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.

Check the website

Gee @daveo, fine Got foam injection from Heierling in Davos, arguably the best bootfitter in the world, they have specific procedure for snowboard injection comparing to regular ski injection, which they do almost exactly like those online videos. In essence the most important thing is the making sure there is about equal volume all around the foot, so they did intense boot-spreading for my feet before injecting. They also have good foamy tongue that fit my shin really well, unlike UPZ stock that just runs to one side after two runs.

German Ebay, lots of used F2, try to get newer ones tho. Nobile makes good boards too, but their pricing is just weird.... I'm sure your carving friends in poland would say that as well. P.s. I'm in warsaw right now, lol

Spending breakdown: In your current boot, the most advanced you'd wanna go liner wise would be the heat modable ones like Intuition or Palau, remoudability in a new boot given similar inside length and width is certainly possible but not ideal. About 100 euros. If you get newer boots, keep in mind that you'll also likely have to redo the liner, if the boot is modern and in good shape it will be worth it to go all the way with Zipfit or foam injection which can be between 400-700 euros for just the liner. Do not go custom board until your skill is good, look for something like a SL board, bit more tiring to ride but great for learning, any F2 within the last decade should do the job fine. F2 bindings are also great, forgiving and cheap. Your volkl may not be the best board to learn on, just saying... Very important to get the correct technique and stance setup before you go high tier gear.

Nothing wrong with 55 55, but I would recommend no canting, just heel toe lift Any part of your body hurts? Or just general feeling of not carving all that well? If some part hurts it's technique/setup/equipment issue, but if not it would be just technique. Technique and feeling come with time, gotta get comfortable with that 'norm' stance, good practice drills on the article section, probably a good idea to stay on easier slopes until you are super comfortable carving on them with the stance. Also, if your local place has thicker powder, that's gonna be more physically draining, just keep that in mind. Also, with hardboot you have to be more in tune with your core, mainly the idea of angulation instead of inclination. Best way I could put angulation is creating an angle in your body with your ab muscles, board will naturally balance and create edging. To me it's the foundation to any type of carving.

They call it Technical Riding, for the most part focusing on flair..... Gain some control of yourself, jeez daveo

On the heelsides I am a mix between pure neutral and slight minus(by ~10 degrees), anything not in the plus position. With the steeps I just need to get used to the speed and conquer the fear, the posture has more than enough support as I feel I can push the pressure and speed much more on my boards.

Apex's shell is designed to be 100% fit for their boot, without your weight it's even a bit hard to put the boot into the shell. I believe it's marketed for touring skiers, unmatched comfort comparing to standard touring boots. Interesting design features: forward lean, shell cant, and elastomer bushing to adjust hardness (90-120 I think) Had my hands on a pair of Apex MC3, have to say, very much built boot, given tooling costs and development for such a small company the price makes sense.....

Idea has been around, there is a ski boot called the Apex, basically a modified snowboard boot in a frame like this, but they've had more years developing the system to be better. Price is steep tho, more than upz or deeluxe steep......

Any imperfection in technique gets amplified on softboot 10x. If the back foot doesn't have strong support like racing style, it won't be a clean line.