Deuxdiesel

Buck turns out some pretty good skiers- quite a few Olympic quality racers.

These Solomon S/Lab Mtn. look interesting. 120 flex, but like most A/T or Alpine boots, the soles are pretty long.

I just finished my last day on snow for the year and spent the whole day on the Concept. I tried using my Flow NXT's, but they were really tearing up my heel and killing my instep on my rear foot. I switched back to the Nitro's and things were much better- it is a really light and comfortable yet supportive binding. Bending over and buckling in at the top of each run gets old fast, but what can you do. I really like the Concept a bunch, especially how light and "poppy" it is. In Spring conditions with lots of late day push-piles, it was easy to hop around on when not carving. I must stress that this is not a BX board or just a wide version of an alpine board. It splits the difference between a mushy, flexy freestyle board and a non-race alpine board. I wanted to try it with hard boots, but didn't get the chance. I do think a set of plates would overpower the board in all but the most perfect groomed conditions. I ended up buying a Nidecker Area 153 for my wife, who also rips on an alpine board. She mentioned that she didn't think such a light board would hold on the hard snow, but she said she was surprised by how well it did. With regards to the Nidecker Spectre, I have no idea how it would compare, but given it's shape I would guess it's just another compromise- not as good in the soft stuff as the Concept, not as good as my Volkl or Elans in the hard groom. Who knows? Hope you all enjoy the rest of your season- be safe! D.

Interesting how everyone is convinced the Ground Control won't work or last long without even trying it. I am pretty sure I wouldn't want to drive my 191 or 174 with them, but for daily riding/free carving, I am ready to try them. At 39/30 degrees minimum in my softboots and bindings, I would love plate convenience with a little give. I miss the old Switch/O-Sin step-ins with the high backs and extra straps. The lateral stability was pretty good and the system was very solid, unlike the Clickers.

I started as a snowboard instructor back in 1988, and had to teach skiing as well just to make it worthwhile being at the hill. I moved up to PSIA Ed. Staff and later the Snowboard D-Team, as well as writing and reviewing educational articles for various magazines. At most I barely cleared $10K one season, and that was after working at it for over a decade and very little of it was freeriding time. I have had many kids of friends and family members ask for a recommendation. I always tell them to just buy a ski pass and then find consistent work in a ski town, like a grocery store or restaurant. A stock boy who works and 8 hour shift will clear more than teaching a couple of beginner lessons a day, which is what most newbies do. Remember, what the public pays for lessons is not what the instructor makes- if they did, it would be much more lucrative.

I was I had that much space in my shells. Remember that it is easier to make a big boot small than a small boot big. I spent decades wearing 27 shells for "better performance" instead of 28's and now I am paying for it.

I finally picked up a new board for all-around riding, and after obsessive web surfing, decided to go with the Nidecker Concept 161. Me; expert carver/all-arounder, park and pipe avoider, switch rider only with a gun to my dog's head, 165 pounds. The Board; already mentioned. Virtually zero reviews on this board, only pretty pictures. Most of the data from Nidecker ranks it an 8+ out of 10 for stiffness, and at my weight I am at the bottom of the weight range for it, but I think it was a little on the soft side, even with softies. Bindings; somewhat modded Nitro Phantom Carver. Boots; size 11 Salomon whatever soft boots with extra eyelets, laces and internal DIY corsets for a stiffer boot. Finally got some real snow time with this board. I went with 39/33 angles, but will need to bump it up to 42/36 or even 45/39 next time out as I had a few slight boot-outs on firm groomed snow. The board is very light compared to the all-mountain beasts I am used to riding, and is extremely fast right out of the box- I literally slapped bindings on it and went riding. No wax other than factory, no edge tune other that what came on it. Short/Medium radius turns; very quick edge to edge, lots of rebound and unloading from each turn. Regardless of finishing the turn with my weight biased front, rear or split 50/50, it popped out of each turn with gusto. It has a slight camber to flat transition before the nose and tail rise, so it never felt catchy. Solid, quiet upper body with serious cross-under short turns were solid and predictable. Long radius turns; held an edge well throughout the entire turn, but was a little more sensitive to weight placement as expected. Too far forward would cause some tail wash on heel turns, too far back on toe side turns would cause the nose to drift a little. Cross-over transitions never felt iffy (except for the toe/heel drag that needs to be addressed), and the board held well on harder snow despite how light it is overall. Overall; my new go-to board for all conditions if I am not on my Elan or Volkl race boards. If I were to travel with just one board from my quiver, this would be it. Granted, most of my non-race boards are 5-6 year old all mountain boards (Ride Yukon 163 for example), so I am pleased with this as a in-between board.

Bump-

Bump-

I used to race and pace set NASTAR back in the day, and the best tip I can suggest for running a skier's course is to enter and complete the turn early, as most rec skiers tend to complete their turns late, causing ruts in the belly of the line that are tough for a boarder to get out of. On skis I could always "step up" the fall line if I got trapped in the rut, but no such luck on a board. The downside of a high, early line as others have said is that you make contact with the gates more often. I can hurt and it does slow you down. Triangle panel gates make a big difference, but not all areas use them.

I am impatiently waiting to get ahold of the 161 to try it. Hopefully soon. As far as soft boots and binding angles go, I have big feet for a little feller (size 11+ and I am just under 5'10") so this has alway been an issue. A homemade third strap around the cuff like Burton used to offer on their Custom's years ago does help. There seems to be more burly soft boots coming out, like Thirty-Two's Jeremy Jones model plus others, but those are shockingly expensive. To piggyback on scottishsurfer's idea, I have used slices of 5 gallon pails as support between the liners and shells of soft boots. A heat gun with help with adjusting the amount it wraps around to your preference.

I spent more than a decade teaching skiers how to snowboard in their ski boots on moderate angle boards (22-24ish waists, so 45 degree bindings). Some picked it up quite well, but most had a much longer learning curve due to the lack of ability to skid turns with any fluidity. Obviously skidding turns is not the ultimate goal on an alpine board, but it is an invaluable skill. I'm not sure what the modern school of thought is, but taking a few lessons or spending a few days on an all-mountain direction board with moderate angles (30-35?) might be worth it. Boards like this can be picked up used cheaply, whereas hardboot stuff not so much. I'm in my mid-50's now, and 4 decades of alpine skiing, hard boot snowboarding, telemark skiing and even tele-boarding has me in a place where a soft boot style carving board is my go to ride. Too bad most of them are so expensive.

Lara Hope and the Ark-Tones. Rockabilly with some classic Patsy Cline/June Carter influences. Saw them open for Brian Setzer a few weeks before the holidays. Fantastic stuff.

Bindings are sold.

My first pair of non-Alpine hard boots were Koflach's that had seen one trip up Mt. Blanc. I was always jealous of the neon Koflach's Damien Sanders rode (and jealous of his wife also). Funny post about the Nordica SHB's- they sent me 2 pair of those and 3 pair of the SBS's to play with back in the day. The SBS's in a plate binding were an experience to say the least. Thanks for all the info on AT boots y'all- I may head that direction.

Howdy all- I was wondering if this was a possibility? I rode race boards and plates with ski boots starting in the late 80's (Burton Safari 185 with Lange ski boots) all the way up through the early 2000's with Bomber TD1's and Raichle/DeeLux on Volkl boards and everything in between. These days it's either softies on BX/AM boards or tele-skiing, with a bit of traditional alpine thrown in. None of my old boots fit anymore (amazed at what I used to do to my feet for "performance", and am paying for it now) but I wouldn't mind getting back on a race board now and then. Alpine boots always slipped a little between the bails, so I am interested to see if AT boots are any better. Any experience with this would be appreciated. I will not buy hard boots for a few times per year, but I could use the AT boots for some two-planking.

Sold!

SOLD.

I have a set of grey Burton Carrier plates and a set of Burton Race plates for sale. The Carriers are basic plates with single lever adjustments for the heel and toe blocks and they have the 3 hole discs- $25 plus shipping. The Race plates have both the purple and grey dampening rings and come with 4 hole discs- $60 plus shipping. PM with cell # and I can send pics.