jng

I use the SUV v. F1 race car analogy.

At Whistler today, a kid was staring at me while I was stepping in, and I could tell he had something to say. Eventually... Kid: Is that a carving board? Me: Yes. It's super fun. You should try it. Kid: No thanks. There's a reason I don't work in marketing.

Blackcomb was glorious today. Fresh tracks and sun on Blackcomb Glacier and Lakeside Bowl until we broke for lunch at 1pm. Normally, I would have been softbooting, but the weather report underestimated the amount of fresh. First day for me hardbooting in pow, and it was surprisingly pleasant. I would have preferred softboots on the crunchy moguls that were not fully covered, but overall I was super pleased about hardbooting. Yesterday, Springboard and Ross' Gold were boilerplate and I just couldn't keep my speed in check, but the layer of fresh today made it perfect, and snow was light enough that I could blast through the chop. It will be a carvers paradise tomorrow morning.

+1 I was softbooting on Sunday and rode down a 300 ft long steep black which was a chunky mess except for a 12' wide groomed channel. I made controlled skidded turns and I find it hard to believe anyone would be able to control their speed with carve turns. Meanwhile on the same day, I was carving on a wider pitch, also on softboots, and got props for "nice carves" from the chair. Whether we're comparing skidded vs carved or hard vs soft, it's all snowboarding and your choice of tools and techniques is situational.

You are suffering from imposter ‘s syndrome. I’ve only been to Aspen once but Corey is well above average. You are setting the bar too high if you believe most of the riders on the forum can ride at his level.

...and a softboot snowboard is an SUV.

Jack, Maybe you made it to #1 because Chris Klug didn't race. Seriously, that's super impressive, and thanks for the detailed explanation.

When explaining my carving board to someone unfamiliar with the sport, I often will say that it’s like a racing board. In fact I use my Nirvana for beer league racing but I really don’t know what’s fundamentally different between the two. What exactly is the difference between a carving board and a racing board in terms of performance and construction? How do those differences translate to how you ride the board? Let’s assume you asked Bruce or Sean to build you two boards for the same turn size, one for carving and one for racing, what would you get?

I was using NXT-FRX's from a few years back, so NX2's might work fine. My old bindings just didn't comform well to curve of front of boot, so for same snugness that I had for Drivers, I had to work twice as hard to lock the highback. YMMV.

Pm sent

Ideally yellow elastomers and zero and three degree cants but can live with blues and zeroes. Thanks.

I just got a new pair of Malamutes that would not work with older Flows with fusion straps and no amount of adjustment made them work. I upgraded to NX2 with hybrid straps and problem is solved.

My primary objective on the hill differs from my objective on this site. On the hill, the objective is situational, whether that's due to conditions, racing in beer-league, or teaching my son to snowboard. #4 & #6 are my on-hill objective 90% of the time. I voted #1 since my objective on this site is unambiguous - making perfect turns on groomers. As I improve, I dip my toes into #2 and find natural terrain on hard boots is not so bad.

So sad to hear the news. We hung out a lot at ATC 2016. He was a great guy.

Due to the parking/shuttle situation at Crystal, I ride one board for the entire day. Some folks on the forum will ride anything in hardboots, so good on them. I have hardbooted at Crystal before, but I personally find softboots more versatile for their terrain on most days. PM me if you want meet at Crystal some day. Don't mind an excuse to hardboot there again.

Is the Secret supposed to be a replacement for Rev? No specs on Donek site.

Saw you and @CarvingScooby from jersey chair. Too bad we couldn't make turns together. Will definitely be back next spring.

Nobody ever have to walk across the parking lot with board stuck?

Burton is demoing step-ons to general public. Saw them at Stevens Pass, WA yesterday. They ran out of bindings so I didn't get a chance to try myself, but if you see a Burton demo hut, you might get a chance to try them out. FYI, they said they were out of bindings because a batch were stolen. Wonder if someone will try to sell these on Craigslist before they are released.

Has anyone experienced a failure in their Fin-tec step-ins where they were unable to release from the binding? This hasn't happened to me, but suspect there are interesting stories. On related topic, how often do you inspect/replace your release cables?

It's been probably 5+ years since I have seen a hardbooter at Crystal. Of course I tend to go when there's lots of snow or crowds or both on weekends so I usually opt for softboots.

Bomber - Outfitters of a Barely Acceptable Form of Snowboarding Somebody needs to hack the site for April Fools!

Looks like top of Exhibition... I've been going to Sun Peaks for past 3 years and have seen exactly 2 other hardbooters, including @Gadwood74. Boggles the mind that there aren't more hardbooters there.

Here's a story from the BC ride board, which I think others might find interesting.

Indeed I have been the only hardbooter for 4 days until Simon arrived. We had just met to ride and we made maybe a dozen turns together before his heel broke and he had to walk down. Too bad we couldn't ride together more, but happy to help a fellow rider.