mackDan

not my ad http://www.ebay.com/itm/Never-Summer-168-SL-Swallowtail-/130607706022?pt=Snowboarding&hash=item1e68d36fa6

This is a great all mountain board. Great for beginners to advanced riders. The Hot Special is a slightly stiffer version of this.

Spend your money on good bindings, they can be moved from board to board. either Bombers (heavy but stiffer) or Cateks (lighter but a little less stiff, and more adjustable for less knee/hip issues). old boards, The blue Oxygen Protons are great GS boards and very stable, not sure if there are any of those floating around, the Green & black GS ones are just a little softer, The green and black SL ones are a bit softer still, but might be OK for a beginner racer. The Hot Shine and Special are too soft for GS, really more of slalom boards. I have a big Hot blast (170) and its stiff as hell and very stable in turns, but not very quick edge to edge (likes to stay in a turn), BUT I'm not sure how a 160 length Blast would be. I just checked ebay, there is a Oxy P

P.S. Go check out the WTB: Small All Mountain/BX ad here in the WTB section. one of the replies is a Burton Factory Prime 146 with plate bindings!!!

so what are you looking for in a board, lengthwise? Bindings, I'd say you should shop for some good used Burton plates. They are strong enough for a 85#er and won't break the bank. Boots, like was mentioned, see if you can have your kid try some on. See if anyone nearby has boots that you can test fit. or ask for more recommendations from other kid racers on shoe vs boot sizing.

Not my ad, just posting in case one of you collectors would like to see about getting this 1987 Burton Cruzer http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/spo/2635415139.html

just an update, I rode Heavenly today, 30" of EPIC powder at the top and plenty of snow all the way down. I SURE could have used that board today!!! Enjoy the ride.

The heel assemblies are essentially interchangeable. But you have to go inside and flip the parts around. They use the same parts (great design), but get flopped over so they work to the outside of your L and R heels. So you have two ways to go on this. Sell the second heel assembly and just have one. then if you break anything you'll have to wait for replacement parts to get shipped to you. b. keep the second one and set it up for your rear foot also. then you have two heel assemblies for your rear foot and if you ever break anything you can put the replacement in while you get parts for the busted one.

I completely disagree. I don't teach, but my very first snowboard lesson was taught by a guy in hard boots. And after one or two questions about his gear and our gear differences, he got us focused on trying to turn the board, and after that we forgot all about equipment. Snowboarding, in soft boots or in hard boots, is about riding with both your feet attached on one board (different from skis) and is about riding with a leading foot and a trailing foot (essentially sideways). While there are subtleties between soft boots and hard boot equipment, the basics are the same, and that's what you are teaching. And you can (IMO) teach most everything about snowboarding with either type of rig, including carving and fakie riding. But some of that is either more difficult or less effective with the "wrong" gear.

I regularly ride a early 90s Hot Shine, Hot Blast, a 1990s' vintage Oxy Proton, or a Nitro Scorpion.

Go to www.craiglook.com and search for "alpine snowboard" and/or "race snowboard" and look at the 10-15 boards for sale. I just did this today (friday Jan 15th) and one of the boards had the bindings you are looking for parts for. Buy everything and sell the board here on BOL and net out $0.

My new best search tool. WWW.craiglook.com. You can search craiglist in your local area 20-250 miles or nationally. Searching for "alpine snowboard" or "race snowboard" found about 10 good boards not listed here on BOL.

My new best search tool. WWW.craiglook.com. You can search craiglist in your local area 20-250 miles or nationally. Searching for "alpine snowboard" or "race snowboard" found about 10 good boards not listed here on BOL.

Stop putting your hands on the ground as feelers. Stand up straight

Get some CATEKS.

I built this for one of my soft boot riding buddies as an experiment. I modified a Burton Custom 165 that I picked up off ebay for $67 plus some shipping. 1" hole and I cut the curves with a Rotozip. Did a few measurements, but in the end i kind of eyeballed it. The curves were drawn with a scrap engine part that had kind of the right curve. Have to get some feedback from my bro, and then maybe I'll bolt my Cateks to it for some test rides if I manage to ride some powder days.

Bump see next message below Pictures via e-mail, too big to post.

What you want is a shorter board that you can turn quicker and keep your speed down. So start shopping for a 162. I'm the same height and weight (168 -5'8") and I really like my Hot Special 162 and my older Hot shine 162. They are nice quick turning slalom boards and you can ride them all over. I also have a Nitro Scorpion 160 (157?) that i've been playing with, but the Hots turn better. The Scorpion is stiffer and will turn fast. But get any SL board in that shorter range and learn how to turn fast and stable then you can go back to the 167 and get the long carve down.

Look for some of the old Rossignol throttles. You see those for sale still. P.s. your not the only one experimenting with boards. I just got a $67 Burton 168 custom that is going to see the drill and saw very shortly.

Jackson hole is a great place to go, if you can ride trees, bumps, narrow chutes, big powder (if it snows). But for a carving trip, nope, probably wouldn't recommend it. Plus you are pretty much confined to JH or maybe Snow King unless you have wheels or get a bus over to Grand Targhee. There are several places in Colorado where you can ski two or three resorts by getting on a bus for a short ride. The Breckenridge area and Vail area ahve a couple good resorts not to far away, and both of them have great big trails awesome for carving, and some off trail stuff to explore. Salt Lake City, get a rental SUV and you have 8 (i counting from my bad memory) resorts withing 1.5 hours of downtown SLC. Get a cheap hotel room, and there are a couple great brew pubs and restaurants in the downtown area. A good time with some great snow available. Tahoe North Shore has the more better resorts, MT Rose, Northstar, Alpine Meadows!!! Squaw Valley, Homewood, and Sugar Bowl. all within about 45 minutes driving time of each other. But the social life on the north shore is pretty tame and the hotels/motels are older and limited. I learned how to carve and ride off trail at those resorts, so I'm kind of jaded in that respect. Tahoe south shore is Heavenly, a great big mountain, that has some pretty interesting terrain if you know where to look, but that's the problem, a visitor won't know where to look. the drive to Kirkwood is about 45 minutes and worth it, but you need the vehicle (or maybe there are buses). Sierra is not a real carve friendly resort and I don't even like it very much in general, always thought they laid out the lifts and runs all wrong (cross slope). So guess where i have my pass now??

Stop putting your hands on the snow. It will probably improve your riding, since you won't be reaching for the snow. and you'll save on gloves.

I don't remember a ski hill in Indiana (from Wisconsin originally), but I'll believe you. So big guy, my advice (I'm only 5'8" and 168): If you can find a set of step ins, give them a try, but you won't really need them to start off. You'll only have that back foot loose and with a little practice, you can be clipped into the binding in 15 secs. Can you touch your fingers? (your hands?) to the floor? Then if you are really good and there is a somewhat flat spot at the top of the run you won't have to sit. If you get step ins, you will have to figure out how to get into the biding standing up anyway, just like you are probably doing with your old Osin set up, standing up. The best set up is a toe clip binding on the front and a step in at the rear, but that usually requires you buy two sets and swap the pieces around. I ride on Cateks and love the adjust-ability. But they flex a bit more and loosen up and you have to check them periodically. If I was a big guy I don't know if I would use them, probably stick with Bombers. Boots, listen to the other big guys. Board, you could just put the bindings on the Tanker to start with and then see how you like it. If you want to buy a board, get something in the 167-172 range, and probably get a stiff race board, F2, or something else. yeah a slalom board is probably the right board for a small hill in Indiana. learn how to get it in a stable long turn and then also learn how to drive it hard into small turns.

Leave your carve boards at home, or take one, of moderate length. Jackson is 95% ungroomed, and that's why you go there. And don't take a big'ol long board either, it does get some great snow, and there are some wide open glades, but there is a lot of tighter stuff, trees, narrow chutes, etc, that you'll want to be riding. Take an all mountain board of moderate length for your height/weight/ability. You'll be happier on the plane ride home.

Dear Swallow tail board owners, Can a couple of you measure the overall length of the board, and then the lenght of the tail "V"? the width of the tail "V" would also be helpful. Thanks In Advance

I'll get some pictures up in a couple days, but in the mean time. I'm thinning the quiver. UP for sale a lightly used Oxygen Limted Edition 2002, 170 cm board. Only has about 5-10 days on it. NO damage. Right now it has a thick coat of protective wax on the bottom and edges. $150 plus shipping.