pauleleven

flow is super popular in Europe, see them everywhere. I never tried but I have heard good things. It's all about how it fits with your boots man. This year they started advertising Flux a lot, personally I still like Union better.

The SP Bindings are actually very well made, the backplate has great support going backwards, but allows for your boot to twist left and right (torsion), same deal with the Atlas. With the hard hard bindings I got to ride, it's like my feet are completely strapped to cement blocks, and cuts thru my boot to apply pressure on my calves, not great.

@Shred Gruumer also there's this rumor going around: the F2 factory in Germany, who also manufacture Korua Shapes and ONE Snowboards, also does Kessler. I am 99% sure ONE and F2 are from the same people because of the perlatech base, Korua's plus series while doesn't specify base name, the topsheet finish is exactly the same as ONE with that pulled aluminum finish. Beautiful boards!

I can foresee two situations where I buy the SG board there, 1: it is everything I am looking for, but considering I will most likely switch to hardboot next year I doublt the softboot variants will satiate that need. 2: Ledecka and/or Vaultier are there, it is their pro camp afteralll, then it'll be a signature piece to go on the wall, bragging rights and such haha. I think there is something there, not only are you hardboot, you are also of the typical bigger build as an American. For us Asians Type R may very well be too heavy and past the point of funcarving, but it should be just right for you and that purpose. I do love that aggressive taper on the type R tho, similar to the Oxess Race taper. Topsheet issue would be a major concern, now I'm even more unsure if I should spend the money on a SG BX, or save it for getting started with hardboots. I am torn with the decision right now however, to hardboot or not to hardboot! That is the question.

So as far as gear goes there's a bunch of bullshit myths floating around, the japanese actually played quite a hand in this, Union specifically made three hard hard bindings for the japanese and asian market that you can't find any info on the western interweb. The current myth goes you want hard hard softboots and even harder bindings, so things like drake radar and union T.Rice. I find it to be false tho, union atlas and force serve me better with more response. True I don't get 100% power transfer, but that's something for hardboots lol. p.s. Type R is the only board in the softboot lineup that is semi for racing, everything else is funcarving.

For these guys, they take out the softboot boards for some fun competitions, and when the competition is serious I do believe they go with hardboots, with the exception of the UNI student who only started riding hardboot this year.

Don't have any videos on hand, but here are some pictures from one of the best local teams in Beijing: this is a type R, higher binding angles comparing to following photos. Rabanser or Kessler, smaller angle lots of racer influence the With soft boots, the ladies really need to drop that hip for an effective heel edge. They understand the forces involved since they train on hardboots as well, not the most graceful but the ladies on the team absolutely demolish in competitions. Their most highly rated rider is actually a female uni student, complete hobbiest, cool gal. these two are much closer to actual race techniques the board on the top (IS) is designed and manufactured by the founder and leader of the team, owns a cool alpine gear shop, boards are absolutely amazing especially for the price (dual full titanal sheet around 900USD) really great form, I think this is the best female rider. When my friend commented on Type R and Kessler Cross, he said that the Japanese make a cool board, but do not understand what really makes a BX board a BX board --- fast and steady. Again, I've not tried any of the european boards, have to wait to find out :)

I'm a light dude, 60kg? gonna try the Force in March. I'll try to give some opinions when I try the SG SBX boards, haha. Been following these recent posts and just can't resist registering and chiming in :) It's beautiful board, super fun, underrated at the moment which means more bang for the buck(expensive buck). Softboot slalom might just be a Chinese thing then, in japan they're more for this "Technical Riding" thing eh? Some weird styles tho, heel edge with butt way out. Gray's construction is not actually that much titanal. found this from the Chinese dealers, Type R is just a cross pattern as opposed to full sheet. Again, my friend who got to ride this and Kessler Cross said the Kessler is much better as far as response goes. Read in the forum SG has some construction issues tho, other softboot boards I'd love to try, but I have not tried any of the european boards so I can't really comment on them.

hahahahahaha, currently I'm in europe tho, I'll see if I could get some videos of the new carving tricks they're all too crazy about. Yonek, Moss I have never seen in China, which makes them mysterious and highly sought after, and when they do enter the market no doubt will fetch a high price. Ogasaka just entered this year, but I've not been able to try it. Currently riding Tom Sims Pro, best all-mountain board even with softboot at 36 27 and furthest setback. The other day I switched it back to 45 39 and basically found the limit of the edge hold, it's not terribly fast before giving up, definitely a bit better than BC Stream R2 I would think, and most other american made boards since they don't really put torsion into the designs. (I think Jones, Nitro Quiver, Sims and NS does it real well), but no one in the US really use these SBX type boards to carve alpine style. However, there's a bunch of bullshit myths surrounding this whole softboot thing, they say you want the hardest boots and the hardest bindings, but personally I find the hard bindings cutting into my calves a lot, and I never fully tighten either of my boots. There are people breaking bindings such as Union Force due to force applied to the backplate, but my Union Atlas is great, and it isn't a terribly hard binding. As of right now, I find that it is my Sims board that is failing during a high angulation carve, and I am confident that the boots and bindings can take much more force. End of rant R-ONE is a really good board, but it is thin, and I'm not sure if the hardboot bindings will cut all the way into the baselayer. The shop I go to showed me a board with small bumps on the bottom from SP bindings. My understanding is that because it has high tensile strength of the carbon fiber, as well the hardness of titanal (hard and soft at the same time), it should probably be used with a similar setup I have, bindings with more "give". The hardboot on it may break it. I know SG is probably not unfamiliar to the people on this forum, but the european boards are going to be better for hardboot setup, so maybe Soul and Force? I'm considering if I should switch to hardboot for next year, I'm lucky to be able to visit SG late March for the carving camp, will be trying everything, and see what they think for my particular riding style. Here's a guy that does some crazy tricks, but his riding style isn't the most graceful: https://v.qq.com/x/page/j03828aqhnj.html Then there's this friggin guy, good retired racer, ridinig the longest Oxess board in China (if not the world). 8415.mp4

Hey guys, softboot carver in China right now, I've actually tried this board. The gray lineup is very interesting, basic deperado is good for just funcarving, desperado TI is harder with one short strip of titanal, the type R is with two layers and it is a very heavy board. Type R is designed for a lot of softboot slalom racers, it is heavy and requires quite some skill to maneuver, but shouldn't be a problem for hardboots. My poor ONE, the topmost layer is fully titanal, when talking with the only guy willing to repair, we ran into the problem of cutting the damn thing because it's such a stiff and hard alloy. Great board tho, hopefully it will be somewhat ridable next season :(