terekhov

after I sprained my ankle and my attention turned to it - I can surely say that definitive hardboot riding DO weaken ankle and foot muscles a lot: I have a very hard time adapting to softboots after some tens of days in hardboots. so my hypothesis is that hardbooters have weaker feet than softbooters.... I mean seasons of 100 days or so, not 10-20 days of course but I love hardboots, so my solution is 100% vibram five fingers in the summer to rehab after winter ;) -- my only summer shoes is fivefingers (excl. bicycling)

and seems like not so much rockers in freeride world tour?

sure you can. have ankle injury for almost 3 years no - stuffed nose when speeding through soft moguls, cartwheeled and stopped when board dead-stopped and body tries to fly out from boots - yes, I had great momentum. ankle seriously sprained - I feel it every other day of riding... (

my goto mogul board is beaten-up donek axis 182 (now replaced with coiler 177am glass classic). longer board is easier to adjust balance when speeding through moguls + longer edge gives more freedom to scrub speed off. and yes - you need eye-track your line further to gain control on speed of longer stick

stratos pro, original liners + booster strap. already in 2nd pair, happy

Anton, 12yrs - adapting to hardboots after some years in softies http://snow.sib.ru/tmp/anton1.jpg http://snow.sib.ru/tmp/anton3.jpg

nose removed from equation - cause of you already in mid-stance in control stage of carve on entry, and ride from 180degs further almost on the tail. if nose is in - you seriously loose much needed speed due to board decambering working to de-decamber. seems like that - you DEFINITELY cannot ride 360 with nose loaded in other than in first 90degs

vlad is a 360-doing rider in vimeo video the starting ramp in Baikalsk where frozzen rode 360 in youtube video above is a cool place to practice - entry & exit angles matter, but seems like frozzen's try is one which is filmed. many of carvers succeeds in 360 at this place) during russian BrownianMotion carve-gathering and yes, I'm yet to see complete 360 carve. seems like impossible to me - two weekends ago I have empty & perfectly groomed slopes and try some ten times to complete 360 on pogo blitz with HUGE entry speed. almost all ten was finished 360 - but none of them was carves in a pure sense.

head's soft heel pads destination is trash can ASAP. using them on head boots WILL break boot heel away - tested on some tens of boots.... don't know about using them on other brand boots though, but be warned

when my legs burn after 4hrs of ripping - 100g of vodka do the same thing for me)) and no, things become more relaxed and slower after that. 50g have no such effect, 100g is a second-breather. seems like we big city folks have too many problems inside to shed by self....

had a BLAST uber-carving-yesterday on pogo blitz from 1998 or so.... one of the scariest&funiest speed boards under my feet, out from many-many others. not even a sign of aging I can feel of. PS with fresh f2 race titaniums, though)

seems like "russian girls" weapon is world-wide-known?) too pity that our guys cannot made it, only Stanislav Detkov made thru to MOC waiting list -- he's sound, very beatiful old-school riding made him BestSnowboarder award for some 5 years (1999-2004) in russia, but it's not enough for current WC..... he was #12 though in Stoneham http://www.mustag.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=20599 - he's photo seq

good slogan came to mind: "bogner. die with dignity." white clothes on the slopes is for dumbasses for sure.

our' two locals. priceless. )

my ideal: not touching surface but being 1cm over it in a carve. placing any of body weight on any body parts touching surface - like in some full-laid styles - is a complete no-no and loss of dynamic and fun in riding

alpine board + hardboots is GOOD in chopped up powder. my girlfriend on coiler 180rc,

when you clip in - you have to push heel down reasonably strong (not too strong!) - but if you can clip-in your boot in with your one hand without reasonable force - your binding interface is too loose to use safely. it would be easy to engage by leg - but slightly difficult by hand. PS trying my best to describe the force in words))

65-60 when waist <20cm, 55-48 when wider. 28mondo boots. all needed leverage for moguls and icy steeps on 18cm waisted pogo overdose with 65-60 angles. so - not the angle problem, imho

yet another edge-change on rather steep soft quasi-groomer, pogo overdose & me PS yes, most of my edge-changes is when the board is perpenicular to slope fall-line, on grooms I mean

any play in engaged intec's is a complete NO-NO. there must be NONE of it, or broken heels is not a hardware problem - but simple consequence of installation error

http://www.pogo.biz/shop/product_info.php?products_id=160&osCsid=355c96b6a636cd8cdd0b5d1a431ac015 )

my eureka moment on understanding this phenomenon is while reading http://www.ronlemaster.com/presentations/RidingFromTheSnowUpVail02192002.pdf some years ago - before kessler yes. ski inside snow cup (page 9) was my bingo. the tip shovel make all the difference, and power platform (between bindings on board) do the hard work

most definitive surf-style snowboarding - not carving - for me is gerry lopez little segment in this year's warren miller children of winter video. so-so film in other ways though

if you want thread-stuck problems - just use Ti. if you want to be ti-freak - as I am in my bike-alterego - just learn to TI PREP carefully and regularly. and - never use Ti-Ti threading if you clearly know what you are doing so: don't do it, it's for troublemakers only)

some foot pain -- nothing to worry if you "ride from snow up" guy, and near unbearable otherwise (which can tell you: learn the basics, soft and hard-boots are the same if you drive with your feet and not with bootcalfs)