lonbordin Posted December 13, 2009 Report Share Posted December 13, 2009 I was both anxious and stoked today to go for my first runs of the season in hard boots. My son had a basketball game this morning so we got a late start to the hill and I threw everything in the car in the rush for the hill. I had decided to go with 51F (3 degree toe lift) and 45R (3 degree heel lift, 1 degree outward cant<- see I am reading and listening ) on my Rad-Air tanker 167 (2001). First run... not comfortable... feet or hips. Something felt wrong... Once the lift to the top was done (resort at the top at Paoli Peaks) I checked... everything was tight. So I took another run. (Note: My ten year-old was so patient with his old man today... love that kid.) Still not OK so I lowered my stance angles... to the minimum allowed by board width... Went for most of the day... things ok... my "Norms" sucked way worse than last season on my crappy softboot setup. We took a snack break and I double-checked my setup... my liners were on the wrong foot. <insert horribly="" descriptive="" profanity="" here=""> I have no idea when or how that happened... still don't. Switched liners... oh my the difference. Set the bindings back to the original setup... (BTW- the CATEKs are addictably adjustable.) Took a couple of runs... much better. Some carves, feet feeling better, things grooving. And I see another hard booter (Hey Jim! :) He's a self-described BOL lurker). We managed to meet him for our last run. I was drooling over his 179 Donek Freecarve II, sweet. On the aforementioned run I was riding an area that I had not before under the snow guns. Yes, I know about the snow piles under snow guns but I guess in the off season I forgot. So I hopped off a little bump to land on another bump... instead of landing on the top my board went through the bump and came to an abrupt stop... well the board tried to but as I believe fervently in the conservation of momentum I continued forward. My son described it as "cool". He told me he thought I was attempting to pulling a full forward flip which he though I was going to make!!! Ummn, son when have I ever tried to pull a full forward flip?! Alas that isn't happening anytime soon and my board buried tail first in the very next snow bump. I erupted with embarrassed laughter at this point with the only immediate evidence of the mishap being my displaced goggles. I got back up to finish up the run and something was not right... really not right. I had delaminated the entire area around my front binding. So here I meet a BOL member and proceed to break my board... while I'm a big guy I have never broken a snowboard... ever (23 years) until now. I'm guessing he might think I'm a complete spaz. He was really nice about it (thanks Jim!) and I'm here none the worse for wear. The search for a real carving board has now begun in earnest!!! I'll go back to the hill tomorrow on the Lib Tech Grocer... trying not to break that one!!! Sorry that was so long BOL thanks for all the advice so far!</insert> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowman Posted December 13, 2009 Report Share Posted December 13, 2009 Sounds like you had a very eventful first day. Awsome! It gets better each time you do it so don't stop. As for angles, on wider boards back em off but still be steep enough to not drag. Welcome to hardbootin, you may like many of us never look back! Check your liners! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carve234 Posted December 13, 2009 Report Share Posted December 13, 2009 Yes, I did in fact get to witness the epic demise of lonbordin's tanker... In fairness to his son, it actually did look like he tried to pull some kind of crazy front flip. Although most people try to do that stuff while they're still in the air, instead of waiting until they hit the ground again, haha. And at this point, I'd only give you partial spaz. You've got to really earn complete spaz... At the end of the day, it sucks that you broke your board, but at least you didn't break yourself. THAT would have been a really unfortunate start to the season... On a semi-related note, later that evening I saw another hardbooter, but never managed to catch up to him. Good to know there are others out there, even in Indiana. There was also alot of interest from the softbooters. There was a normal amount of the, "WOW!! I've never seen anything like that! What is it?!?!" kind of interest, but quite a few people wanted to know where they could get one. Of course, I directed them here - hopefully, we can bring a few more softbooters over to the dark side... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave ESPI Posted December 14, 2009 Report Share Posted December 14, 2009 Good story ! The liners reversed is epic chuckles! Assoverteakettle is always fun. I had one similar lastyear @ Berkshire east as I merged up and out of a trail looking to get some air, but the snow was way soft just like the snowgun whale you stuffed into, and U catapulted similarly infront of a bunch of BOL riders too. Luckily I was fine and so was my gear. I would be upset if I trashed a board, but also relieved that I was not the one going home "busted". Find a new good board and swap your gear over, you are still able to ride again ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonbordin Posted December 14, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 14, 2009 BOOORing... no broken boards... no wipeouts... no really painful feet. Just me and my Lib Tech Grocer (180), Cateks and hardboots. Had to lower those stance angles a good bit for the Grocer!!! All in all a good day but sans good writing material. The Grocer definitely doesn't hold a line like the Tanker did (sniff) but I'm tired either way. I would say the combo of the orange Deeluxe Indys, the silver Cateks and the blue of the Grocer's top sheet seem to catch peoples eyes. Don't they know it's not polite to stare and whisper! :D And thank you for the previous post comments... Oh and Carve234 I call BS... no way there was another hard booter there. I've only seen one in the previous 4 years I've been riding there and if we are to believe you there were 3 there on the same day! Baloney! :rolleyes: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OhioCarver Posted December 14, 2009 Report Share Posted December 14, 2009 Lonbordin- there are a few of us out here in the Indiana/ Ohio area, but as I stated, few as in I think 3 total. But I have some time off in the next couple weeks and could come up to Paoli for a day or you could come down to Perfect North - whatever works best- Good luck on the board search. I think I've bought all my last few boards from right here in the Bomber classifieds. Everyone has been great. Big shout out to the general Hardbooter public for making this such a great forum and group to be a part of- Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonbordin Posted December 15, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 15, 2009 Lonbordin- there are a few of us out here in the Indiana/ Ohio area, but as I stated, few as in I think 3 total. But I have some time off in the next couple weeks and could come up to Paoli for a day or you could come down to Perfect North - whatever works best- Good luck on the board search. I think I've bought all my last few boards from right here in the Bomber classifieds. Everyone has been great. Big shout out to the general Hardbooter public for making this such a great forum and group to be a part of- Jeff I've been meaning to close the deal for a while on this one... so I did. Carve234 said he spotted another hard booter so that was 3 on the hills of Paoli on the same day... amazing. I'd love to go this week but work is crazy... I'm merging the IT of 2 companies... the horror. We might slip down for Wednesday night or Thursday night but it is all up in the air. My son's b-ball tournament starts Tuesday night if they win they keep playing and I could have no free nights. I'm thinking I will meet up with you this season. I need more carving input! Hopefully by next week I'll have a carving board as well. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carve234 Posted December 16, 2009 Report Share Posted December 16, 2009 Looks like Paoli has claimed some more equipment... Went up there to ride for the afternoon today. It was almost completely empty, and conditions weren't bad, all things considered. Definitely alot more brown than there was on Sat, but the hills were mostly hard frozen cord that dissolved to frozen granular in the more trafficked areas. Got in a solid 4 hours of tearing up the open run under the lift before I realized that the frozen cord had torn open the palm of my left glove. I figure it's nothing a little duct tape wont fix, so I decide to try to track some down before it gets worse. I get to the top of the hill and reach down to unbuckle my front foot and realize that the toe of my left boot has a gaping crack running from where the tongue attaches down the inside of the boot, almost to where the toe pad attaches. Needless to say, this ended my day on the hill... Is this a common problem with snowboard boots? I want to say that I had heard of shells cracking on some of the old boots that used the transparent shells, but do newer boots do this? I guess mine aren't (or weren't, since they've moved on to a better place now) exactly new, but I wouldn't really call them old either. They're a set of Blax Franz boots that have probably 3 seasons of use - I bought them new in '04 or '05, but I know that they were made a bit before that. I guess that the main reason I ask is because I'm now in the market for a new pair of boots, and since it seems like boot prices have skyrocketed since I last bought them, I will probably look more closely at the classifieds. At least it was just the equipment that broke, and not me... Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonbordin Posted December 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2009 Bummer about the boots... maybe Santa will provide??? or maybe you'll just have to watch the boards like a hawk! OR maybe a Want to Buy post will provide?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinpa Posted December 21, 2009 Report Share Posted December 21, 2009 At least it was just the equipment that broke, and not me... Jim Ok, you guys are scaring me..... is this becomming the motto of this thread?????? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b0ardski Posted December 21, 2009 Report Share Posted December 21, 2009 I have some Blax that are at least a decade old but most of the occasional use they see has been with stepins. Toe clips on standard binders put more concentrated pressure on the boot sole, and allow more twisting of the shell. Probably would not have happened with the fuller support of a stepin toe bail:( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b0ardski Posted December 21, 2009 Report Share Posted December 21, 2009 Ok, you guys are scaring me..... is this becomming the motto of this thread?????? I'd be surprised if someone you size would ever tear up a boot Kathy:eek: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinpa Posted December 21, 2009 Report Share Posted December 21, 2009 thanks..... great picture!!!! at least I could reach the top!!!! reminds me of a pair of 190 skiis that I used to own.... UGH So, ok..... you are right, I have never broken any equipment. I'm not sure I have it in me to be that aggressive!!! (Heck, I'm getting old.... don't want to break myself either!!!!) Plus, my only "injury" (knock on wood) was back in the early 90s when I was still in college. My boyfriend and I went to Jack Frost in Northeastern PA at night... I was showing off at the bottom near a lift and caught an edge hard... landed so hard on my tailbone.... sat in the patrollers room with ice on my ass!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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