scottishsurfer

My friend jokingly bet me that i couldnt ride his brothers old hard boot set up. Cue him appearing with it last year and the challenge was on two runs later and i was feeling resonably comfartable turning :). Now i ride Hard boots as a fun distraction from carving on softboots

Oakley Flightdeck work well for me. Like Sunsurfer says it depends a bit on your glasses ive always sprung for the optional anti fog coating when i get new specs so its never been much of a issue. If i do get a slight fog i just lift the google a tad at the bottom to let the air circulate a bit more

Well done man pity about the final but thats damn good going I'm heading to an SBX training day on the 14th with a friend who's aiming to race in the para olympics. Should be a good laugh

Not so Softbooter here but ive always ridden them over tongue

I tried Now recons a few years ago and was resonably impressed but not blown away i wasnt a big fan of the top strap design and lack of moveable heel cup which meant all the centering was done via the disk. The now overdrives are available here but when i was looking for new bindings the cheapest ones i could find were around 415. The karakorams i found the inital release ones from the end of the 17-18 season new for 320 so my descision was partly finacial. these are the ride bindings that have peaked my interest, the straps look a bit me but i like how the base chassies is essentially a single bit so aluminium with padding either side of it + the moveable heel cup and metal disks are very interesting prospect

@dhamann boxing day is the day after christmas day here in the Scotland its good for riding at the indoor slope due to the it being closed christmas day giving the groom a good 24 hours to set nice and rock solid. As for the bindings I fully understand your scepticisim, I kind of see myself as some what being the cannary in coal mine in regards to if they fail or more likely when they fail. All bindings under me generally eventually suffer a pretty spectacular failure at some in there lifespan. So far with exception of the intial failure of a part that they had already redesigned and replaced on all bindings made 2018/19 season onwards they have proved stronger than the traditional disk mounted bindings i have used. Now if there was an option of a traditional binding that was as likely to be as strong id probably be on them instead but until maybe Ride A1 bindings come out next year with there metal base and metal disk there isnt much around. Until then ill be on karakorams and ill update this topic if and when i do come across more issues with them

Well after ripping apart numerous previous bindings i think i may have found a some bindings that should hopefully last me a few seasons. Rider/set up height =180cm weight = 92kg Bindings =Karakoram prime connect-ci stance =56cm wide 33/-3 regular Boots =10.5 US Modified Salomon lofi(almost no flex at the ankle) Boards used on =Donek Incline 162cm(carving), Lib tech Hot knife(pow/tree riding) experience = 5 years riding(10-20hours a week all year round) Previous bindings/failings SP rail (snapped chassis in half) SP team (to much sideways flex due to no solid heel cup) Rome 390 boss(weak orignal disks failed often, a bit soft for my riding now) Union ultra(chassis laughable soft and easily overpowered build quality on carbon highback was terrible) Rome Targa(weak orignal disk, lasted about 2 years before ultimately dying of metal fatigue) Union atlas(disks were so weak it was a joke, chassis to soft and overflexed allowing snow build up between binding and board, there now fransteins carbonfibre modifed monster) So having left alot of broken bindings in my wake I was wondering where to go next and decided it was worth trying what are essentially splitboard bindings on a solid. Karakoram pitch this as being a resort binding that can quickly swapped between boards due to the quiver connector system and can also be used for spiltboards, my logic was if its strong enough to hold a split together hopefully they should be strong enough for me not to rip them apart.... Inital impressions were very the quiver connector system locked down strongly with no real play in the system and was incredible responsive so just what the doctor ordered. That was until boxing day where on the edge change going from heel to toe i ripped the rear quiver connector in half.... It turned out due to me getting the intial release variant of the binding i had also got an older and weaker design of the quiver connector. Karakorams customer service was great i got a reply the next day even though they were all on christmas holiday and replacements of the new design sent out to me the first day they were back in the office. So big giant A+ there in terms of how they deal with issues. Now i should point out that i knew exactly what i did what caused them to fail and that is my edge change is extactly the most gentle of things. Exiting turns i very often counter pedal the board to build up significant amount of tortional twisiting force that i then release to cause the board to snap on to the next edge. My boots are incredibly stiff and so is my donek tortionally normally the bindings are the weak link and eventually they fail or in the unions case overflex. This was what caused the the quiver connector to fail more so boxing day is the only time my local indoor slope has hard conditions so i had been more aggressive than normal to get the edge to bite hard. Roll on a week the new connectors had turned up and fitted back on my donek, and after a few laps riding them somewhat gingerly looking for any sign that the replacements might fail I began to let them properly have it. Happily they seemed to be be up to the job but i was still somewhat a little nervous as my trip to bulgaria was only a few weeks away and that would be the true test. Up until actually packing my bag i was still pondering taking my frankenstiend union atlas as a back up but the weight limit on my board bag meant i was just going to have to roll the dice and hope for the best. Fortunately the bindings performed exceptionally well the combination of the donek these bindings and my super stiff boots meant i had incredible power and response. The chassis design in combination with the strap mean if you crank down the straps tight you are very much locked in, any movement that i make gets transmited directly to the board. Its so good in fact id say its on par with my hardboot setup in terms of support and response(heresy i know) I did notice few little niggles while on my trip, my versions have the slightly older locking tabs that pivot down to hold the mounting locking lever in place. Due to it just pivoting down on low heel edge carves alot of the time it gets grabed and flicked up but fortunately this isnt an issue as the actual locking lever pretty stiff due to the way it locks shut and i dont it would ever unlock short of a massively catastrophic accident. It wasnt that big but i did have a pretty big bail when i began to pull the board backwards under me to change edges which resulted in the board digging a 2 foot deep trench in a suprise soft patch of snow. This led to the inevitable VERYVERY sudden stop and front flip from about 20mph which put massive amount of sideways force on bindings. After dusting myself down i uncliped the bindings from the board fully expecting to find cracks in the quiver connector but very pleasently no damage and no sign of overflex and the resulting snow/ice build up this was pretty suprising because to be honest if i hadnt beefed up my boots so much i dont think my ankles would have survived the sideways force so i was fully expecting something to have broken. The other little niggle was a few times on the final day my rear binding ankle strap ratchet wouldnt lock down due to freezing on the lift but this wasnt to hard to fix some vigurous racheting and holding down the locking tab got it to work again with little effort. Now on to the pros and cons: Pros: Incredibly responsive and supportive for a soft boot binding. no noticeable overflex or sideways chassis flex low profile heel cup alot of adjustment in highback forward lean good ankle strap and a nice simple toe strap quiver connector system is great for board swaps it literally takes seconds. karakoram customer support is great(they even offered to machine up metal quiver connectors for me) build quality is very high and they are nicely put together Cons There pricey older quiver connectors arnt that strong ratchets are a sticky when new the ratchet ladders are wider than normal so if you need a replacement ratchet you might have an issue finding compatible ones at a resort older locking tab is pointless maybe a bit narrow for bigger boots Would i recomend these very very much so if you dont mind the price, with exception of a few things i have mentioned these bindings are pretty incredbile and asuming i dont suffer any failures i can see myself running these for a few years to come.

BASI to an extent in that was how i was intially taught to snowboard due to being in scotland where your instructor is generally going to be BASI or CASI. That and im friends with a few of BASI level 2 and 3 instructors that helped me improve alot when i was starting to take my riding more serious. Now its somewhat of a running joke that my style of riding is perfectly textbook it just happens to be every single text book i could find on different styles chucked into a blender then threw at the wall to see what sticks!

Thanks @Emdee406 it's that style of Asian carving that I try to emulate for the most part. Mines is a little different due to stance and that I throw some BASI style pedaling into the mix for sidecut manipulation

So at the start of february I eventually got to let the Donek off the chain and ride her outdoors after a year of being trapped riding artifical snow indoors. So here's my thoughts on the board and the changes i will probably make for my next custom. Spec's Donek Incline = 162cm Waist width = 29.5cm Sidecut = 9-11m Profile =some camber with no rocker that i can see flex =stiff non directional edge =0 degree base 87degree side Rider height =180cm weight = 92kg Bindings =Karakoram prime connect-ci stance =56cm wide 33/-3 regular Boots =10.5 US Modified Salomon lofi(almost no flex at the ankle) experience = 5 years riding(10-20hours a week all year round) So after my intial taste of carving on an ultra wide with the SG Soul 159XT I placed an order after a little discussion with Sean for a Donek Incline. The SG i always saw as a stepping stone board to something bigger stiffer and more agressive and that was exactly my intention upon specing the Donek. Ordering was fairly straight forward filling out the form, listing what i was looking for in my new ride and after about 4 weeks and a somewhat nervous wait i had her in my excited hands. After a quick wax i took her for a quick spin at my local indoor slope. Inital impressions were very positive it was significantly stiffer and exactly what i ordered. The biggest improvement over the SG was the stiff core with uniform stiffness through its length, I had spec'd this due to the SG having a directional flex which was resonable stiff in the tail medium between the feet and a soft rockered nose. The rockered soft nose led to the SG having a bad habit of occasionally wanting to fold if to heavily weighted on turn initation or if it ran into soft grabby snow/chunder if would try to deflect or climb ultimately leading to the turn becoming incredibly sharp. The donek on the other hand is stiff from tip to tail as result its very supportive if you weight heavily fore/aft whilst turning, also where the SG would try to climb when it ran into chunder the Donek will punch through which for me is much more desirable trait. The donek compared to the SG was also a harder board to ride intially but i could tell right away in terms of potential it had far far more to offer. Edge to edge going 27.5cm to 29.5cm was pretty much identical interms of how quick it would change edges but to be honest i found no difference going 26.5 to 27.5 either. I'm now of the opinion rightly or wrongly slow edge changes on ultra wides is a technique problem vs a design problem, alot of people that try ultra wides or wides in general simply just dont have the technique down to drive a board edge to edge with any sort of speed and as result struggle. Anyway after a year riding in captivity it was time to breakout into the wilds of bulgaria. All i can say is wow if i thought the board rode well indoors but outdoors on real snow it revolutionary. The first 2 days were best described as hard snow verging on ice and where as my friends and everyone else on there off the shelf twins were sliding around struggling for grip while I was carving having the time of my life. Part of this is in part probably due to the fact i run a very agressive edge in terms of angle and keeping it sharp but there were times i really did feel like a freak of nature for how i was able to ride given the conditions. The board proved to be very predictable and stable and just like when i rode it in doors more than cappable of punching through end of day chunder and chop. For a board being so wide it carried speed very very well if you dont know bansko there is a green run that goes from the top gondola station to the bottom station in town that is pretty much flat at the top and bottom of the run. With some very mild edging it just kept on going even through the flat sections where almost every other snowboarder was unstrapping and skating or skiers punting the donek just kept on going along on its merry way. The third day was powder and unsuprisingly it had all the float of a ocean liner. Big wide open pow runs were effortless in terms of banking turns, for a board this size unless you were to purposly over weight the nose its pretty much unsinkable but alegedly so was the titanic. The remaining days of my trip were more or less a repeat of the first days but with soft almost summer like snow in the afternoon. The biggest thing i took from riding the donek was it allowed me to confirm to myself just how far i had improved as a rider since my last trip, It allowed me to carve no matter if it was a steep hard snow verging on ice black run or a soft spring like snow blue/green run. I cant say enough good things about it and how much fun i had riding it but that doesnt mean i dont plan a few tweaks to my next board..... 1 increase in length to 166 2 true hammerhead shape(flux/saber) 3 increase in sidecut radius to 15-12 4 more camber(current one only has about 3-4mm) 5 Stiffer again Basically i just want something bigger again and even more aggressive to force me to up my game and improve as a rider even further. For anyone considering a Donek Incline if you spec it correctly for your needs they are simply incredible boards and in my opionion very much live up to the hype.

Ill never be this good but boy ill have fun trying to get there

Looks like a great time had by everyone, hopefully one day ill make it to one of the carving events

So much better than the usual 150m of pretend snow im used to riding, I was a little suprised how well i transitioned as i hadnt ridden outdoors in about 2years Bansko isnt a big resort, the reds are pretty good to carve on even if the groom was a bit dubious at times but its cheap and it has snow which was something scotland didnt have until this week. The black tomba race run was great first thing in the morning, sadly for the others i was riding with it was more survival than riding so i didnt get any footage from the black

No problems at all except for one of the ratchets had a tendency to freeze a bit on the last day leading to it not locking correctly as you cranked down but that was easily fixed. Over the weekend ill type up a more long form review of my bindings and board.

I'm not good enough to grace softboot worth watching so i decided to create a new topic. This is my first time trying to edit anything of length and the first time ive ever used devinci resolve instead of good old windows movie maker . I hope you guys enjoy

lol though i dont think they felt to heroic once they hit the no fall zone

Just back riding in bansko bulgaria. The grooming there was a bit of mixed bag certain sections were near perfect rock solid cord other bits they either didnt bother to groom at all or it looked like they let the work experience kid do it lol. For example there is a really nice long steepish red thats pretty much the ideal pitch to carve on all the way down. The top generally couldnt have been better where as the bottom third was anything but flat with lots pretty big bumps that if you werent careful would send you airborne or bounce you around a bit. The blues for the most part were pretty well groomed except for the plateau which just turned into a giant mogual field after the first day that then just left that way for the rest of the week. The black tomba race run generally got the best groom and if you rode it early before all the cord got stripped by the snow plow ski punters/heel edge hero snowboarders it was pretty much perfect. On the other had i refer to the cat at the indoor slope i normally ride in as schrodinger because when its in the garage you have no idea if its alive or dead.... for a basher that only has to do 200m of slope a night it dies with alarming regularity

damn man thats some damn good work

Yeah it works really well and lasts longer than normal boot laces , the only downside is its pretty harsh on your fingers and you need to do a reef knot first before your traditional shoelace knot other wise it will come undone due to the cord not compressing like a lace will. other than that i generally recomend climbing cord to anyone who rides alot.

usually i switch to climbing cord when i have to change out laces, cheap with little to no stretch

Introducing Franken boot mk3 Salomon Lo-fi with booster straps since I was lazy and couldnt be bothered making my own this time. But the real special sauce is instead of using old boot tongues and just epoxying stuff to them to make stiffeners i made them completely from scratch out of fibreglass Not the prettiest since ive never worked with fibreglass before this but they are defintely stiff enough!

"It would be like Cannondale saying if you take their mountain bikes off-road, you have no warranty. Right?" Most downhill race mountain bikes arent warrantied for racing.... though fortunately they seem to only ever break during non race day rides

depend on the amount of overhang if its not to much i find the board will tend to drift allowing you to ease up on the edge angle and rengage the edge but if there is to much overhang booting out tends to be pretty catastrophic, sudden and without warning.....

the boots are much less supportive than a hard boot so the injury would be probably be more due to an even more extreme flexation of the ankle

I'm glad im not the only one that thinks this lol