Jack M

A policy like this would be impossible to enforce at any resort of significant size. Maybe at some mom-n-pop hill where they can be more like a club. They'd have to put "rut police" all over the place and pull over anyone making a line. Skiers, good softbooters, telemarkers, snowbladers, whatever. If they were to ban hardboot alpine snowboarding, personally I would go get a metal BX board, some Flows or FR2's, stiff softies and rut the krap out of the joint right under every chair. Then I'd go get some SL skis and do the same.

I loiter around ski racks and cram my Deeluxes into as many ski bindings as I can and take notes on them all just for fun, but alas I have not tried all makes and models yet so I am not qualified to say. I would think a DIN binding is a DIN binding. Pretty sure Nava bindings will not work. ;) No ski shop is going to touch your boots in order to mount/size a pair of bindings. So you're going to have to go to a ski swap or otherwise find a pair of used skis with bindings mounted that are a close fit to your boots, AND which use some kind of a track sizing system so that you can change the sizing yourself. I did this with my Dad's old skis, his foot is size 9, mine is 10.5. Then set the tension on a medium-low number like 5. Getting into the binding you will need to carefully wedge the toe under the binding toe thingamabobs and then step your heel down on the brake and hope the binding heel engages the boot somewhat. You will have to reach down and lift the binding lever up the rest of the way because the beveled boot heel will not push the binding heel thingamabob all the way down. It's kind of a PITA and not worth saving $100 on used ski boots, but it is kind of worth not having to lug 2 pairs of boots to the hill. Also it is good to be ready for the off-chance of being able to go get a few runs in yourself on your board. But legally I have to tell you DO NOT USE SNOWBOARD HARDBOOTS IN SKI BINDINGS. But if you do, just ski very cautiously.

I'll be up this w/e. Hope it's all rolled out by then.

BigDogDave, I would work that angle of demanding documented cases of people getting injured by your trenches. I would also be ready to turn in your cross if it comes to that. Agreed with Shred, at "my" mountain, Sugarloaf, attitudes are more expert biased. Carving is the goal for a lot of the skiers, so they respect what we do.

That guy looks very tippy and unbalanced. He reaches for the snow a lot. Not something I'd want to emulate. I haven't ridden a skwal, but super quick edge-to-edge speed has never been a big draw for me. Do you honestly get to the bottom of a run and think "man, those were some sick edge changes!"? I don't. I'm loving my 21cm wide Stubby 171. I have no complaints about the edge changes, I can do them as quick as I want to. Whenever I get on an 18cm wide board I feel like I'm on a balance beam. Meh. If by a few years ago you mean like 16. It looks like it would be a gas to try, but I don't see any mechanical advantage to them, so I'm sure I wouldn't make it my primary ride. The ability to make strong fore/aft weight adjustments is one of the biggest advantages we have over skis. It looks like you'd give a lot of that up on a skwal.

More than that and your knees may be fighting each other. Try it.

I'm with BlueB. Screw 'em.

haha Dave... unless you plan on gifting me that Kessler, I don't think I should ride it again.

I don't know, I never rode those. I think the 300s became the 700s...? In any case these are Deeluxe's stiffest offering. They are still not nearly as stiff as an expert level ski boot. I love them at 175lbs. I rode them with BTS and they were a little bit stiffer than my white T700s, which was welcome.

Yes, um, Titan, please submit a full resolution copy of your avatar for official inspection. ;)

SOLD. Ridden 4 times. Liners molded twice. These boots were a failed attempt at downsizing. The toes have been stretched a little, so if your foot measures 27cm to about 27.5cm, you will probably fit these comfortably. If your foot is 27.5 to 28cm, these will probably be more of a "race" fit. My feet are 28 and 28.4cm and I probably could have gotten them to work eventually with more stretching, but frankly my 28s work just fine so these 27s are up for sale. The liners suffered some damage to the inner-most fabric in the toes. They were such a tight fit that my custom footbeds adhered to the liner and I had to rip them out. The liners will still work though. They should be good for at least another 4 moldings. I have been riding an older set of Thermoflexes for many years that I have molded at least 6 times and they still work great. Stock heels and forward lean adjusters included. Compare to $600 plus shipping new. Shipping included to the 48 states. No returns.

How ironic... so now we are the skateboarders. Outstanding!

Yep, toe and heel lift enable you to use a wider stance more comfortably. A good "default" position to experiment from is pure toe/heel lift and no cant. TD1s don't allow this but you can kluge them by sandwiching nickels between the plate and the toe/heel pads on one side to negate the inward cant. (2 nickels next to each other, not on top of each other) This is NOT Bomber endorsed. Here's some more reading on cant and lift: http://www.bomberonline.com/articles/canting.cfm On another note I think you should try using binding angles that are closer to parallel, like 5 degrees apart at most, unless you are naturally much more duck-footed than average.

Some funny skier rage in this video from the N.I.C.E. guys... http://www.bomberonline.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=33869 This hasn't happened to me exactly, although I have been given some light grief for my ruts by friends. I hope if confronted like this I will remember to say: "so are you!" skier: "what?! how?" carver: "you're scraping all the snow off the hill!" I bet that would go over well. Good retort at the end of that video too. Anyone else been in a situation like this?

Get some skis, man. Much easier to do the leash thing and pretty much everything else parent/tyke related on skis, and you will be serving as an example for her to follow. You can cram your Deeluxes into ski bindings, you just have to reach down and lift up the lever. I do this with my kids. It's sketchy but if anything you are in danger of releasing too soon/too much than not at all. Just don't ski aggressively and you'll be fine. Edit - yeah, at 3 years old you can ditch the leash and put her in a lesson(s). A chest harness with the handle on the back is still useful though, for helping them onto the lift and lifting them up after a fall and a lot of other uses. Search for "kiddie lift". Another idea is an Edgy-Wedgy if she is crossing her tips or letting her skis go off in different directions.

I can't imagine why it would not be possible, and yes, that would be the ultimate.

I've got some good mileage on my Boiler Plate now and I'm having no issues with the 4x4 hardware. Typical Bomber goodness. I think my Boiler is probably going to live on my NSR 185, but having the option to put it on my Stubby 171 or not is nice. I wouldn't be able to move it from board to board if it was UPM.

so, you were second and Bruce was first?

http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20110303/jetpack-skis-uphill-fast/ Can you imagine terrorizing XC and Snowmobile trails... and ice fishers...

sweet, the ZZ Top version. websites have a similar look and feel, wonder if it's the same people.

I disagree with step 6 of those instructions - if you sit down while cooling, your liner will be too narrow. I found out the hard way - ouch! Put a 2x4 or phone book under the boot toe while standing in the boots during cooling.

We had a pretty lengthy one in 2004 thanks to B.J. It wasn't great due to the fact that there was basically one usable trail that year due to rain the week before the session. Also it was only standard-def.

http://www.beardhead.com

I think we need to declare that self-POV GoPro pole filming is officially OUT. Yeah, I'm talking to you, GEOFFV. God. Get over yourself already. Watching those videos makes me feel like I should go take a shower. ;)

fo sho!