AcousticBoarder

Agreed you will have a hard time if your boots do not fit well. Be sure to measure your foot in mondo, and then as Aracan said, find out which boot shape will work best, meaning do you have a narrow heel, or wide toes or? Avoid the stock footbeds as well.

I am all for having a separate topic as lonbordin mentioned, but I would be highly against a completely different forum page (like bomber vs bomber bx). At-least my personal view, this is a carving community. (Most) members do not care if you are carving on soft boots, hardboots, or skwal. Same with technique; everyone is accepting, willing to help, and discuss. I think it would be a shame to cut the soft booters from that if a whole new forum was made

Pics or it didn't happen!

I currently have hot chillys mid volume classic as socks (will look at the smartwool Phd socks... thin vs medium?). Boots are tight to the point where the buckles are tighter than loose, they do "snap" but I am not cranking them by any means. I am using superfeet for footbeds right now. Totally want the bluetooth socks! haha :)

+1 for reading that post. As a newer rider myself, it helped tremendously. Definitely look at widening your stance too. With the canting on bindings for hard boots, you should actually be able to have a wider stance than on soft boots. This was a good starting place for me, I think I made it slightly wider: Take your pants inseam and multiply by (Phi × 3 / 8) = 0.607, which is taken from Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man.

The boot's performance and fit is why I went with them, I have terrible heel lift in most other boots. I do really like how the stock liners fit, in the other liners I tried, I actually do start to get a little heel lift, but I had no problems in the flo's. How do the suggested liners compare? Do they pack out much? If I do get new liners, I have no idea what kind of flex I need to look at. I know the stock ones make the boot more rigid. I am new enough to riding though, that I did not notice a big difference from one trip to the other. The cold is an issue for me, on the first day I could not feel touching my toes with my fingers... I am thinking about getting the hotronics, I would just like to look at simpler solutions first before adding another piece of equipment. Good to know the batteries will last.

So I bought a pair of UPZ RC10s a couple weeks ago, and have ridden them twice. The first time I used stock liners, and wow, my toes were cold! I literally had to sit in the car for about 30 minutes trying to warm them up with the heater before I could go out again. The second time (was warmer, prob got to the low or mid 40s in the day) I tried an old pair of intuition dreamliners I have, newly used Raichle wrap thermo mold liners, and even the thermoflex liners from my Deeluxe Vicious boots. My feet never got as cold, but still were a little. Anyone else have similar issues? Suggestions? Do I warrant spending the money on boot heaters? Better liners?

Nice Didn't realize you mostly soft boot carved, what kind of angles do you have? have you tried any kind of isolation or power plates?

That was a super helpful post!!! I went out yesterday and probably did better than I have the whole rest of the season combined! I also envisioned doing the bamboo drill which reinforced the upper body too.

Awesome post! That thread that you linked I think will really really help. I went out yesterday and definitely felt like I made a lot more progress just focusing on that sequence that two_ravens described, it really does help eliminate soft boot tenancies. I also envisioned the "borrowed" bamboo drill (Found here if you haven't seen it) too to keep my hands and shoulders about where they should be. When I got tired and transitioned to my soft boots for later day crud, riding them felt weird, not my hard boots :D My biggest advice for your first day, noob to noob, make sure you focus on the basics if you need to. I am guilty of trying to do half-a$$ carves and linking them instead of just going to a green run to do one nice solid carve until it terminates, and repeat until you can do it consistently. I still have a hard time doing this, and its making my learning process take longer

Wish I could have gone, had trainings at work :/ Glad you had a fun day!

I have a pair of raichle 323s, m24. I can call and send pics later today. Depending where you are in socal can do pickup too

Yes, we should have a turn signal for every carve!

Great post two_ravens, last time I was out I was thinking it would be really nice to have a sequence to practice to get form right. I was going to scour the forums today and write down everyone's advice and try and make a list of it... this seems like a better idea to start with :)

Ryan actually made a post here: http://forums.bomberonline.com/index.php?/topic/41270-soft-boot-carving-with-bomber-power-plates/ Very cool stuff!!!

I would love to hear how the compare as well. Has anyone been able to try both?

How big of a difference does the liner make in the boot stiffness? Can it be negated with the flex adjustments? I bought a set of older, but new liners earlier this season for my last boots as a temporary fix to the foot pain caused by heel lift in my Deeluxe Suzukas.

0 here as well... who do you have to piss off?

So, update, the ankle wraps helped a lot, but part of the issue is I sized my boots too big. The boot fitter helped me with a cheap, temporary solution of high volume liners and the ankle wraps, so very little to no lift now in my Deeluxe Suzukas. I also purchased UPZs (correct size) and tried them out today. So much more comfortable! I have also found that in the UPZs, I need more toe lift in the front, so I put my 6 cant in the front and 3 in the rear. Later today I was on my soft setup once the crowds moved in and trails were chopped up. I noticed the pain returning again, but only in my front foot. I know heel lift is a factor, and I also think that the ability to cant would help too. I got to thinking, would anything on technique contribute to this though? I definitely narrowed it down to doing toe-side carves, and only my front foot seems to have an issue. I was trying to work on weighting today, combined with gilmour bias, starting heel sides with the front foot and toe with the rear.

Just rode my UPZs today for the first time. They felt amazing! I bought them specifically because I have small heels (and feet for that matter...) and I always have heel lift, causing me pain. Practically no lift whatsoever on these! But wow, what a pain to try and get them in the binding! (I am using standard TD1s btw.) Snow got stuck on the pads, and the heel bail kept moving off when I tried to buckle. Combo that with a small hill, and I think I will soon be in the market for step-ins. I have been in conversation with Beckmann and he had suggested I try putting my 6* cant in the front and 3 in the back (previously set up opposite) and it made a big difference too after I did that. The UPZs do have a steeper ramp to them than the Deeluxe do which is why it was suggested. Seems a binding like the TD3 will help with that to give more selective toe canting in the front Biggest drawback though - extremely cold toes. The rest of my feet are fine, but my toes? I had to stop and sit in the car with the heater on my feet for almost 30 minutes trying to slowly warm them up. The shell fits though, which is the important part. I will have to see about another liner or heater. Suggestions for this?

Well, they seemed to hold fine today at-least. awaiting an email from bomber on it. Will call tomorrow as I will have service

"Whoa, what are those step ins? they must be new, I have never seen them before" about my standard TD1s. Also, saw a kid today who literally had ski boots strapped into soft bindings on a free-ride/park board.... Aaaand, when I ordered a turkey sandwich for lunch today "did you want ketchup on that?" But, hope is not all lost, rode a chair with a soft boarder who was asking some more intelligent questions about alpine carving.

The Mountain is opening again tomorrow (7-10 inches fell last night). Anyone going over to ride?

If only I was free on the weekends, I would love to go. Working weekends means less crowds when I do go, but I seldom get to meet up with anyone.

You may want to move this over to the Classifieds Want to buy section.