kipstar

frigging awesome man! Inspiring to see a new younger generation getting into carving, I was surprised how many people are carving now (almost all in softboots) in Japan this season, but for hardbooting, we need the next generation to get into it and feel the vibe like we did. This is where it starts.

excellent board, I used to own one, rides very well for that generation of board indeed....this is a fantastic intermediate level board that would suit someone look for a modern 174/175 type length as the oxygen 178 rides a little shorter than you might expect :-) good luck on the sale!

I would rather not ride than encounter a queue more than 5-10min long. I don't want to think how long you would have to wait there.....

.951 from the Japanese snowshow (courtesy of one of my Japanese friends who I lifted the image from without asking for permission oops :-)). Apparently these are the WC version, size C (about 27.0 size) the only size currently available. Guessing it looks like a standard liner, wrap liner and another wrap liner. I am told they are very stiff, but presume you can adjust the flex similar to how the EC guys do it. I have to say...these are looking very very sweet.

I wondered about that too. Really this is a carving board, I would be quite comfortable running any of the same terrain as my stubby, while I was in Japan I even ran a few gates on it, so I jammed it in here, it's not in the same category as a Prior 4WD or that sort of board. Actually, from memory, I think it was YOUR AM that inspired mine :-)

I got Bruce to make me an all mountain carver ideal for the soft snow conditions that Hokkaido gets, while still being able to carve firm groomers (which Hokkaido also gets) and go back to the era of hardboot boards that could ride it all - bumps, jumps, steeps, groomers, powder, slush. What he created for me is a 172cm long 22.5cm waist heavily tapered AM with a bigger than normal nose, with the inserts mounted a little back from center. I'm about 75kg, but the board is made of a person slightly lighter than me, so it flexes quite easily. the first couple of turns the width was noticeable, then it just disappeared, and the board can literally do it all. Knee to thigh deep chopped up powder, you can ride just back from center; none of this all weight in the backleg burn. Moguls provided they aren't too hard suddenly becomes fun again. The board LOVES lower speed big carves, and it's very easy to get hip to snow turns in any carving suitable conditions. Didn't ever have issues with edge breaking free from the bigger nose, it's like all of the good none of the bad. Due to being a bit softer, the top speed is reduced a bit, which again, is a bonus when riding a lot of places with people, you can crank it right over without needing the entire run width or high speed. Hugely recommended - this board is an absolute keeper, and for anyone in places where you get proper powder (knee deep and above) instead of needing 2 boards on a trip, this one board will do it all. Extra width means you can run the angles a little flatter, without any overhang, if I did it again, i might even go a tad wider again. A few pics attached of a coiler stubby to give you a frame of reference on the nose size; not massively bigger, but the difference between effortless freeriding....and not.

Also on the Coiler vibe, inspired by TV Show Red Dwarf and sitting alongside my Stubby (called Red Dwarf) is the Coiler AM 172 Starbug, made wider (22.5cm), inserts moved back, a fair bit of taper and with a slightly bigger nose for Hokkaido powder, NZ slush, and riding less than ideal conditions while still being fun on the groomers. So far, ridden in knee deep powder and chopped up powder it rides like a dream, even makes moguls fun again!

if Wolf doesn't want them, I'll take them :-)

best....ad......in.....a......while...... LOL

As Castanza might have said, 'there was rubbing and touching, I think it moved.' Perhaps get wrap around intuition or palau liners, makes the boot lighter and more pleasant to ride. I used to have the same issue when I rode tongue boots, I think it's a problem as you run higher angles. I have exceptionally bony shins with a lot of scars from Muay Thai Boxing and biking and stuff, so I am very prone to shin injuries now from rubbing. The other way would be to use something like Shintronics to protect your shin.

I have this exact boot, and my feet measure 27.5 about (but no matter how hard I tried, I struggled to fit into the next size down, I could have made it work but what's the point I don't race anymore). For a mondo 28 size foot (meaning your feet measure around 28cm long) this is the size you need. For what it is worth the condition looks pretty good, would imagine these are about 3 years old based on the color but could be totally wrong on that. Put some intuition liners in them and you have a sweet boot.

The purpose of mondo point is to have a universal system for boot length and sizing; none of this 41/42/43 stuff, no Euro vs. US sizing, just a basic cm length measurement of your foot...and internal sole length measurement of the boot. It is not rocket science, it is just confusing if you live in a country without the metric system (but if you can measure a foot in cm, as you have done, I think not so impossible.) As a starting point, therefore if your foot measures 28cm long, then you are likely at first glance a mondopoint 28.0 boot. BUT - go for the shortest boot you can comfortably be fitted into, that might be 28.0 or could be the next size down - racers sometimes can fit into a size smaller so you might be a 27.0/27.5 boot (most boots the half size is the same boot with a slightly thinner liner, so 1 shell = 2 sizes with different liners, irrelevant if you are using molded liners for the most part) - some boots (UPZ I am looking at you) seem to run 3 sizes rather than 2, so for example, the smaller size UPZ will be 26.0/26.5/27 and the next size up is 27.5/28/28.X (maybe as high as a 28.5, but I think slight overlap for the next size up) so in your case, you would go for that boot size and almost for sure you can't go down a size, there is a strong likelihood you cannot fit your foot at 28.0 into a upz 26/26.5/27 shell but who knows I can't see it happening so easily, but with the right shape you might be able to do - the odd person has extremely high volume feet meaning you go up a size; however I'd imagine a 29.0 boot for a 28.0 length foot would require some seriously screwed up feet

Billyt, once it gets to waist deep, some/most boards don't ride so well, question is, does steamboat get even close to that much on a regular basis? anything up to mid shin any board is fine (alpine or freestyle), but above that, more nose, width, taper and setback helps, above about mid thigh, the powder specific boards (big nose, swallowtail, tapered shapes, tail cut outs) are waaaaaay better than a standard alpine or freestyle board. And above waist deep, well then you are talking about needing a serious powder beast because falling or burning up your back leg gets really old really fast. Of course, chopped up snow is harder work than super soft light stuff. OP The Donek will do the job up to a certain point for sure and you have the board all set up. It doesn't look like a huge nose, but if you know how to ride neutral to weight back, you can make it work. If it is looking beyond knee deep, I guess stick to groomers, or if you want to go all the way, consider a powder board off the shelf or a custom prior swallowtail, a custom Coiler or Donek (beyond the 4X4, AMR, Axiss type boards) made specifically for Powder - but i'm really not sure you need it for 1 trip to a place like Steamboat, heliski, japan or Mt Baker might be a bit different.

Amazing explanation Sean :-)

intuitions will work fine, any of the wrap style are best, or Palau or similar. Same boot size for the liner. However....having torn the heels off my old Deeluxe indys which are similar era to the AF600, I would be very skeptical about continuing to use old boots, just replace with a new set of AF700s and 'share the parts'

I also have a couple of coilers, and they are soooooo easy to ride. In your position, perhaps get a full on race board made for slalom. Could be another Coiler or a Donek, Prior, Kessler, Oxess or something else. That will be much more nervous, respond to the body position far more immediately, and will be more of a handful. Also will help make you more mindful in terms of centered body position and some SL boards have a big pop out of the turns.

for my riding, the older boards had a steeper shovel, no decamber, so they responded well to a forward weighting drive into each turn and heavy drive into the turn could be accompanied by the nose catching slightly in variable snow, this was particularly noticeable on some assymetric boards which tended to have a very short and tight corner on the toe side so you would drive forward and the nose could 'trip' you if you went too far forward. With a decambered modern raceboard where the front up to 20cm back from the nose shovel is decambered so the nose starts going up from about 30-40cm back from the tip, (the nose shovel itself has been dropped down so the shovel angle to the horizontal is also lower) the board doesn't respond at all really to forward weighting, it responds to being put on edge. The sidecut is also changed as well, since everything works in conjunction with everything else. Laid flat, even my stubby, with a tiny little nose on it, has about the front 30cm which is not touching the snow at all, but once you tilt the board onto its side, the nose slowly and increasingly adds running length the steeper the angulation. So weighting the nose at the start of a turn as the board rolls onto its edge doesn't do anything. So now given that modern technique we tend to be riding the board more centered, and the board is metal and damp, the decamber serves to ease the nose of the board even more into each turn, making it even less likely to have an issue when riding in variable snow where it suddenly can catch or trip you. That's why the new boards are so easy to ride. But on the flip side....I believe less feel to them not solely the result of being metal, but also the geometry as well. I did ride back to back with an old glass board last trip to try to feel the difference, and it was a lot more noticeable than I expected. I find even in moderate powder (as in up to maybe knee deep) decamber is also quite good for getting some degree of float and can be ridden quite ok (for a narrow board) despite the low shovel.

yes, as in Lister, RImmer, Kryten and Holy. My next board is either going to be starbug, or possibly better than life.

cheers!

Back on the list AGAIN! Knee is fine, shoulder (boxing injury) healed. Was riding fine....right up until someone rode into me on my heelside just as I started driving into a toeside turn, they were riding and overtaking, ran into my board, fell forward and drove his head into my back just on the right side of my spine.....he ended up with a concussion (briefly), I ended up being unable to breathe for about a minute, then fine, then a huge cramping and nerve burning sensation in my back which locked my back up and made the 2 hour bus ride and 7 hour plane ride back to BKK rather uncomfortable. Excrutiating pain when rotating initially, which has eased thanks to pain killers, muscle relaxants, icing and time. Xray revealed nothing broken, but still have the sensation of electric shock type burning feeling around my right side above my hips 2 weeks after the accident - doing physio and various exercises but it's going to mean cancelling my triathlon training and another snowboard trip end of Feb most likely. Worst of all....took a chip out of my almost brand new Coiler! I could handle myself being injured.....but the injury to "Red Dwarf" my 172 stubby is hard to bear!

how to post an embedded youtube video would also be helpful.

There are 4 lines on the outside of the boot near the inside side of your ankle. You should be able to sit on the snow when you are clipping in and see which line you are locked in on. I am aligned with the 2nd line on the front leg, and 3rd line on the rear leg. Also looking at the heel you can see where the position is. Front leg the metal is not showing when the boot is not flexed (2nd position); rear leg about 1/4 of an inch of the metal is showing when the boot is not flexed. I generally only go into walk mode if I have to walk a long distance, I leave as is in the café, on the lift etc. Coming from the deluxe with BTS and prior to that ski boots, walk/ride is a pleasure I don't need to use much. If you are in the wrong notch, then simply go into walk and then flex to about where you want to be in the boot, back off every so slightly, then engage ride, then slightly flex forward and it should lock into that hold.

quite common to see softbooters in Japan who can actually carve properly....a lot of the guys riding powder boards seem to be able to make those boards carve very well too.

I have a coiler stubby, tried riding it with the gecko plate on, then off, then on again; it is very noticeable how much easier it is to ride with it, really didn't appreciate how much benefit it can be in choppy snow.

regarding the top of your foot, well, first I presume you have a footbed, that helps a lot, in addition, you should get out a dremel or if you don't have one, then a very sharp box cutter, or best of all go to a boot fitter. You can pull the liner out, and feel inside, you may feel some material under the tongue which is the shell, that's probably what is compressing your foot. If you want to fix, a boot fitter can probably do it without taking the tongue off, but for us mortals, easier to just take the tongue off. Start with unscrewing the grey tongue which will likely be the grey color, take it completely off the boot., I used to have this issue in the past although not with UPZ, but you can try this. There is likely a bit of material plastic of the shell right over where the lump on the top of your foot is. grind it away; mark it first with a marker pen with your foot in it about where you think it would be with the liner on, then take your foot out, and grind; it is probably going to need about 5mm in and maybe 15mm long. Don't worry about leakage of water etc, it's fine. However, make sure you do it as a semi circle not as a rectangle, thinning towards the bit you trim away, as boots are quite brittle plastic, and you don't want it to crack. I don't know if you have moulded liners. I recommend them. But if you don't, then put the liner on your foot outside the boot. there may well be a piece of hard plastic running right around the area over the top of that lump on the top of your foot. Either dremel or carefully slice away the plastic only, if you can try to avoid the spot where it is stiched onto the liner, but if that's the part that is compressing, well grind it off. And the first few times you ride, consider to use a topical anti inflammatory like Votaren or similar on your feet, seems to stop any swelling. For the bindings, usually the issue is that the heel height is quite high, and it's concealed so it can be a bit of a pain in the neck to engage it especially if the sole has any snow at all. Obviously not much of a problem on the front foot, but a right nuisance on the back foot. I found that if you take the TD3 apart, and increase the length of the heel bail a bit (if is threaded, so you take the pin out, so the two ends are both not engaged, make sure you don't lose the washers and take a picture if you are not a mechanical person so you know how to put it back together as it goes together a specific way with the pin always running from one side to the other); unwind a few turns of each side so that moves the bail "up" a little and that should make it easier to engage the heel. Make sure both sides are equal, and don't unwind too much since obviously it needs some thread to engage the bail. I have the exact same size boot, and you just get used to engaging it, what I always do is to thread the heel in first with the toe lifted a bit, then flatten my foot and flick on the toe bail, this seems to be easiest method; compared to the Deeluxe it is shorter sole supposedly, but the heel hidden back there is a bit hard to see. I always lift up the heel as I ride off, just to be sure it engaged, I know 99% of the time if it is or isn't. Sorry if this doesn't help much. I have switched from the deluxe, and find the UPZ to be pretty great in a lot of respects.