t-bone5

Hi all! Thank you so much for your answers! I really appreciate it. I'm overwhelmed with work, I'll read what you all said and reply soon :)

Hello all! I'm a seasoned freerider and I love aggressive carving. LOVE it. I tried hardbooting once several years ago and really liked it. I've been wanting to start alpine snowboard for years and I decided I want to try to make it happen this year (yay). The thing is, it seems alpine snowboarding is for (semi)rich folks and/or full-time workers only (the gear is EXPENSIVE)... and since I am a heavily indebted PhD student I can't afford expensive equipment. So far I found cheap used boards I could start with (even though most of them are dinosaurs, I think I could find something decent) but it's freakin hard to find cheap boots (I live in Ottawa, Canada). And from what I read, boot quality is really important. So I have 2 questions: 1) CHEAP BOOTS / SKI BOOT MODIFICATIONS. As if it wasn't hard enough to find alpine snowboard gear these days, I am a 5’6 female with mondo size 24/24.5 feet. Unless a miracle happens, there's no way I'll find good used or discount boots. If any of you knows a website where I could find some quality cheap hardboots, please let me know. I'm willing to come get stuff at the boarder, i.e. buy frmo a US website and have it ship in a US post office to avoid expensive shipping fees; or meet with someone living near the border (NY or VT states). My other option would be to use ski boots, but I'm not an idiot and I know that in order to ride in ski boots I'd have to seriously customize them. I've googled for ski boots mods but couldn't find anything interesting. Can anyone help me with this? Also, do you think it's worth it to try customize ski boots in order to avoid hardboot high costs? By the way, I've already read lots of forum discussions on the "can I use ski boots with my alpine board" subject. But what people mostly discuss is using them as is and hardbooters being like and sometimes (haha). Lots of hardbooters say it's not a good idea (I know that), some say it a no-no unless you customize them but never say how. I've also read stuff like this: http://www.alpinecarving.com/boots.html, which is very interesting but not precise enough. 2) OLD BOARDS (BRANDS AND SIZES). The other question I'm trying to get answers for is about old boards. Most boards selling under 400$ are dinosaurs (late 1990s-early 2000s). I don't really mind but the problem is that like real dinosaurs, they went extinct (which makes my analogy great haha); consequently, I can't find specs infos, size charts or reviews and that makes it really hard to know what to buy/search for in terms of brand and length. I weight 125-ish lbs (let's say I'm searching for a board for 125 to 135 lbs) and I'm 5"6 (I know boards are weight-specific but just in case anyone wonders about my center of gravity or something). I have an aggressive style so I'm not afraid of putting my back into my turns (meaning I'm not afraid of a board that's a little long for my weight). So I'm looking for general answers on what old brands/models are good and what length (1. ideal and 2. acceptable) I should go for. But since I know the length/weight ratio can be specific to the brand or model, I'm also searching for very specific answers (for example someone could recommend a 161 Swoard Extremecarver). So yeah.. I have lots of questions Thanks!!