Jump to content
Note to New Members ×

Advice on a 1st board?


fluxgame

Recommended Posts

I've been hankering to try out hardbooting for a couple years now and just found an alpine board on my local Craigslist for pretty cheap. Just wondering if you guys could give me some feedback on it:

http://worcester.craigslist.org/spo/446525153.html

For reference, I'm 5'9", 120 lbs. I come from a background in skiing, but have been skiboarding for 5-ish years now. I ride with Raichle hardboots and Bomber's skiboard bindings, so I figure it's sort of a natural transition. And $90 for a board and bindings seems manageable. I know the bindings aren't great, but they'll get me going right? Anyway, thanks for any advice.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

http://www.bomberonline.com/articles/welcome_center.cfm

IMO that board is too small, BUT for $90 it'll give you a feel for what its like to carve

don't be a cheapskate though...think about it.

I'd say get something 170ish just for the speed handling capabilities. You're not heavy but you're fairly tall for your weight and therefore have a higher center of gravity that a somewhat longer board will support.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

He's only 120 pounds, are you sure a 160 is too small? I started out on what looks like a similar board (Burton Coil) 165, but I weigh 180. It wasn't a bad size to start carving on. The shorter boards seem to force me to use good technique (which I've since lost after moving to longer boards).

Hey Fluxgame, funny coincidence, I was reading your posts today about the B-17N over on bikeforums. Is it still working out OK?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd dig out and read the specs for that board. I've never ridden one. The bindings look way old to me; I think I had some of those. I'm not sure I'd want to ride on them now.

Length-wise... I think the AMP wasn't a full-on board, so it may be soft, in which case 160 could be too short, but I weigh 140 of your pounds and have ridden mostly 163 boards for years, with flex to match my weight and style of course. You do get more top end with a big board, but in most practical resort conditions that's not hugely relevant: I can be pretty much the fastest on the piste even with my toy slalom boards. My GS board I leave at home.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

flux,

if yer local to wormtown, yer local to wachoo. Find us there when the snow shows up and we'll help get you dialed.

ever hit any sweet jumps on the snowblades ??

that amp will work to get you started

Ski boots fit in these bindings. Fast board!

half true, that board ain't fast :nono:

What are you gonna do today, Napoleon?

Napoleon Dynamite: Whatever I feel like I wanna do. Gosh! :cool:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awesome, thanks guys. I'm gonna go for it. Assuming I enjoy carving (and I'm gonna, right?), I imagine the first thing I'll be on the lookout for is a used set of TD-2's.

willywhit:

I'll definitely find you guys when the snow hits. With a little luck, I'll be working up at 'chusetts this season, so that shouldn't be too hard. Definitely would be great to get some pointers starting off. Though I was looking in the instructor database on BomberOnline and saw that there are 3 (!) instructors who teach in hardboots there. Crazy.

I'm not too good in the park on the skiboards, though that doesn't stop me from trying. They're definitely skiboards though, not snowblades. The difference illustrated:

difference.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey Fluxgame, funny coincidence, I was reading your posts today about the B-17N over on bikeforums. Is it still working out OK?

Funny coincidence indeed. All kinds of crossover in the crazy internet forum world, huh? In any case, to go completely off topic for a moment:

Definitely still loving the Brooks. It's got dimples a cm deep at this point and is much comfier than any other saddle I've ever ridden on. The sides did start to flare out a bit on me as soon as it was past its rock hard phase, so I chopped and tied it, which improved matters greatly. There are pics in the "Pictures of Brooks on Bikes" thread.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled programming...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBerUP10k7k"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBerUP10k7k" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>

flux,

just givin' ya shyte about the blades. Throwin' down is throwin' down. When I lived in tahoe there were some sick kids on blades td'n at night in the park.

You'll love alpine once you get it wired :biggthump

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So I went and picked up the board this evening. It's in pretty good shape for being as old as it is. Seems pretty solid. Only one problem. I adjusted the bindings as short as they'd go, but my boots are a good cm too short to lock in. Sigh. I should have known something like this would happen. Everything was going altogether too smoothly. So, what are my options here? Discounting the go ahead and buy myself a pair of $300 bindings before I've even ridden the board option. Would bending the toe/heel bails a bit to shorten things up be considered a Bad Idea? Or perhaps removing the toe bails and cutting a cm or two off, rebending and reattaching them? Neither of these options really appeal to me. Hopefully there's some magical solution that I'm not thinking of.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please do not fiddle with bindings that might already suffer from material fatigue. Get some other cheap used bindings and sell yours for few bucks...

Or get the used 3-hole TD2s that someone recently advertised in for sale section here. They'll last you forever.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...