Duke

Great. Not a bomber 2.0 I hope

Not a big fan of the sidecars. Motorcycles (and all two wheeled vehicles) steer in a peculiar way. Countersteering. It is pure magic to watch those bikes take those corners leaning so far over that they are sliding their knee pucks. Putting all that faith in a tire contact patch the size of a credit card. yikes. Not so with he sidecars. 3 wheels might as well be 4 wheeled cagers to me. ? Same reason the CanAms don't get the motorcycle wave .? Ya, the sidecars are fun to laugh at. but....they just end up burning time that could be spent on the real deal. ? Jealous of Allee for having been there and for getting to go back there too. Please ask them this question for me.."why did you steal Sicily's flag symbol for your island?" ??

by chance are those the Wintersticks they have mounted on the wall there? ?

bummer....just happens to be my anniversary weekend. I would have liked to meet you since we are like classmates and "started" at the same time. Maybe when I go to Norway someday :) Plenty of good slopes along the Wasatch Front including Solitude like Digger pointed out. If you are up for an hour drive i would recommend Beaver Mountain by Logan. Great groomers, no lift lines...just a fun place to carve. @utahcarver rides there and another friend of mine. Once again though....all of the choices along the Wasatch are good....well.....except Alta :) :) Powder Mountain and Snow Basin are the ones near Ogden. both are very fun.

I keep checking this thread to look for updates on bomber coming back....but it seems to be a different topic now....which I take to mean "no further info available".

Anybody on here ride the Virus AFT FLP? I have heard good things about it being the ultimate in softboot carving.....but just can't get myself t drop the $$ on getting one. it is double the cost of most soft boot boards. Anyone able to give some input on it?? https://shop.virus-snowsports.com/produkt/virus-aft-flp-176/

Here is a more recent article that has some more detail. It answers a few of my questions such as "is it for pow or slush or which condition?" http://www.sltrib.com/news/business/2017/11/23/these-utahns-say-their-invention-means-youll-never-need-to-wax-your-skis-again/

ha ha....Mig's blade make another showing in this thread :) The baseline, goto lineup. I may ride some others but one of the below will be seeing some action most any day I ride: Dupraz D1 178. What a pow slayer. Big gun for big pow!! Is there a board made with more float?? I doubt it :) Mig's Fullbag Diamond blade: Retired a couple of boards from the quiver. This board is to softboot groomer riding what the D1 is to powder. Mig put alot of R&D into this shape and hit the nail on the head. OES 172 FC my one and only titanal carver so can't compare or say much except i like it. Only complaint is that with the 17cm waist it is just too narrow for me to use when ski patrolling. Trying to bring the toboggan down with such a forward stance is a bit beyond me being able to correctly do my duties. I have a 20.5 cm waist Coiler on its way and it will be for patrolling. However, for just freecarving down the mounain....hits the spot for me :) If only I could carve well enough to give you any good input :)

Old thread revival time?? Been eyeing these a bit. Only a couple of riders chiming in above saying that they use these with soft setups. Would love to hear from anyone else using these. Not too bad price-wise but still not chicken feed so I would appreciate more input before throwing in on these. :) Anyone tried them and didn't like them or found them ineffective??

I don't think that article is worth too many calories either for or against. someone tied into organized racing may get it a bit more I guess. It meant nothing to me and doesn't match any of what I have seen with the sport.....but then again, I have never even watched a race and don't intend to :) .........And Mr Eric, I am a non-expert that hiked and rode my first line the winter of 80-81 and even rode Alta that year. But...I didn't open it so I guess one can say that I'm the opposite of you in that.....gulp.... maybe I'm responsible for the snowboard ban there :) :) I'll chime in on the tangents about Noobs learning. I see quite a few and as ski patrol I get a number of request from parents and kids asking which they should try. We get oodles of school kids that come up on school sponsored trips. I do believe the first day is more difficult for a snowboard noob than a ski noob. I have always put it to them that snowboarding has a steeper learning curve right at first. 1. it doesn't work well on the 3 degree slope, rope-tow, bunny hill. SB requires some fall line to work. Difficult for noobs to give in and get some needed velocity. Our natural desire is to start out sloooow moving while learning. :) works with skis. 2. Snowboarding requires soooo much edge awareness. Noob skiers use their edges but don't realize that is what they are doing. Little thought goes into it. 3. the transition from dropping down "side to side" heelside or toeside, to linking turns is a big jump for most. The "Hillary Step" of snowboard learning. :) These kids with the school program get a gratis, group lesson for an hour or so and then off they go. the snowboard groups definitely struggle much, much more. Now to throw in a tangent to a tangent :) I am also a skier (which many of us old guy snowboarders are). Two of my boys decided then wanted to try my skis. Both are excellent riders. I went into this long lecture about how different they are, and their snowboard prowess won't confer any ski skills, and don't be discouraged, yada yada. Well, boy was I off. They picked it up MUCH quicker than a typical noob. Ya, I'm sure some of that was just superior genetics :) :) but how surprised I was to see that; based on my nonscientific, anecdotal experience with an N value of 2...:).......snowboard skills DO impart some transferable ski skills. :)

I'm with you my friend :) TBT not my thing either. My point was to say that you haven't be on softies in quite some time and softies now come in an entire quiver of cambers and edge profiles. There's something for everyone. Carving-wise they will never compete with your Donek setup.....but there are still many, many fun soft setups and I think you should try a few more and get one or two soft setups for you personal quiver. For example: I see you are in the PNW and, therefore, blessed with pow that many on this forum can only dream about. snag a 6 foot Dupraz D1 and some Solomon Malamutes and you will think you are in heaven. Just a nice, fluid, surf day to contrast with your precision, full on G, carve days. :) Even raucous chunder is a bliss on that board :) A K2, full-on rockered, Ultradream is so fun to surf on slush days! The rest of the season now will have many afternoons where it warms up and people, particularly skiers, start to abandon the slopes to go home or in the lodge attempting to find a miracle wax to make it work for them. You would be getting lipstick on both ears your smile would be so big as you surf down in total bliss!! Different rides from your Donek. No competition for it on packed groomers (both still fun there BTW) but opening an entire new spectrum for you in riding opportunities. Quiver up my friend!!! Quiver up! :)

Almost all of the soft boot rides these days are going to be some type o hybrid camber. Much of it is just what you like. Never Summer won't do much other than their Camber Rocker Camber they are so known for. Some love it and some don't. Same for Battaleon Triple Base Technology; it is your thing or it isn't (even though that is not really a camber thing). My own, non-scientific, anecdotal reckoning on this shows that the vast majority....were you to just blindly grab one off the shelf, would be Rocker Camber Rocker. Even my beloved Fullbag Diamond Blade, which is designed as a groomer carver, has a touch of a hybrid. I know that many of riders on here look down on and throw jabs at anything other than a traditional, full camber re: softboots, but I think the moral of the story is....don't knock it 'till you try it. It is likely that you will not like all or even most of them, but I doubt you would hate all of them either. :) Some are very fun. I hear ya on the TBT, but it does hold better with some pressure. it just takes some faith to pull some Gs on it. :) Not for me but some love it. I think, were you to try some different soft boot decks, you would find that technology has come a long ways. They can really be fun. Nothing wrong with trad camber. But, nothing wrong with a hybrid either.....IF it is something that matches one's style and makes it fun :) If you are going to compare softboot decks only based on how well they carve and match up to your carving board then....they will never hit the mark. They are a different animal. Yes, some can carve groomers well, but they just won't ever match up to a hardboot setup. They are a different ride, for a different day, and a going for something other than having your head just off the deck during your turns :) i would liken it to comparing a Ducati Panigale (hardboot board) to the KTM 450 SFX (softboot board). Two different beasts with different technologies and I want both; depending on what I am doing that day :)

Thank you Jack, this is great. This describes me spot on. Nailing every heelside....struggling with toeside. Hitting some....but just not consistent at all. Thanks again!

not only am I that guy (ski patrol back pack though so I get a pass) I do so on a Dupraz. double match!

Thanks. i am going to try this method. One question i have....using a 'turkey" bag is presumably because that plastic is ready for some high heat. It appears that you have two shopping bags sticking out of your boots. Since you have already done this then it obviously worked to have these boiled 5 times over.....so....i guess I can infer that the turkey part is unnecessary?? or at least that it was in your case?