Kneel

Ice-coaster here. @bigwavedave, we've been on this journey together, brother. 4x4 BP2 4MM Lite pretty much neutered the XC. It just didn't belong there. Geckos have their place, at the end of the day, but they haven't been on a Thirst since early last season. Knowing what I know about the Contra, I would expect similar results. I break it down into two types of riding here. There is well RIDING, when conditions are good and there is some chance of ice towards the end of the day, but typically at that time I've already been sitting on the couch for an hour after putting in 15-20k of vert. Then there's SURVIVAL. Conditions start as shit, progress as shit and end as crud and shit, but you have to ride because you're riding with friends/family or frankly there's nothing else to do because even a bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work. When I KNOW it's, gonna be one of those survival days, I'm on an SG with a plate. Which is a shame because the FC170 and the new BLACK 169 are such great boards on their own, but with some isolation they can take on ANYTHING. They just work. Outside of that, I ride a Thirst, on sidewinders. No more wandering the American west, Kwai Chang Caine has found his brother Danny.

I'll take E, the Gen 2 4mm 4-hole.

Maybe it's just the spectacular conditions now, but I've ridden the XC exclusively for the last 3 weeks. I get it. But my 8RW is coming with to CO in 2 weeks. It wont make that trip for nothing...

Awesome, @jtslalom. And to think I've been hiding up here in the north country. Only a footish of fresh at Stratton with this storm. Coming home for a bit this weekend and may try to get my money's worth out of my MC season pass next week...

No Prinoth cam?

The struggle is real...

Or perhaps last week was so abysmal it just seems that way. Either way, sorry if you missed it. Enjoy the weekend and the bitter cold. I'm hiding/recovering till Monday.

Smooth, Pat. You have 25 years on me and I don't think I'd look that smooth on an SL. You can never have too many boards. You just need to find other houses to stash them in as not to raise suspicion. Too bad your legs are on backwards or I could bring you a bunch of right-foot-forward Thirsts for you to try out. I'm in Dorset through February and have been known to slum it over at Okemo from time to time...

Stratton, VT. Overcast, fog, flat light. I know those conditions well... Me and the XC have finally found our groove and it's moving steadily towards the top of the ladder. But it was very difficult to figure out where it belonged. Every time I'd take it out either I was off, conditions were not right, I'd throw the BP on it , it just wasn't measuring up to the SF or 8RW. Well, yesterday and today conditions were damn near perfect. I'll be on it tomorrow morning as well.

It doesn't hurt that we've had over 2' of snow through the weekend and another 5" last night, @barryj I've been riding the XC the past two days. Sans plate! May even be 8RW time...

I have both and they couldn’t be more different. The MK is a lot work to ride. It’s tons-o-fun, don’t get me wrong, but I just don’t want to work that hard. An hour. That’s about my limit on the MK and I’m toast. It just demands your full attention 100 percent of the time. It so fast edge to edge, which is what makes it fun, but I’m getting old(er). It’s going to the kid’s rack. I need a nap just thinking about riding it. The SF I can ride all day in just about all conditions. Much more versatile. Quite the opposite of the MK, however you CAN do MK turns on the SF with a lot less effort AND you can really draw them out if you want. Turn shape correlates to how far you tip it over. FWIW...

We need snow. My place in southern VT. First picture was Dec. 17th 2020, second was taken 10 minutes ago(Jan. 13th 2021). I've been riding with a plate this week...

How do you get such great pictures? When I try to ride and hold the gopro it looks like I'm trying to fend off a swarm of bees...

No doubt. Such a good board for the "diverse" conditions the northeast can throw at you in a single day.

That's been my battle. I want my riding to feel like Spiderman slinging webs down Broadway.

I'm with you on that limb. @barryj Take a deep breath, go back to center where Mark suggested and look at it with a fresh set of eyes. In the beginning, it's like that feeling as a kid when you get new sneakers and you charge everything full throttle because well they're new sneakers and new sneakers make you faster, make you jump higher and put you on high alert because everyone in your class is now looking at your new kicks. Step out of The Matrix and free your mind. Get on a nice wide green, get up to speed and as suggested a few times already just tip her over. If you're feeling the nose and tail intermittently, you're not relaxed or centered. THAT is what makes the Thirst stand out. Sure, you can beat it like a red-headed step-child and eventually find that balance, and frankly you can do this with any modern board, but that center is key on the Thirst. Build upon that. It may require unlearning a few things temporarily, but everything will fall into place after that.

It's rumored you like to tinker so I'm just gonna throw this out there. I'm 6'1". While I like the enthusiasm in a 21" stance, shorten the gap a couple clicks and that sweet spot will introduce itself.

I need some company out here. I think so far there are a total of 4 Thirsts in the northeast and I have 3 of them. @barryj doesn't count yet as he's still crunching the numbers on binding angles. The SF is MADE for this godawful frigid yet snow-deprived place. The XC aint too shabby either. When the stars align and Upper Standard and Kidderbrook finally open...it's 8RW time. Wish I could try the 9SW...

You may be onto something with South, but that's the last place I want to be on a weekend. You are a braver man than I... I can definitely shift to a First lift at noon start over there. I did ride this morning and the crowd was not bad and started to build just in time for me to leave at 10:30. But they need snow, bad. I would be happy with a consistent layer of bulletproof. VARIABLE is an understatement. Packed, to ice, to slush and mud. Honestly I give a LOT of credit to mountain ops. They are really making some lemonade. Long range night temps look good so they'll turn it around, but we need the real thing which is nowhere in site.

I think what MAY be throwing him off VISUALLY is the warp sidecut, which he is comparing to the symmetrical K168. There is a lot of extra real estate on the back foot heel side. He's tying to visually justify binding symmetry on an asymmetrical board. Toe side has the appearance of being "too close" so the natural response is to move it back...

M29 Track 700's w/BTS, TD3SW 3F/3R, 60 degree front and anywhere from 57 to the present 62 degrees rear. 19.7cm waist on my SF. NEVER had a problem with bootout here in the ice coast. Just ride it, Barry.

How long does it stay green on a full charge?

That MAY have been a discussion and I was probably party to it. That most likely had been an overcompensation, at least speaking for myself, of me trying to force my will over the board through a transformation of just riding the board. Knowing a little about how Mark chooses cores and in watching him ride lead me to stop overthinking things. Now I drop it in the center of the insert packs and slightly modify my stance width depending on conditions.

Oops. It wasn't bad on the XC. Actually kinda nice. DIFFERENT. Very different. No longer "Thirstlike" if that was a word. It's better without. I even ditched the geckos on SF.

SW's, 60F/62R, 19.5", right smack dab in the middle. If you look at your K as a reference, you'll notice Mark already sets the inserts back. Maybe that's intentional, maybe not, but that's how it appears(and feels) to me. I don't have my K168 handy, but here is an SG B.L.A.C.K 169 for a comparison. Sorry. Aussies always photobomb AND they always choose the Thirst...