I hate my softboot setup or What I learned last time I rode it

[Derf]

Yesterday I got my soft setup out. The weather forecast was around 5 degrees Celcius so I expected the snow to be soft, so I said to myself "Why not take the softboots this time". I only brought my soft setup as I packed the car with other stuff because we were going cross-country skiing and maybe snowshoeing the same weekend. Boy was I wrong!

Last time I got my soft setup out was in January 2002 when I was trying to teach a guy to snowboard. Anyway, the guy gave up after one run because he found out he had trouble boarding because he had heel lift in his boots. So after that run, I got back on my hard setup. The last regular season I did on my soft setup was 2001, the year between the one where I sold my first alpine board and the one where I bought my actual alpine board.

Here is my soft setup:

1993 Burton Air 6.1

1993 Burton Freestyle bindings

2000 Burton Glide boots

As you can see, my board is quite old. Is is so soft, it has no snap and flexes like a wet napkin. In essence, a noodle. My binding have old straps, back when there was regular type rachet buckles, not the new style. The boots are soft freestyle boots, I didn't know when I bought them.

I remembered yesterday why I almost gave up snowboarding during the last season I used that board. It took me a couple of runs to remember how to carve a soft board, and it wasn't even good. I used to ride 24/12, but yesterday I tried 39/30, and it was even worst. The straps dug in my instep and my toes felt crushed on heelsides, even though the boots are the good size. The control was ****ty, I almost hit a 12 year old girl sitting on the blind side of a small pitch.

I don't know if I've become too accustomed to my hard setup, but I don't ever want to ride that setup again... ever!!! My hardboot setup is better in soft snow, hard snow, anytime, anywhere than my soft setup. I'll keep the board as a loaner for my friends. For the boots, I don't know yet...

Which brings me to the next logical step: I ride a 166 freecarve board with a 9.5m sidecut and 18.5cm waist. Sometimes I would like something more versatile for crappy snow/powder/trees days. Here is what I am hesitating between:

-An all-moutain board (ex: Coiler AMX/AM, Donek Axis, Prior 4wd, Burton Alp/Coil)

-A wide freecarve board (Burton Speed 168-225)

-A stiff freeride board (Donek Incline)

I am on a very limited budget (VERY limited...), so no new board. What do you guys think?

I saw an old Original Sin Sinner 167 at a shop nearby. It has a grey topsheet and appears to have a wide waist and a good flex. Looks like a wide freecarve board and they are selling it for 100$CDN. Anyone know anything about this board?

Thanks again.

[Mike T]

I found '90's Burton softie bindings and boots to be excruciatingly painful and not much fun. There are plenty of nice soft boots options out there nowadays. I still enjoy soft booting and in fact every time I do it I find my skills increase from all the carving in hard boots! I can't imagine I would have much fun on an old noodle with bindings and that kill my feet either.

As far as a true all-conditions board... I could make an argument for both the all-mountain alpine boards and the stiff freeride boards. I am a huge fan of the Donek freeride boards for both soft and hard boot applications... a few of them have shown up in the classifieds this season at very good prices, maybe there's another one lurking out there?

[CarvCanada]

Hey Derf! Hope you had some fun in the other activities (cross country etc.)

I went up to the Laurentians today and surprisingly the conditions were nice and buttery cord in the morning, developping to heavy, packed snow by mid-day.

Next week I'm up to Jay, and it's time for softies :) I really do agree that a bad softie set-up feels like a lunch tray, chattering and so frustrating. Add foot pain into that and it can get miserable! I have a cheapie softie set-up and it does feel like a tray on hardpack, but it is the official Jay Peak attack board, where you don't need a good board, and the glades will damage it anyway.

When I move to somewhere with great snow, I will have a solid softie set-up. Plates can't do it all

[Mark.Andersen]

Derf, here are the specs on the Osin.

Length: 167cm

Eff Edge: 142cm

Tip: 26.5cm

Waist: 21cm

Tail: 25.9cm

SCR: 10m

Never ridden one, but I've heard they aren't all that stiff. Probably would fit your needs well. Quite a bit of taper means it would probably release from a carve pretty easily if you need to hit the brakes quick.

[alpinegirl]

hey derf, i snagged a few days on an OSIN 167 (i am assuming that it's the same board) to prove to myself that i could ride the darn thing (i was borrowing it from a skier who seemed quite positive that i couldn't ride it since it was "too much board for him").

it does provide an interesting ride. i had it out on a day after we got some snow so by the afternoon everything was bumped up. the flex was relatively soft. notably the torsional stiffness was a bit lacking (the only other "long" board that i have to refer to is a renntiger, i suspect that i am a bit biased as well), so it was really easy to twist and drop through tighter turns. however i was not confident in it's stability when simply rolling edge to edge (again, i like my renntiger). but the ride was damp and i felt as though it absorbed a lot of crap quite nicely. in addition to this, it was easy to unweight the edge to catch some air off crud for some weightless transitions. it wasn't like a snappy tail sorta pop as much as it was a centered edge release.

oh, and easy to crank thorugh highspeed medium turns. generally it struck me as being quite forgiving and i didn't have to be as precise with my technique to ride it. then again, i am biased. i'll probably take it out again this week to get a feel for it in different conditions.

[Dan]

Originally posted by Derf

I saw an old Original Sin Sinner 167 at a shop nearby. It has a grey topsheet and appears to have a wide waist and a good flex. Looks like a wide freecarve board and they are selling it for 100$CDN. Anyone know anything about this board?

Thanks again.

Hey Derf, I have an O Sin Sinner 167, but I'm not sure if it's the same model as the one you saw. Mine has a blue-gray topsheet with small flame graphics at tip, waist and tail, and some playing cards at the waist with "Original Sin" printed below them. The base says "Sinner" in large letters that extend the length of the board.

Weird that everyone describes this as a pretty soft board; I've always thought that it's much stiffer than my Proton GS, and not as damp as people are describing. (Note that I only weigh 150 pounds.) It does have decent width, and though I've never taken it out on a really deep powder day, I've ridden it off-piste a few days after a storm and it floated and handled the crud OK.

One other thing to note is that the inserts are pretty close together. (Someone told me that was the Euro style when this board was made.) I'm 5' 11" and to get it comfy for me I'm using the frontmost inserts up front and the backmost (is that a word?) inserts in the back, with the base plate turned backwards to get another half inch or so. If you're much taller than me, you will struggle to find a riding position that works for you.

In a nutshell: I got this board on eBay for $75, and I feel like that was an OK price for it, but now that I have another alpine board, I've pretty much relegated this one to rock board/loaner status.

[kinpa]

I have an F2 Eliminator that I use with a Burton SI system. I wanted a board with a soft boot set-up, but I didn't want a soft freestyle board. The F2 Eliminator is a boarder-cross board and I love the way it carves even with soft boots on. I've been thinking about putting plates on it and trying it with hard boots sometime! I bet it would be fun that way too! Lately I've been having problems with my toes cramping up. It happens in my soft boots and my ski boots, but it hasn't happened in my hard boots. Someone said they thought it could be a potassium deficiency and that I should eat more bananas. Has anyone ever heard of that? Or does anyone else have problems with toes cramping up?

Kathy

[Guest dudleydudley]

Kathy:

If your feet are only cramping up in certain shoes/boots, it's more likely a fit problem than just a potassium deficiency. Do you usually cramp anywhere else? Or just your feet?

[Derf]

Mark, Alpinegirl & Dan:

Thanks for the info, quite interseting, I'll look into it.

Dan:

Do you know what the max stance width is? I am 5'8" and ride with a 18" stance (45cm).

Kathy:

I second dudley and think it probably is bad fitting boots. I eat one banana a day, plenty of potassium;)

CarvCanada:

I had a nice weekend. We went to St-Donat (Mont-Garceau). Nice place, nice conditions but the board sucked. The cross-country skiing was not so bad, a little to much slopes (I am a beginner skier). I did not get to do any snowshoeing as my friend did not have any. It is sad to have some brand new snowshoes I got around Christmas that I did not get to try out yet because of the lack of snow.

[Dan]

Derf - I'm running a 50 cm stance, measured king pin to king pin on my Cateks. (i.e., center of front plate to center of back plate)

[kinpa]

It happens with both pairs of boots that are new this year. My ski boots and my soft boots. No, no cramping anywere else.... just in my toes. I've never had that problem before. And yes, I have bad feet...... I've always had lots of problems with boot fit, but never the toe cramping like I'm getting now.

Kathy

[Guest dudleydudley]

Kathy:

If it's just the toe (or whatever), then what more-than-likely is happening is that your foot is in some weird position and to keep your balance, or to do whatever your feet normally do, you are overusing that one part of the foot. It's not a potassium problem.

[D-Sub]

last day up I noticed I was curling my toes under on toe turns! NO idea why!

maybe youre doin that?

or maybe youre just havin so much fun youre doin the toe curl thing;)