pauleleven

We've been out since Jan 27th here in China..... Best of luck boys, take good care of yourselves

Early and precise pressuring, thus going faster... That I need to work on. Sidecut is somewhere in that realm tho, standard GS race geometry.

I ride very limited GS, but comparing to the other SL boards I've ridden, it feels no more unstable than Kessler or SG, maybe less edge engagement than Oxess, more damp than a Nobile. I weigh 75kg which should be on the lower end of the weight range, but I feel I can bend it with no problem, however it is a board that wants you to ride race lines. Maybe once I gain more skill and put more power into it, it will become something else. That double layer 0.5 titanal is pretty nice tho.

Old stock, brand new, traded my SG fullcarve for it for next to nothing, pending Vistflex after I've had a few days on it

Going Skwal next season, just looking around haha

What's the widest width of the binding for a Skwal setup?

I ride UPZ, 260 and 262 feet which should put me in the 299 bootshell but I downsized to 245(two shells down). Shell fit is one and a half and tight. I did extreme aftermarket fitting with a low volume liner and now it's great. I don't recommend going my route with the two shell down, but seeing you're at the lower end of your current shell you could downsize one shell, because having too much volume from your ankle to the centre of your foot is not great, even when you do aftermarket fitting. When I ride or try new shells(thinking .951 A shell), I am looking for a decent wrap from ankle forward and strong hold from ankle up, which is what I think Alpine riding should be about, using the cuff. In any case, UPZ liners are pretty mediocre both comfort and performance wise, going aftermarket in 20-60 snow-days you will have the option to use anywhere between low to high volume liners for either your current shell or the next size down. It's really up to you what you want when considering the amount of wrap from the ankle forward.

It was a shop in Luzern named Number One Board&Bikes, the guy in charge there is American and has been in Switzerland forever, great guy to have a lengthy chat with. I do recommend soft setups still tho, Zermatt pistes in the afternoon are quite bumpy.

I've been to Zermatt, there is a dealer for Kessler (Bayard Sport) there but as far as I know no demo, you'd need to contact them in advance, try to get them to order a demo. A better option I think, both given the snow type and crowdedness there, is to go to Julen Sports and rent/demo Jones or Nitro Quiver boards, bring your favorite soft setup (or rent there). They also have this amazing Japanese Powder board maker called Gentemstick, but no demo and very very expensive. Last time I demoed a Kessler in Switzerland, the dealer literally had the office mail it to my hotel, I rode a few days, then mailed it back. It was supposed to be stupid expensive to rent/demo (100+ chf), but I know the dealer well enough and he was just kinda like, yeah it's whatever.

Boots: Deeluxe and Northwave both make amazing and comfortable boots. I ride Northwave Legacy. I really like them drawstrings. Driver-X may be overkill because it's the stiffest softboot, may be uncomfortable. Bindings: I ride Union Atlas bindings, I would classify them as big-mountain. Very good fit with my boots, strong backplate in the fore-aft direction, still some torsional flex so it's not locking my feet entirely like some carbon backplates. I would suggest looking for something big-mountain so you have more options. Brands to consider: Flux, Union, Karakoram.

SG also makes a Titanal version of the Soul, which is massively fun without wanting to kill you.

Totally resurrecting a dead thread, but here's my 0.02: I think the plate is exactly an unbranded Allflex save for the stuff in front of the front hinge. There is a horizontal post securing the entire mechanism together, I think it's only 4 parts: attachment part to allflex, base post(for allflex holes, or F2 proprietary mounting holes cuz they can), housing and the axel. The purpose of the mechanism to make the front sliding (and suspended). The middle two mounts are already fixing the plate substantially, the front would then serve two purposes: 1. Relaxing the plate body a bit, not too much shape shift like the normal allflex when board is angulated a lot. 2. Making the left and right side of the plate independent, reducing torsional flex in the front since it's suspended. Alternative possibility in this school of thought: The middle two mounts can also be modified, purpose of which making the 4 mounts from front to back gradually decreasing in suspension. If they get their design and calculations right, the whole plate can bend in a smooth curve with even pressure along the length, unlike Allflex which pretty much concentrates between the middle two mounts. But then again, only speculations

Daveo strikes again!! Nice review bruh

Market economy Marginal revenue J curve Depreciation Oligopoly You alright daveo?

Few thoughts: If these are cheaper than 951 retail in Korea, that's gonna be a major economic factor for these boots. From the development process it does not seem to be a copy after 951, there is some overlap during development. I'd be interested in looking at usage of aftermarket liners in Korea, in China there is none available, so people just keep switching to other boots hoping to have less pain (which will almost never happen). In Korea I know there is distribution for Zipfit and Intuition, but if the whole idea of this boot is to alleviate pain in the feet, then I'm afraid it's just another one people will cycle through every season.