are td3 SW recommended for big feet/high stance angles??

[fin]

hoffmac11,

You have already gotten some good advice here so no comment there. But do want to address your original question of using SW at higher than "normal" angles.

At the SES last year I took a guy who rides lots of the skinny type decks (Skwal, Virus, etc) and asked him to try the SW. I had my suspicions that as you start heading towards say 90 degrees of angle on the plates, the action of the SW becomes a detrimental to performance. The SW has lateral flex, as it was designed to, and this is desirable when you still have your toe and heel to create side force on the edge of the board. But at say 90 degrees, ALL you have is the lateral force of the boot/binding to create edge to snow force. So the suspicion that at 90 degrees the SW would not work well was tested.

Result? Yea, it did not work well at 90 degrees. He had some serious issues getting the board to hold an edge as the SW would just "roll-over" instead of bite down. Once again, this was at around 90 degrees on the bindings, the most extreme case for this.

So when does it become an issue at the more traditional angles? Not sure, we have riders using the SW at up to 70 degrees with no issues. So for most of us, it works great.

Keep in mind, if you have large feet and want to maintain a certain angle, making the board a width that works for this is the better route.

Side note: we now recommend the blue E-Pads (one that goes in the SW itself) if you are a male rider of average to higher weight. If you are a lighter rider or using an all mountain set-up we would suggest the yellow E-pads.

Cheers,

[hoffmac11]

Hey Hoffmac, I'm just curious, what snowboard HB are you going with?

head stratos pro...

[carvedog]

i kind of feel the typical alpine boarder is less than 6' tall, no more than 170lbs, and a boot size around 26..

I kind of envision the typical alpine boarder at 6 feet, 250 and boot size 28.5.....oh wait, that's me.

Going mach schnell on a snowboard is very different than on skiis though. Because you only have one edge in contact with the snow at one time, having that slight "softness" or damening effect from the binding can be a very good thing. I switched bindings last year, going from super stiff cateks to Sidewinders. The lateral flex took a couple runs of getting used to, but once I did it increased my confidence level at high speeds and was the superior of the bindings by far. I run lower angles at 57* 57*, and am a lot lighter than you guys as well.

Long story short, don't be afraid of the flex the elastomers provide. It's all for the best.

Jim speaks truth here. I am very interested in the SW for my more free carve boards in particular. Because of my size and running almost 70 degrees on an 18 cm board, I will be cautious with the SW if I run it on that board. But....that said, I currently run on some pretty loose Burton Race plates. I don't like a lot of bail tension at all in my setup. On my powder plates I can actually slide my toe back and forth and feel that a bit. So what the hell do I know?

Sure would like to get on the Bombers again.

[Steve Prokopiw]

so a little off topic;but the Sidewinders were for me more dramatic than a plate for what I liked about the performance.I could see that being the other way around for someone who ran angles higher than 60 or so.Like adapting to a plate however,adapting one's riding to Sidewinders can enhance the experience they provide.Loved Sidewinders when I tried them on VIRUS UFC at SES last year at 55 and 52 degrees.It would be interesting to get on a really skinny board and try them at higher angles.