TimW

I think the only standard option is the cant/lift plate:https://www.carversparadise.com/de_DE/products/speedcantplate I don't know if there is a US based shop selling them, but now they are sold under IBEX / Speed CC.

With Intec bindings that should not be too bad for the loading on the binding, the Intec heels just transfer the loads by tension through the bolts and compression in the blocks. With bail bindings I would not recommend it because the bails also pull the toe and heel blocks apart, so the higher sack increase the bending loads on the baseplate. But with Intec that is hardly the case (unless you put them overly tight, which is not needed on Intec). But check your bolts and T-nuts regularly. More blocks = more flex* = more fatigue loading on the bolts = shorter lifespan. Bolted connections hate flex. *I mean just the compression stiffness of the stack

They do, but intecs are significantly stiffer laterally then the bail version. And if I ride bails I ride them with the hard intec heel, the standard heel is much softer and will increase lateral flex even more (BTW UPZ do sell a lower profile stiffer 'race' heel, which will stiffen the bail setup) Fore - aft I don't think my UPZ x12 (?) hardboots are stiffer than my softboots (Northwave domain), I think it is the opposite. The lateral flex is where the big difference is. @Alexs If you do decide on buying hardboots, I do recommend to also give a full alpine setup a go. It will not give you a surfy cutback, but the bottom turns are amazing!

If you are a proficient windsurfer, for quick progress in foiling I think starting with windsurfing is easiest. One new element at a time. My first try foiling was on rented windsurfing equipment and I could do a sustained flight almost immediately. Then I bought a kitefoil (I hardly windsurf nowadays) and I found the balance more tricky and it took me a bit longer to keep it on the foil consistently. In windsurfing, having the mast to board connection simply gives more control over the board & foil inclination of the longitudinal axis. I only tried wing foiling when I was fully at ease with kite foiling. I got it on the foil immediately, quite steady, but being new to the wing I found balance a lot more difficult. If I had not been at ease with a foil yet, I certainly would have struggled a lot. Having a wing in your hands for the first time gives nothing like the balance that a windsurf sail provides. So I'd say start windsurfing until you master the foil, and then grab the wing. I intend to buy a wing foil set, especially for wave riding. We have shitty waves here, and the good thing is that on a foil you can ride anything, also any swell. With kitefoiling you really have to keep paying attention to the kite, especially in light winds when your speed often exceeds the wind speed. Park and ride is not an option. Wing foiling that seems to be no issue at all, if you watch videos where they just drag the wing behind them in one hand while wave riding.

He has a 173 as well: https://www.willhaben.at/iad/kaufen-und-verkaufen/d/thias-skwal-173-f-661903114

One in Austria, probably easier for shipping: https://www.willhaben.at/iad/kaufen-und-verkaufen/d/thias-skwal-183-xl-carving-661902844 (I don't know the seller)

Never Summer have the "Triple camber proto FR", which has a 284 mm waist width. (I never tried it, only seen it once, and must say the triple camber looks ridiculous. )

Strange, never had an issue with my LeMans boots. I guess I put about 150 days on them (all in walk mode). I am not the heaviest rider though at 175lbs.

Another note on the forward lean selector: in walk mode it is still limited in forward flex and cannot move further forward than the locked 5th position. So it cannot over flex and it is perfectly safe to ride them in walk mode. If you turn the knob it will not go back further than the 3rd position. So you have 2 'walk mode' options: free flex from 1st to 5th position (knob straight) and free flex from 3rd to 5th position (knob turned).

I made aluminium toe and heel lifts, 12 mm about 3 degrees. The are three threaded holes in the plate, so the holes that were not used are now used for mounting the lift block to the plate, the toe/heel piece can then mount are the original position. Threaded holes are perpendicular to the top face of the lift, so bolts are aligned as they should. Note, There is some risk using very high lifts with bail bindings. The tension on the bails will increase bending stress on the plate if the bail to plate distance increases.

Why not just jam it with a tiny screw in the slot between the wheel and the casing? Must say I never noticed the issue.

Sounds familiar. I also started in entry ski boots. When renting a board they did not have boards with a goofy setup(inserts were not a thing yet), so I was forced to ride regular, and still do.. But these kid boots I think will be perfectly fine. Usually they can move around quite a bit in them, actually the feet hold may be insufficient for snowboarding. More than once I have seen small kids pulling their foot out of the boot when falling.

Also depends on the shape. For the same weight the tall skinny guy will lose out the the short stubby guy. Beer helps. BMI is calculated relatively to your length squared. So apparently human mass does not increase with you length the the 3rd power but its closer to your length squared. Human frontal area might also not increase with your length squared (as one would expect) but a bit less. I think tall people do no increase in width proportionally (I can serve as anecdotal evidence for that).

Just replace them with torx screws and carry the T30. If you have UPZ boots, these also have T30s on them (and come with a T30 key), so it may come in handy anyway. Carrying one additional key is not really an issue, is it? I carry 4 & 5 mm hex, T25 & T30, philips #1 and 2 and flathead bits, and cannot say it ever bothered me. (But then again, I mostly ride with backpack and cannot be bothered to take out shovel and probe for hardpack days.....)

Why don't you dremel the plastic supports on the f2's so the heel bail sits lower? To get extra tension, simply adjust them a bit smaller.

To me it does not look like there is too much wrong with your riding, just that you need to get more aggressive (and indeed by angulating the board, not by reaching for the snow). You would fool me into thinking that you are just cruising, but could do more. So what happens if you get more aggressive / lower. Do you fall?

Yes now that I see it, I recall that indentation that seems to be intended to make a hole for the cable. But running it through existing large hole next to it is perfectly effective.

It is better to pass the cable through the triangular hole behind the top buckle instead of from the top of the cuff. If it exits from the top, you may fold the cable each time you lean against it, and it can break there. Also, I had the issue that the cable created a pressure point near my ankle. I solved that by removing the lower half of the cable outer casing (so the steel wire just ran unprotected between shell and liner).

I did order similar weld nuts once, but they are more flimsy than the original F2 nuts. One issue with the T-nuts is that they are loaded at an angle if you place a lift or cant shim. Because of this they will only carry load on one side and deform. Make sure that you do not untighten them and then re-mount/tighten them in a different orientation. Then they will deform to the new orientation each time. Repeated plastic deformation makes cracking more likely. When I installed them, I 'over-tightened' them so that they deform and are properly seated, and then backed off a tiny bit. This makes sure that at least they carry load around their full circumference. I make sure when I check them that I re-install them in the same orientation so they are still properly seated. Make sure to have them tightened properly. Bolt preload is key in preventing fatigue failure. Insufficient torque increases the likelihood of failure. I have considering buying these :https://www.rvspaleis.nl/moeren/hulsmoeren/plattekop-open. They are more solid, but because they are stiffer I think the alignment issue may actually make them worse. Something that allows a bit of alignment would probably be better, e.g. something like this https://www.rvspaleis.nl/moeren/hulsmoeren/verzonken-binnenzeskant , but the countersunk ridge looks a bit small.

Note that you can stack the cant wedges from F2's to form a lift by alternating rigth & left wedges. 4 wedges stacked will give you about half the height of the heel lift block. Also good for fine tuning lift.

I am naturally goofy and made my first turns goofy on homebuilt board. Because that board was crap, I rented a board but could only get a regular setup (late '80s). Since then I have become regular, and my preference has changed to regular for other boardsports as well. I doubt I could ride a wave goofy, only skimboarding I still do goofy. So you can actually change. But I was 12 at the time, might be a bit harder now For knee pain from snowboarding, for me that has become much better since I do more running and less biking. I think that strengthening of main muscles without training the stabilizing muscles (with biking) allowed me to overload things while snowboarding. Now my overall fitness is probably less, but with (trail) running stability gets more attention.

Still requires some tuning of the base and edges...

To me, softboots work at low angles and hardboots work at high angles. Hardboots at low angles the lateral stiffness is not needed, just limiting. My hardboots are probably softer fore-aft than my softboots. So I guess I like soft along the centerline of the board, stiff perpendicular to that. With a size 295 boot out is a problem for softboot carving. My current board is 27.9cm waist. Often when carving softboots I 'forget' the limitations, start carving deeper, and I wash out because my heel loop catches. Maybe with a 30+ cm waisted board, but my legs would not last very long with the edge pressure of a proper carve at that board width. So I keep the softboots for powder days, and will build a wider alpine board for the crossover days.

Some people have done this, see the thread below:

I also was there on the original BOL forum, not sure what the account name was but probably also TimW. But I had no idea what the login was I used back then, so I just created a new account when I got back. I never stopped hardbooting. Just skipped maybe one or two seasons on snow when the kids were born, and skipped many seasons online (something like 2007-2017). Also did part time skiing when the kids were small (I expected to like skiing after 20 years without, but that was a big disappointment). 2018 I started building my own boards again, and that re-ignited the passion (along with the kids being able to keep up).