Poll: How did you get started out on hardboots?

[BlueB]

4 hours ago, xy9ine said:

started boarding in the mid-80's, and coming from skiing, found the sorell / highback interface to be fairly shit, so tried my ski boots (stiff lange zr's) in some gnu highbacks (using only the ladders / ratchets), which worked surprisingly well. ran this setup for a couple years prior to picking up some proper burton plates & hard boots. 

The pic is legendary, in deed! 

I had some very similar pants back than, long ponytail, used a head band instead of toque, and "Lennon" style shades. But I still skied... 

Otoh, I used my hardboots in strap bindings as recently as 2 years ago. Just to prove a point to CASI. 

[Colozeus]

One day i saw @piusthedrcarve carving it up at Whitetail in PA. I had no idea what that was but it looked so cool. i actually tried chasing him down but could never catch up. What followed was some furious googling until i somehow landed on some youtube videos and bomber forums. The rest is history. 

[John Gilmour]

When I started as the first East coast Sims rep, there was nothing that even remotely resembled a modern day soft boot. I rode in L.L. bean boots as a rep for the first season. Burton sold moon boots that were worse than using a construction boot. Quickly I found Sorels were only good for keeping your feet warm, and since bindings did not have high backs the Sorel was useless for a heelside carve on ice.

So Tom Sims told me he was using a Koflach Valluga Lite randonee ski boot. I immediately became a dealer for those and was the ONLY person on the east coast pushing hardboots telling people you could actually turn well heelside in our typical frozen granular conditions .

I was the first person I saw to use hard boots on ththe East Coast. A few people years later used ski boots , but the trend then was rear entry ski boots which worked terribly in snowboard bindings and needed modification to even fit them.

 

My boot evolution 

1. LL bean bone spur city.

2. Koflach Valluga lite Red  (tried Sorels F that)

3. Koflach Albona (Damian Saunders boot) Yellow

4. Nordica TR-9 (cousin of SBH) still have and use a pair 

5. Raichle 700s rode for 6 runs and sold them.

6. Airwalk , awlful

7. Solomon Malamute awful but used them for 2 seasons but mostly rode hard boots

8. Burton Andy Warhol bought 7 pairs.

9 . Burton SLX bad design , returned them after 2 days.

10. 2018 32 Binary Boa with booster straps, my current boot. I'm on pair 5.

 

Softboots weren't capable of good perfomance of carving for the average snowboarder  until the last few years. Now stiffer than average softboots  are so comfortable and warm, and capable of good performance carving it itmis not icy, that I don't miss my hardboots as much.  A pair of Nordica TR-10 are currently in the mail back to me, I'm going to try and mod them.

Most of today's  plastic shell boots suitable for splitboarding do not have enough padding in the inner liner and I find myself bottoming out the liner into the unforgiving plastic with forceful riding ....I would  go back to hardboots full time if:

 

1. If The liners had beefy padding 

2. If The liners dried out faster and did not stink (current 32 brand softboots have this miracle anti-microbial liner and so do many socks) but hardboots liners used to rot because thy nare vet dried fast enough ven when removing them to dry...mostly b abuse the plastic shells did not breathe.

3. If the weight were kept down to be about 1/2 of softboots (this is easy)

4. If heel rentention was as good as current good quality softboots .

5. If thy were as easy to put on and remove

6. If they had a truly good walk mode. Current good performance carving  softboots also suck for walking.

7. If  they had progressive  flex and I didn't get shin bruising from hitting plastic that SUDDENLY HITS A STOP and won't bend anymore.

8. If the inner liner had proper lacing that was thick enough to not cut through the liner and instead distributed clamping force 

9. If they had replaceable low cost liners.

10. If The fit were as advanced as quality Softboots.

Edited January 21, 2021 by John Gilmour

[charliechocolate]

1 hour ago, John Gilmour said:

I would  go back to hardboots full time if:

* laundry list *

So basically, never.

[Jack M]

11 hours ago, John Gilmour said:

If The liners had beefy padding 

Intuition Power Wrap is not enough?

11 hours ago, John Gilmour said:

If The liners dried out faster

Take them out of the shells and this is not an issue.

11 hours ago, John Gilmour said:

If the weight were kept down to be about 1/2 of softboots (this is easy)

My .951s are noticeably the lightest hardboots I've had.  They're heavier than my Driver X's, but it doesn't seem to be a problem.  1/2 of softboots?  That would probably be a $3000 carbon fiber affair.

11 hours ago, John Gilmour said:

If heel rentention was as good as current good quality softboots .

If you had ever tried Mountain Slope (or Northwave) or UPZ you wouldn't say this at all.  Your Deeluxe T700s are notorious for poor heel retention.  They work for some people, but it seems to be the minority.

11 hours ago, John Gilmour said:

If thy were as easy to put on and remove

Now you're just whining.

11 hours ago, John Gilmour said:

If they had a truly good walk mode.

Walking performance is a criteria?

11 hours ago, John Gilmour said:

If  they had progressive  flex and I didn't get shin bruising from hitting plastic that SUDDENLY HITS A STOP and won't bend anymore.

Again, Mountain Slope, UPZ.  And Deeluxe with BTS.

11 hours ago, John Gilmour said:

If the inner liner had proper lacing that was thick enough to not cut through the liner and instead distributed clamping force 

Zipfit to the rescue.

11 hours ago, John Gilmour said:

If they had replaceable low cost liners.

You can't have everything.  This sport costs money.  If you divide the cost of new liners by the number of days you get out of them, they are already pretty darn cheap.

11 hours ago, John Gilmour said:

If The fit were as advanced as quality Softboots.

I simply do not see how you can say this at all.  Molded liners, custom footbeds, the fit is incredible.  I get more performance out of my .951 WC's than ever, and I don't even unbuckle them for lunch.

Your list of hardboots owned is ancient.  I don't think you know what you're talking about here.

[Tddragon]

1 hour ago, Jack M said:

Intuition Power Wrap is not enough?

Take them out of the shells and this is not an issue.

My .951s are noticeably the lightest hardboots I've had.  They're heavier than my Driver X's, but it doesn't seem to be a problem.  1/2 of softboots?  That would probably be a $3000 carbon fiber affair.

If you had ever tried Mountain Slope (or Northwave) or UPZ you wouldn't say this at all.

Now you're just whining.

Walking performance is a criteria?

Again, Mountain Slope, UPZ.  And Deeluxe with BTS.

Zipfit to the rescue.

You can't have everything.  This sport costs money.  If you divide the cost of new liners by the number of days you get out of them, they are already pretty darn cheap.

I simply do not see how you can say this at all.  Molded liners, custom footbeds, the fit is incredible.  I get more performance out of my .951 WC's than ever, and I don't even unbuckle them for lunch.

Your list of hardboots owned is ancient.  I don't think you know what you're talking about here.

I thought about how to respond that hardboots are simply better. You nailed it with each one of your points:)

[*Ace*]

The first snowboards available to rent at Mohawk Mountain in CT were Hooger Boogers with ski boots.

I got back into it on a random search for hardboots snowboarding around 2006 and saw the first Swoard video. That had me hooked and have been an alpine bum ever since. 

[jpwg]

(Joined for this topic, I realized how old my bindings were today and decided to try and get up-to-date.)

In 2000, I realized 2 things - three strap bindings were not coming back, and that if I wanted to get into splitboarding, hardboots would be better for my ankles. I really need to figure out how to replace my Cateks...

 

[John Gilmour]

I had deluxxe , and UPZ . They don’t work well for me I kinda liked the Northwave fit of the lower foot but they were Too high . These are problems I have had, we can easily determine others have not had issues or they wouldn’t spend most of their time in hardboots . 
 

I like hardboots that work well for me and allow me to toss myself all Over the hill without feeling like I’m wearing clumps of inflexible plastic . I feel a comfort fit with intuition liners but not a performance fit because of the foam density and I “bottom out”  their liners. I thought the dual density liners  were better ...  but still my foot is as not held well enough.

It just comes down to generations of soft boots vs hardboots . The hardboots don’t change every year and refine the fit and foam durometers. 

I like the weight of the touring boots but the liners are so thin. There is not enough material “squish travel” to prevent bottoming out the liner onto the hard plastic . 

I really Want a near touring weight (split boarding)  hardboot about 15-  20% taller with progressive flex  , and a liner I can’t bottom out .

I’m sure  Beckman could put me into something I truly like # total boot genius.

 

[b0ardski]

size up backlands and add a high volume inuition