lafcadio

It was not me on Tuesday. I'm using bright orange/red UPZ boots and typically a blue and green Patagonia shell. I was there today carving in the rain (again). Hey... snowboarding in the rain is still snowboarding! I'll take snowboarding in the rain any day over sitting inside and complaining about the weather.

I’m curious why? Do you happen to have an extra one, or you don’t find the Wax Whizard / SkiMD Pro-Glide useful? I think this tool is a very quick and easy way to get wax on a board and is especially useful and convenient when traveling.

Hey @Desjar, The Cateks were my first hardboot bindings that I purchased back in the fall of 2009 from Performance Downhill in New Market, NH. Sadly, this small snowboard and bicycle shop is no longer around. I used them throughout the 2009-10 season (estimating 35 days), and according to my carving journal which I started keeping the following season, I used them for 7 days of the 2010-11 season before switching to TD3s. So these bindings have less than 50 days on them, and I was not carving very hard or aggressive back then. That said, they definitely show signs of use. Nothing serious that would impact performance or life of the bindings, but the aluminum toe levers are dinged up and at one point I had electrical tape on them to keep them from getting scratched further. I've confirmed all of the hardware is present and in working order. I mounted them up this morning on an old board and did some carpet carving to be sure: These are the Catek OS2 "Model L" bindings, with the original elastomers and the D3 upgrades, plus some extra mounting hardware: I'm asking $200, which includes shipping to the continental US. I'll accept either PayPal or Venmo for payment, but would prefer PayPal. Please DM me for details. Hope these old friends go to a good home. Cheers, Michael

I’m thinking $200. The only hesitation is that I want to ensure all of the parts are, in fact, present and intact. I won’t ask for more than $200 but I’ll adjust the price accordingly if there’s anything missing. I want to make sure it’s fair and I just didn’t have enough time to go through everything before I left. Once I’m home on Thursday, I’ll post an update with complete inventory and more photos.

Looks like they may be Long. The plates are 23cm in length and they have “MODEL L” etched on them. I have all parts, extra screws, and D3 Elastomers. I’m literally on my way out the door to spend time with family for holidays but can post more photos and info when I return on Thursday.

Somehow I missed you. I was there until 1 PM. Not super carving conditions but good enough considering what they’re working with. Can’t wait until Plutos opens.

The other day I somehow forgot to put the link lever into ride mode before heading down. Previously, I had been playing with the forward lean adjustment and the first thought I had was “Wow, I still need MORE forward lean?!” Yeah, with the link levers in walk mode, no kidding!!!!

I have an old Kessler custom 171 with metal top sheet that I purchased used off this forum (the old BoL) for $300 about 10 years ago and haven’t used at all since 2014. It does not have much edge life left — it could be maintained with diamond stones but I would not advise putting a file to it. Name your price. Depending on what your goals are and how you want to use it, it could be the cheapest Kessler you’ll ever find.

I just found my old Catek OS2 standards while cleaning out the basement. But I have a feeling they’re not “long”. Any idea how I would know? I wear Mondo 25 boots, if that helps.

Lots of fresh machine made snow this morning. Snow guns blasting overtime and the recent rain filled up the reservoir. No new terrain open but they fully recovered from the warm up and rain. I’ll be there again tomorrow morning.

I’m used to riding with heel lift on my rear boot (Carve Company and F2s), but on my splitboard, I’m finding the flat (heel to toe) setup of Spark R&D canted pucks difficult to ride in. I’m surprised that Voile, Phantom, and Spark all have flat setups. All three brands provide an option for about 2-3 degrees of inward cant but they’re flat heel to toe. I’m sure this will matter less when riding deep pow, but for typical conditions I find it very uncomfortable, especially with the wider stance options I’m forced into on the split setup. I’m looking for ways to add some wedges beneath the pucks or something between the boot and binding to get me some heel lift on my rear foot. Anyone else have experience with mods to add additional heel or toe lift when the bindings don’t provide it?

Are you referring to heel lift built into the boot? Or something in the bindings? The biggest issue for me right now carving (or turning in general) on a splitboard setup (Phantom Slipper HD boots with Spark R&D Dyno HD bindings) is the relatively flat stance. I'm using the Spark R&D canted pucks but there's no heel lift. I'm thinking of trying to rig something up to get some heel lift on my back foot.

Regarding stiffness, the Phantom Slipper's primary modification to the Backland is the addition of the Link Lever attachment, which controls forward lean and stiffness. The stiffness is based on the spring (similar to BTS), which comes in 4 different stiffness ratings: https://www.phantomsnow.com/collections/boots/products/link-levers I'm 5'5" at 160 pounds and using the gold springs. Honestly, I'm finding the boots a bit stiff for me, especially when riding in softer snow. I've already ordered the red springs. Keep in mind, I tend to like my carving boots on the softer side. I normally use the UPZ XC12s for carving, which are notably soft. But you should be able to get a stiffer flexing boot by choosing the green springs. I'm not sure how the Phantom Slipper compares to a stock Atomic Backland without the Link Lever installed.

Oh no. This is sad news. Dan was super helpful in my transition from Deeluxe to UPZ boots. He always went out of his way to answer my questions and provided amazing service.

Got a few laps in this morning before the rain. No crowds again. Some thin spots on Satellite Summit and Moonwalk. Bare spots on Magnitude. Meteor and Galaxy still have good cover. Stubby/brush practice gates set on Galaxy made some fun runs on my 9m scr Pure Boarding Two.

Snow was nice this morning. Not icy and grippy. Sun shining. I’ll be out tomorrow until about noon.

No reports since opening day? Anyone been out yet?

hey! Also transplant from MA (years ago) and rode regularly at BEast. Still get back to BEast a few times a year. Crotched is my home mountain since 2017.

“I'm carvin' in the rain! Just carvin' in the rain! What a glorious feeling I'm happy again!” We had rain, freezing rain, some snow, LOTS of fog, and wide ear-to-ear grins. What we did not have: typical weekend crowds. The snow held up exceptionally well (much longer than my legs ) and the only challenge was the low visibility. For my first day out, I’ll take it!

I did hear about the new lift. Not sure how I feel about it. I guess it will depend on how it impacts crowds. I didn't know about the expansion. Cool! Agree 100% with using a single thread instead of the per-season threads. That's so annoying.

Figured it out. It appears to be the group of buttons to the right of "Forums" highlighted in red below. Depending on which is selected the view changes. Either I managed to activate by mistake or possibly it's a new feature. If you end up lost in a confusing view with only select topics shown while accessing on mobile, try cycling through these buttons to get back to the usual list of forums.

Did something change site-wide or is it just me? I used to be able to browse the forums on my mobile browser (Safari or Chrome on iPhone) as easily as on the desktop. But now when viewing on iPhone I'm presented with some kind of "filtered view" where only specific topics are shown and I cannot easily navigate between forums. And in fact, while reading a topic, I have no idea which forum it's posted in. It's almost unusable compared to what I used to get. I'm using the same bookmark as I always have to access the site. Logging out and logging back in doesn't help.

Thank you! I heard from the folks at Spark R&D who also confirmed 30 degrees. I was also informed that the Spark Dyno HD bindings are compatible with Voile pucks for higher angles. If I can’t find a comfortable binding angle using the Spark pucks I’ll try using them with Voile canted pucks.

Do you have any details about the limitations on the angles? Looking at the info available on the website and the setup video here, it's not really clear what angles are possible. Thanks!

Jimmy, your son is an amazing carver and was railing turns. So much talent at his age! What boots was he riding? They looked like ski boots?