I have recently picked up a pair of Deeluxe Track 700Ts and F2 race bindings since I plan to get into alpine equipment next season. I have recently been testing the equipment on the skii hill without a proper alpine snowboard and have been riding at very low stance angles (~30 degrees forward) on a fairly stiff and wide freeride board (2018 K2 Turbo Dream). After putting an absurd amount of padding around my ankle/heel in the liner, plus a heel wedge, I finally have an extremely firm fit for my awkwardly shaped foot.
What I didn't expect is for hard boots to work so well on the aforementioned board. I decided to make the transition early due to literally destroying my softboots (the wire and ratchet lacing has pulled out of the fabric from carving on toe edge and ice), but hard boots feel like I can throw my entire body into putting the board on edge without my boot/binding giving out on me.
I am, however, concered for the lifespan of this snowboard if I continue doing this kind of aggressive riding with hardboots. Entering into a carve from high speeds causes the board to flex a bit more than what I am content with, but I'm able to ride switch and play around with the board a lot (it's pretty easy to 180 on flats).
I'm also interested if anyone on hardboot setups can reliably hit fairly large jumps -- I haven't done anything crazy yet since I just figured out my boot fitting situation, but I can't imagine a hard boot would be very comfortable to land in.
Any input would be great. I would also love to demo some alpine boards, but it doesn't seem to be popular around here (Vancouver, BC) -- although it appears user BlueB is fairly active in the area.