piusthedrcarve

Thanks Sandy. I ordered NX2 from evo. (evo is having some great sale on boots and bindings currently) Since my use of the softboot boards will be 60% carving & 40% ground riding, I wanted bindings with some flex that matches with current boots. By the way, have you tried K2 Kwicker or Burton's Step-on? Especially Kwicker would be so convenient for backcountry Pow riding.

Welcome! Please post your next trip on the above thread. It’s for gathering and conditions report. I usually go up WT on Friday night (5-10). It’s ok not to have alpine gear yet. I do enjoy softboot carving too. Let us know.

Thanks Sandy, The regular NX2 is what my eyes are on right now. I ride mostly in Mid Atlantic area so will not ride on bottomless POW like you and my board will be 99% on ground (carving and ground tricks) so feel of board is important to me. For hardbooting, I even ditched convenience for getting more board feel. Old Phiokka bindings were great and still ride on them sometimes. My search found Flux bindings have much less cushions and more of direct feel of board. So still undecided between NX2 and Flux XF. ;-)

No kidding. I was on Madd 172 on choppy packed powder few weeks ago and missed the Pogo's Cadillac ride (not Deville, more of STS). Not missing Osin since we got less than 1" so far. :) Let me know if you can sell 1 pair of the Flow.

Thank you all. I am not after strongest/stiff bindings but more of medium/stiff flex with more of board feel. I recently rode softboot boards and hated buckling straps (spoiled from plate bindings). I was hoping to get some answers for the board feel but I doubt that any of recent bindings can give that due to thick base foams. Again, thank you all for good advice.

Noticed Flow NX2-GT is quiet popular for softboot carving in BOL. Mainly because of stiffness and no heelcup? How’s its response and feel of board? Oh. And sizing. I wear size 11 Burton boots, which in their end of Large and start of Extra Large. Burton boots’ footprint is quiet smaller than others. Should I go with L or XL?

Bryan (oldsnowboard.com) posted an interesting article from AllBoardSports in Alpine Snowboard Trader in FB. http://allboardssports.com/updated-thoughts-on-snowboard-plates-alpine-snowboard-plates/ Interesting to see what comes after PyongChang Olympic.

Got it. I had few eliminators (WC w/titanal, Carbon, Regular) before and like Carbon model most, due to its weight and liveness. If you want to go slow, definitely regular model. If you want damp ride, go with w/titanal. Carbon and WC model's Flex & SCR are made for speed. For me, it was much less work (than hardboots) with softboots since more moving/hinge body parts I could use.

Thanks Erik, I don't know when I'm going to visit Sugarloaf but it's in my to-visit list along with Bretton Wood.

Just curious. Why non Carbon? I found it's much playful than others.

Maybe on VA's spring break. (3/24-31) since it's a good 4 & 1/2 hour drive from DC area. Canaan Valley & Timberline Four Season are on the way to SnowShoe and both combined are as good as Snowshoe and only 2 &1/2 hours away. Timberline is having some issues (mechanical/operational and, most importantly, financial) and there is a rumor that Canaan Valley may acquire Timberline. If that happens, it will become a biggest single resort in Mid Atlantic area that offer 87 trails with glades.

Thank you all for advices. I went to a ski shop to custom mold them to my feet but they are not familiar with Sidas footbed and do not have proper devices to cook/mold the Sidas insoles. Then tried to sell me Superfeet insoles, which I already have.. I don't think any shop near me are able to do. Bummer. anyone want them?

I used to ride with almost same setup like your binding angles +55/+40, knees together 15 years ago Then, learned that lower the angles are much safer and effective. I had two accidents that broke my leading ankle and outer bone (metatarsal). All of the incidents were resulted when snow was being too soft (spot or spring condition) while I was pressing nose hard (with front knee). When it do nose-dive, I felt that my front knee touched the topsheet. (I was on Marker's DNR boots and bindings with additional plastic tongue in the boot tongue). Ouch. there my ankle broke. Loved the tobbogan ride by co-workers. That took me complete few seasons and it is one of my main reason that I ride hardboots mostly. Now, I ride 30 front / 15 back. More centered. If I need to push it hard, I do it at center but start with ankle and then knee (new shape helps a lot). I think it works faster, safer, and much effective than knee or tilt alone.

Wow. I have’t ridden any JJA board but heard a lot of good things. It has really tight SCR for its size. I see a lot of BX board is going with carbon w/o titanal and longer SCR last few years. Maybe good characteristics gor carving. I see it as this. Carving characteristics is not good for race. Most race decks want to go straight down and it should be. Racers are there to change directions to go around it (GS/SL) using their techniques. Carver on race decks are too busy to bend it to change its fall line favoring characteristic. Being said that, your board could be easier and more carving capable deck then other BX boards. Sure. Send it over. BTW, how do you like Metal FC?

Any time! You ride at Mount Creek right? Hope to ride with YOU someday. I noticed a lot of SB carvers don’t know how to initiate a carve line. They angulate edges from middle using body or ankles. The new shape (hammerhead) allows them and us to find it without much efforts. And I found that little softer flex to help to bend it. So far, only real carving SB decks have been BX decks that their characteristics are similar to alpine decks. But normal softbooters to learn how to carve on them would be equally hard as alpine boards. The Endeavor’s partially added technologies such as titanal, carbon, seemless edge could be the solution. I really want Sean to give his opinions/perspective on this. Although the Endeavor was mind-blowing ride, I want it to be little wider and longer, which I believe they had 164. One more caveat tho. I read reviews of the same deck in Korean carving forum. They rate Moss & Grey better than Endeavor. I don’t believe their reviews since I see Japanese “pro” riding them on perfect conditions in the posted videos, which I noticed chatters and wobbles. But their riding style and mine are different.

12/28 Whitetail Rode from 1-9 pm. 1-5 pm only rode 6 runs. Too many people. Exhibition and HomeRun were opened. Snow was chalk. Thanks to 3 days of teen temp. They made a lot of snow, compare to last week I was there. Farside & Bold Decision will be opened next. They only blew guns on trails that they are going to open next. Crowd was significantly less after 6. After 8, no line and pretty much same as regular midweek night session. Snow condition will be one of best in seasons.

Although this tread is very entertaining, I don't really care which style is good or bad for others' eyes. So as promised to jtslalom, here I tested the above board today. To be fair, I rode 3 boards to compare. Rider: 185 lbs, 6'1", +20 yrs riding Boots: Burton Ion sz 11 Bindings: Burton Cartel Stance angle: 27 front, 12 back Condition: 6-12'F, chalk snow but chopped up (rode from 2 to 9 pm) Boards: '13 Rossignol One Mag 161W, '14 F2 Eliminator Carbon 166W, the above board I chose the above 2 boards because the Rossignol One Mag has gotten good reviews (from normal softbooters) for its all mountain & carving ability with capable of good ground tricks. As we all know, F2 Eliminator is one fine BX board that can carve like alpine boards. I had few F2 eliminators (WC and regular) and ridden with hardboots and softboots. My setup is not super stiff like Driver X or Malamute boots or Diode/C02/FR2, etc. because I wanted my dream softboot carving deck to do some ground tricks too, like butter, willie, ollie, nollie, reverse carving, etc. 1. Rossignol One Mag - CRAP. Who the hell did come up with the Magnatraction? Lib-Tech? That shit doesn't work. Period. It may seemed work for normal softbooters but not for us. That crap is for someone who doesn't know how to press edges. Also, effective edges are so ineffective for real carving. It seems like I was on my daughter's Burton Chicklet 120. As a 'normal' snowboard, it was easy to do ground tricks, especially switch, butter. But that's about it. Nothing to review. 2. F2 Eliminator Carbon - My last Eliminator was 09-10 WC, which had titanal. It surely cut most of bumps and chopped, like most metal alpine decks do. Very versatile but damp. I particularly wanted this 14-15 model since it is semi-hammerhead shape and has carbon laminate to bring back some liveness and versatile (go everywhere). As expected, it was a blast. it carved well and had more pop than titanal version. I felt that it was lighter than WC but still burly due to its size and width. 12-13m SCR with 166W was somewhat demanding. I had to drive it to bend to find carve line but once it got bent, it really carved like alpine decks. Loved the wide version to allow angulate more. No surprise. Very reliable softboot carving board. Lastly, the above construction board. It is Endeavor Hammerhead 157, specially manufactured for Korean softboot carving market only. What Endeavor claimed in construction are: Seamless Sidewall, Carbon beams, Titanal Metal laminate, Kevlar strength. 7500 Sintered base. Spec: Length: 157 cm Effective edge: 1326 mm Waist: 246 mm SCR: 9.4/8.8/10 Heavily decamabered on nose and tail (as close as Black Pearl). It is camber board but didn't have much. Flex was soft, as soft as Rossi One Mag. I rode an hour on green and blue trails. I had some doubts and not much expectation until I was on lift. First it was light...I mean VERY. Maybe due to its size and/or I rode it right after riding the Eliminator but it is really light. probably lighter than Rossi. That also gave me more doubt that it can hold edges. As soon as I put it on edge, this thing sliced like a hot butter knife. Turn initiation was very quick due to heavily decambered nose. Base was as fast as Eliminator, I rode it from 8-9 pm so the condition (chalk snow) was chopped but still hold edges nicely. After worm up and got confident that this board can tolerate, I pushed hard and it turned like Madd 158, not as much as pop like Madd but turned tighter. I angulated as much as I could on toeside turn and my elbow was touching the snow. (I don't ride ass up but more crouching). The toe edge was intact on snow and held the edge without any chatter or wobbles. Heelside turn was somewhat limited due to the stance angles. Without higher angle, I wasn't able to angulate as much as toeside turn. (I usually get bruise on upper left thigh when I am done with riding on alpine boards). So, next run, I just wanted to see what if I do. I digged heel edge and tipped it as far as I could. Then, the it carved tight and finished the turn already and lost grip on tail. Tried again and same thing happened. I quickly shifted my weight to tail and then was able to hold but completed/finished the turn already so couldn't link next turn. Another amazing thing was it didn't give me any chatter nor wobble, like titanal boards. The construction, it has titanal (partially) but not throughout like alpine titnal board. Whatever they did to the board, it worked. Oh.. butter-ability was awesome too. When I overturned it, I could do just reverse nose roll (it's nose width is much narrower than Rossi so couldn't stay long buttering though) and sprang right back to ride again. Switch on ground was easy on speed too. I think I found 'my' ultimate softboot carving board that can do almost everything on the ground. I just need to test it on hard icy condition. Even though I am very impressed and satisfied, I still have a doubt that it will perform like today on the hard icy condition. Since this board was my friend's in Ohio, it will take a while to test it on such condition. But, If it does, this will be my ultimate softboot board.

I subscribed to this tread at beginning and am getting more emails than my regular work days. Although it annoys me greatly, the contents and arguments are somewhat educational and entertaining at same time. So please go on while I scrap off wax for few boards that I'm gonna ride tomorrow.

Thanks for the Good info. More and more I prefer night riding due to crowd. With the same reason, I try not to ride on Holiday weekends or weekends. But my kids have begged me from the first day of their winter break, so I’ll be out tomorrow at WT with kids & other families. Probably ride a BX board. Finally, WT announced Homerun (my favorite) will be opened today.

Ride? What model of Ride bindings allows to add lift on toe or heel?

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Yeah. I had sen one that was setup with stacked big (6 degree) and small (3 degree) lift blocks on F2 Race Titanium older model. Catek used to go 8 degree with long king pin. I believe racers were using with Raichle boots (pre-UPZ era)

So true! and quiet opposite of me, except hot tub, beer, and ramen.

timrich99, oh. the night club pass is valid all weekday/weekend nights? I may get that next season too. I was hoping to ride yesterday and today but WT/Liberty/Roundtop weren't able to make any snow. So decided not to go. Maybe one day next week since few snow storms are forecasted next week. Few weather models shows a significant snow storm on 30th. European model sees it as a huge one like Jan. storm 2015, which dumped 38". I'm not convinced... but hope it happens.

Hi jtslalom, Ture. I tried many 'Carving specific' boards from non-alpine snowboard manufacturers and realized their definition of carving and my expectations has a lot of gaps. :) The mentioned manufacturers: Moss, Ogasaka, BC Streams, etc are main alpine snowboard manufacturers in Japan. Interesting parts of the construction is using same materials but placed (partially) in where it needs most. That's why I (and probably we all) want to hear from our beloving alpine snowboard builders like Sean, Bruce, or ShredGrummer. I have ridden many BX boards (Virus, SG, Oxess, F2, Apex). So, once I test the board that has the above pictured construction, I may can tell better. It's gonna be a loaner too.