Jack M

@ursle, it’s beyond decambered, it’s almost like a kick tail. I’ve seen TVR’s board. Seems like a defect to me. The Kessler in the other thread also looks defective.

This asshole tried to pull this shit on AST and was quickly put in his place. New rule coming in our classifieds, no misrepresenting your items.

Right, my liners are stock, with the snazzy matching pull loops. They are heat moldable. I’m loving them. I agree with @yamifumi, best boots yet. Burton MGX, Lange X09, Nordica Grand Prix, Burton Fire (x2), Deeluxe T700 (x2), UPZ RC10, MS .951.

Welcome @JDS. He’s talking about modern used gear that would be worth buying. Coming from your setup, you’ll be blown away by a good recent used rig. You don’t need new. Definitely go to MCC if you can. Also, check out the articles on our home page, alpinesnowboarder.com. Good luck!

With my red custom orthotic

Had no idea such a thing existed in 1993, and from Burton no less. Burton gets a lot of irrational hate for being successful and also for leaving alpine, but they did more than anyone to support and promote alpine for a long time. What's it made of? Does one end slide? That was the year of the sawblade graphics on the PJ, and no symmetrical production race boards. In 1994 they introduced the symmetrical "Stat" series with a 5 (153cm) and a 6 (167cm). The guy who ran the Burton shop at the mountain had a prototype Stat 7, and said they didn't mass produce it because they thought it was too fast. This looks even longer, like 180 or so? Thanks for sharing Chris!

Agreed.

At coaches' orientation at Carrabassett Valley Academy, this was the first topic discussed, and it was repeated several times. Unfortunately there is some ambiguity, like when someone blindly enters a trail from the side. Also the downhill person cannot simply do whatever the heck they want. If they start downhill without looking uphill or if they stop where they cannot be seen they are putting themselves at greater risk.

Those are pictures of brand new gear.

This is correct. Also the daylight under the heel is intentional, to allow snow to escape.

I'm at the loaf just about every weekend, vacation, and then some. Free time is limited after coaching and riding with Mrs. M, but who knows, say hi.

Thanks for your support @tiptoptune2!

Yes, I was. I still want to write that, and soon. However I kind of took the wind out of my own sails by discussing the review so much here in the forum as it was happening. Then the abysmal lack of communication from Apex really discouraged me. Seems like they are going out of business. The guy simply does not answer emails until you plunk your credit card down and actually order something off their website. Just bewildering. As for where to buy Geckos, well... https://www.apexsnowboard.com/apex-kessler-gecko-plates.html

Agreed as well. The spring plate seems like an admission of the fact that the one piece plate does weird things to the board. The fact that they are successful in racing I think is a happy coincidence. I'm not sure Allflex themselves knows why they are - the description on their website of how the plate works bears no resemblance to how it actually works. Maybe that is on purpose to protect trade secrets? But again, I haven't spent enough time on one. It would be one thing if boards were made as you said, to work with the plate, with the stiffest parts near the ends of the plate instead of in the middle. Maybe world cup racers get custom boards made this way? I got a new stock Kessler 185 with Allflex inserts this year. Seems like a traditional board. I haven't ridden it with an Allflex plate yet, but it works great by itself and with my Apex plate. Last year a picture was leaked of a carbon fiber Iron Rock plate. That would make more sense to me, but again only if the board was built differently to work with it.

But not truly. The plate cannot affect the flex of the board beyond the length of the plate. This is the problem I have with it. The flex pattern of the board+plate combo becomes a three-part disjointed thing. There was a picture on social media from someone who installed Snow-Stix at the ends of their Allflex in order to address this issue. They're on to something. I think the ultimate solution has yet to be discovered.

I have about 25 days in my .951 World Cups so far this season. Once I got them dialed-in, I realized they're the best boots for me that I've ever had. tl-dr: I can leave them buckled all day - a first for me. Performance and heel hold with the stock liner (molded) is at least as good as my UPZs with stiffer tongues and Intuition Power Wraps if not better. The big difference is the fit is more comfortable for me. Set-up: IIRC, Northwave was the first to try the heel-under-heel thing, and UPZ followed suit, for better or worse. The ramp angle seems slightly les s than UPZ though, so I've narrowed my stance width by one set of Bomber binding holes on the back foot. I've kept my 6 degree toe lift on the front foot and 3 degree heel lift on the back foot, and it feels right. I used to run 3/3 with Deeluxe. I also used to use a little outward cant on my rear binding with Deeluxe and UPZ - 45 degree disc angle, ~56 degree binding angle. This seemed to produce shin bang on the front quarter of my rear leg with the 951. Eliminating the outward cant reduced the shin bang immediately. So it is probably a difference in cuff alignment. I admit I don't care to determine if I could return to outward cant by changing the cuff canting. I don't feel a need. I finally eliminated the shin bang completely by increasing forward lean and reducing spring preload on the rear boot. Reducing forward lean and increasing spring preload on the front boot helped me with toeside leverage and response. I'm using the stock spring configuration, red on top (toeside), yellow on bottom (heelside). I think red is medium and yellow is stiff. The boots also came with yellow top springs in a bag, haven't tried them. I use supportive custom orthotics made by @Beckmann AG. Highly recommended. I consider custom footbeds mandatory equipment. Fit: I am lucky in that the "C" shell is for sizes 27.0 to 28.0 and my size is 28.0. The stock liner seemed thin and rather lightweight in my hand so I was not optimistic that I'd be using them longterm. I tried my Power Wraps and they crushed my foot - too much material. (Guess I should have used a thinner liner in my UPZs, as I was constantly unbuckling them every lift ride, and I had them punched for width.) So I molded the stockers and hoped for the best. Before molding, trying the boots on at home, there was some liner discomfort on one of my insteps. This went away after molding. At first, dealing with a tongue again after so many years in wrap liners was annoying but I'm over that. Something about my technique was causing the rear tongue to twist out of position towards the tail of the board and shin-bang would ensue. I solved this by running the stock booster strap between the liner tongue and the shell tongue. Presto, tongue stays in place, no shin bang. The thinner liner is a little colder, but I have room for toe warmers, and the fit provides good circulation. I can leave the boots buckled all day. This is a first for me. I used to have to crank the ankle buckle on Deeluxes to deal with their common heel lift, and I would unbuckle that buckle each chairlift ride. UPZ - I was unbuckling all 3 lower buckles and sometimes all 5 each chairlift ride (see note above about the liners though). In the 951s I can buckle comfortably and get great performance and not have to touch them all day, even through lunch. I think this is due in part to the fact that the stiffer WC shell is "right there" when you lean on it, so tight buckling is not required to make the shell respond. If I'm feeling aggressive I'll do the ankle buckle one more notch, and then I'll unbuckle that one for the lift. For racing I'll tighten all the buckles one more notch. I checked the molded liners for the impressions of my ankle bones and the ankle hinges. They are right on top of each other! I agree with Erik that the shell seems more foot shaped than the rest, the boot gives a tighter squeeze in the instep area while putting it on. Performance: Heel lift is zero, like UPZ. I had taken measures to reduce heel lift in my Deeluxes to a tolerable amount, but I didn't realize how much I still had until I switched to UPZ. 951s are similarly locked down. The value of this can't be overstated. Forward flex is even and smooth and seems unimpeded by boot plastic and completely controlled by the spring system. The tongue is soft but this doesn't seem to matter. Lateral flex is a bit stiffer than my UPZ RC10, and I like this. Out of the box the UPZs were too soft laterally, but that was improved by Intuition liners and the stiffer tongue. Goodbye Step-Ins: I thought this might be a deal-breaker but it just isn't. I was already stopping and bending over to buckle my boots. And then checking to see if I was fully clicked in and doing the hop-stomp to make sure. Master the heelside edge chop and you can clip in without sitting down. This past weekend I was actually often clipped in and waiting for @GeoffV to deal with his step-ins, LOL. Bonus: I'm enjoying the rubber soles. While walking they are quiet, more grippy, and less jarring. Value: The price tag induces a gulp, but for me the boots are perfect in stock trim. I will buy another pair when these wear out. Certain outlets are willing to discount them. Certain other outlets actually charge more than the MSRP of 990 Euros for the WC, 890 Euros for the standards. Deeluxe require an aftermarket spring system - without it the stock forward lean selector actually prevents the ankle hinge from doing anything, and then any flex must come from shell deformation. They also might need extra padding to reduce heel lift. UPZs commonly need aftermarket liners and possibly stiffer tongues, and possibly an aftermarket spring system, although I didn't feel a need for that. So comparing the price of each stock boot is not apples-to-apples. Conclusion: The best performing most comfortable boot I've ever had. If you are perfectly happy with your UPZs there's not an urgent need to upgrade. If you ride Deeluxe, I'd strongly recommend you consider it. My congratulations to @Puhutes and team for apparently successfully recreating the famous Point .950. I never got to ride that boot, but I can’t imagine it was any better. The World Cup roster seems to agree.

Not really. There is the Full Race 170, but the average radius is 15.7m, which is significantly longer than the K's 8-12m range. Full Carve has the same specs, but no metal if I understand correctly. Donek Metal FC 171 is close, the retail price is less but not exactly poor man's territory. Coilers are generally more affordable but prepare to wait. Prior FLC 169 would be a good choice too.

Rush.

@VTHops 171 for Max!

Noses are overrated!

Ahhhh, thank you. I missed the "Equipe". Indeed, the "World Cup" Speedsters are metal. There is a 153 World Cup there, but that is a GS size for her. The 139 Equipe is still a good choice and you could pick it up today.

There are some technical and instructional articles at our homepage, http://alpinesnowboarder.com. There is a new leftover 2018 F2 Speedster SL 139 at yyzcanuck, here: https://www.yyzcanuck.com/shop/snowboards/f2-speedster-equipe-sl-2017-18/ It sounds like that would be a good fit for her and it's a great price and available right now. It is easier to learn on a SL board and also you can fake it in a GS course with an SL board. If she likes it and gets good then you can worry about a real GS board. Donek and Coiler are awesome but you'd probably be looking at a full custom. The most important thing though, is if she can already carve the downhill edge of her softboot board. That is, can she change edges before the board points down hill, and carve the edge all the way around without skidding or steering? Can she link these turns together? If not she needs to be doing that before trying hardboots. If she can do this, the transition to hardboots will be much easier. I recommend UPZ boots - www.upzboots.com, and F2 race titanium bindings also available at yyzcanuck. Get an extra lift kit and put one under her front foot toe and one under her back foot heel. Do not install the cant shims that slope sideways. You may be able to find boots and bindings in our classifieds here. Good luck!

Teleboards were an actual thing like 25 years ago. Imagine a Skwal mounted with telemark bindings, ridden with telemark boots, and poles. They went the way of ballet skiing and snowblades. However they ran an effective free demo program and gained a lot of exposure pretty quickly. At least they did here in the Northeast. I still get asked if I'm on a Teleboard now and then. Drives me up the wall.

Well, it is based on technology that won the 2010 Olympics. Racers have since moved on to the Allflex. The X works great for freecarving. I tried a GS Allflex on my 168 and really didn't like the feel. Probably the wrong combination, but it was all I had available. The X and Allflex work completely differently. The X allows the board to bend freely apart from the rider, unlimited. The Allflex only allows 6mm of "float" before the plate locks up and then flexes with the board. So it is a big flex modifier and makes boards run longer. Mechanically, I don't understand it, but what do I know? Apparently you cannot be competitive in a race course without one. Also I'm told WC racers are cracking or breaking multiple plates each season.

I wish Donek would release the MK 170 already. Let’s go @CMC!