terekhov

why not add another pyro layer - like road flare - to colorize snow till burial point? and maybe to fire a signal rocket for attention seeking or two? maybe total solution could cost lotta more than petty 400 bucks for innovation-seeking consumer!

can someone compare head stratos vs point boots regarding ankle joint placement (photo would be nice). i ride in strati for loong time, and ankle is at the place. in .point it seems like hugely upward of correct position... or that's just visual illusion?

not an irony- but simple question on distinguishing retro plastic from new make on WC podium. if you want to pinpoint and say "see, 951!" - you have hard time to do just that and i hope too that simple clone of vintage boots will be used as a base for furter evolutionary improvs. hardbooting definitely in need of more different boots with different shapes: i never trust to tales of any one true best boot, but variety is the king.

once i had that experience in a baddest way: in really deep powder and high speed front foot go off undertaker198! now you get what is setback on that!! glorious nidecker 860 carbon bindings, in pretty good shape - flank disintegrated from disk and binding left on boot but disk is on undertaker... had to jump to the sky to save my life, pretty successfully. and then i had other problem- how to evac me from deeeps w/o board.... shit gonna happen if you ride a lot, and i'm conservatively averse to any safety precautions on the premise that something is safer than other releasable snowboard bindings is examplary bad idea.

+1. many stepin systems had troubles releasing when pressed upward, eg when hanging upsidedown in tree well. avalanche balls + simple bails system is THE best solution for that.

great stiff bindings, rather bombproof but heavy. recommended! you even don't need snowboard boots to ride in them, even in difficult conditions..

you can tie golf balls to front bail levers (short rope), as usually done for avalanche fast-release, and it will be easiest solution to tree well self-rescue... at least it will be a LOT simpler than for skiers or softbooters

probably, but her man is sure in new version, and russians have a proverb saying "husband and wife is one of kind (satan)" :) as i know - she had difficult relations with .950 too, but time flies... i think that from marketing POV boots have to be visually obviously different from old version - like raichle/deeluxe/head/upz had shown us all :) but maybe that plastic-fantastic can only be handcrafted in yellow leader color only? :)

Eric, ski industry for loooong time while trying to perfect releasable binders - cannot solve problem generally for high performance skiing: unexpected releases is a regular cruel thing. so any idea of releasable snowboard bindings for PERFORMANCE riding is suredly destined for FAILURE in my eyes. but of course it would be nice in avalanche situations - where skiers have at least some hope (of ski release), while boarders (esp. softbooters) are not (while board is very good anchor)

last 2 women's WC won in .951 (by our' siberian beauty BTW:). maybe it's time to discount UPZ? ;)

you surely can read proflex manuals to find out which driver to use, but why bother to read if we are only in it for the ride? :) ph3 driver WILL strip (after some time) bolts made for pz3. I have a bunch of bolts which was used with ph3, and a smaller bunch which was used with pz3 only. difference is clear. if you didn't used to see problem as problem - that's never be a problem, for sure ;) but if you use PZ3 driver for PZ3 screws in next 25yrs - you will clearly see with nakid eyes the outlook of that problem. stripped bolt in original post of that topic IS a problem as it is

yes, you're wrong. screws on proflex/f2 bindings is PZ3 and never was any PH*. and functionally for snow usage pozi is a lot better than philips or hex! if you use quality pz3 bit - you will (almost:) never see stripped bolts, even if you ever need to torque them a lot.

if it not custom - no, usual shape w/25cm waist. 23cm waisted boards from pogo - on alpine core! - is overdose/impact bx - with roundtail reading pogo.biz site there's wingerguns currently that are double concaved! L80 double concave was out years ago. maybe can be ordered as custom... need to ask pogo gurus

there's (almost) no need for alpine core in softboot freeride boards, even reefer in 19cm waist don't have one! on L80 - don't really know until I ride it (which is possibly never:). nice catek collection BTW!! I have wc+olympic+os2 somewhere in house too :) didn't ride them for years though - prefer softness of f2 with old thin bails. taper? any time I trade taper for shallow sidecut in powder boards! furberg (with it cheapish build quality, I mean original full rocker version) with 17m sidecut glides waaaay better than any ~9m "powder" board. and you must know just that, owning that euphoria split..

yet again lovely shaman! my friend own one with ptex topshit - like my secret spot base - so it have almost equal top and bottom :) thing of beauty too, and no snow sticking to it. i generally dislike wood veneer topshits - coz they surely develop cracks due to imminent hard knocks (can be seen on top of my secret spot in photos) secret spot on harder snow (harder windpack e.g.) is no fun at all, and I prefer to sideslip or straightline it, depending on situation : surely widish boards is not suitable for hardboot usage -- I hate riding boards with boots inside them, and hardboots is not fun to ride at low angles one local guy owns pogo L80 longboard, but I never seen it yet... seems like shape which bring prior spearhead and lotta similar shapes in existance. like swallow-nose added to classic cambered freeride board. and they had - once upon a time - double-concave version of it!!!! imagine? there's two concaves starting shallow at between bindings, and increases in depth till the end - like rocket exhausters for snow! interesting ride for sure, probably add stability like fins on surfboards (or swallow tail)

maybe, maybe not... surely I've got the idea behind pogo swallowtails, they're good boards in their own way, but not completely my cup of tea. it is not about board, they ride understandably and honorably, but for MY freeride - how I prefer to control powder under me - I prefer u198 (incl. in tight woods). or - libtech banana hammock in softies, if I want something verrry different :)

if and only if you didn't ride in bush-powder ;) round or better pointed nose is yes-yes when riding in tight forest with not completely buried bushes. and I "know" what I'm talking about..

only saw madds ptex on photos, never saw one... yes, older pogo bases are artsy (they ordered them at original ptex manufacture which is in germany too):

my friend owns shaman which I've rode couple of times. it is longer and slimmer version of secret spot, not at all comparable with u198. and - btw - u198 from 90ies in no way comparable with later undertakers which produced only in 185 length (ther have wood core vs. thc+ core in u198). re nils & copper nose: i don't think it look cheapish, but surely it can be removed - all pogo noses done in simple plastic (in photo you can see deep cut blitz nose - by blindsided skier's ski:), so - theoretically - there's nothing to protect in them, nose trauma do no structurally damage board, only cosmetically. re h2o: sorry for opposing your opinion, all that youtube videos of some japanese carving on pogo swallowtails... i'm 95kg and pretty aggressive, and I do not trust them at all. surely I can carve (with different success:) any board incl childish shortboards, but pogo swallowtails - both secret spot and shaman - do not carve that well and do not obey to aggressive handling. they're surfboards, or gliders, not carvers or rippers. maybe I need them ordered in stiffer version, do not know. I have no problem floating on secret spot in deepest continental powder or charge virgin mixed-condition couloir, but when the snow was chopped and broken - fun ends. you can dance in ongoing proto-moguls much longer on u198 btw. all in all - swellpanik's is lotta much universal FREERIDE boards than pogo swallowtails one single pogo which i dream for is custom freeride longboard for hardboots: like donek axxess 182 or coiler 177am -- ~180cm long ~21cm wide ~14m cut with rockered freeride nose and built STIFF - based not on swallowtail core but on alpine pogo core. universal charger with which you can visit any unknown alpine terrain and have fun. one of some 10 rides on secret spot in hardboots. trying to glide and not overpower it.... in usual mega-fun chopped soft conditions:

yes, artsy shot of me, done by my photographer friend :) secret spot is ultimately different to undertaker. if U198 can be described as powerful powder-centered (hardboot loving) alpine board, secret spot is a complete opposite in ALL ways not counting powder-centeredness: it is very soft surfy-feely glider, which can be easily overwhelmed with powerful softboot controls (I try once to use plates on it, never again since then). both is almost perfect in his own different ways, though pogo quiver: I rode many other alpine pogos also. love the ride of late 90ies pogos, way better than current. rightmost is my first pogo (not since birth - all of them baught 2nd hand off ebay, not counting secret spot), almost flat with no edges but STILL RIPS (if driven cautiously with respect to it's almost 20yrs of rip:). NB maincoon not included :) backside need some love too btw (with frontside of sleepy maincoon:)

they look rather tall - have someone with really big calf muscles experienced them for that? due to that I have no comfort even in raichle sb shells, doing fine in head stratos without side wings (and with side wings there's too much lateral stiffness which I dislike too..)

and do not forget the mother of all wide & short boards - monoski from 70ies

pogo is a custom shop. so they can build any desired shape for an extra $ PS own some pogos too: overdose 158, overdose flex 162, impact sonderserie, blitz, reefer (latest, symmetric), and secret spot.. but not in america :)

it's surely need to be molded (baked in owen) and did not engineered to run stock. footbed is surely helps, but with carefull baking you can do just fine without it.

i have no dogs in this fight too, so monoski can be not a best tool for surfing, but whatever... ;) Jenny Curran: Do you ever dream, Forrest, about who you're gonna be? Forrest Gump: Who I'm gonna be? Jenny Curran: Yeah. Forrest Gump: Aren't-aren't I going to be me? so I want to be just me. every softboot movie is not my surfing. and hopefully I can critically feel my neck's circumstances. on that point BTW many years ago I decided to go without helmet.. I wrote those words here only to state different perspective in ongoing theme, not to oppose it. everyone destined to his own surfing, and it can be very different. aren't all hardboot idea not stating that we all here on BOL IS different per se? ;)