mikeyboy123

Yeah, probably more of a soft boot thing. Not sure why they doing it or how it's gonna work or what but the publicity drive is due to start in sept. Will update then.

I have heard that Absolute-snow.co.uk will shortly be launching a free board loan service. They carry Kessler Cross, Kessler Ride and Kessler Slalom/GS boards. Not got any further details. Will update as and when I do.

Hey NT, I may have a chance to acquire a 168 boxer. I'm a noob at hard booting, do you think this would be a good board to learn on? How does it perfom on piste, or is it mainly a powder board? Also, do you know the stats - waist width, sidecut radius? Not much come up on google! Thanks, Mike.

Got the boots this morning. Glad I took a punt as they are the right size. Pleased with condition too. Are the liners heat mouldable or anything? Thanks, mike.

Please do come back once you've tried out your new board and let us know more about it and what your experience with it was. Enjoy!

Will have to wait until tomorrow as away for the weekend and don't have info I need to make the payment with me. Will do it tomorrow and pm you to confirm everything.

Cool. Will sort out payment and pm you details in next couple of days.

Okay, cool. I'll wait to hear from you.

Thanks, got the mail, but seemed to have probs sending one back. Please confirm whether or not you got my reply. Thanks, Mike.

Hey slinky, think I'll take a punt on the boots after all if still for sale. PM me with payment details, and I'll arrange payment and give you my address. Thanks, Mike.

Okay, well, think I'll pass on the boots as need to be certain of the size.

Very true, not much comes up on ebay uk, but when it does, hardly anyone else will be bidding, so you can get a real bargain. Best thing to do on ebay uk is search for longer boards. Anything alpine that is gonna be suitable for you is most probably gonna be in the top length category. Ebay.de is the best place to look though and as winter is approaching you should see more and more stuff coming up.

Hey Vyvsdad, I'm not one to offer advice on boards as I'm really a total noob, but I have been looking for exactly the same sort of thing and am pretty much same size and weight as you. You have of course got the Coilers, Doneks and Priors already mentioned, but importing to the UK really bumps up the cost, so here are some ideas for all mountain boards on our side of the pond which would avoid the import costs:- F2 El Diablo F2 Vantage (not this season's Silberpfeil vantage, which is a different board) Pure boarding Two, Black Diamond/Bastard (latter 2 are the same board, just different graphics) G Force Blade - same as donek blade (I think) but more economical to buy from G Force on our side of pond. SG Cult Nidecker Proto and F2 Eliminator also perhaps worth a look. The above are all wider boards and can be had for reasonable prices. If money is no object then there are also offerings from virus and pogo and the like. And following on from your other recent post, maybe the trans powder! I'm not saying these are the way to go, but just some ideas if it's a wider all mountain board you want and you also want to avoid import costs. Oh, and I can defo recommend Blue Tomato - check 'em out. I bought an F2 eliminator off them earlier this year. Ex test board for a bargain price and was pretty much as new. Hope this helps.

I'm no expert on Trans but have noticed them around on ebay quite a bit and have looked into them. From what I've managed to gather, Choc used to be an OEM for Trans, and maybe there is still a relationship between them, but nowadays, Trans also seem to have their own factory in Thuringia. I have also read of links between Trans and F2 and Volkl, but not sure how credible that info is. F2 and Volkl being two of the biggest Europen brands, it wouldn't be too surprising if they were OEMs for any number of less well known brands. Also, both Trans and F2 have "Twistboards" in their lineups, and no other snowboard brand does as far as I can make out, so maybe F2 OEMs the twistboards for Trans, or maybe Choc or AN Other OEM makes them for both F2 and Trans. But this is conjecture. Anyway, Choc has some nice looking boards in their lineup, including a titanal race board, and they have been around for a while, so they probably know what they are doing. So if they are still OEM for Trans then the boards are probably decent. If you see something that suits then maybe worth a gamble, but they are not priced much lower than comparable F2 boards on ebay.de from what I've seen. Check out these links: www.choc.cz www.trans-snowsports.de

Oh, and please confirm if 27.5 mondo is actually stated on the boot, or are you just converting from size 9 to mondo point?