TimW

I don't think UPZs are narrower / more problematic at your pressure point. If you go UPZ, give the Flo liners that come with the boot a chance. My initial impression was bad, they felt cardboard like. After a week they felt alright, after two weeks good, now I think they are great.

You are on the right track. The key to freecarving steeper terrain is to get the board carving in a tight turn directly after initation. For this you need to angulate your board, and apply pressure directly in the beginning of the turn. Once the board turns, you have the centripetal provides you the pressure. If you don't actively pressure the board early in the turn, pressure builds slowly, the first part of the turn becomes longer and you gain more speed. Tightening the first part of your turn helps to control the speed.

I have the xc12 and I like them, but would have been perfectly happy with a bit more stiffness as well. I am not heavy(180lbs) but carve hard. The thing I like is they come with a different spring box with more travel, which is the right amount for me. The standard springs are very soft. Given that you softened the head stratos I'd guess they would be stiff enough for you. A deeluxe 325 in walk mode would be similar in stiffness fore-aft, but is a lot stiffer side to side.

It is 30 years ago, but I have had this and it was caused by flexing the boot so far sideways in the binding that the boot pressed against the the steel of the toe bail. This pushed the bail down and flicked the lever open. A wider toe bail solved the issue.

I'd say get used to the camelbag, after a while you won't notice it anymore. I got so used to riding with a backpack that I always ride with one, also on 100% resort days. I prefer it to stuffing things in my pockets. So to me riding with a tiny camelbak does not seem an issue. For MTB I have an Evoc cc 3L pack that is really minimalist and flat, was a bit pricy though.

One day before 50 I still setup my angles as I did 30 years ago. I setup the lowest angle with no overhang on the rear boot, and then 0-5 degrees higher on the front boot. The amount of splay I prefer seems to randomly vary over time.

Titanal is old, Titanal skis were around in the '70s... That is not snowboards off course, but Volkl Renntigers and Oxygen Protons had titanal, that was late 90's IIRC?

My Nidecker freeride stance would be 56+4=60cm. So what I rode on the split. I'll give that another shot. Out of curiosity I checked my stance width on my kite surfboards. That is in the range of 75cm strapless, 70cm strapped (surfboard). So more mobility, wider stance. Makes sense.

I normally ride 52cm / 20.5" on hardboots and 54cm / 21.2" on softboots. I am 191cm / 6'3" tall. Compared to common softboot stance widths that is very narrow I guess. I recently rode a splitboard which was setup to something like a 60cm / 23.5" stance. That seems more normal nowadays for my heigth. It felt stable but very rigid. I think the true reason for those wide stances of the softboot dudes is to prevent their pants dropping to their ankles. But I will experiment with a wider stance for softboots anyway, just in case the majority is not stupid after all.

The problem with looking up is that I have to lengthen my transitions to be able to do that, especially on steeps. That widens my path quite a bit and makes it less predictable for skiers coming behind, so it is not just beneficial. A half circle turn is about 3 seconds, 4 turns between looking is 12 seconds. A 90km/hr straightliner covers 300m in 12 seconds....

Am alternative way of checking behind you: https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cyp7jc8s2M0/?igsh=MWxrZHNjMXNnc2R2OQ==

Part of the issue is that many skiers simply do not understand carving, and they simply do not know how to anticipate. We are some alien entity, UFOs with a maneuverability that they cannot grasp. Amplified by the fact that many consider themselves fighter jets when they are actually a Cessna. Check the guy who hits Slapos. He actually does not go very fast, he tries to go around him, but he simply completely misjudges it. Recently I overheard two women commenting on my riding. One: "That looks amazing", the other: "I get motion sickness from watching it"

With or without?

Do you mean the edge protector or the other product they are offering? That is a very difficult to repair properly. Edge, base, sidewall and laminate will all be damaged. I don't see how you can really fix that. You would have to remove edge and base, replace part of the laminate and possibly sidewall, and then put in a new edge and base. But then you are better off building a new board. Like Carvin Marvin said, sealing it (if the edge disbonded from the sidewall) and grinding it down so nothing protrudes may be the best solution. Could well be better and stronger than doing a more elaborate repair. Where is it on the board? Tip, middle, tail? If it is between your feet you're unlikely to notice it at all.

Typically ABS is used, e.g.: https://www.skibaumarkt.de/en/product/tipspacer-white-3-mm/ Googling snowboard building materials will give you US based shops as well. I normally use base material (UHMWPE) as a spacer myself myself because I prefer thinner material. Not much to it, so any plastic that does not turn brittle when cold would do. Just make sure to quickly run a flame over it (after sanding) so it bonds to the epoxy. For alpine boards I prefer aluminum (https://www.skibaumarkt.de/en/product/ski-tail-alu-330-x-40/) for robustness.

Some cheap new F2's on ebay: F2 Speedster world cup 175, 450euro: https://www.ebay.de/itm/145426306729 Eliminator World cup titanal 166W, 399euro: https://www.ebay.de/itm/145426357930, 163: https://www.ebay.de/itm/155880448873, 158: https://www.ebay.de/itm/145426370458 Eliminator WC carbon 153, 350 euro https://www.ebay.de/itm/155894122605

Just a little warning that quiver fever is infectious.... just unpacked this from the car from a one week skiing trip. (Including 8 pairs of boots, fitted into a European mid size car)

If you put a 100W heating element in free air, and wait for it to reach equilibrium temperature, it will emit 100W of heat to it surroundings. If you then wrap a blanket around the heating element, and wait for equilibrium, it will still emit 100W of heat to its surroundings. The only difference is that the heating element will have become a lot hotter. Put a second blanket around it, wait, and the element will be even hotter. But still it will emit the same 100W of energy to its surroundings. That is (one of) the mistake(s) they are making. Greenhouse effect does not change the overall energy balance of the earth. But it does change the surface temperature. And that hurts. But the willing mind will buy these stories, so they reached their goal. Since the 80's the less simplistic climate models have been predicting global warming. We have 40 years of observations that confirm the predictions. Thousands of people work on this and confirm this, although the message it gives is not convenient to anyone (actually even climate scientist seem to underpredict global warming. They might be human and susceptible to downplaying the impact of their skiing holiday as well......). I am not naive in thinking that we can prevent fully global warming, or live on this planet with 10 billion people without huge impact to nature and continuing mass extinction. To me we can actually do with this planet as we please, and we should make it a fun place to live, for us and for the future generations. It is just that a 5 degree temperature rise will not make it a more fun place to live, on the contrary. So I try to reduce my impact, try to be more sustainable, work in wind energy to hopefully do something that helps, try to avoid flying since there is often no need, and go snowboarding to have fun.

https://www.ft.com/content/a6f50b7c-f78f-469d-b3f2-c6f505edaa9c

Then it's either new bindings or new toe and heel pieces. I'd guess you're better off just buying new bindings and selling these. If you are on UPZ boots you might get away with just buying new toe pieces. The heel of the boot is really far forward, so you may be able to center it with a small size heel piece and a large size toe piece

Are the Race Titaniums (aluminium base plate) or Carve RS? On Carve RS there are two sets of holes in the base plate. So you can increase the size by going to the outer holes on the base plate. On Race Titaniums there are different versions for the size adjustment: multiple holes on the base plate, then you are lucky and can move to the outer holes. toe and heel pieces with the bolts in different location. In that case there is no adjustability. So remove the rubber pads at the bottom and check what you have.

Hi all, Does anyone have feedback on the F2 speedster worldcup 179? I saw a new '21 model for 500 euros that I might buy. I've been building my boards myself for the last 20 years, but time is always short, and I'd like a new toy and a reference to judge my own boards against. My everyday carveboards are a 172, 160 eff.edge, 14m radius and a 182, 170 eff edge, 15m radius with plate. Both titanal - biax carbon construction (both are very good boards.... I think...) The F2 is a 16m radius, which is actually what I would put on my next board if I'd build it myself. I have a little worry on the stiffness. It is listed as 65+kg. I am ~77 kg. Seems that should work fine. THe 185 is listed as 75+ so that would be on the limit. My only recent experience with similar boards is a Kessler 185 and a Tomahawk 183. The Kessler I found OK stiffness wise, but I did not like the board, found it not positive enough on turn initiation for freecarving. The Tomahawk I tended to overpower when it got steeper, I think that was lack of torsional stiffness. Any feedback appreciated.

As a snowboard it does not really have value anymore, technology is about 30 years outdated. So the only value is for someone who'd like to ride it for old times' sake, or as decoration on the wall.

Using heel / toe lift, or not, is also boot related. If you use Deeluxe boots with the standard selector you can just set the cuff more upright on the front boot and with more forward lean on the rear boot (or ride in walk mode). Worked perfectly fine for me. Now in UPZ boots I added toe and heel lift, because I did not want my feet to be locked in different positions all day. Heel lift need also depend on how flexible your calves are. Especially in smaller sizes, the UPZ boots themselves lift your heel a lot, so you want toe lift to offset that. For F2 bail bindings you can use two cant shims, stacked in alternate direction, to create a 50% heel /toe lift. Not recommended on Intecs because it messes up the alignment.

There is an awful amount of distortion in that image. The boot looks ridiculously tall and the upper buckles appear to have twice the width of the lower buckles. So I doubt they are very different in reality.