Jack M

Having ridden a bunch of Allflex designs this season, I can see why Allflex completely replaced the Apex style isolation plates in racing. A few weeks ago I got back on my K168 with my Apex X-plate and suddenly didn't like it. It felt very vague and disconnected. The Allflex plates by contrast feel very direct and powerful. This was a surprise as previously I really liked my Apex/K168 combo. The traditional Allflex aluminum plate is a match made in heaven for my stock K185. The Allflex aluminum spring plate was awesome on my SL board, but it is heavy. Non-athletes like me need not apply. That said I used it and my F2 Proto 163 to carve down a steep icy double black in December and it performed with zero mistakes. So I'm a convert, but I still can't quite get my head around why it works. An Allflex plate basically creates three separate zones of flex in your board: nose, mid, tail. I disagree with that design in theory, but I like it in practice.

I must give a nod to @Shred Gruumer's original Coiler Stubby spec... 161cm, 14.7m radius IIRC.

I have definitely had boards where the flex was not a good match for the sidecut. It was like the sidecut wanted to make a shorter turn and the flex wanted to make a longer turn. The board seemed to fight itself. I find the Kessler 168 to be very easy to ride at all edge angles. Could just be a better board for eastern North America. I'll never forget demo'ing a Madd 180 in Aspen at the SES in 2005. I loved it and bought it. When I got it back to Maine it was a completely different board. I still loved it, but it suddenly rode a lot longer. Great discussion!

USASA's biggest single source of income is National Championships, with over 1000 competitors. For the 2nd year in a row this has been canceled. Some really nice items up for bids in this fundraiser, this is a win-win. https://cbo.io/bidapp/index.php?slug=usasa Ends the evening of April 18. Scroll down to see the items.

They did, on a couple trails, to be able to meet their guaranteed 150 day season. They're done grooming though. They will need to make it to April 24th to fulfill the guarantee. I'd be surprised if they made such a guarantee next year.

I don't know about the 9 but the 7 which I have is software based. I'd be surprised if the 9 had any optical stabilization as it would increase size and cost significantly.

GoPro's built-in digital stabilization called "Hypersmooth" which debuted in the 7 works profoundly well. Hand holding is no issue anymore.

Sugarloaf received 73" of snow for the season after the total reset washout on Christmas. Normal snow years are 100" more than that. There was a great 6 week stretch after the big snowstorm on January 16 where we had no rain, no thaw, and a few inches here and there. Also an 18" dump on February 2-3. It was great for carving, but it still wasn't enough to make the woods really safe. Then there was a thaw and freeze. March saw 3" of snow and the carving never fully recovered. So for me it was a crappy season with a really awesome 6 week mini-season in the middle. I know I'm lucky to have been able to ride at all.

I could part with mine if skidad's is gone.

Excellent heel hold down. Laterally stiffer than Deeluxe and UPZ (WC version anyway), forward flex adjustable by springs. I can wear mine buckled all day and not touch them, a first for me. Your instep sounds like it could be a problem, but like bigwavedave said worth a try and I like his liner trick. The stock liner is moldable and works for me, but it may not for you.

The Kessler 150 and 156 are really youth/lightweight SL boards. Very soft.

You should also consider the Ride Commissioner. Formerly known as the Timeless. @Termin8tor has one and carves the heck out of it. Titanal/CF construction, looks crazy high tech, and has a nose good for powder.

Hands down the best bang for the buck on the market for a short board that I've found is a leftover F2 World Cup 163. So good!!

I haven't ridden the K162. I own a F2 Proto 163 if that helps. The K168 turns longer and will run faster. It will still turn tight if you push it. I won a USASA SL against some legit competition on my K168 once. That said I won't use it for SL again now that I have this 163. I recommend the K168 unequivocally. If I could only own one board, that's it. (however I'm going to see if Winterstick can meet or beat it) In the unlikely event it's not for you, you will be able to sell it here easily. i-carve.com has the best prices on Kesslers.

I agree, and that's a valid reason to not have a softboot carving board. However unless it's a powder day, there are usually opportunities to carve even on days when I'd rather softboot. So it's nice to have a softboot board that can carve well. It's fun to mix it up and surf some turns on the side of the trail, or go in the woods, and then lay down some carves on the groomed stuff, all in one run. Not sure this X-Carve is that board though, it seems to have even less nose than my Winterstick.

Mr. Mark Fawcett https://www.instagram.com/p/CM5nax1ngVN/?igshid=1j0wl0noak5xn

30/15. Higher than that on the back foot and I may as well just hardboot. This is a setup for when I don't want to hardboot.

Power tools never.

Stock 164 at 26cm waist is till too narrow for my US size 10.5 boots. With a 27cm waist I still need risers.

Leaked! Looks like a @Shred Gruumer design!

Yeah, just a stripe of it down one side of the threads seems fine. I think the screws get loaded in unusual ways by the plate while riding. Even if the screws went in just fine, I stripped some while un-mounting the plate. I had never experienced such a thing - screw in, good, unscrew, strip! I had to have several inserts repaired with a tap. After becoming diligent about lube, it hasn't happened again.

I used what I had available.... chapstick. Just smear some on the threads and go. There's probably a better product. I'm not fussy.

Looks like two cant discs that you can rotate with respect to each other and to the binding to achieve fine adjustments in cant and lift. This is basically a derivative of a mashup of Catek and Bomber and Burton Unicant. I like it a lot. I had envisioned this for the TD4 many years ago. But Walker is working on something else to hopefully attract F2 converts.

The flip side is that if a society decides the freedom to choose to wear a helmet or not is worth more than the costs and risks of not wearing one, that's fine. For now the society of skiers and snowboarders has decided it is. Personally I stop short of saying helmets should be mandated. The problem with that becomes, where do you draw the line between acceptable and unacceptably risky behavior? Many people would put snowboarding altogether over that line.

It can harm their family/dependents. It can waste resources and time of emergency personnel who have to deal with a helmetless victim when they might not have had to otherwise, potentially pulling those resources away from other people in need. And unless you are independently wealthy and self-insure, ultimately we all pay for each other's healthcare, no matter what system of doing that you believe is best. Helmets are largely believed to reduce those costs, and I believe that too.