nuisanceIV

Word on street from pals is they'll run into some more 'cavalier' individuals in the line who know they're breaking the rules but try to weasel out of it with some excuse or don't really care. In one particular resort a friend went to, he complained, the next day the resort announced they'll ramp up enforcement(I imagine he's not the only one who complained). Seems there's always a couple kooks that show up that ruin it for everyone. When I went out (say to the bowling ally once) I ran into this kinda' stuff, in fact one dude said "COVID ain't real" or something. So by going out, you probably have higher odds of running into folks who don't give a flip since those who care are more likely to stay home. I work at a resort, my employer sure seems to take it seriously, they won't even allow people who are medically exempt from masks on the lifts. That said, we're not open yet. So who knows how it'll go in practice, especially in regard to the customers and their individual behavior. As of right now, I imagine the parking lots will have some crazy tailgates going on. I mostly ride at night, where it's a ghost town, so I'm not too worried. I imagine weekdays to be busier than normal and weekends to be busy but less busy. So maybe consider when you ride?

I didn't find it to be an issue. But I was normally rocking these bindings with bomber power plates on my Palmer so the setup was unbelievably damp. I only found it unbearable if I was riding over frozen slush. Though I'm not really as 'fickle' as most people about these things. Once I get a new highback and I get more days on these I'll have a better assessment. IDK if I just drew bad cards. The thing is, it was my front binding highback that cracked, so it's really bizarre.

Alrightly, let's get into it. Between January and Feburary I purchased a set of Ride Insano's and about a month later Ride Capos. Almost all riding was done at Stevens Pass in WA in all conditions from ice to wet pow, with some in Tahoe at Heavenly and Kirkwood on mostly groomers. I would say I at least got 30 days on the boots and maybe 15 on the bindings. I would be riding these on a variety of boards such as: Lib Tech TRS, Palmer Channel X Ti, US Cadet, Elevated Surfcraft goldstick. I would sometimes use power plates. I'll start with the boots: I love 'em. And it would seem many of my coworkers who ride hard up at Stevens are all about them aswell. For a softboot, they got some mean flex with that plastic tongue, and have decent lateral stiffness. Now, for better or worse they use BOA. On one end, it makes them harder to repair and less customizable, but on the other end it seems to lend to their stiffness. Whenever I use BOA I feel I can really get that boot locked down tight. They use double BOA which is a plus. Their profile is SUPER low and put a lot of other stiff boots to shame - almost looks like you're wearing sneakers. The boot goes up really high, so it's not like a touring boot that sits lower down the leg. Now, one issue I noticed is they don't include a power strap. I feel for a boot this stiff, it would benefit greatly from a strap to make sure that upper portion of the boot is flush with the shin, also to keep the shin pain away; since one thing I did notice, is shin pain, I believe this was due to me riding at lower angles than my hardboots, so that part of my leg wasn't desensitized to that sort of abuse. Throwing my world cup boosters on seemed to help a lot and really stiffen them up even more, so I highly recommend it. Bindings: I originally got some Union Falcors, but the minidisc was a huge disappoint and I was iffy about the carbon so I sold them off. I wanted a metal binding and the Ride Capo answered the call, bonus points for being the same manufacture as my boot - meaning everything fit together excellently. The feel of the bindings was good, and I'd usually pair them up with the power plates, which really allowed me to transmit a lot of force on edge and rival my hardboot riding in many cases. I'd overall say they're a good value pick for a stiff binding and pair excellently with the Insanos. Unfortunately, I ran into a several issues. One of my boards is a 4x4 and the washers that come with the binding are like a 2-in-1 washer, and the holes for the screw are a bit smaller than say burton bindings, so I had to find some lower profile washers. Second, I couldn't rotate the highback as much as I could on my old burton cartels, which was a shame, but this seems to be becoming less and less of a thing with newer bindings, I guess manufactures don't really expect 25+ degree angles. Overall though, I could still get them tilted enough. Third, the rubber on the back of the highback started to wear off. Maybe I'm just mean to my gear? I put some black duct tape over it to stop the wear - also gives the binding this cool "mad max" aesthetic. Fourth, this is the big one, is I had the highback snap on me. I checked the binding and I didn't see any bubbles so I don't think the plastic mold was bad, so I'm not sure what caused the break. I did let a couple people ride my board with the bindings and maybe they're less diligent than I, or I was dun goofed and let the chairlift ruin it. I do ride pretty hard and maybe they didn't appreciate me flying off rollers at Kirkwood at 40mph. Ride has said they'll replace it but I still haven't gotten it, but with COVID-19 I have noticed the supply chains everywhere have been wack. Thanks. Hope this helps some of you out there! I'll upload pics at some point since it's a PITA to move files from my phone to my PC.

Convincing people to ride alpine? Man I have a hard enough time convincing people to start working on using their edges!!!

I'm up at Stevens quite a bit, I usually ride at both nights and days. There's some other carvers up there you'll run into from time to time. There's also a guy who sends the big jumps in the park with hardboots!

Might want to have him try out angles and go up as needed. If he's still skidding around it won't really be much of an issue unless it's really bad. Bad overhang to us is gonna' be quite different than bad overhang for a basic all-mountain rider.

I've seen the youth ski racers freeski around the hill and usually they know how to ski. Interesting he couldn't avoid him. I'm thinking there's more going on than the article reports since it says a ski patroller witnessed it.

PM sent for the plates

There's plenty of people on the hill who just want to rip some turns, I've run into my fair share of random people who ride softboots who are super down to ride - the fact they're riding with someone in a more "dedicated" carving setup excites them!

With that board: Jack of all trades, master of none. It probably would be hard to control if you really got some real speed, especially over choppy junk. Way easier for tricks than a stiff board though. I wouldn't go out of my way to carve on that thing. And yes, you can take the bindings out. Don't use their stance, try to find your own. You can watch plenty of youtube videos on it.

Hey, I'm gonna swing on down to the lake Tahoe area march 25th to the 30th for a little snowboard trip. I'll be staying right near Heavenly, and plan on visiting the other resorts on my epic pass(Kirkwood and Northstar are on the list). It's lookin' like it'll just be me going at the moment! Any tips for the area -- I can ride almost anything. How are the crowds at this time of year? Anyone want to ride around for a couple of runs? I do both softboots and hardboots.

I wonder how well that boot protects the ankles

@Jack M Setting up those courses is pretty pricey. In WA, USASA isn't doing slalom this year, I emailed them asking why and they said it's the cost and the fact there's a low turnout. Bachelor does -all- their racing meets in one day. Hood isn't doing any I think? My local mountain sets up courses all the time... But for skiers. A lotta' the courses are for skiers. I'm probably an oddball here since I'm 22 and looking to start hitting the course, but things like this make it hard. Then there's the price of some training and better gear. Yikes! Yeah maybe you're onto something with the youth racing, simply having more gear in circulation would help a lot.

Most people I run into are pretty positive and excited when they see my hardboot gear, although, seeing me is usually their first introduction to it. More exposure is probably what's necessary, some people sound like they really want to try it. I'm thinking many of those folks on those forums are a bit unfamiliar with it all, and the riders who do it. I've found this gear intimidates a small few. Ever get one of those "i bet I could race/carve better than him" sort of comments?

"So do you ride a 'normal' snowboard?" x2 (Yes, I do) "Look at that [...] I bet I could beat him in a race" - some teenager "Oh man, I haven't seen one of those in years." "Oh my god that snowboard is sooooooo skinny" - little girl "So you don't release from those... Right!?" - my manager who skis Some of the lifties now give me shit if I'm on softboots Any way to make my boots less neon green? I can't handle the attention. I feel sorry for those dudes on the snow trikes because they get even more! Damian Sanders. There's a couple vids out there. Holy smokes they're going off those jumps fast and getting so much air!

I have this problem too, it'll be too low to hook up so it's not "easy". As I reach down to pull it up more, I get more flexible to do it, so it gets easier. But I've found putting my boots in walk mode helps a -lot-. Making sure it's up high before trying to put the boot in and going a little more slow has also raised the chances it'll stay up for me too. That's what I got, good luck!

I might of been thinking of the drive to Leavenworth for some reason oopsies

Oh nice. Right in downtown! You're sort of in the "middle", so Crystal, Snoqualmie, and Stevens are pretty reasonable to get to(< 2 hr)! Baker, White Pass, Mission Ridge, and Whistler will be a bit of a drive in comparison(>= 2hr 30min). If you don't have an Epic Pass, and you plan on going to Stevens buy your tickets online, it'll be cheaper. Earlier the better! Might be the same with the other resorts.

I gotta rep stevens because I work there It has a good variety in off-piste type of terrain, and you can always find powder if you're willing to go off a marked trail(assuming it has snowed recently). Night skiing there is great but prepare for some big, big moguls on weekends, and hillbombing maniac skiers on weeknights. There's a couple spots I've found that're consistently good for doing big turns at night. It has a great park... If you care about that... I'm told mission ridge is great for blasting down hills and carving, their snow is drier too! It's just ~45 minutes east of Stevens. What part of the area will you be staying in?

I've run into a couple people at Stevens believe it or not. They're out there. You'll find them, especially if you ride a lot! The alpine gear brings a lotta' attention.

I work at a ski resort on the weekends(free epic pass). So it costs $20(for gas) per riding session if I drive myself(1hr 30 min) and not carpool or take the employee shuttle. I'm a student, and between riding and school, I have little time for much anything else. I played a video game for 2 hours for the first time in like 2 months ). I try to buy used gear or highly discounted equipment. I just don't have the money to buy new and support the sport fully. Random expenses, like car repairs(From loading up my car with so many bloody miles driving to resort) are hard to calculate, since I'm not just driving to snowboard. Losing my girlfriend really brought down food expenses. Not being decadent and buying drinks at bars and weed really makes this sport affordable. I suppose it comes down to what one wants to do.

If I had a dime for every time someone said a sentence with the word monoski in it I'd have a Kessler by now. Does everyone else get this a lot? I'm inspired by daveo's post and may just start calling it my park board Oh yeah I was asked "is that a new thing!?!?"(in reference to my hardboots) I should of said yes so people think I'm cool And ever since I got neon green boots, I get so many stares in the lift line. My favorite are the uncomfortable and confused looking skiers This is fun.

I've found, in my experiences so far, many who say that... havent even tried it. Those that I talk to that have tried it, say it's not that bad. People dont like things that are different is what I'm starting to conclude. The fact I wear hardboots makes most of the softbooters I know very uncomfortable and they think I'm weird and crazy.

Looks like most of my issues are fixed. The bootfitter threw some C bars around my ankle. This locks down the heel very, very well. This allowed me to feel confident loosening the boots a tad. I think I was cranking them down way too tight to prevent heel movement(it was basically becoming a "tighten at top of chair, blast down the mountain before feet go numb/cold, and loosen at bottom. Repeat"). Once they were loosened everything felt great. Still very, very responsive, no play up top or near the ankle/instep. My guess is only part of my shin was going against the boot when I leaned forward(or I got rocked by a bump), so the pressure was uneven and just going into one spot. Now I can focus more on my technique. Thanks ya'll for the help and insights. It helped tremendously. Yeah, I thought so. Don't worry you're good. There's actually a picture of my legs above in this thread, they don't look that small!

I work in rentals. It can be pretty chill unless it's busy. It's cool working with gear, but it's boring rental stuff for beginners mostly. Minion work where you just turn screws all day Repair would probably be more interesting, but they'll put ya' to work. And he'd find out just how many snowboarders on the mountain don't tighten their screws Oh yeah, and looking for a resort w/ killer night skiing is a great idea! It makes it easier to ride more and still work a bit. When I get off my shifts at 4ish I ride till 8 or 10pm! It's also great for avoiding traffic, less people on the road after 4pm when all the morning people went home.