Jack M

OMFGLMFAO paging Mr. @b0ardski

You'll still have the problem of the heel of the liner lifting in the shell. Probably even moreso as the liner will be compressed. Sticking these things on the outside of the liner helps: http://www.tognar.com/ankle-wrap-pads-pair/

Small, medium, large, and a softboot setup. Anything less would be uncivilized!

You're definitely booting out with that setup, if you try to carve deeply. Unless you're using some kind of riser to reduce boot out.

I highly doubt sag is an issue with Donek or Gecko. They appear to support the toe and heel sufficiently.

Donek BX plates and Gecko Cross, Free, and Stealth plates sit under most if not all of the binding baseplate. They're made for softboots, I wouldn't hesitate to try them if you want lift. I haven't tried them yet because of budget and I doubt I'd like the lift, but I'm curious. A soft binding will flex at its ends and lift off the surface whether it is sitting on a firm surface or not. I shopped at my local Burton store which is run by my friend and asked him for their stiffest binding. He directed me to the Genesis X. It's pretty good but the heel end will still lift off the board. I'll be getting Now O-Drives next.

Metal construction - better edge hold, smoother, more comfortable, capable of higher speeds, generally more damp. Decambered nose/tail - a.k.a. early rise, a.k.a. tip rocker. A much better marriage of the curvatures of sidecut, nose kick, and camber. The nose slices instead of plows during a carve. Allows easier carve initiation and release, better terrain handling. VSR - variable sidecut radius (optional). By using different radii in different sections of the board (nose, mid, tail), or even more complex mathematical curves, the board can be more versatile and more responsive to fore/aft weight shifts. Those are the big ones. The improvements have been profound. You'll kick yourself you didn't upgrade sooner. Also the UPs were not race boards, they were freecarve boards. They were softer and turnier than their FP counterparts. Vague and mysterious marketing verbage in the catalog implied UPs were somehow higher performing than FPs, but that was just hype.

Thanks for sharing the photos, I wasn't aware of this new product. Like I said, could be beneficial for a freecarve board. Can you elaborate on what you feel the plates doing for you?

I haven't tried my hardboots on it yet, but I don't have a need to. Winterstick is just now experimenting with metal, so at the moment I would look to Donek if you want metal construction.

Of course without riding it one cannot know exactly how it rides, but one can plainly see that it is not going to fully decouple the rider from the board and allow the board to flex freely, the way that a true "isocline" plate does.

The TB172 has an 11m sidecut and 4mm taper, so not much flare, as all-mtn boards go.

I used to think this, but I measured my 168 and the curvature is longest in the middle. In fact the waist is a constant 202mm for a full 15cm. Haven't measured my 180 yet. Sure, you can have whatever taper you want with whatever sidecut shape you want, simply by rotating the sidecuts. Just pointing out that having a shorter radius in front and a longer radius in back will result in taper if the sidecuts are not rotated, which seems typical.

Actually the ST series (Severe Terrain, ooooh!) is a downsized version of the Tom Burt pro model (172). I also have a Wescott 164 which will be up for sale soon as it is the stock 26cm width. I'm currently working with them on a custom SB carver. It will basically be a Kessler Cross knock off, but 27.5 wide and 166 long. With the factory at my home mountain, how can I not?

Right, but that's not their recommended setup for alpine.

Agreed. Like you say, I believe they can compensate for a board that is softer under foot and thus prevent or reduce the tendency for the board to fold right at the edge of the binding. I don't think that happens on a properly built race board, but it could be beneficial for a freecarve board. It would be one thing if the pads on the Vists or Geckos were soft.

27/12 on a custom wide Winterstick ST166, 27.5 waist. US Size 10.5 Burton Driver X. 10.5m sidecut will do layouts. I tried higher angles but felt they robbed power and freeriding ability. No friends on a groomer day!

11.79 was the FP 164, not the UP. UPs were generally shorter in sidecut, so probably 10-something

Pat! You are an inspiration! Nice work.

Hmm, I didn't see that at first... perhaps that bolt up higher sets the maximum forward lean, and the BTS provides the flex in between min and max. I would hope he's not simply locking out his ankle hinge altogether. Why bother with BTS in that case? I'm digging my UPZs with the stiffest tongues. Looks like JJA agrees! No need for BTS or extra bolts.

Right, the NASTAR site doesn't detail that. Last night was scheduled for SL but they ended up making it a GS because of the snow storm. We've had one other SL so far. 9 week season. Our team should win the season, we have 3 good alpine snowboarders, a good telemarker, the <1 handicap guy, and a good female.

Yes. I think it makes it easier to stivot and slarve and release from a carve. It's also a by-product of having a longer radius in the tail.

I like Nevin's solution. He locks in the minimum forward lean, but still has forward travel available in his BTS. If both forward and backward travel are locked out, then the ankle hinge can't hinge and the only flex comes from deforming the shell. Not good. This is the case with the stock Deeluxe forward lean selector thingamabob. I'm utterly confounded why they do this. Those high-end boots should come with the RAB, standard.

I think this is a big part of why JJA has been so successful.

Yeah that's been changed to -20 for GS and -25 for SL. The site is not consistent, here is another page that has these values.

Yeah the website is not exactly straightforward. My handicap of 20.98 on that course does not reflect the -20 point discount that snowboarders get for calculating medals and team scores. So my final handicap would be 0.98 for the platinum. Last night it was dumping snow (highly unusual), so the course turned into a luge track. I got spun around in the powder on my other run, hence the silver. He must be younger. Handicap is the percentage that you are slower than the national pacesetter (Ted Ligety). So the "par" times last night were 25.76 on yellow and 27.22 on blue. These are calculated from the local pacesetter's time and his handicap. The par time is the theoretical time that Ted Ligety would get on the local course. We have a skier in our league who raced in college and is getting handicaps less than 1.