TVR

Using my son as the example, I will start off with stating, he is an odd duck. That being said, for his first two years of racing, being 8 and 9, he was the only one on hardboots, even at Nationals. He just loved riding them and always wanted to be on the alpine board, not in softies. His biggest issue was never "hard boots vs soft boots" but moreover, getting gate time. When I enrolled him with different programs, he was always chasing gate time, and when it was twenty below, he was still lapping it because those gates had a solid expiration and would be pulled. Getting coaching, quality coaching for hardboots, has always been a challenge, but this post here is addressing how to get more people interested in racing, which translates into getting people interested in racing, even in soft boots. I think more kids would race and race gates if there was more availability to get in gates. Whenever the programs has stubbies or gates, there was always those skiers who would slide in to do a few turns and then sneak off. When people see the gates, they always want to know how well they can do. Nastar helps, but they tend to set a very straight course so the younger kids can do them. I am sure availability to gates would drive more interest. My son was the only 7 year old on the mountain who just wanted to be in hardboots, hence the "odd duck" initiation of this post. At 15, he is still all about them. Even with hardboots, he really didn't have any significant advantage until about 12 or so. I don't think the choice of equipment deters anyone below that age as most below 12 simply haven't mastered the technique with hardboots well enough to make it an advantage. Hope this was constructive.

My son moved up to FIS racing this year and therefore moved up to the .951 boots. Some takeaways: Mike went from UPZ RC10 to .951 boots. His UPZs were good for heel hold, but needed to be ridiculously tight to accomplish this. The .951 boots out of the box with stock liners had good heel hold, but almost brought him to tears at the bottom of each run. They were not strapped as tight, but the liners were not comfortable for him. To solve this, Mike went to a boot fitter and put in molded, injected liners. With these, he goes several runs with 'racers' comfort, and no longer needs to unbuckle them between runs. (He still does every other run to extend his day as a 'just in case' type deal). His heel hold seems to be superior and his times seem to have improved. Like some other comments, maybe these with stock liners are not for wider feet. The low profile rear spring seems to be stronger and better built than the stock UPZ springs. I would rate these, so far, to being equally as strong as even the DGSS system. The UPZs have plastic holding and what the forward spring pushed against, and Mike has broken his boots in the past by pulling the spring through that plastic. The low profile on the .951 boots seems to not have this weak spot. They seem to flex smoothly, and are strong. Build quality seems great, as my son is extremely hard on equipment and these work well for him. Overall, these are (obviously by watching higher end competitions) the choice for racing. Although I would say the stock liners may not work with all foot types (They certainly did not work with my sons feet) getting new molded injected liners solve for this and are worth the time and moneys. I am not sure for the recreational carver, but seeing how these have helped my son, and now with his comfort level at a point where he can be in these all day, I would see these as something that could help the recreational carver get to that point where they want to be. Hope this helps.

He has sotboots... well .... sort of ....

This may not be strictly racing, but I am sure his race training made this possible.... Myles Silverman (FIS Gate racer) set a new world record yesterday.. https://snowbrains.com/snowboarder-covers-100000-vertical-feet-in-12-hours-to-set-new-guinness-world-record/ Also, looks like the loaf still has plenty of snow....

Another one was here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/03/18/antarctica-heat-wave-climate-change/ record "heat" now... (heat is in quotes as it is still below freezing, so not heat.. its all relative to mammals and all) also: "the South Pole observed just observed its coldest April to September period on record last year, with an average temperature of minus-78 degrees (minus-61 Celsius)". Not an insignificant 8 month time period ... The aspect of the South Pole being a coldest ever time and also a warmest time ever within a single year are, I would argue, signs of the Earths conveyor belt slowing.... this is one of the first signs of such an event. I have touched on this aspect earlier... This is also a nuanced subject. As an example, as the world looks to reduce pollution and yet be global, they often overlook some aspects: https://newatlas.com/shipping-pollution/11526/ Each of these super cargo ships pollution is equal to 50 million cars.... Maybe make more domestic? Wood products alone, sourced in the Americas for timber, sent to China, and then purchased back in the Americas alone... Well, we can do the math on that .... let's add some more perspective ... there are 90,000 cargo ships traveling the seas currently.... In a single year 15 of the largest cargo ships produce the same amount of pollution as all the cars in the entire world... And this does not address any other form of transport..... So, again... this has nuances bigger than reduced driving. I don't offer a solution other than maybe to consume local more... Shutting down pipelines and shipping oil at the above figures doesn't seem to be helping if reduction is the goal... If the conveyor belt theory holds true, as I believe that to be, then the desalination means I expect more of the record cold as well as the elevated heat maps to become more common.....

Excellent..... Well, glad to meet you .... It was good to see Mike race in person again. This is the first year I have not been at every event of his....

Thanks .... There was some great racing this past year and I noticed a few patterns. After qualifiers, it was ALWAYS the young guns (everyone was under 20) vs the veterans in the ladders. Although the veterans would clinch the top 5 slots, the times kept narrowing and getting closer. It seems there was a gap as most all the competitors are like 28 and older or 15 - 19 in age. (Cody, at 21 didn't fit the pattern and has a hell of a career ahead of him). These next few years will be interesting....

Congrats man... There were some skilled names in that list.....

Ended up getting a new one from the factory... thanks....

I will take reasonable offers or will give this for the price of shipping to a kid starting out.... If I give it, when done, they pay it forward....

Not for me, but post the mm on the heel base... 299mm == 27 - 27.5 312mm == 28 - 28.5 etc... The toung is more what they can do while the mm on the side is the internal actual size.. Thanks

TD2 fronts are higher than TD3 rears unless you form a spacer. I use step-ins and have mixed and matched many a part.... So, do you have TD3's already it seems? I have a set of TD3 heels, step-ins, I might part with.... maybe a trade with ship or something for your TD3 regular heels? Might be able to set you up...

<sigh> peterwilliams890@aol.com Yea.... same here..... Jack, use that mighty foot of yours please? I wonder why this is a more appealing target than say, FB Marketplace.....

Yea..... I don't think they thought that through.... Anyone in a snow sport won't want their product as they watch what essentially looks like hell.

Valentino Guseli beat my son in SL in 2018 Nationals riding softboots against my son on hardboots. He took 1'st and my son took the Silver.... Valentino took 6'th in halfpipe representing Australia this Olympics .... The kid can certainly carve man.... and he chases the snow year round.....

I don't have boots for you, but I just wanted to welcome you to the old man club being over 50 like myself and others.... Keep on riding man... respect....

Maybe he won because his wild pants blinded and confused the other track?

A shame this has to be posted, but completely true on all fronts.

I also wonder if you buy a virus, can you get the same specs as his? Or is this custom and not shared....

Wish we could see the difference between SG and F2 bindings.... the SG bindings are more beefy.... so that would be interesting.... They look identical.... I also wonder, aside from the Virus, who was running custom boards vs the stock.... and obviously, no search engine will have those statistics...... JJ was notorious for not doing the industry standard sidecuts.... And they seem to work for many....

Benjamin Karl on the Virus was interesting..... It was amazing as well how even with his wobble, he still stayed in it..... Saw a few surprises with the boots and the plates as well...... the course sure went to hell of ruts and ice quick..... many blowouts.....

Live youtube feed:

Another raced is today and tomorrow in this series. For those interested, there is live timing as well as live video feed for this. LiveTiming: https://www.live-timing.com/race2.php?r=230151 LiveFeed: https://www.sswsc.org/events/RTTC Lets see how this goes today....

My son today finally broke a TD2 rear bail. Surprised me... Seems the bolt going into the block through the eye decided it had had enough.... First such failure... Guess even as tough as the TD2s are, they too have their limits....

EICSL will be a good guage to see how you do against beer league... USASA will tell you how you stand for more country wide competition... https://usasanhseries.teamapp.com/events?_list=v1 There are / is a GS and a (2) SL at waterville that date, 3/13/2022 If you are over 18, you will need to get a safesport ID and go through their classes If under 18, need you guardian to sign you up.... You will need to sign up for teamapp and request access to NH series and Maine series and whatever other series you might try... this part is free, but it takes a bit as it is volunteers or people with day jobs.... Races average 43 buck for USASA, so do the math, and you will need a USASA membership which runs you like 150 since it is mid-season, maybe a little less.... go to usasa.org and signup and you will get all the details... I would start age group and see how you do. You can always move up to open class, but you cannot move back down without issue.... If you do well, you will get invited to Nationals in Copper where the competition can be about 4x as hard... not that those in NH are bad, but just the event is huge... about 1000 competitors strong for all disciplines... Fun time man... I love Nationals ....