Soft Boots & Custom Cut Carving

[mrjamie]

Usually they groom the runs, but not saturday night... wow that last wall was so bumpy :p

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the heel side & toe side turn threads in the carving community forums... I did a lot of reading before these videos ;)

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Comments & questions welcome.

Equipment:

Driver-X boots, SPX 90 bindings, 164 custom rad-air swallowtail (originally 187 tanker)

bindings:

51 front, 30 back (how do I do toeside turns on moguls with angles like these on soft boots? help!! :p)

[snowboardfast]

back your angles way down. There is no need to ride 51/30 on a soft boot set up. I am riding 30 degrees on the front and maybe 25 on the rear and can carve well and i am not booting out. If you need to ride that steep to avoid over hang then you need a wider board. The mellower angles will give you more stabilty and better turning power and edgehold on toeside turns. It will also work better on bumps and steep terrain. Have fun with your soft boots! I am doing a lot more soft booting this year and am wondering if I will be riding hardboots much. I like the versatility and lighter weight. Save the steeper angles for hardboots and a narrow alpine board if you are going to do it.

[mrjamie]

back your angles way down. There is no need to ride 51/30 on a soft boot set up. I am riding 30 degrees on the front and maybe 25 on the rear and can carve well and i am not booting out. If you need to ride that steep to avoid over hang then you need a wider board. The mellower angles will give you more stabilty and better turning power and edgehold on toeside turns. It will also work better on bumps and steep terrain. Have fun with your soft boots! I am doing a lot more soft booting this year and am wondering if I will be riding hardboots much. I like the versatility and lighter weight. Save the steeper angles for hardboots and a narrow alpine board if you are going to do it.

I put the front down to 30 after my legs started hurting :p

I have size 29.5 boots, so even with a 26.8 nosewith I have to ride at least 30, and even then I can feel my toes in the snow on sharp toesides, and get a bit of binding out on heelside. Ah well. I was looking for wider boards, but the 167 rad-air is only .7 cm wider, and anything more than 27 will probably feel too wide even if I can get lower angles.

Enjoy your softies :) I agree with you about the versatality and flex you get with them.

[NateW]

I'd try lower angles too... personally I like about 5 degrees difference between front and rear so I run 45/40 on a board with a 23cm waist and I'd probably go about 40/35 on a Tanker (25cm waist IIRC?).

It looks like you're swinging your front arm quite a bit, especially as you enter toeside turns. I like to keep my arms (& body, for that matter) as quiet as possible.

But mostly it looks to me like you're doing fine.

[Michael_A]

I have size 13 (Mondo 30) feet and my original board was 26cm waist. I am riding at 30/15. I got some Palmer Risers (20mm) and that ended boot-out completely. It also gives you a lot more power onto the edge (I don't know why but they work as advertised!)

I second the recommendation to back down your angles and either use a wider board or risers to avoid bootout.

I personally love wide boards and don't find them any slower edge to edge.

Michael

[jtslalom]

mrjamie,

I'm always looking to talk to some one who realizes that hard carving can be done on soft boots. You angles are fine dude. If they feel comfortable to you then don't change them. If you are planning on riding or trying to carve switch you may want to think about turning your front back some 20 degrees or so. In either case I ride my soft boots 49 back and 46 front. This is about as steep as I will ever go with soft boots. My good buddy Shawn rides flat. I'm telling you it doesn't matter what your angles are. It is all a matter of how you ride. Both Shawn and I can hold our carves well especially out here in the east. I am amazed at how well Shawn does it at such flat angles. The other day it was fairly hard conditions and he was holding his turns like glue. I will post a video of some truely awsome soft boot carving that any one would think we were hard booting by the way we hold our carves. It looks like you are well on your way dude. Don't give up the hard board all together but definately stay on that soft board as much as possible. Nice video.

[Michael_A]

jtslalom,

Hey, I would love to see any good videos of softboot carving...do you know of any links to some good ones?

I am riding at 30/21 on a softer board and finding those angles are fine, just about to upgrade to a stiffer board (Donek Sasquatch) and boots which I hope will make things even better!

Michael

[mrjamie]

jtslalom, thanks.

There are tons of incredible carvers out here in Niseko, especially on the Annupuri International resort side. Every time I watch them ride I realize how lame my carves are :p -- and they have much lower angles!

I went ahead and bought a pair of risers -- even if it is just technique, when I cut the board I shortened the effective edge by a lot, and binding/boot out on heelsides carves is driving me nuts :p

After reading some replies here, I think I'm going to go kick the angles up in the forties and maybe move my front binding back just a little. I look forward to your videos.

Be well, ride well :)