jburk

A realistic assessment of my current skill level on hardboots probably places me at either intermediate or even "expert beginner". I seem to have spiralled downwards over the last few seasons due to crappy fitness and summer injuries and an accumulation of bad habits from accommodating those limitations. Giving SB carving a shot as a way to break out of these bad habits, cut back on my speed, and focus on fundamentals again. Hard to slow down on hardboots when I'm used to going at least half-warp speed. So rather than start out on a SB board that will be suited for black diamond, I went for the one I think I can progress quickly on and probably reach the limits of within one season, then reevaluate if I want to get Mark to build me a custom Thirst for SB carving and move the board along for someone else to try, or drop SB altogether and sell board, boots and bindings. Pulled the pin on the 159 Soul. At 9.75m it's a decently long sidecut (164 is 10.75m), and with Ivan selling it to me at a good discount off based on what appears to be the 18/19 season pricing, I won't have to take that much of a beating if/when I put it up on the F/S board in a season or two, and my loss can be someone else's gain. Planning on mitigating any width issues experienced by choice of bindings (flow NX2-Carbon) and binding angles. If I reach the limits of this setup within one season I'll consider it a success.

Got it. So you're saying that the largest SG Soul 64XT with a 28cm waist is pretty much limited to intermediate carving for anyone with a mp27 boot or smaller, and too narrow for almost everyone who's an advanced SB carver? Are these boards sized at the waist for someone currently riding softboots and getting into carving, rather than someone who's already carving an alpine board?

Thanks, all good advice. I've sent Ivan a request for pricing yesterday, waiting to hear back. I've got mp26.5 boots, so betting that that 25.5cm waist on the 159 Soul will be a good fit for me. Since this will be the first SB board I've been on since the early 90s, I thought it might be better to err on the side of downsizing. At 170lbs, I'm hoping that the 159 will be plenty wide if I get it into anything deep enough to float, and the shorter SCR on the Surf 164 (8.8m) is also steering me towards the 9.75m Soul 159.

I've managed to score a set of Deeluxe Daemons with the Thermo (CTF) liners, but also have a set of SBCs left over from my UPZs that I may try in them. Now I just need a board and bindings, looking around for an SG Soul 159 (mp26 boots, so I don't think it will be too narrow). As for bindings, with the Flows, can you lock in the highbacks without having to sit down? If I never have to sit down to get into a pair of bindings again, it will be too soon.

What's this year's equivalent of the Flow NX2-GT? The NX2-Carbon? And I can see the difference between the straps on the Fusion and Hybrid variants, but do those come down to personal preference, or is there a functional difference?

These still available?

Just hear from the seller that they're mondo 27, my bad for not checking the image of the size sticker more closely. These are too big for me, can't use them. On a more positive note, I can say the seller is great at answering PMs quickly.

I'll take them. Will pm

Understood. The SGs are a bit spendy, esp compared to the F2s. Almost up there with TD3s (trolling, but all in good fun...).

I just happen to have 3 sets of SG bindings for sale, posted in the For Sale:

PM sent.

If you haven't had any luck getting this sorted yet, I had emailed yoja@upzboots.com a couple of weeks ago inquiring about some parts for my boots. He replied next business day, confirmed he had what I needed in stock a few days later, and I received my order from him earlier today. Send him an email, he's always had great customer service, even without the website it seems.

yoja@upzboots.com is answering emails and says he's still taking orders. He can tell you if he has that part in stock.

Today was a new one: Is that thing scary to ride?

When I used to ride F2s I considered these a consumable part and just replaced the whole set every year, and always had a set of spares for any mid-season issues; would give them a quick check every 20 days or so. Have you considered switching over to SG bindings instead of machining your own small parts? Nothing on my SGs has needed replacing since I switched to them 3-4 years ago.

Received the plate today from @b.free. Fast shipping, well packed, arrived in great shape. Thanks!

Can just mail you the pair, call it good. DM me your address.

How many do you need? One pair?

It's the old-school one, what seems to be the most common version I see around ASB: Is this the version you've got? No Allflex inserts on my board, so can't use a VistFlex.

Looking for a Vist plate (the 07 variant).

Sold to @2012Alpine1 Donated $25 to the forum.

I've had a couple of "what will you take for this?" DMs for this sale, and I'll save everyone some time. I'm firm on the $400 price, unless I can skip the shipping step. For $350 USD, I'll deliver the board to you in the Portland, OR area, or I can bring it up to the BC Lower Mainland area the week between Xmas and New Years.

Thirst construction is a bit different; they work across fairly broad weight ranges. I've ridden this at 170# and 195# and it rides the same. My buddy (230#) and I both have identical Thirst 8RWs with the same flex index. I rode what is now his board for a day during a demo session, he rode it the next day and bought it at the end of the day,so I asked Mark to build another just like it. He's 230#, an active racer, and can ride pretty aggressively at times, and the same flex index works for both of us. I'd say this will suit you if you're between 160 and 220. Where it might get tricky is if your stance is less than 20". The sweet spot for me for binding placement on this board was set towards the rear of the front insert pack, and when I was running a 47cm stance I didn't have much room in the insert pattern for adjustment

Bought this board from Mark @ Thirst in May 2018, it was my daily driver for 3 years, and probably has 80+ days on it. Not riding it since I picked up a Thirst 8RW and XC last season, so it's time to let it go to help fund another board. $400 shipped, CONUS only. Paypal only, and if you want "goods and services" for purchase protection, please add $15.00 for Paypal's G&S charges. Goofy, flex index is 0.229, reference stance is 20in, waist is 18.5cm. Will include the "baby blanket" board bag. Base and edges are 9/10, and plenty of edge material left. Base has been ground once to put a structure on it, and edges are 0.7/2. All work on the board done by Greg at https://www.bootsandmore.ski/. There was a long (but very shallow) scratch which has been expertly repaired (Greg again). It shows up really well in the picture due to the way it can catch the light, but you can't even feel it when you run your hand over the base. The base and edges have also just been waxed & tuned by boots&more last week, so it's ready to ride. The topsheet is... another story. For the most part, the topsheet is in very good condition, but there are a few blemishes along the left side behind the rear binding, mostly due to the board hitting the back of my rear boot while skating. There's no sidewall damage, just light chipping along the exposed topsheet edge. I asked Greg if any of the blems needed repair work, and he said they were all good as-is. Small chip near the nose. A lot of these photos are showing the board at its worst; I want there to be no surprises when the buyer unboxes it. I will say that if you're not happy with the condition of the board when you receive it, AND you're willing to send it back to me the next day UPS ground or USPS, I'll refund you the full purchase price plus what it costs you to ship it back to me.

Yup, less aggressive. If you want to repair an existing thread and can get a chaser started (the first thread isn't messed up), the chaser will reform the messed up portions back to (or close to) original shape without removing material. Use a tiny dab of grease before starting, and the grease will trap any debris displaced in the vertical grooves of the chaser instead of them dropping down into the blind hole. A cutting tap is a last resort if you can't get the chaser started. No matter how careful you are, every time you use a cutting tap on an existing thread you remove some material and end up with less overlap between the female and male threads (insert threads and bolt threads), resulting in a greater chance that the bolt will strip the insert.