, mold boots, then take sauna. Using the Zipfit shell heating method combined with the hot-rice-sock method to mold Intuition wraps to my UPZ's convinced me that molding the liner to both your feet and the shell helped everything become as one...and only then did I become one with the carve. Never realized that I had movement between my liner and shell, until I didn't anymore, and found I had had a new level of control. RE: Adjustments to binding set-up going from UPZ's to MS .951. When Jack said he was comfortable with the same 6° front and 3° rear set-up he had with UPZ's, I followed his lead, although I didn't like narrowing my stance. Today I went out with 6° front and rear, (toe & heel lift respectively), essentially duplicating the cant+ramp angles I was used to with UPZ. Everything felt much better! I always find it funny how such little changes can make such a big difference. After 25+ years of hardbooting, I think I'm finally getting my stance dialed in!...until next year, when something feels a little off and I start tinkering again. **edit** Tried 3° front and 6° rear (same set-up I used with Deluxe T700 & Reactor/Furnace, prior to UPZ's). 6° front & rear definitely works better for me with the .951's--feels like home now

Anyone have any 6° cant discs they want to sell? I might have some 3° to trade.

My favorite place was Telluride until I went to Aspen for SES. Hard to beat 4 mountains. Telluride and Aspen are similar in that they're both remote (far from cities and crowds) old mining towns that have preserved much of the original Victorian architecture, have magnificent alpine scenery, great restaurants, and of course great carving (and all mountain) terrain. If you check out softbootsurfer's milkland (Buttahmilk) thread, you'll see that they have been having an awesome season so far. And, if you ride there, you're likely to come across the tracks of some of the local carving legends. The plush groom in Aspen has forever spoiled me, and has become a gold standard for measuring groom quality at my local hill.

That extreme locked-in rear boot is not for all day riding, at least not for me. The only time I liked it was on very steep. Otherwise, I feel like I have a more fluid motion with bts. That's a great video. Along with everything else mentioned in the video I would also note note the up & down movement in the transitions. Really helps assert power into the turn, initiates decambering the board and feels like it helps set the edge. And, it gets you into a rhythm. Also, around 2:54 (where it's most obvious), how the front hand stays over the nose of the board. It's a good exercise to get your upper body in a good place. I have been finding it a helpful practice, especially in challenging conditions (we've had a lot of icy days this year). It helps tone down the off balance arm flailing and helps keep your body in a strong and stable stance.

The nicest snow is in the park

Started out with overcast and flat light, then gradually more & more sun started peeking through the clouds. According to Weather Updraft, this January has been the cloudiest in the past 60 years. I think we've seen the sun twice in the past month! But this afternoon...glorious intermittent sunshine...and fresh groom in the big air park...Here's Russ defacing the park...

Bruce offered it up as an option for my build. I suspect it might work better with some flex patterns. He said my 185 "monster" is actually an AM, with 23cm waist and maybe a rather tight sidecut for it's length ~11.5-ish. Not sure, it's going to be a surprise

Shoulda brought the camera--there was some sun and blue sky today! No crowds, softer snow than yesterday--I'm pretty sure when we make deep trenches one day, we force the groomer to till deeper to erase our tracks, thus giving us a plusher groom the following day. I will try to keep pushing the groomers to do a better job, but I could use some help here--can't do it all myself. I didn't last more than a couple of hours today after riding 5 hours yesterday. I'm still trying to learn moderation in retirement.

Started out with a hint of sun through overcast, light becoming flat and then light snow. Surface was very firm "Minnesota groom". Started out on the 185 8rw and switched to the 175 Super when the light went flat and finished out the day on the Rev 175 with an iso-plate. Never got crowded, no lines--rode with boarder patrollers, Russ & Don til 3pm--legs depleted. We're all dying to see the sun again someday...

The Contra is apparently Bruce's version of the Thirst sidecut (contra is thirst spelled backwards...or it's Canadian for Thirst, I'm not sure). Here was Gabe's take on it when testing prototypes. Bruce is building me a 185 as I write this--a summer build rescheduled to allow for more on-snow testing and...well, apparently golfing. It will have the contra sidecut and the Shred inspired "new, improved" Monster features such as reverse sidecut, early-rise powder nose and a soft-snow flex for powder, soft groom and slush carving. At least that's what I think I'm getting. We'll see, I left it up to Bruce to make the final decisions, including the topsheet

A wire wheel on a bench grinder is the best way I can think of to deburr those edges. I've also seen people use the webbing or a knotted rope on the toe clip. I treat my leather gloves with Snoseal. Seems to make them last forever.

If you have a run where you can see your tracks from the chair, you can clearly see if you have heel or toe drag. But then, I ride a lot of firm groomers where maybe one is more likely to experience boot-out and I also like to leave clean lines.

Looks like the Gecko plate is intact. Do you know the story? A crash?

Bright overcast--a hint that the sun is still up there somewhere. Saturday crowds made it a short day today. Started out on the 185 8rw and switched to the 171 xc after about an hour. First day in a while where I had to make evasive maneuvers to avoid traffic. I'm getting spoiled. Nice groom with some softer areas making for some deep trenches. Three race practice courses on the sides of Gandy, Blue Ruin and CinderSnapper. With such soft groom, a lot of the runs over there were trenched up pretty good by the ski racers, although nothing like what RTTC does to Buck Hill. Took a few runs through the park on untouched groom before leaving. There was some aerial practice going on there, so really had to look up.

Another 1½-2" of snow over a (finally) soft groom--no ice, no crust, just beautiful plush groom where one easily makes bona fide trenches 2-3" deep. Within 30 minutes of opening it was busier than it was all day yesterday--it's home-school Friday. Still, great carving was had on fluff over groom. Rode for 3 hours under overcast sky with on & off light snowfall.

2-3" of wind blown, lake-enhanced snowfall over a soft, crusted groom. Turned out to be one of the more fun carving days so far this year. No lines, no traffic. It's hard to know when to quit on a day like this, even when the body says enough. Gotta save some for tomorrow, it's still snowing! Rode on & off with the Alpine Ace boarder patroller for about 4½ hours.

Day off from riding today and doing some amateur boot analysis for anyone interested...in the name of carving pseudoscience... A second day in the Roxa liners and I was feeling a pressure point on the dorsum of the foot, the place where it's hard to get the tongue to seat completely under that "robust" lower shell. It's the same place that hurts the top of my foot when slipping into the boot. It's probably the part that makes for good heel hold down. It's narrower at that point than the UPZ's. So, I tried Intuition Alpine wraps (from my UPZ's) in the .951 and they were very tight in the forefoot. Would need serious re-molding and I doubted it would work. I have some lightly used Intuition Luxury liners (lace-up tongue) in some old 423 Raichles. I can lace these up on my foot before inserting into the shell (ZipFit method) avoiding the discomfort of the tight spot pinching into the dorsum of my foot. I did a "sauna heat mold" and tried them out. I've had two days with this combination and it seems to be a very good fit so far, better than the Roxa. I saw Intuitions (Luxury or Dream tongue liners) in several .951 WC boots at the Buck Hill RTTC races in Dec. maybe they know what they're doing? The luxury is about 3/4" shorter than the Roxa behind the calf. Can someone post a picture of their Zipfits in the .951's, showing the height above the cuff? @slapos? UPZ with Alpine wrap on left, .951 with Luxury on right... PSA***After just a few days of riding I found one of the cant disc screws about ½ out (front boot)*** Maybe the PO had these out? They all have thread lock now. **I'm also getting a clicking noise from the rear boot springs. I have about 1/2" forward lean in the rear boot. I get a click even with very slight forward pressure on the cuff--not from bottoming out the spring. May be catching on the plastic housing? Everything seems to be working okay while riding, so?...hope it's just a distracting noise.

One and the same.

Tracks of the elusive boarder patroller. If you arrive early enough you may spot him in his bright red plumage marking his territory by laying down deep tracks (known as trenches) across the full width of the slope. Look for the signature hand-track next to the deepest trenches for a positive ID. No one knows why he does this, or if it has a purpose, but it's beautiful sight to see if you're lucky enough observe one in the wild. Some enthusiasts even like to make photos of the tracks they leave.

Bluebird day, if ever there was one in MN. Some of the best carving snow so far this year Holiday crowds did not appear til early afternoon, then uncrowded and untracked runs were found over on the Gandy side. Rode most of the boards in my quiver today from 9:30-3:30 with a lunch break. Too much fun to know when to quit. In honor of the King, I went to the mountaintop before the hill was open and laid down the first track of the day...that is if you ignore the footprints and snowmobile tracks ... I'll be back out tomorrow.

Well, the wind scoured the hill all night. Much of the slope had a crusty groom with "groomer features©" (khoward terminology, used with permission) interspersed with very soft spots and snow drifts. Not quite the 1st-day-groom heaven I was hoping for, but still nice to be out making some turns. Holiday crowds today, so I left after an hour. Indianhead reports 16" from the storm.

8" of fluffy dry pow this morning Parking lot was half full when I arrived Then I found that most of the cars were there for a foot race up & down the side of two of the trails which were closed off to downhill sliders. Just the middle of 4 Pipe was groomed. Everything else was pow! Only about 15 people waiting for the first chair, but more people were coming down from the top. There was just enough powder so you only touched bottom occasionally. Started to get busy after about an hour or so when I headed out, but it was mostly all tracked out by then. Got lucky and made the 1st run down an un-tracked DoubleJaw with no traffic just as the patrol was opening it up after the foot race On & off snow showers all day. It's now blowin' a blizzard! House is shaking. Lingering lake effect snow here as the storm moves off to New England...and lake effect snow is dumping on daUP tonight with NW winds! Soft 1st day groom tomorrow!

For future reference, which ZipFits did you find work well with the .951. Once my feet are in, the Roxa liners are very comfy, with good heel hold since I heat molded them. Getting in & out is painful and I may tire of that, or...maybe I'll just leave them on Of course, I rode UPZ's with the stock liners for 1½ years before they all of a sudden became unbearable. Putting Alpine wraps in them was a revelation in how much control I was missing! Maybe I'll have the same experience with these, but for now they seem to be working as well or better than my old set-up.

My liners look different...

Maybe I'll try the Intuition wraps from my UPZ's. I'm about 185lbs. I have not bottomed out the green springs, so far. I also haven't ridden very hard as I am nursing a knee injury. Carving on relatively gentle slopes on one very cold day with them so far. The flex felt perfect for me. We'll see if the flex is any softer in warmer conditions. So far, the flex with this MS set-up felt similar to my UPZ set-up. I do like flexy boots though, and for the past few years I have been using green (softest) springs in DGSS and UPZ boots with black tongues and Intuition Alpine wraps.