Jack M

Ok, so it looks like the 425 is the same mold as the old 325, just stiffer. But it is certainly different than the 700 as you can see above. The 325 was never on my radar before, so the 425 looked all new to me.

try looking on something other than a phone.

No really, it is. The shell is a new shape both in fit and cosmetics. I compared them in person. I mean yeah, it's still a 3 piece boot with buckles and the dumb forward lean selector, so there's no quantum leap in technology, but I have to assume they made new molds. You can see some of the differences for yourself in the BOL store.

The red Deeluxe T700s were stiffer than the older white ones. The new T425 is an all new boot, sitting above the T700 in the lineup.

Thanks WinterGold for the interesting read. I can't fathom why dearly expensive capital equipment like boot molds would be destroyed. The mind boggles. Unless it was an accident, like how the original Madd tooling was destroyed by fire/flood/locusts/etc. How sad that these cherished pieces of gear seem to be lost forever. Vic Wild winning double gold on 15 year old boots, ridiculous. With the Northwave heel ledge under the rider's heel, I'd be surprised if they had less ramp angle than Deeluxe. You can see how this puts the heel higher than necessary just from pictures. UPZ is similar. I can't imagine it does squat to reduce drag.

Why is the Alp set up backwards?

How tall are you? How long have you been riding softboots? Can you carve your downhill edge on your current gear? For your foot size and weight I was going to guess something about 20cm wide and about 163-168cm in length with a 10 to 12m radius. I agree with Sean, a variable sidecut or a full race shape with a long radius in the tail wouldn't be very helpful. Volkls and F2s are good used values. Just don't go below 19cm at the waist.

Correct. If you are riding a board with say 170cm of contact length, and you complete an edge change before the board has traveled 170cm, the tracks will overlap whether the board is being twisted or not. Simple. Hands can help with balance in any sport. Even though they don't directly have much to do with carving, telling someone where to put their hands is a quick and easy way to elicit an improvement in technique. If your hands are in the right place it's easier to have your body in the right place too. If your hands are in the wrong place it could be that you've got bigger issues, or it could be that you're showing off. :)

Why do I get the feeling this is about freeride boards? For alpine boards, camber with nose rocker (a.k.a. early rise or nose decamber) is not nonsense in the slightest. It was a game changer when first introduced, and you cannot be competitive in any race course without it. It works awesome for freecarving too. Gull-wing or mustache camber/rocker hybrid seems like a joke to me, but I've never ridden it. You won't catch any BXer using it.

I got these in December 2014. They lasted about 70 days. I didn't like the velcro strap on the gauntlet. Should be a drawstring if you ask me. Also, palms of snowboard gloves should be blank. No extra stitched on patches (like is common on ski gloves presumably for holding ski poles) or decorative stitching. The stitching on that patch failed on these gloves. If only Kinco would make the 901T with a gauntlet with a drawstring, and then also a glove version, that would be the shizz.

Photographic error.

Many talented softbooters do not actually carve, or do not carve their downhill edge. If you know how to really carve in softboots, hardboots will either be no big deal, or a revelation. Perhaps if they have never carved with forward facing angles on both feet, THAT might be the problem. Look at that Ryan Knapton video above. First day on hardboots and it's no big deal. Hardboots were a revelation for me, because I had been carving in softboots on an alpine board with forward facing angles. First time on hardboots for me was like this: https://youtu.be/v3qlBM9vAW8?t=55s

Hardboots are only difficult if you don't already know well how to carve your downhill edge in softboots.

Nerdfight! It's both. A thermometer with 0.1 degree readings is more precise than a thermometer with 1 degree readings. A thermometer with 0.01 degree readings is even more precise. But if the readings are inconsistent by a wide margin, it's neither accurate nor precise.

Accuracy is correctness. Precision is exactness. For example I have a thermometer on my snowboarding jacket. It is accurate in that the red liquid goes up the tube the correct distance, but it is not precise because it only has markings every 5 degrees. How consistently it gives the same reading doesn't say anything about its precision. A thermometer with markings every 1 degree would be more precise, but it may or may not be accurate.

This.

Burton gave the whole Alpine/Hardboot thing a real honest try before divorcing it. At one point they had a selection of 3 different hardboots, called Earth, Wind, and Fire, and 4 different plate bindings - Carrier, Race, Automat, Physics. They had 4 different lines of alpine boards available at the same time, the Factory Prime, Ultra Prime, Alp, Coil. They also had a softboot carver, the Asym-Air. And that's not all. So I would say Burton was dragged into this softboot/freeride-only world despite their best efforts. I stopped paying attention to Transworld or any of the magazines at least 20 years ago, but I don't think Fin was doing any advertising there. Kinda too bad if not, I think lack of marketing is a significant part of it. A picture speaks a thousand words.

Yep!

I don't try to layout heelside, but...

The scene is the same at the ECES.

Good point but I think it can be both. As in, snowboarders may think they could never do that because they'd never want to use "ski" boots, and skiers may think they could never do that because they'd never want to use a snowboard. While a kid sees a pro freestyler and thinks hmm, they're on the same equipment as me, so I could do that someday. I've always felt our biggest market is skiers with an interest in snowboarding, and snowboarders with a strong alpine skiing background. What I really do not understand (tangent alert, flame suit on) is the appeal of telemarking. I know some amazing telemarkers and they look great but I don't see that equipment as having any inherent advantages in any facet of getting down the mountain. Racing/Carving? No. Powder? No. Trees? No. Moguls? No. Freestyle? No. Yet there's way more of them than us so what do I know.

I think a lot of people see it and go "wow that's awesome! I could never do that." Kind of like how I look at wingsuit base jumping. Huh??

No metal in this board. (other than inserts)