surfinsmiley

Miro- All terrian carving! It`s the addiction to life on edge, huh! Excelent:cool:.

Just give it 20-30 more years of practise and you might change your mind on alot of your pre-conceptions Jan. I know alot of MDs` that have.

RIDE IT. For at least one long day. Then you`ll know for sure. I have just started riding a 200cm Tanker, thought it might be to big but now that I`m used to it I love it.

I seem to spend alot of time sliding on my hands:o. My solution was to glue the plastic from old milk bottels on the palms and fingers in a fancy little design. I am really happy with how well it`s worked, last season I destroyed two pairs and this season`s gloves are still lookin` great. The only downside is that it slides like little snowboards attached to your hands.:rolleyes:

I never actually put it down but some of the ones I`ve been on are all automatic, can be painfull when it is built for people about five foot tall, there`s just not enough room for all my long legs, arms and boards, something always seems to get squashed:smashfrea I rode a 5.5 kilometre long gondola last week, I was thinking at the time how happy I was it wasn`t a chair.

Bummed! Putfiles services have been suspened to my region.

Mine were really tight and uncomfortable when I first got them. I just wore them everynight around the house for an hour or so. After a couple of weeks they were sweet. Now after about 15 days riding in them they feel better than ever, although the footbeds are starting to fall to pieces. Time for some customs, what better excuse do I need?

WOW, you should really tell that to my friends kid who was a healthy normal lil two year old and then got vaccinated ........10days later........ autistic paralysis. Was it just but luck that life took a sudden downward spiral a couple of weeks after her vaccination? The other expirence I`ve had with vaccines going crazy was a friend who came to visit me while I was living in Thailand, he got all dosed up with shots because he was scared of getting sick. Three days after he arrives he starts getting really sick. A few days more and he was purple colour with red pustules popping out all over his skin(he was literally bleeding from his skin all over his body), red urine and a 41 Celcius body temp. Emergency flight back to Australia, ends up he got three of the diseases he`d been immunized against all at once.

Thanks for the feedback team:biggthump I should clarify my question about how long the tires last. I`ve heard from a few people I`ve talked to that the tires are made in a way that allows them to grip the snow really well through some sort of heat generation at a molecular level when they are in use(moving). Rumour has it that this effect decreases with time whether the tires are in use or not. Any validity to the rumour? The rubber chains look kinda flimsy but I see them being used alot more than chains in this part of the world. Here is a link to the ones I think look like they`ll stand the most use. http://www.yeti-snownet.com/

OK. I finally got sick of doing bus trips all the time and have deciced to start driving to the snow on my days off. I`ve been looking at snow tires and chains. Seems expensive. Do snow tires only work for a couple of years after which time they loose there grippyness? Or is that just a marketing rumour? The cheaper alternative they have here in Japan is these really funky rubber snow chains which are supposedly OK to use with normal tires on the snow. Anyone had any expirence with rubber snow chains? Any other helpfull hints for a first time driver in the snow?:o

Yeah.........reality bites:rolleyes:

They just look so nice how could anyone not want one to add to the quiver:cool:

I still have a Poggo Longboard or a Dupraz D1 in my sights for next season but for the moment I`m loving life with my new tanker. As luck would have it, the powder slowed immensly as soon as I got it! The deepest powder I`ve ridden in is about knee deep on top of a very hard base. As everyone knows they float like a dream, once it`s up to a good speed there seems to be little that it`s not capable of. I am really impressed with the turn ability of the 11m sidecut, now that I`m used to it, I don`t think I`ll ever ride less than 10m of sidecut again. I have had a few perfect groomer days on it which have been really good for my carving. I think because it`s relatively soft it carves at slow to med/high speed really well. If I can get my technique right it locks into carves that I thought it would take me years to learn. The only time I seem to have trouble is when it gets all lumped up from all the "sideslippers" pushing up mounds of snow on the steeps, but I have trouble on any board in those conditions.:o I either end up being a "sideslipper" or get locked into a speed run that gets really scarey really fast, skipping across the top of the crud with the board shaking like a wild thing.

This article has a bit of a rave about that kind of set up.... But, on the rear binding! http://www.bomberonline.com/articles/canting.cfm FWIW. I`m rinding 1.5 degree outward and 3 degree lift on the rear binding and flat front.

I`m stoked, Japan showed about an hour and a half of the mens PGS and more than an Hour of the womens PGS. I also noticed that "everyone" seemed to be riding kesslers, What`s up with that? The only other brands I could recognise was F2 and a couple of Tomahawks and then there was four or five people riding boards that I just couldn`t make out what they were.:( I was really looking to see a Coiler or something North American in there somewhere, alas........nothing!

Excelent:biggthump. That sounds like a bit of engineering I could cope with. I`ll be getting in the line for a BTS for next season. Thanks.

I think the idea is slightly different. With the stiffer tounges you are effectively decreasing the flex of the boot while with the spring system and cutting the plastic in the back you are increasing the foward flex. Different courses for different horses as the saying goes, I think it`s all about personel preference. FWIW, I just put a die spring into the original boot system and cut the plastic out of the back, I have now ridden on it for two days. I found it much better than the original/stock spring. At the huge cost of $5 it`s worth trying. Kind of like walk mode with power assist.:)

:oSorry about the spelling Bob. I was pointing the finger at you because your high profile and close to the source........So,.....I was just making a giant presumption that it might be you in the Head BTS. My little brain was thinkin` that just maybe it was a proto of things to come from Bomber. ..............Ian is from Honolulu? That might make him difficult to find........ he`s a long way from the snow!

WHAT? Has the LSD been discontinued? Why would they stop? Mine is the treasure of my small quiver and I`m sure that there is alot of others out there that feel the same way. I`d better buy another one if they`ve stopped making them.

Did anyone find out who the mystery man in the blue jacket at SES was? I`d love to know how much modification you need to do to the BTS to fit it to the head boots.

Crikes! That makes me feel a bit like a weirdo then............. I have both a LSD 164 and a Tanker 200 and I reckon I can do twice the speed on the LSD. I find the Tanker gets the shakes at high speed on groomers and I have not found the top speed on the LSD yet. Don`t see much ice in Japan so I don`t really know about that one yet.

I took the Rad Air Reto Lamm 164 approach that Lonerider is suggesting, with the idea of riding it in both soft and hardboots. Well, after getting the hardboots theis season, I`ve not mounted the soft bindings/boots on it again. That board will let you go most anywhere on the mountian with carving style and speed that the X can only dream about. Its only draw back is that its to stiff to feel the deep powder and is downright scary on the rails. Keep the X, for the park orientated stuff, it`s a great board in it`s relmn. I`ve since picked up another Rad Air board, it`s a 200cm Tanker, with the same idea in mind, it can be used with both soft and hardboots. The Tanker rules the powder and rails the grooms with either set of boots/bindings. If your not quiet ready to go the full hardboot set-up, the catek freerides with Malamutes or Driver`s could really pick up your carving game, esp on a board with a 10Metre plus sidecut:)IMHO You`ve probably already noticed that most of the crew around here have "quivers". I think that`s the name of the game if you want to do one thing really well, ie. the park needs a park board, the deep powder needs a powder board and to carve trenchs you "NEED:rolleyes:" a carving board. Welcome to a new addiction.......................................

I`ve been here nearly two years now and all the hardbooters on the hill is what got me interested. I only started snowboarding when I came here, I`m from the tropics, I`d never even seen snow before last season! I bought a softie set-up and headed for the hills after a few days a noticed these dudes that were actually carving down the hill and no skidding:eek:. That was it I saw the future of my snowboarding laid out in a glimmering trench in the snow. I think that we are all ambassadors for our sport and the more people that see hardboots in action the more people are going to want to add an apline set-up to the quiver. Japan is the classic example, everyone who goes to the snow sees hardbooters and so there are more and more hardbooters, it`s self perpetuating once it gets to a certian stage.

Having never ridden a "real" alpine board, Shreds lil review of the LSD makes me feel like I`m not missing out on too much on my LSD 164. I love it. It`s amazing at speed compared to any Freeride board I`ve tried, the LSD is just relaxing no matter how fast I try to go. If you want that go all over the mountain(except deep powder) fun, I`d recommend you pick up that LSD from shred.

I`m of the very same opinion. Sure winning the gold is the top level an athlete can achieve but tweaking out some style is the highest level of self expression a athlete achieve in their chosen feild of expertise. Self expression at that level is Gold evertime I reckon.