Is it me or is it my equipment?

[John E]

I skied for many years & then started snowboarding (soft boots) about 10 years ago. I was an advanced / expert skier and I'm probably an advanced soft-booter.

I've recently started hardbooting. I picked up some used equipment a few years back to see if I would like it. I've got a Nidecker GS board (168 cm, I think), Raichle boots & Raichle X Bone Carbon bindings. I'm on a learning curve but I can't yet carve consistent turns. I've taken one hard boot lesson earlier this season. I only get up 6 - 10 days / year split between soft & hard boots.

Am I better off sticking with the equipment I have and spend more time working on technique (& maybe taking another lesson) or should I bite the bullet & buy some better equipment? If I start to upgrade, where is the best place to start?

I can wear my boots all day without real pain but they're not as comfortable as my soft boots.

[pebu]

I'd have to agree. It's hard to say the equipment isn't good when the rider hasn't spent much time on it.

If you're just looking to spend more money, I have 3 scenarios for ya:

A.) You could just give the money you wanted to spend right to me...

2.) You could buy new equipment and sell me your old equipment at a drastically reduced price.

C.) You could go spend some money on some good private lessons.

Choice 3 is probably your safest bet to gettin going the direction you want. I still wouldn't rule out A or B....

[philfell]

As a coach, it's almost never the equipment. Very few times have I thought equipment was holding back a person.

[lonerider]

I only get up 6 - 10 days / year split between soft & hard boots.

Your gear is totally fine (it's a lot better than what I learned on). You need to ride more... you can't expect to get good at anything only doing it 4 days a year.

If you are really an advanced skiier AND an advanced snowboarder you have all the muscle memory needed to learn out to ride an alpine board - you just need to get some days on the snow and perhaps a few lessons.

[Ian M]

LOL...nice reply, Pebu. I agree, though. In my opinion, it is almost never the equipment. Get on the snow + get some lessons = diggin' trenches!

[John E]

Thanks for the input. All are in agreement with what I suspected. More time on the slopes & maybe another lesson.

As Lance Armstrong said: "Its not about the bike"

[ike]

what about carving in softboots that dont fit, with low quality step in binding

...that's gotta effect the carve some way.

[Ian M]

what about carving in softboots that dont fit, with low quality step in binding

...that's gotta effect the carve some way.

Fair enough, that would be very difficult. But to be fair, we're talking about carving equipment. His gear is built to carve, unlike soft boots or cross-country skis. :rolleyes:

[ike]

Oh I agree, I was just expressing my frustration with my equipment ;)

[D.T.]

I only get up 6 - 10 days / year split between soft & hard boots..

It will take a while to progress if that is the number of days you ride per season. IMO, a lot of riding is muscle memory. At 6-10 days per season, you body will not remember what it needs to do on between riding days. If I take a weekend off, I notice the difference my first day back.

My suggestion would be to find some other carvers to ride with. That is the single best think that helped my riding. Check the ride board, there are groups that are at Loveland every weekend, another group at Winter Park, etc...

[Ian M]

Bummer. :( Been there.

[Bullwings]

I've been on soft boots for about 9-10 seasons, and tried hardbooting out this year. The technique between each is drastically different, especially once you start turning up the angles a lot more (past 50*).

I think you're making it harder on yourself by switching between hardboots and softboots before setting your hardbooting foundation. You should try to devote at least one full season to hardboots only - this coming from a 13-14 day hardbooter so far, so take it with a grain of salt. Also, riding with another carver, has greatly and dramatically improved my skills so far, althought I still have much to learn.

Also, there's no substitute or replacement for time on the slopes. Good athletes are either gifted or put a lot of time into it. Great athletes are both gifted and put a lot of time into it (it being whatever sport).

[abakker]

when i bought hardboots, i bought them to replace softboots, and as such decided that they could do it all.

my first pair of boots was just too big, heel lift, uncomfortable. i rode them 15 days and sold them. i got a new pair of boots that fit, but also decided that maybe hardboots couldn't do it all. well i have ridden 32 days this year. i am never going to own a pair of softboots again.

so, finding the right equipment is good in that it makes what you are doing more fun/comfortable, but time is a critical part of it. if you do want to spend any money, the thermofit liner was the biggest contribution to my sticking with hardbooting out of all of the gear that i have amassed

[NateW]

Molded liners and footbeds should make your hard boots more comfortable than your soft boots.

Two things will make your hard boot riding better than your soft boot riding: practice, and more practice. :)

Lessons or some Q&A and conversation on this forum should all help you get more mileage out of each day of practice. Is there anything in particular that you are struggling with?

Are you comfortable and consistent with big gradual low-speed linked carves on intermediate runs?

Are you struggling with higher speeds? Steeper slopes? Heelside carves? Toeside carves? Linking carves? etc, etc.

[Phil]

I've been on soft boots for about 9-10 seasons, and tried hardbooting out this year. The technique between each is drastically different, especially once you start turning up the angles a lot more (past 50*).

I disagree with this. Maybe you could expand on it a little bit. What is so different about the technique between the two?

I find that the major differences are:

1. the angle that your feet and therefore your body is facing in relation to the board

2. the plane on which your body now has to angulate

3. where your feet pressure your board - or rather, where your board pressures your feet

I don't see these as technique issues, though. I think that technique between HB's and SB's is very similar. I encourage HB'ers and SB'ers to crossover often to help their skills on both sets of equipment.

I would even dare to say that a truly good softbooter will take to HB's easily and vice versa.

Of course, there are always the softbooters that think that they are good....

[lonerider]

I disagree with this. Maybe you could expand on it a little bit. What is so different about the technique between the two?

I find that the major differences are:

1. the angle that your feet and therefore your body is facing in relation to the board

2. the plane on which your body now has to angulate

3. where your feet pressure your board - or rather, where your board pressures your feet

I don't see these as technique issues, though. I think that technique between HB's and SB's is very similar. I encourage HB'ers and SB'ers to crossover often to help their skills on both sets of equipment.

I would even dare to say that a truly good softbooter will take to HB's easily and vice versa.

Of course, there are always the softbooters that think that they are good....

I think it becomes kind of a semantic issue. For me the overall technique transferred pretty well, but it took a little bit of time to work out how to get my body to angulate properly given the comparatively high binding angles.

Like working out how to get my hips, knees and ankles to bend and twist altogether smoothly - the first day or two it just feels like half the time your ankle or knee, or hip is simply going the wrong way.

Of course I had my TD1 setup incorrectly on my board (55/55, with ~2* inward cant on both bindings, whereas I am very bowlegged and duck footed, so I actually needed a little bit of splay and no-cant to slight outward cant).

Here is a

of me on my 3rd full day on an alpine board(or 6th half day as I rode the alpine board in the mornings only). Of course, I should really follow my own advice as I only riding alpine boards 8-10 days out of a 25 day season (I blame all the powder that's been falling the last few years in Tahoe - I had like 3 days on an alpine board last year due to the 805 inches of snow). Here's a

taken a few weeks ago, basically I figure out how to drive my hip into the turns without my knees/ankles feeling like they are bending the wrong way. So sadly, with only like 10-15 days of alpine riding under my belt, I haven't improved as much as some of the other guys here like tpalka or jimcallen who now totally RIP (I'm so jealous)! However, I have noticed my softboot carving has improved even more and I think a lot of that has transferred when I go back to alpine.

[Bullwings]

I disagree with this. Maybe you could expand on it a little bit. What is so different about the technique between the two?

I find that the major differences are:

1. the angle that your feet and therefore your body is facing in relation to the board

2. the plane on which your body now has to angulate

3. where your feet pressure your board - or rather, where your board pressures your feet

I don't see these as technique issues, though. I think that technique between HB's and SB's is very similar. I encourage HB'ers and SB'ers to crossover often to help their skills on both sets of equipment.

I would even dare to say that a truly good softbooter will take to HB's easily and vice versa.

Of course, there are always the softbooters that think that they are good....

This is long, but I think it adequately explains some of the differences experienced and seen, at more of an intermediate boarder level, and not an advanced/expert one (whether soft or hardboot).

ok, it's not drastically different, as i put it. when i transferred over this season, i wasn't completely lost. i was actually staying on edge, although you would have thought that my atv with a 9m SCR had something more like a 21m SCR if you saw my first few days out. I was able to negotiate runs still. It's not drastically different in the sense of a skier switching to snowboarding, but different anyway.

all of that being said, hardbooting for me was more critical to have the proper inputs. I don't necessarily think a good softbooter would take so easily to hardboots (mind you, even with 9-10 seasons, I was average to mediocre on softies and either straight-line bombed the steeps, or scarved/skidded them); conversely, I think that with all the precision inputs necessary for hardboots, it would be very easy for a hardbooter to pick up softboots.

Also, with hardboots, there's more lateral movements. on softboots, at angles of 9/-3 i never thought to "drive" my knees into the carve. at those angles, driving my knees into the carve would have meant hyperextending them and making them bend backwards or something on heelsides, and on toesides, well, they were already pointing to the snow (that was one of the big break throughs for me in my HB carving on about day 8 - couldn't exactly understand this concept).

Where to face on softies? Facing your angles, was pretty much facing the edge of your board, and so your rear hand trailed behind, and that was ok. Also, at those angles, sitting on the toilet was the thing to do (at least for me) -- it's pretty hard to keep your ass in the correct place in duck stance with the extremely shallow angles 9/-3.

Skidding when needed. On a softy setup, you can definitely rail it on edge, but skidding will be there when you need it and want it, and lots of times when you don't want it. When, I moved to my ATV at 50/45, skidding was much more difficult and tiring, but still possible and decently controlable. I recently picked up a 4wd, and put them at angles of 57/55, and skidding just wasn't happening for me. Maneuvering at low speeds around the lift areas when not on edge and flexing the board was nuts. The edges just wouldn't release for me to whip the board around. Bailing out of carves is harder too. I've gone off trail into the trees around 2-3 times now at some decently high speeds, enough where getting directly intimate with a tree wouldn't have been pretty.

There are definitely things i'm doing now on hardboots that i've never done on softboots. Also, up until about 2 season ago, i was putting in around the same amount of time per season as oldacura (5-10 days). Look at it from that perspective. Skidders are usually kooks, I know i was - the only difference for me now, is that I KNOW i'm not good.

I could keep going, but then it would turn into ranting that'd be more annoying than helpful.

Main point I'm trying to get at is, at an average of 5-10 days a season, hardbooting is pretty different from softbooting. This is especially true when switching from soft to hard (for me), I can't say what it's like going from hard to soft (and i won't ever be able to). This is the first season where i'll probably get 30 days+, and i've devoted it to purely hardbooting.

I don't think switching back and forth between his hard and soft setup is helping his hardboot skills, but it's probably helping his softboot skills. Anyway, this is not fact, it's purely an opinion, although the afformentioned stuff has been something close to my own experience and.... there's more, but this is getting pretty damn long.

one last thing. If he's riding moderate softy angles (36/27), like i did at the last ten days of my last softboot season, it'll be different - i'm sure that helped with my transition.