Corey

Can you borrow your friend's board for a day to try it out? You could use your ski boots. That would at least get you a taste of it before you spend a lot of money. After you decide you like it, watch the Bomber classifieds and www.ebay.com for good deals. I've spent about $300 for my board, bindings, and boots. I need to upgrade the board eventually, but it's good enough to get started and to feel the G's. Also, read all that you can about getting started in snowboarding. The more you read and can visualize, the less you will hurt after the first day.

I have a set of AF700 liners in my SB123 shells. No problems. I bought them used with that combo, not sure exactly why, but it works for me!

No replies? Is this common knowledge, or too obscure to help? Being able to change my forward lean made a huge change in my snowboarding, now I can fine tune it for my body's needs.

Riding rails/jibbing never really appealed to me, even though I came to snowboarding from skateboarding. But, I have great respect for people that can do amazing stuff on rails, just as I respect people laying out beautiful carves all the way down the mountain. Personally, I'm now focusing my efforts on the carving side after spending many unsatisfying years learning aerial tricks. You definitely do not need a mountain to snowboard! Just this weekend I was at a local resort with 350 feet of vertical. You can make a lot of carves from top to bottom with that little rise. It sure would be nice to have longer runs, but that simply isn't an option for me without a 12+ hour drive or a plane ride. I will agree with everyone that TWS is a worthless magazine. I don't even have the urge to flip through it if I have to kill some time at a newstand. No content, just ads!

http://www.bomberonline.com/store/boots/parts_sb.cfm Out of curiosity, what broke?

I'm digging this thread up to say a huge 'thank you!' to all the people that contributed. I had a wonderful day on the hill today digging some trenches thanks to the great advice given. Especially effective was trying to put my rear shoulder on my front knee on heelside carves. Wow, did that ever do the trick for me! :D Now my heelside is stronger than my toeside. I dragged a hip on the heelside a few times, not quite able to get that low on a toeside yet... Plus, I ditched the crappy Burton boots and got some Raichle SB123's from the Bomber classifieds. Thanks Terrence! It was like a whole different sport, one without foot/leg pain! All in all, one of the best days I've had on a snowboard for a long time! Bomber Online and it's contributors rock!

I recently bought a set of Raichle SB123's used from someone in the Bomber classifieds and wanted a larger range of adjustment than the single position lean adjusters offered. I took off the lean adjuster to see how it worked. I quickly realized that this wouldn't be hard to convert these at all, if you had access to a milling machine to keep the holes in line. All you have do is drill four more holes, each 0.290" away from it's neighbour. I used a 15/64" drill bit and used a dremel-type tool to slightly enlarge the holes to work. If you have letter-drills, you may be able to find an exact size, but I did not. This works like a charm! The holes almost exactly span the 15 mm of adjustment range (up and down) built into the mechanism. I wouldn't try this with a hand drill or even a drill press unless you are a good machinist! The holes are very close together, it would be easy to blow through to the next hole and wreck the adjuster! I've attached a sketch if you have a friendly machinist that will do this for you. If you have to pay, it'll probably be cheaper just to buy them from Bomber.

Just a note that there is no fine adjustment for stance width with TD1's on a Burton pattern. There is only one set of holes in the baseplates, so you have to move the binding to a different set of holes in the board to change width. It's not a huge problem, but a bit of a pain.

I'm also interested in the reasons orthotics don't work well for snowboarding. I tried mine in my soft snowboarding boots. I had a lot of foot pain, but I can't imagine why when they feel so good the rest of the time!

I had a patroller come over and scream and yell at my friend and I about going out of bounds. We looked at each other wondering what he was talking about. We hadn't be out of bounds, but he was quite certain we were the culprits. In reality, there is no real way to ride out of bounds in our area as the willow trees grow about 3-4 inches apart. If they haven't mowed down the trees, you're not going anywhere! In the end, we lost our lift tickets at about 11:00 AM. We learned that you cannot change a ski patrollers decision. :( It was a small resort, we never saw that patroller again. I guess the right people saw that he was a 'Power Clerk'. Thanks for the new term!

Mail sent! Can anyone post any reviews of these boots? There's nothing in the Bomber gear reviews.

Yes, it sounds way too familiar! I eat, sleep, and breathe autocross. I just got back from my first wheel-to-wheel ice race though. Too much fun. :D

From a purely mechanical point of view, I'd try re-tapping it to 1/4" first. You won't remove as much material. Then, if that fails for some reason, you could try the helicoil. You could not go back to 1/4" if the helicoil fails though.

Wow, good call. I found myself trying to extend my rear leg at certain times. I kept subconsciously doing it without even meaning to. That was not a very stable position or a comfortable one at high boot angles! I've got to re-think my riding style that has a lot of bad habits from being self-taught. I definitely felt the carving ability of the Alp on a few turns when I accidentally got things right. All of a sudden I was looking at the trees coming up fast on the other side of the run! Thanks for the advice from everyone! I'm loving this learning process and can't wait to start digging some trenches and feeling the G's.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3651100278&category=21248

Wow guys, thanks! That's a ton of info that's going to take a while to digest. I'll print this out and take it to the hill with me. Then as I learn one thing, I can start thinking of the next and keep it all fresh in my mind. Now I understand what cross-through is. Getting my body to actually do it will be another thing, but I now realize what it is and what it does for you. I'm on a real budget setup; a Burton Alp 169, Burton Freecarve boots, and a set of old TD1's. The boots are terrible and will be replaced fairly soon, hopefully with a set of SB 413's from the Bomber store.

If you ignore everything that rider in the video is doing above the waist, is that not a cross-under? I'd guess that my upper body is closer to the technique that you suggest, shoulders and arms parallel to the slope and fairly still. I'm probably moving my arms a bit to help with my shaky balance, but no deliberate motions. I'm having a hard time figuring out how a cross-through turn differs from a cross-under. Thanks Jack, I look forward to more of your analysis! :)

I’m just getting into carving after riding on freestyle equipment since 1987. I did carve on the freestyle stuff, but was never able to get very low to the snow. After a few days on alpine equipment, I’m not so sure that it was an equipment problem as much as a rider problem... So, to get a good start on my new (to me) alpine-specific equipment I read and re-read all of the articles in the Tech section and tried to apply them. I understand the basics of cross-under and cross-over. I found that the motions of cross-under are quick leg extensions to bend the board quite sharply under your feet. I was amazed at how tightly the board will turn if you time this extension properly and really load up the board! To graphically demonstrate, I was able to achieve this, but not so stylishly! Trying to load the board in the same way in cross-over was not so successful, the turns always ended up being very large radius ones that I could just as easily achieve on my freestyle board. The big questions I have are: 1. How can I make larger direction changes at the tight radius you can achieve in cross-under turns? I can’t seem to mentally bridge the gap between these quick, short, and powerful turns to longer but still tight turns. How do you keep the board fully loaded for a longer duration? Is it a matter of loading up the board to start the turn and then letting centrifugal force keep it flexed? 2. I’m still experiencing heelside chatter on some turns, especially on longer ones. I’m working on keeping my knees flexing throughout the duration of the turn and facing the nose, but I think I’m still missing something. I noticed I could reduce this chatter by driving my rear knee laterally towards the heel edge of the board, but this stance/position feels awkward. Am I on the right path? Because I couldn't hold the carve until I was facing up the hill, I had to slide the tail to scrub speed. This felt very unnatural on the heel edge with my feet at such angles (60 f, 55 r). I think this is just because I don't have much time on the board, but it may indicate something else. Unfortunately, there are no other carvers in my area to watch and get tips from. I had lots of interesting conversations in the lift lines as no one had seen a snowboard that narrow before, and with ‘ski’ boots too! ;) Can anyone offer some tips/suggestions?

Thanks for the suggestions! I typically wear 33" inseam pants, so 19.8" seems about right by that formula. I'll try out #3 over the Christmas break. If it feels too wide, I'll switch to #2. The setback I quoted was from the center of the running length. The insert pattern is offset towards the rear of the board. The 3-D pattern does allow for other choices when using most other bindings, but the Bomber TD1's that I have only allow one position for 3-hole patterns. There is no fore/aft adjustment possible. See the holes between the center bump and the base plate mounting hole: That's the only position that is allowed with the 3-D pattern. That's a design constraint that Fin and Bob must have wrestled with when first making the bindings. When you look at adding more positions you run into the base plate mounting holes in a hurry. If you move the front/rear holes to one side, you can allow fore/aft adjustment, but you eliminate some angles and would probably have to make regular and goofy versions. Yuck! (Fin and Bob, does that sound about right?) I'd rather have 4x4, but that's not an option at this point! My next board will not have a 3-D pattern. ;)

Awesome site, I can't believe I didn't find it until now! :) I'm trying to setup some TD1 bindings on a Burton Alp 6.9, but am unsure about stance width/positioning. I've read the excellent articles here on BOL, but I'm unsure which compromise is best for me. Angles, I understand; minimum that eliminates overhang. Check. Width/setback. Almost no idea where I should start. The Burton recommended stance on the board is 18" (really 17 3/4"), 15 mm back from center. I've seen recommendations here for 19+" stances. So I've got a few options with the coarse adjustment allowed by the TD1 baseplates (0 and 3 degree cants): 1. 17 3/4", 15mm back 2. 18 1/4", ~28mm back 3. 19 3/4", ~5mm back 4. 19 1/4", ~23mm forward -I don't think so, but I included it anyway Which of these is a good starting point for me? I'm leaning toward #3, but I feel it might be too wide. #2 sounds better than #1 for width, but it's pretty far back! Another option is to make new cant plates. I'm a mechanical engineer and could re-design the plates around my 3-D hole pattern. There would be obvious compromises such as reduced angle options, but at least I could adjust stance width. This is a longer-term solution as this would take a while to re-design everything and spend some time in the machine shop! One of the beauties of the TD1 is its simplicity and elegance, it's hard to improve on the design without compromises in other areas. Background: I've just bought a carve setup after floundering for years on a freestyle/freeride setup. I started snowboarding on a Burton Cruise 165 in 1988. I practically lived on the hill until 1993, when I went to University and found myself suddenly too poor to ride as much as I used to. I finally realized that I wasn't having fun with jumping and doing tricks. But I always loved carving! The highlight of the boards I owned was a 1990-ish Nitro 156 -I can't remember the name, but it had a small tail and dug trenches like nobody's business. This was the same time as the white Elfgen bindings with the big tongues. I'm still sorry I sold that one and bought into the freestyle wave! So, I got a set of TD1's from Loui Racer on this board. I found a Burton Alp 6.9 and a pair of Burton Freecarve boots on eBay for fairly cheap. No ragging on this setup, it was the best my budget allowed for, and can be gradually upgraded as I feel the need! I'm about 5'11", 180 lbs., and ride a 21" stance at 25 degrees front, 17 degrees rear on my Sims Max 157 in soft boots. Any suggestions you can make would be greatly appreciated! :D

Thanks! I also happen to be the head course designer. I'm a busy guy on event days!

Cool! I can't help with the vintage snowboards, but we have similar interests! Check eBay.com for old snowboards, they pop up occasionally. I'm just getting back into snowboarding. I got sick of jumping/freestyle, so I've just bought a carving board setup. In my spare time, I also autocross a Miata and run the local autocross program. Pic 1 Pic 2 I even have an in-car video. (almost 7 MB, right-click, save as...) I strongly believe that the skills I learned from snowboarding helped me drive a car better on the limit. The whole feeling of sliding and how keeping it clean makes for faster times.