what e-pads to buy?

[hoffmac11]

im going to order a set of new td3's from bomber soon, and as much as i like to talk to Fin on the phone, its late and i feel like asking a question.so a little history first..im knew to the alpine board community, but all last year i turned my soft boot bindings forward to 'learn the carve'. and i probably have at least 20 days of carving on my softboot set up, so this year im going all out..i just bought a donek blade 180cm board, head stratos pro boots(sz M29.5) and now i need the td3's. i know i want 3 degree cants,but what e-pads? soft,medium,or hard?

a little more info, im 6'6", and weigh in at a solid 220lbs ready to ride..im use to speed, i typically ride 193cm super g skiis, but i also pull out a pair of kessler 213cm skiis when i feel like i really want to go fast..which is a couple times a month during ski season.i know skiing isnt the same as alpine boarding, but you get the picture.i like the solid feeling of boot to skiis...or in this case, boot to board.i only want to carve the slopes, no powder,no trees etc..my hometown resort really doesnt get ice. its always well groomed, and decently smooth. for alpine boarding, i want to get my elbows to the snow,with the right technique of course, so i want, and like a solid feedback from my board.and now im wondering, what e-pads do i want? at first, i figure the red e-pads since their the stiffest, and that would benefit for my weight, but would they be to stiff? what does the rest of bomber think? im sure ill be calling fin in the morning:D

[Puddy Tat]

I'm 6'2" and not quite as solid as I'd like at 225. My boots are mondo 28.

I ride TD3 Step-ins on both of my boards. On the AM board I use the yellow elastomer, as I like having a bit of shock absorbtion and movement.

I used to use the yellow elastomer on my carving board as well and rode with them for the 09/10 season but last season I decided to try the blue. Personally i thought the response was better from the blue, less laggy, without a hugely noticeable loss in suspension ride quality. That is I could feel more of the inconsistencies in the surface I was riding on.

There was a thread on air suspension last year where Scooby stacked a yellow elastomered TD3 on a TD2 suspension kit. In that thread I posted my opinion on going to a blue from yellow elastomer.

http://www.bomberonline.com/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=323075&postcount=24

I also know when I initially went from a non-suspension binding to the TD3s with yellow elastomers I really appreciated how much smoother the ride felt. Not getting pounded by the terrain let me focus more on what I was supposed to be doing and perhaps that little bit of lag prevented some body errors from getting to the board edge. Interestingly enough I have since then switched my boot tongues to the softer black version. So I've stiffened the binding to board interface but allowed for more ankle flex.

If I were you I'd order a couple of extra sets of elastomers and decide which ones you want to use while you are riding. At $29 a set an extra $60 will get you the other two colours that don't come with your bindings. That way you don't have to dick around with extra shipping costs later.

This being said I've never tried Reds but wouldn't mind giving them a shot.

Dave

[Hans]

, i want to get my elbows to the snow,with the right technique of course, so i want, and like a solid feedback from my board.and now im wondering, what e-pads do i want? at first, i figure the red e-pads since their the stiffest, and that would benefit for my weight, but would they be to stiff? what does the rest of bomber think? im sure ill be calling fin in the morning:D

If you want to do extremecarving or something like that, you'll need the opposit setup of what you are writing here: you'll need flexy supportive boots and a board/binding setup which absorps the terrain as much as possible. So I should start with yellow elastomeres and from there you can always go to harder/tougher elastomeres. Those things aren't that expensive to test around a bit.

[fin]

hoffmac11,

I addressed this a bit in that other thread but more here.

First, we need to define the parts here. These are the E-Pads:

http://www.bomberonline.com/store/bindings/TD3_SW_Epads.cfm

And these are the E-rings:

http://www.bomberonline.com/store/bindings/TD3_parts_rings.cfm

E-Pads go in the SW binding only. The E-rings go under the cants of all TD series bindings.

For your height and weight I would suggest the Blue (medium) E-Rings, and if you go SW then DEFINMATLY the Blue E-Pads. We are find that only light weight riders should be using the yellow E-pads at this point.

Call any time! We'll help you out if you still have questions.

[hoffmac11]

yes i was wrong in naming the parts..i meant to say the e rings..my mistake, and thanks for pointing that out..

so it seems like i will go with the td3 standards, with blue e rings...thanks so much!