SnowboardingJ

Looking very good for a 72!!!

For me, most terrain = ice. Do u want evenly groomed morning ice? Or afternoon scraped off ice? There no bump or tracked powder if there is no powder to begin with, except spring condition.

2011-2013 80-90% softboot, 2014-2015 40% softboot. I took a break this season, for the few days I rode, 100% hardbbot. For now, pow day on soft with duck stance angle, and a day or 2 after. Also spring condition and preseason. +-15-18f/r Hardboot on everything else. ~65-60f/r angle In the east coast, that's 70-80%. If it's hard that I can't dig an edge in hardboot, no way I will be able to do with soft. It's a blast to ride hardbot in hard condition. I now much prefer hard condition than say <6in of pow. If it's an inch or 2, I probably just ride hardboot. Narrow trail width.... I may choose soft so I dont have to go as fast before the board start bending.

Only if you can figure out what they are doing in the fog. more SL

I didn't know you are a philosopher Dave..... I'm surprise no body mention the narrow trails and icy condition which is hard to learn to carve. I learned skiing/snowboarding/carving at a small hill call Swain in upstate NY in weekdays. If memory serves, the trails were wide, smooth and empty most of the time. Where instructors would teach us spinning 360 in hardboot because he so happened to be in hardboot on a icy day, but we wanted to learn to go off jumps . Simply riding the side cut in static form on softboot without drifting or skidding would have you almost go out of trail depends on condition here in Mountain Creek, even on the bunny hill (sugar). Instead of having people to learn to turn or carve, we have even been called inconsiderate because of we were using the whole width of the trail on steeper narrow runs..... not to mention being hit a thousand time propagating across the hill. From what I have observed, resorts have more people carving when trails were wide, be it soft boot, hard boot, ski boot edit:: oh! and Ben Ferguson got mad style....

I have a pair from excarving. http://forums.bomberonline.com/index.php?/topic/40186-kevlar-snowboard-gloves-for-ec-carving/ couldn't be on snow much this season, only 5 days, but it's been holding up in different conditions.

I wouldn't solely rely on heelcup thicknees to determine the overall footprint. I had a pair of Ride Rodeo from 3 years ago and a returned Ride Fame from 2 years ago. They had high back padding extend way too low which add quite a bit to the overall footprint and were actually worse than our Burton s. I was just at our local shop yesterday as I am too looking for the perfect binding. What I found was that......... !!!! Most high end bindings have thick high back padding extend way too low and add quite a bit to the overall footprint. !!! Almost all Ride bindings and most Burton bindings. Rome and K2 bindings with huge heel cups. Flux with the similar design as the above. I like the NOW bindings design which the forward lean adjustment affect the top half of the highback and does not create a gap between heel cup and highback when applied, which was nice. (same with some burton bindings) The padding is also at the top of the high back. Heel cup shape and footprint is minimal. But with one big draw back.... please correct me if I am wrong, the highback does not seem to be rotatable. The Burton Scribe seems good. Union bindings have minimum high back padding. However, one cannot fine tune the position of the highback which leaves a small gap between the high back and the heel cup (added footprint). Other than that, I have no complain. I also had a pair of Salmon Mirage with shadow tech from 2 years ago which was almost perfect. High and slim heel cup, fine tune high back position but limited forward lean and rotation selection. I had them duck stance with about 1/8 inch or less heel overhang and the forward lean was just enough for softer condition even at max. This would not be adequate at hard pack icy condition, nor underhang setup in duck stance. The bindings also broke with about 10 days of use. (the baseplate hinge snapped) For minimum footprint, IMO, Flow or GNU bindings are the way to go. I had a pair of GNU fastech binding last year that I like the best. I also had 2 pair or NXT bindings from like 7-8 years ago that did not work very well. However, neither of the 2 provide the underfoot flex that I prefer on the Rome and the Union that we had. So now, Still looking for a pair of bindings that would provide minimum footprint and with nice underfoot flex.

Or you may have heel drag at the back foot with the swallow angle. But it usually happen at the apex.

Looking good guys, nice edit and music.

I bought a pair of GNU binding last year. Best binding for soft boot carving in duck stance so far IMO. Pro: With a little modification, u can get massive forward lean.( a lot more than my old flow NXT) Toe cap makes forward lean true and easy to apply. No heel cup (greatly reduce footprint.) Feels like traditional binding. (unlike my old flow). I cranked the strap way down. Con: Huge amount of pressure between high back and tow cap makes the boot liner pack out real quick, bruise toes as result. I still haven't figure out a fix other than keep buying boot liner.....

"The Steepwater reviews mostly all say it's a straight line bomber" May be for people don't tip their edge over 35degree? Just a thought. Arbor steepwater 162cm with 10.3m sidecut.

Yes, do share. Unlike freestyle video, it s so hard to find new hardboot content. The video looks cool and was a very good edit.

I might be riding Blue this Saturday, anyone else around? J

Looking forward to see some vid

Lucky you JT. I got clipped the first heel side turn at the bottom of Kamikaze last Sunday by a skier and was told he was cut off twice that day. I told him politely that the downhill person has the right of way. He was a nice guy, didn't argue with me. He even asked if I was OK at first and during the conversation. I wish there are more riders like us on the hill so that people are more aware there could be riders who make transverse across the slope at speed. Or some signs or warnings about downhill riders. It is just difficult at a crowed resort. I almost landed on a rider years ago at the park at MC. I landed deep in the landing coming off of a rail. The boarder was cruising at the side and not looking to hit anything. It just happened that for some unknown reason, he decided to make transverse across the landing. I wasn't aware of that until I looked at the video. If I landed a second ago, we would have a collision no doubt. I always wait for my turn when I go to the park. But at MC, it seems like a chaos. Sometime you see 3-4 guys hit a jump almost simultaneously. Well, it's been years last I hit the park. Things might have changed. Hope to see you at MC tomorrow.

Gonna be riding 7 spring Feb. 17th to the 19th. Anyone else around?

Sorry, had to work today. May be weekend or next week.

Hey JT, I hope you had fun playing with the kids as home yesterday . We had a blast before the crowd set in around 11:30. Tons of snow on the trails in the morning. I ran into Ken, Louis, Jonna and their daughter was riding hard boot the very first time. Hope to see you there tomorrow, looks like it will be raining in the afternoon though, but we will be out by then anyway. I'm thinking of going tonight if my new bindings get here in time.

Out of all the bindings I tried, the lowest profile binding goes to Flow, since it does not have a heel loop. However, the forward lean was just too tame for my liking.... and the straps sitting kinda low. I'm very interest in the GNU/SP fastec bindings. Probably looking to buy by the end of this season. The toe cap increasing the footprint should have been canceled by not having a heel loop, and toe underhang was never issue to me. And since it limits the toe to heel movement, it should be easier to apply massive forward lean. Anyone have any experience with that?

Hi Patrice, since you mentioned carve, beware of the Burton bindings which the toe piece only act as a cap. That increase the footprint somewhat. The new Lexa has a hole in the middle, that may change the footprint aspect depends where it sits.

just got my wife this binding last week http://store.christysports.com/catalog/clearance/snowboard/womens_snowboard_bindings_clearance/ride-fame-snowboard-binding-womens-2013 I also got a jamie lynn C3 the end of last season, haven't try it yet. http://mtnweekly.com/reviews/snowboards/snowboard-reviews/first-look-lib-tech-phoenix-series-jamie-lynn-snowboard-review

Hahaha, nice. Where is Dave? He should stay right in front or behind you and doing the same arc and the exact same movement just like how they do it in the pro carving video (but in bomber style and in softboot). Let me get some footage of you guys in my gopro next season. @icebiker: oh, you have a ride Yukon 172. I too have a ride Yukon in 159 that I have ridden both in soft and hard boot from 0,0 to... +12,-12 to... +30, +25 to.... +50, +40 BTW, JT rides over 60 degree in both his bindings in soft boot.

Hey JT, it was nice finally riding with you all. Let's get together and ride some more before season ends. It was snowing again yesterday. It makes me wonder, why am I not snowboarding??? J