Mmmmm, I dont think I can ride soft boots any more :-( Rant inside! (tm)

[DiveBomber]

Is it my set up, am I just not used to softies any more...what???

So I finally break out my softies, for the first time this season, On my brand new Volkl cross...

Im cursing softies the whole way down... it was pretty bumpy/choppy/icy.

WTF am I supposed to do with a 9m SCR????????

The only thing soft boots are good for is walking. To get the thing tight enough im cutting off my circulation, On toe side turns I feel like im breaking my ankle(and these are supposed to be the stiffest boots). My toes are numb. And it feels weird riding with my front foot twisted

Im trying to figure out if theres any way to save this relationship before I toss this crap out.

I think maybe I just need to ride it more, but then I think, why? I can do everything better in hard boots, they feel more comfortable, when riding.

Even in powder.

How do all these people think they are having any fun?

Oh, well I guess soft set ups do make it easier to slide sideways.

Really the only reason I even bother with softboots is to work my way up to using hard boots in the park/pipe and BX. But it almost feels like taking a step back.

have I complained about this before??

Well, any thoughts on how to make this work?

[bobdea]

ehh, they rock in powder with a big ass, wide and soft board.

allot of it has to do with your boot, too soft of a softboot and you're in trouble on toesides.

board width can be critical to ride sane angles too, for me in a US men's 11 I ride 27 cm waisted softy setups, any less and I heel out, much more and I can't turn the damn things.

If the Volkl you have is similar to the spline(a older model BXer) I share your distaste for it, didn't do much of anything well other than SKID turns at high speed.

You're in CO, maybe try to get on a demo of some of the bigger never summer boards, super damp and hold a edge fairly well on hard snow

[NateW]

Im trying to figure out if theres any way to save this relationship before I toss this crap out.

Really the only reason I even bother with softboots is to work my way up to using hard boots in the park/pipe and BX. But it almost feels like taking a step back.

I tossed that crap out. :)

I think softies might have an advantage for jib tricks, and softies definitely give you more freedom to strike a pose in mid-air. I can't even touch the nose of my board when I'm in hard boots, so there's a whole class of grabs that I can't do. (I can live with that.)

If you want to do park and pipe stuff, just get an all-mountain board with an upturned tail on it. Riding switch with high stance angles isn't nearly as awkward as I expected it would be, and IMO the extra control that hard boots provide is always a good thing. With the speeds it takes to get over the bigger jumps nowadays, it boggles my mind that sub-10-meter sidecuts are so popular.

For powder days, I just use a 23cm wide board that has the bindings set back a couple inches. I don't know if hard boots help any, but I don't think they hurt either.

Also, I have one more piece of evidence to support my theory that BX courses only have berms to help the softbooters keep up: skiercross works fine without them.

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=ogsJoeTnlms

[b0ardski]

just say no to strap & laces

I ride deep pow, big bumps, tight trees & park hits on a 3800 & eldo with old raichles & plates. the ankle support from hardshells is a must landing airs & blasting chopped up crud. I've tried to use soft gear a couple times over the yrs and end up frustrated with sore feet. Unless you need to tweak airs to impess the parkrats, plastic boots can do it all.

[MUD]

It's the board..... I can take it off your hands for you.:D

[Michael_A]

I have a Volkl Cross and it works great with plates. I have size 13 ft so I need the width and run at 50/45. The short scr is good on my home mountain which is kind of small.

Last week I had a lot of fun in powder on my softie setup so I tried switching it over to the Cross and it was no fun. The cross is pretty stiff so it needs a lot of speed and softboots don't work for high speed (for me).

In my (3-year) experience softboots are a blast with the right equipment, conditions, etc. but if you like to ride fast and pull high g's you should be on plates.

Personally, I'm going through a phase where I'm learning some new tricks, riding with my sons (age 6 and 8) etc and am enjoying a sofboots a lot more than hard. I think it all comes down to what you want to do, your comfort level with risk/speed, etc.

Michael

[pebu]

I thought the same thing for a while there. I opened the year riding my hardboots and did that for a couple days. Then when I finally decided to warm up my soft boots they were so uncomfortable that I made one run (350 vertical feet, mind you) and said that was enough. I put plates on my board just to try it out. It was alright for some stuff, but I found when I landed off of a little jump or hit a bump or something it just killed my legs. If the landing wasn't perfect I could feel it all the way up my back. I need to be able to move my legs wherever I need them when I'm landing, and I have to use soft boots to do it. Recently we had a good pow day and so luckily I had my soft bindings on again. I switched over and was alot more comfortable this time. Just give it a little time to get used to them.

In a perfect world I'd be on hardboots going through head high pow on a swallowtail. Drops wouldn't matter cause, well, the pow is head high. But in real life, I'm gonna take some drops and I need some suspension.

[carvedog]

Had to teach at our "beginner" mountain a couple of days ago. 14 inches of fresh and a new high speed quad giving a lift ride to the top in 3 minutes or so. 650 vertical feet.

I was in softies and I sure didn't mind the 9 runs of untracked that I had. Sure I could have slashed it a little harder in hbs, but it was awesome.

Other than my Burners where I run 65/63 angles, I couldn't tell what my stance angles or SCR is on a single board that I ride and I have seven boards and bindings setups mounted and ready to go.

So don't worry about numbers. Point it and ride it.

[Guest]

Hey DiveBomber, you're definitely not along. I actually ran into the same thing/feelings this past weekend.

I busted a cuff cant disk on my hard boots on Saturday, and I tried to ride anyway on Sunday but it wouldn't work. So I went back and grabbed the softies. I haven't touched that set up in over 2 seasons. I tried setting them up with similar angles to the plates, so it wouldn't feel so weird. My problem is I feel like I'm going to pop off the board because there's just too much squishing and movement. Two very short runs later, I was on my way back to the car. I hate softies now. I will actually wait until the new part comes to ride again over going out on softies for a day.

Oh, and then I locked my keys in the trunk of my car. What a good day I had. Especially considering the very rare occassion of perfect cord and great conditions on the east coast that I missed out on........at the rate I was going, I should have just rented some skiis to try out!

I'm thinking of selling it all off too. If I sell the whole set up I can probably pick up a third carving board

[yyzcanuck]

... I busted a cuff cant disk on my hard boots on Saturday, and I tried to ride anyway on Sunday but it wouldn't work. ...

Angie, please report this failure to the shop where you purchased your boots. The manufacturer needs real data on failure rates and simply do NOT receive feedback from customers.

If your boots are within warranty... even more reason to report and rectify the failure.

If your boots are outside the warranty period... still report the failure directly to the distributor and/or manufacturer with such information as typical days ridden per year, model, year, digital images and of course, point of and date of purchase.

Threadjack over.

[Guest]

I was the same way when I tried using my softies on a big pow day. the slop was unbearable, and the numb toes and pinching sucked.

Sold them the next day.

[bobdea]

I think this happens to allot of people, it happened to me as well but I put in allot of days on both types of gear in the past so I've been fairly comfortable on both. the right gear for softies is essential as is stance and technique.

there was a point where I could charge lines on both hardboots and a race stick or softies and a jib stick that the average rider could not do on either. now I am the average or maybe below average rider because I started to suck a couple years ago and I get worse every year. anyway, my point is that both types of gear certainly have advantages, softboots are not that bad but are as different as telemark skis are to alpine.

[Dr D]

I ride both regularly.

a couple of ideas first I find that it takes several runs to "shift gears" from one set up to another.

second on softies the board makes all the difference for carving. I recomend very few. the f2 Bx is a great softie carver but not so good with hard boots in my opinion. the garage boards carve well. the dynastar and osin boards often discussed here carve well. boards react differently on softies for sure.

angles are a huge part of it. Many hardbooters use specific angles no matter what board they are on. This is a big no-no on softies. You simply don't have enough leverage to pull it off. you must set your heels and toes as close to the edge as possible without booting out. Its the only way to fully control the board. I will open up the back foot angle a few degrees on deep powder days so I get a surfier feel but its back forward again on groomer days.

very few boards will perform in chunky and icy conditions with soft boots. the madd bx will and the osins will although you have to be fairly aggressive.

[Dr D]

the technique to hold a line is more demonstrative as well.

I drive the front knee into the hill on my turns so it goes hard left on left turns and hard right on right turns. think of it as forcing the nose to bite harder. It prevents the washout experience so common with softies.

get stiff boots. I also prefer stepins switch N-type if you can find them in your size on ebay.

[lonerider]

I ride both regularly.

a couple of ideas first I find that it takes several runs to "shift gears" from one set up to another.

I agree with Dr D and Carvedog... while it's the same idea on a softboot board (get the board up on edge and your weight balanced over it) a lot of hardbooters try to do *exactly* the same thing as they do on their alpine boards and that' s the wrong technique... also softboot aren't as stiff, so you need to use more of your own lower leg muscle that *ahem* some hardbooters have not be working out for a while having their ankles encased in 5 pounds of stiff plastic.

I just got back from five days of riding, I was on a Prior Khyber 160 split and softboots riding ~4 feet of fresh powder (photo of my lodge the first and second days of the storm) and while I had my brand new Head Stratos Pro and a wide Coiler in my car, I never looked back.

If you find that you can't ride softboot and freeride boards anymore, that's not because the board sucks... it's because you ...

[jtslalom]

DiveBomber,

I feel your anguish and all I can say is ride, ride and ride your soft boots until it comes as natural as riding your hard board. Don't throw your soft boot stuff out just yet but if you do I will buy it.

[bobdea]

I am riding hardboots most of the time right now but I still have the same soft setup and I was railing pretty good on it last winter.......

there is this thing that happens to some of us hardbooters, I swear it's a cross of discomfort with soft gear and the other half has more to do with us wanting to feel like the hardboots are superior for everything.

I just try to use gear for what it does best, both kinds have huge advantages over the other for certain things.

[tufty]

I can't ride softies any more, although I am perfectly willing to admit that this may well be because I suck rather than the softie concept. For me, it's a purely comfort thing, I cannot (or, rather, have never managed to) get softboots that fit properly, and even those that seemed relatively comfortable then became painful when combined with ratcheting the straps down enough. About the only system that even came close to suiting me was Clicker, and there's so little choice of boots in that range that "it either fits a bit or it doesn't"...

Sure, I could probably blow a huge wedge of cash on some top of the range softies, super-comfortable bombproof bindings and a special board for my softies, but I'd rather spend it on cheese, alcohol, and porn*.

Simon

* cheese optional

[willywhit]

Sure, I could probably blow a huge wedge of cash on some top of the range softies, super-comfortable bombproof bindings and a special board for my softies, but I'd rather spend it on cheese, alcohol, and porn*.

Simon

* cheese optional

don't softies feel nicer in billowy fluffy powder ?

Ooooooooo La La !

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[Dave Winters]

"it was pretty bumpy/choppy/icy."

I'd just as soon be indoors! Just me.

[Dave Winters]

Having said that, for what it's worth I have a softie setup that I love for powder, which works out to at least 4 out of 10 days here in Steamboat. A good fit is crucial on the boots. I have Flow boots with Boa lacing, Flow bindings and Arbor A Frame 170. (Thank you Snowboard Journal)

[eastcoasticerider]

I really liek my setup mentioned above.Its just more fun than ripping down the hill so freaking fast tha the ride is over too quik.....I used to ride my Burton Alp with Reactors in Walkaround mode on powder days(few and far between)..now I can relax more into the ride ,...softboot sjust seem more natural..yes less precise edging but more relaxed fun..especially in smaller snow parks........

[Dave ESPI]

Use the right tool for the right job.

You can't expect to ride a carver like such with soft boots and not have the proper stance or bindings for it.

I'm really tired of hearing people POO-POO on soft boots and set ups.

YES this is a hardbootin' site, but there are times that hardboots just won't be as good as soft gear, and vice versa.

Lets quit the flaming of soft VS hard.

Ride what you want, and enjoy its unique differences equaly :)

[Przemek/Brooklyn]

Hi

I ride bouth hard and soft. There are four reasons i ride soft:

1 powder.

2 trying jumps and tricks in the park (decided to be more diverse this year)

3 teaching (i teach beginers, so there is a lot of walking pluse my students can relate better to what i show)

4 carving, i use soft boots on my tanker just to demonstrate that proper carving turn is posible in soft boots, also i can do extreme carving in ideal condition on my soft setup.

All just to make a point how bad current popular soft snowboard technique is.

Granted i use more agresive stence to eliminate toe drag and improve my hillside, somthing like 35/30

it is almost the same, snowboard is snowboard. soft boots are just less convinient on ice (more difficult to generate enough presure)

[Mike T]

We've been getting pounded with powder for the past two weeks. After only riding softies 3x last season I have ridden them about half my time on snow this season in softies.

I find the ability to move laterally within the boots is very helpful when navigating tracked-out deep snow as well as in deep snow in tight trees. I can make better last-millisecond corrections in softies.

Now, last year I was singing different tune. Part of the reason was that my 7 year old soft bindings were not as comfortable or as responsive as the brand new ones the wifey bought me for xmas. Part of the reason is that I have a troublesome hip which received a lot of attention ovetr the summer and fall and is much less troublesome this year.

I get less tired riding deep snow in softies. I still prefer a Tanker and plates for wide open untracked pow, but once things get tracked I'd rather be on softies and in the tight trees.