Neil Gendzwill

The press down release on the Nideckers makes it hard to modify for those of us with mobility issues. I pretty easily added a pull cable to extend the release on my step-ons.

Riceball says Nakiska has been good.

James, is that the full bx shape on yours? What’s the EE? Your wife’s looks more all-terrain-y. I didn’t know Bruce was building them that wide. Mine is supposed to be showing up on Thursday.

I was only at Whistler because I had another thing that weekend in Vancouver. Don’t think I’ll ever go back. Ridiculously expensive and crowded. I’ve only been a few times but never had good conditions.

Wasn’t just the low levels. Last Sunday it was super hard and glazed due to melting and refreezing. Then it rained overnight and froze again to make it even worse the next day. A big bucket of no fun.

1997 was the last brown Christmas in Saskatoon. Was in Whistler last weekend, absolutely brutal conditions.

Boards don’t know how tall you are. Your weight, your strength, your skill are what matters. Manufacturers charts are by weight. Some have a lot of overlap between sizes others not so much.

What’s rider height got to do with it? The recommended weight range for the 165 is 150-220+ so most adult males are in that range. If you’ve got the skills to handle the 12 m sidecut why go shorter? Was just looking at the specs for the Jones Freecarver. That board has 138 cm of edge on a 164 which is the same as my upcoming 166 Coiler. So Jones wasn’t screwing around there. 9 m sidecut though.

I found this page which has Palmer’s current line. Not sure how old that one is. According to wiki Shaun closed the US factory in 2008 and was bought out by some Swiss guy. Based in Germany now.

One note of comparison for custom vs stock: my board will have 138 cm of effective edge on a 166. Compare that to the Ride Commissioner which has 125 cm of edge on a 165. Similarly the Amplid Pentaquark has 118 cm of edge on a 158. And this is Bruce's all-terrain shape. If I had gone for the BX shape I could have shortened it up 5 or 6 cm and kept the same edge.

Nope.

My order is in with Bruce. I’m a softie carving novice so in the end we’ll see if I ride the board or it rides me. The graphics are going to be super cool so at least I’ll have that.

Parquet is patterned wood flooring. Parkay is a brand of margarine.

I've shop flexed the 160 9000. It's quite a bit stiffer than a Flagship but still not super stiff. Like all Jones boards, it's purty.

We'll see what he recommends. The boots I'm using aren't overly stiff and I have no plans to switch to a super stiff softie set up for this. So I'm asking him to build me something that works OK with moderate angles and medium stiff boots.

FWIW Bruce is recommending 142 cm of effective edge for me at 210 lbs. That's what he rides, although he says it's a little long for his weight. He's quite a bit lighter but also a much better carver than I am. That will end up being a 163, 167 or 171 depending on which nose/tail profile I select. I might get him to build it a little softer, I'm about 20 lbs heavier right now than I like to be.

Last year, very limited, no longer made, no longer in stock anywhere I can find. It’s inexplicably still in their catalog but I talked to one of their support people about it. Too late. Ions already gone on Ebay, got 50% of MSRP for a pair of used boots so not too much lost there. The Photon Wides are a much better fit and not too much softer, at least just wearing them in the shop.

I can tell you that the Ion and Step On X combination works really well and I would not choose to switch if I could get the boots to fit. I had a regular pair of Ions before which fit fine but the step ons are narrower and the forefoot cleats prevent you from punching out the boot right where it needs it.

I’ll let you know in a few weeks. I was forced to switch from Ion to Photon to get a wide boot. Haven’t had them on snow yet.

Fawcett’s such a great guy. He coaches our paralympic team now. He has a shop in Nelson called Tribute and they do very nice review and information videos from time to time.

James rocks +27, +12. Which are the same angles I picked out of the air when I first got back into softboots. They work pretty well for me. I’m not interested in hard boot angles with soft boots which is where a lot of the Asian guys are. BTW I have given up on my Ions, just too narrow. Got a pair of Photon Wides which seem stiff enough for free riding at least by shop flex. We’ll see how it goes with the step on X bindings I have.

Saw one of those in a shop the other day, very light! Also pricey.

Ryan seems to be on a break these days, he hasn't put out any new content since April. At any rate he's a good guy and good at what he does but I think I'd be pretty bored if I spent all my time on the blue groomers he loves so much.

I can ride them with my hardboots. But the softie setup is easier and way more forgiving. Especially if the light is flat, if I am in bumps or mixed snow conditions I can adjust way easier and recover from situations that probably would have put me on my ass in hard boots. A softer flex and shorter length sure helps too. My 180 with the 14 m sidecut is doable in bumps so long as they aren't too terribly tight, I'm not crazy about taking it into tight trees.

Jones said the bit about 100 days/season in another video where they were going over their freeride lineup. I do way less than that and I’m pretty sure I could handle the Ultra Flagship but the regular one works great for what I want out of it. Regarding what you are paying for in these special editions, I guess it depends on which one. The Tribute Lounge is a pretty good YT channel, that’s the promo one for Mark Fawcett’s shop. They did a glowing review of the Mega Death which is Capita’s high end version of the Black Snowboard of Death. It’s actually softer flexing than the BSOD but lighter and snappier. So I don’t think you can just go by stiffer. Titanium construction allows alpine decks to hold an edge better than stiffer decks with older construction.