Gabe T

Thanks. I dug out some old bindings when I got home to take a closer look. Looks like they can go quite small. The sole length is actually longer than the corresponding shell size in an. SB shell. Noted that a size 27 SB Deeluxe shell has a sole length of 295mm. Noted something rather strange when sorting through the parts. Stay tuned in a separate post.

It would be for a size 23 or 24

Anyone know what the smallest Deeluxe SB boot size TD1s and TD2s can be sized for?

Not sure. He was testing out a huge batch of boards that day and that was one of the ones near the end of the day. I recall it was built for a lighter rider .

We had some early season snow that got us off to a fairly early start to the season around here. This was the first day back on the hill for Bruce since his knee replacement. Seemed like a success.... Except for hikes back to the car to switch up boards, he rode for over 5 straight hours without a break! : )

A year late replying but what does this mean? Not sure I’ve heard this term in snowboarding. Is this meant to refer to pushing next to the heel side edge? I assume you are not strapped in on the rear and pushing with front foot.

Funny you mentioned chimp style. That's what came to mind for me too when watching... reminded me of an Orangutan from a show/movie I had seen where he lifts his arms up pretending to be robbed. There was an actual movie about a snowboarding chimp and he wasn't bad. : ) Actually not that painful. A bit of quad burn from not being totally relaxed but generally not bad.

Were these surgeries far apart? Curious about the need for 2. What was your recovery period before being able to get back to sports?

I was always of the impression that shell sizes and thermo liners typically come in full mondo sizes. What dintinguishes the half sizes would typically be the stock non moldable liner... thicker on the equivalent.5 size. For boots like the Deeluxe SB series, I believe the removable tongue will be the same size for a range of shell sizes which is specified on the inside of the piece.

I’m a natural Goofy footer. Even with a symmetrical duck stance my preference is to ride with right foot leading. My intention was not to do any switch riding. In some of the earlier heelside turns I ended up opening up my upper body and looking in the direction of travel; similar to what I might do on a conventional setup. However, what I discovered was that this would release too much pressure from the rear and resulted in the board spinning around. You mentioned that my toe sides looked more stable but I actually felt my heelsides were a bit better toward the end once I got up to carving speed. Part of that perception probably is related to the odd high movement with the arms; this seemed like the required technique. In retrospect, that’s the way to angulate with that stance; high outstretched hands allowing more pressure over the edge. When I watched the video, I actually recognized that as a similar carving motion to what I had seen from the Duck rider. I think with some setup adjustments and more runs, I’d be pretty comfortable on a gentle slope. Problem is I'd probably look like an oddball riding like that. : ) The face blurring was kind of an inside joke after a preview of the video. i.e. not wanting to be identified as the goofball! As a comparison of difficulty, I have tried riding my mirrored stance on a carving board before (i.e. Regular for me) and I can say that is much, much more difficult for me. I can ice skate/inline with legs spread and heels pointed towards each other so that experience definitely helped. I agree that duck stance is preferred under some circumstances on a freestyle board but with my experimental setup, the only benefit might be a good groin stretch! Fun for an experiment and a couple of laughs. : )

That's right, that was not a typo. : ) A couple years back we were packing things up in the parking lot and I was chatting with Bruce and Henry. Henry had run into one of his Apex/Kessler customers that day who was on a Gecko/Ride setup on softies. He could carve turns pretty well but had a rather unorthodox style as his duck stance was quite extreme. I would guess in the 40 degree range. It was unique to say the least. I jokingly told the guys after that I was going to try an extreme duck stance on a carving setup one day. And here it is!.... This was the one and only run I took. Shot late last season in March. For the setup, I had to bring in my stance width closer to where it felt comfortable. Ideally I would have preferred to do it with no lift but I ride with both heel and toe lift and did not want to go through the trouble of taking out the lifts on the F2's. In the end I decided to go heel lift on both which made edging on toe side a bit sketchy at times. Sorry that the vid is super shaky. It was kind of a spur of the moment thing that day and I got my nephew to follow me on skis. I guess the natural progression would be to try this on a skwal. : )

Do they brand them as Deeluxe though? The boots I saw had a Palau branded liner. You buy new or from an individual? I've never seen just the shell being sold separately.

What is the stock liner for 425 Pro? Saw a spec. listing Speed TF which I believe is a Deeluxe thermo liner? I recently looked at a pair that my friend just picked up after visiting family in Europe. I was surprised to see that they came with Palau liners.

Very nice! That's what I call Living!

Recently posted SG video on binding setup

Nice! I've always found it a bit more challenging to pop back forward from a switch position. Usually come up short of a full 180 which results in speed getting scrubbed off. Depends on the board but some will tend to work better in terms of getting more pop off the tail to help get you rotate back to a forward position.

Maybe you should start carving the halfpipe. Droppin' in! :)

Part of it is personal preference but I will alter my binding angles based on board width. If the board is wider, I will lower my angles as I feel it helps me get better leverage over the board's edge. The angles you noted are very close to the range of angles I'd typically ride with.

I'm not sure what was meant by the same turn for all conditions, but the way in which I execute a turn is often times influenced by the snow conditions. I like to ride with high edge angles with the hip close to the snow. This is best done when conditions are firm or even icy. There is a threshold for snow softness in which this can be done. Once it becomes too soft, that same type of turn will result in the board edge sinking too deep to the point where there is not enough speed to continue carving. Also, any looseness and bumps in the snow is going to hinder getting low to the snow.

On the topic of courses, is the one in Bulgaria representative of others on the tour or the one in the upcoming Olympics? Seemed like offset of gates allowed for a pretty carvy run. Didn't see too much sliding like I've noticed in some past races.

This topic came about as I joking asked a buddy of mine to ease up on the trenches as I didn’t want to get sucked into one those during my runs. Plus I had to ski through that later in the day! By then, he’s long gone of course having left a path of destruction on our poor tiny hill! Tried to convince him (unsuccessfully) that trenches were overrated. : ) There’s no arguing that hardness of the snow and rider weight will have a direct impact on the depth and the width of your lines. I think a lot of it comes down to your preferred riding style. It’s a lot of fun to dig up some trenches and pound hard into a turn. That was predominantly my style too in prior years along with more forward leaning and body drag (forearms and hip) As I explored different styles, I did notice a difference in the lines I left. All things being equal, a thinner line requires one to be a bit more nimble and light with more precise timely edging. I would describe it as more as racey freecarve style like those seen in the Japanese videos. A hybrid of race technique and freecarving with more full complete turns. It’s a style that generates speed as well and I find it allows me to ride with a more relaxed body position.

If you saw 2 carving lines in the snow that were both nicely shaped, which one of these would you prefer to have made?: 1. Thin Pencil line 2. Deep trenches Assume that snow conditions are such that both can be done.

Sort of the opposite of regular skis where the turns feel like alternating regular and goofy heel side turns where the inside skis leads through the carve. In tele, the inside ski is the trailer making it feel like a toe side. Never tried it myself but I've recently noticed some guys make some pretty nice carves on them at a decent clip.

I did not really start skiing until my 40s and I have found there to be quite a few parallels between skiing and alpine carving that have complimented each other in terms of refining technique. I tried skiing briefly back when skis were straight, then took up snowboarding shortly after and did that exclusively for 15 years. Then, one of the local regulars at my ski hill loaned me some fairly modern skis to try a few years ago. I find it a refreshing change to switch to skis. It can be fun in a wider range of conditions so it really helps extend the day with some enjoyable riding. I picked up carving on skis fairly quickly; it’s the non carving techniques in more difficult terrain that I find most challenging. As I refined my ski carving technique, I started to notice quite a few similarities, in particular with a heel side turn. (I ride goofy so this would be a right turn) During the shaping or compression part of turn, the outside hand will move along with the arc of the turn, coming up to the front as it coincides with the edge change. This is very similar to movement of the hands in skiing where it finishes with a pole plant or touch a the end of the turn to set up the new turn. At the same time, there is a strong retraction of the legs and hip movement towards the new inside edge. Angulation during the turn is also very similar. Yamifumi, what sort of forward lean do you have on your boots? Although you mentioned the strain you felt was helped with additional training with skis I'm wondering if it could be related to boot setup. Generally, your front boot should be set more upright compared with your back boot. If you stand in a natural athletic stance in your living room without boots on, take note of the angles of your lower leg relative to the floor. You’ll notice the front one will be more upright; your boot setup should be set up similarly. While you are standing there, try and match the angles for both legs. What you’ll find is that you’ll immediately start to feel a lot more strain on your front leg.