AcousticBoarder

Suzukas and Deeluxe Liners sold!

Pro wrap here for the thin soles. I looked into getting foam injected liners last season but decided that I don't get out enough in the season to warrent getting them right now. One of my concerns too is I have heard they are generally cold, and I typically have cold feet anyway, so something like hotronics would make foam liners probably $500+. I also don't know of anything other than zip fit near me and I have heard indifferent feedback on them.

Got some Raichle 323s in m24 http://forums.bomberonline.com/topic/45804-boots-bindings-liners-and-more-hard-and-soft-stuff/?tab=comments#comment-462591

Love to join you guys if you head up mid week sometime!

Hm, your description makes sense to me,and it might even eliminate the last problem I have with my UPZs, the fact that I have a high instep and arch/high volume feet. How do they do on this area? Anyone else with high in steps using these boots? The UPZs have been the best fitting boot I have tried but like others have said I just got them dialed in too and don't want to drop more money into new boots quite yet.

I am pretty confident that bomber is not gone quite yet. I know progress has been made in finding new owners, but don't have any more details than that. Unfortunately this stuff takes time, we just have to be patient.

Only spent about 2 weeks total around SLC but my favorites were Solitude and Powder Mountain. Solitude has more of the steeper terrain you may be looking for iirc in comparison to PM, and also lives up to its name pretty well, light crowds, similar to that of PM too.

And the camber! Haha. Yes it is a good thing, but also hilarious. Different people have different goals here, no need to judge them and say their goal is wrong. Yes, people come here to ask questions and discuss carving/alpine/ whatever snowboarding, and yes, it is an open forum where anyone can reply and give advice. If you decide that advice is not for you that is fine, but no need for name calling or to throw feces at it just because their goal or idea of carving does not match yours, we have evolved past primates. Doesn't matter if it is soft booting, hardbooting, EC, racing, pure boarding, if they just like to have fun doing it on one specific hero groom green run or all over the mountain switch in double black moguls, the half pipe, or in the backcountry. Healthy discussion is great and helps the sport and us individually grow. Difference of opinions can and should be respectfully and openly discussed, maybe we might learn something new. Sometimes the best teachers are those who just learned and had a breakthrough because it is fresh in their mind. If you cannot keep the discussion respectful and healthy though and must fall to the level of claiming yourself better and dragging others through the mud, you are no better than, in fact probably worse than, who/ what you are accusing. It is not helping anyone and has a greater chance of turning people away from the small niche sport we all love and have fun doing. Back to the subject matter, really waiting for the bindings to catch up now to the soft boot carving phenomenon. Would love to see some kind of fast entry binding that has some cant/lift adjustability designed for carving in mind!

Thank you for posting that! I wanted to say that is what happened but had no evidence. I believe they also had the chance of riding the course a day or two before if I remember the announcer correctly.

Yeah, another thing to consider is the vast number of liners out there... There are high volume ones, low volume ones, ones that have an extremely thin bottom for a footbed, ones that have an extremely thin toe box, tonge liners, wrap liners, the list goes on. Not to mention the different stiffness and flex zones of them too... I had a lot of boot problems because I have very high arches and a very high instep, narrow heels, and am sensitive to pressure over my foot. It used to be I could not ride for more than 2 hours without taking off my boots and warming my toes up because of poor circulation to the point I could not feel them anymore... and I had terrible heel lift. Finally went to UPZs with Intuition Pro Wrap liners, molded with as much shims over my instep as possible, shaved the boot a little over my instep too, and a custom footbed. Now I only have problems if it gets really cold, though sometimes it is a bit finicky to get the buckles right.

Absolutely. I have not been able to personally try a Kessler yet, but with everything I have been hearing in this thread and talking with a couple people, I would love to try/get one once I progress a little further. My brother also has an Oxess that I have tried once or twice that loves to rail and get up on edge and is really fun. I just also know that I cannot count the number of times I have heard someone say that their custom board surpassed their expectations and that it was everything they wanted and more.

To your point about not wanting to buy a coiler overseas without trying it, all of his boards are custom for you and he is a very skilled builder, I have never heard of anyone who was not happy with their board from him. Even if you do not end up buying one, it would not hurt to atleast reach out.

So I guess pureboarding and EC style should be banned too? The way Ryan is teaching here is the same as is done in Pureboarding: start by getting low, angulate, and extend. At 9:34 mark he even says not to put pressure on the arm. Mind you I am not as proficient as others are in soft boots, but in softboot carving, unless you are using hardboot angles, I would think the way he is teaching this is safest place for your arm. There's no room to keep the arm down, and you are likely to dislocate something if you do something else. Yes some part of it comes from the style of a laid out carve, but also a lot goes back to safely making a laid out carve. If you think he is advocating for use of upper body as a training wheel, go ahead and look back at all of his carving instructional videos, instead of taking one out of context.

At some point I had gone through and cleaned up the audio a little and boosted your voice, I thought I uploaded them to YouTube but I'm not sure anymore. I will have to try and find them....

I am the opposite and am one of those who needs it setup pretty specific to be comfortable. For me atleast, knee pain usually spawns from canting problems. Beware this site by @Beckmann AG is a bit of a rabbit hole and can be very overwhelming for a beginner. It literally has taken me years to grasp most of the concepts, but it (and he) is exceptional at getting your boots and bindings setup right if you are less adaptable. http://beckmannag.com/hardboot-snowboarding/hardboot-binding-configuration

Not much to add on what others have said, except that if you look at I think it's the steeps clinic video from SES a couple years ago by Corey, really try to commit to the turn early on (carving the downhill edge). The j turn will definitely show you that you can use a carve to shave speed and even stop without skidding, but when going fast it will only hold so long before the speed and pressure build too much and you wash out. Committing early helps to ensure you add pressure to the top of your turn, not just the bottom, resulting in a cleaner carve that you won't blow out of at speed. As others mentioned, once you start the carve, it tends to be a bit easier to continue it to across and even slightly up the fall line, at which point you can transition again by really committing and pressuring that edge early in the turn. If doing it right, you should get spray from your carve not just on the bottom, but at the sides, and even towards the top too. As you practice and start learning how to make big and small turns, the small ones definitely help to shave speed as well. Small ones require more of that pressure at the beginning of your turn and lots of angulation. The larger GS style turns will build speed more and point you more downhill. Another thing I would say, as a few others have, use skidding if needed to stay safe, but otherwise I would not rely on it and preferably try to avoid as possible. It has the potential of building bad habits you have to break later on. EDIT: I guess it was in the intermediate one, about halfway through. Here's the video: The steeps one has some pointers too though...

Yep, I would try whatever liner comes in whatever boot you end up getting first. As Aracan said, if the liner is heat moldable, it can be cooked probably 5 times, usually when you buy a used boot the seller will mention how many times it has been cooked. You can also often adjust the flex of the boot in addition to the fit by changing liners, something to keep in mind as you progres.

those socks are great!

run carnage from today... And 2 in parallel, courtesy of Buell

I would second starting at the boots. Make sure you get ones that are the right size for you, used is fine. If they have moldable liners, then great! There is a "rice" method somewhere around here that should minimize any problems if you decide to do it yourself. If you have problem feet like me though, a good boot fitter is invaluable. Very quick and basic boot advice: if you have a narrow heel, try and stay away from Deeluxe. Otherwise, some research and trial and error will help to get you your perfect fit, and buying used will make an trial and error a little easier on the wallet. You can always buy new down the road. After that, used bindings and board. If you happen to be lucky enough to ride near other hardbooters you can get a feel for these before even buying them if you nicely ask, but chances are you cannot borrow their boots which is why they are important first! As with the boots, there's a lot of personal preference here, so starting used you can learn what you like, but as Buell mentioned, make sure rider weight is pretty close! If you have money to throw though, Sean (Coiler) or Bruce (Donek) could whip you up a good beginner board for your weight range. There are of course other manufacturers as well that might have something.

Wow what a difference! Thanks Beckmann! Today I went out and probably had the best day of carving for me yet! I am sure part of it was conditions, it snowed 3-6" yesterday evening/ last night and then was groomed, so really nice hero cord. I don't think it got above 26* F either so it stayed all day. I could definitely feel a huge difference this time, and noted it was much easier to ensure I was not rotating. Almost wondering if I went too far, but I think I am going to work with this until I get some less than perfect snow, and same before I mess with the rear boot. No pics or video today of my riding unfortunately, but I did get a couple of Gunsmoke after I destroyed it, almost all carves are mine at the time of the pictures haha. Overall it was a great day, stuck to this run mostly. Usually I have to stop on it even if just a few seconds to shave speed and regain composure, but I really never did today.

At June tomorrow? I am thinking the same time frame, no reason to go any earlier with these temperatures and lack of crowd. Hopefully see you there!

Thank you for your help! Glad I am finally getting to the root of the issue I have adjusted the front cuff and did find it much better, so I plan on taking some runs tomorrow and see how it does before adjusting mroe. After that I think I will try a bit more binding splay if I still detect that side pressure, and then finally move on to the rear foot after that. I did a search for playing cards and the most recent post I found was from Teach in 2014, so no luck finding it yet at least.

Headed up this week again. Looks like it is going to be cold! My experience has been than June has better groomers when it is hard and fast, so I am probably going to head there. Do you have similar findings? Anyone else around this week?

So I have tried this and honestly some of it has to be muscle memory. Even barefoot on the floor I often find myself wanting to rotate as I go to heel Insoles: no change. Insoles on bindings: maybe even a little easier/better. Footbeds in shells: more blocked again. I want to more than ever to rotate. I think in part due to my front calf pressuring my shell before the rear... Then checked and my forward lean on my front boot somehow was locked all the way forward. This helped to fix this one. Back to feeling OK. I did notice my front toes want to push past the boot angle. Liners: didn't feel much different either. Maybe again a little feeling weird as in the upright lock the front leg still pressures my cuff on heel side before my rear leg does... Almost feels like rear cuff is looser even though it is about the same. I also am starting to notice weight shifting forwards and back to varying degrees makes me want to do it more or less with fore/ aft weight, and if I tilt the board, I want to do it more as the board tilts/more pressure on the boot cuffs. Front foot still wants to go a little past binding angle as I am focusing on this. So, my thoughts are boot cuff adjustment or even more canting on the front? Possibly more binding splay too? So I have adjusted the boot cuff and it is already feeling better, even just when I put my boots on... Some pressure areas I didn't realize I was having seem to be gone too. Contact is more equal when pressuring for heel side and I don't feel like I have to compensate by pressuring the back more. I debated adjusting the back as well but I am going to just start with the front. I think and see how it feels on the mountain tomorrow