Stiffest softboots...

[piusthedrcarve]

I went through this stiffest softboots that perform like hardboots road few years ago.   I went that direction to test Asian carving softboot boards and went thru +5 softboots (Insano, Malamute, Driver X, Helio, Trident, etc.).   As @JRAZZ, I agree with Flow/Nidecker boots are the one that I would recommend.  The reduced footprint and detailed features that satisficing carving specific are the reasons.  

Now, I'm back to hardboots. and use softer UPZ boots w/ custom liners on all my alpine, freeride, and pow boards.  Much comfy, faster reaction time, and less stuff to carry.   Think outside of the box. 

Edited November 18, 2022 by piusthedrcarve

[ShortcutToMoncton]

So I just discovered that Nidecker discontinued the Talon. 

I’ve been in Malamutes for two decades but was thinking of trying something new.

Has anyone tried the F2 Eliminator boot? Comparison to Talon/Malamute?

[ShortcutToMoncton]

On 11/15/2022 at 12:50 PM, Shred Gruumer said:

New Deeluxe Edge Pro.

I found this boot bieng talked about on the Japan forums last year as being a new deeluxe boot in 22/23 release... 

Its finally here, well kind of. I found only one shop in the USA  who brought it in (Backcountry.com)  I bought the only size 28, and i think they only brought in 3 other sizes, one each.  Obviously they don't know what its about but lucky for me I searched every day for the arrival of the boot as nobody at the shop could tell me when or hold a pair for me.   

I previously emailed deeluxe and asked.. who , what and when they were coming.   So i been waiting for a while (determination).

I have ride insano's and this boot is stiffer , thicker , beefier with a stage 4 liner.. don't know what that means but its one more than 3.  Its pretty plush, nice feel and comfortable, true to size im a size large 9.5 street shoe and the 28 fits good more room than less room in the toes.  Good heel pocket .

Deeluxe has an youtube for the boot.

Its a bit of a chore to get it snug up top, but the booster strap is a ton of help.  

Feels good, I also bought those Power Ride inserts from japan too in case I need them.. they work!

 

 

 

Haha you’re right—seems to pretty much be unobtainium everywhere I’ve looked, especially in 26-26.5! Definitely let us know what you think. 

[softbootsurfer]

Hello, the Stiffest SB for performance, is a third strap up top and a locked High back, of course one of the greatest fallacies about a third strap is it eliminates Ankle Flex, this of course is not true, you can loosen or make the strap out of leather to provide as much flex as you want, also the Material of the High Back matters as well...the point is while you try to find Hard Soft Boots, you can use slippers with a third strap...just sayin 

[ShortcutToMoncton]

Haha I am not a third-strap fan, although I had two Burton Torques from ‘94 to ‘99 or so. 

[ShortcutToMoncton]

On 11/15/2022 at 9:08 PM, Shred Gruumer said:

 

How did you end up getting along with these Edge Pros? 

I found them in size 9 at a couple spots, but I figured I would wait for my true 8.5 (26.5). But haven’t been able to find that smaller size as of yet. 

[Shred Gruumer]

17 minutes ago, ShortcutToMoncton said:

How did you end up getting along with these Edge Pros? 

Over the summer I emailed deluxe to find out who placed orders.  They came back with evo shop.  I called them but the help wasn't that helpful...  Didn't know much about nothing.. typical help these days. They couldn't figure out how to reserve or order me a pair.  All they gave me was October.  So I watched there website religiously until they posted on site. It looked like the only order 4 sizes..one of each and started at size 28... They had no understanding of what the purpose they were for.  I bet someone who works there brought them in so they could get a pair.

Don't know if they can order, my bet is no because that's all they know what to say...kids.

My other option was going to be using Zen Market and pull them in from Japan which I have used several times.."Gray desperado" and a Ogasaka FC x carve.

I haven't looked since now as I have a pair.

I beefed them up even more by using the power ride tongues (Japan) and extra booster strap.. finally happy with my soft boots.

 

[CravingCarving]

On 11/15/2022 at 12:50 PM, Shred Gruumer said:

New Deeluxe Edge Pro.

I found this boot bieng talked about on the Japan forums last year as being a new deeluxe boot in 22/23 release... 

Its finally here, well kind of. I found only one shop in the USA  who brought it in (Backcountry.com)  I bought the only size 28, and i think they only brought in 3 other sizes, one each.  Obviously they don't know what its about but lucky for me I searched every day for the arrival of the boot as nobody at the shop could tell me when or hold a pair for me.   

I previously emailed deeluxe and asked.. who , what and when they were coming.   So i been waiting for a while (determination).

I have ride insano's and this boot is stiffer , thicker , beefier with a stage 4 liner.. don't know what that means but its one more than 3.  Its pretty plush, nice feel and comfortable, true to size im a size large 9.5 street shoe and the 28 fits good more room than less room in the toes.  Good heel pocket .

Deeluxe has an youtube for the boot.

Its a bit of a chore to get it snug up top, but the booster strap is a ton of help.  

Feels good, I also bought those Power Ride inserts from japan too in case I need them.. they work!

 

 

 

I had been riding the Ride Laso Pro (one step under Insano, totally regret not waiting) and destroyed them in a season. Initially they were significantly stiffer than my old boots, however by mid season, they were so floppy toe side was so much more work.

Backcountry just had a sale for the Edge Pros so I jumped on them. They are crazy stiff!!! My old boots stairs were barely different than hikers, with the Edge Pros it’s back to awkwardly going up and down stairs. I walk the same in them as my alpine boots.

The tongue is truly solid. The Laso I can bend the tongue in half and not much effort, where as the Edge I can barely flex it at all. (They are unridden, this could change)

First ride is this weekend, super stoked to try these out!

I will report how they feel on the snow.

[CravingCarving]

Ok, first ride with the Edge Pros and am very happy with them. Was at a resort that has some of the most technical terrain in our area (super steep) and also had a boardercross and banked slalom track just for some fun too. Sad it's the end of the season so I can't keep riding and working on my set up.

Here are my stiffness observations:

They are super stiff! With all my weight forward (195lb), I only needed to go one notch on my forward lean. (Used to have it all the way and still didn't touch). I did not source the extra tongue stiffeners you can get, and depending on how they break in (if they do) I don't think I will need to, but only time will tell.

Also they are so stiff that at the end of the day I lost my toe edge twice through the chop because I was so used to absorbing the bumps with my ankles and that is not much of an option with these, at least right out of the box. Had to remind myself to be more active with my knees than I had been over the last couple years, essentially equivalent to being in my alpine boots.

They are also laterally stiff. By the end of the day, my legs hurt on the inside of my calves where my cuff is from squeezing my legs together and the boot not moving. I was using a slightly wider than natural stance width and now know that I need to use nat stance with these.

Notes on fitment:

These boots were so much more comfortable than my 2nd season Ride's. No pressure, no numbness and when I took them off and put on my shoes, was just a footwear change, not a relief.

The mondo point, for me was spot on. I usually wear wide shoes and boots. Right out of the box, the width was good and I was shocked. I only had some light pressure on my big toe and my two small toes were jammed (was worried about how jammed they were). Got a boot fit and all toes were a little snug on the end, but comfortable and by the end of my day, same feeling as the start.

I am extremely happy that I picked these up, and am looking forward to progressing my riding with them next season.

If you have any questions, I am happy to try and answer them.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

Sounds great!

My Salomon Malamutes finally bit the dust in February during a Calgary vacation and at that time of the season I couldn’t find anything stiff in 26.5/8.5 except Burton Driver X, which are very stiff with a short sole length, but more expensive. But it was that or a much softer boot.

I think my last Burton boots were probably Rulers around 2000. I briefly went to Deeluxe and then a succession of Salomon Malamutes since then, but in recent years there’s been a lot of QC complaints about Salomon’s boots and I decided to try something new.

The Driver X don’t fit my feet terribly well to be honest; there’s something going on with the heel cup that squeezes my heel & toes forward, which the shop warned me was a common Burton fit complaint. I’ll have to fiddle around with a liner remold in the summer and try to widen the heel cup. 

The Driver X has a very hard standard footbed and sole compared to my past Malamutes—I guess the marketers would call it “responsive” but it’s frankly uncomfortable in stock form. I use Flow NX2 carbon bindings which also have a super-hard plastic footbed for “responsiveness”, so between the two of them it’s about as responsive as standing barefoot on concrete all day. I have a leg condition and use orthotics in all my walking footwear but can usually get away without them in soft snowboard boots where I’m standing still, but not for these…orthotics made them a bit better but still an uncomfortably stiff & responsive sole if you’re in them all day.

But hey, high performance and all-day comfort don’t always go together. The Driver X has a much shorter sole length than my Malamutes and had I known I could have chopped a half-centimetre off the width of my Coiler CFR and saved Bruce some stress…on Sunday I tried -3 rear for BX and still had only a few mm of overhang, effectively zero! 

Burton Driver X: very stiff; responsive; short sole length minimizes bootout; uncomfortable footbed/sole may require a custom footbed. TBD on how long they last, no noticeable change other than some highback scuffs after ~10-12 days so far. 

[Topboost]

The Deeluxe Edge Pros arrived today.   I will try them tomorrow.   Initial impressions are that the outer shell is very stiff (probably the stiffest I have ever seen).   My current soft boot setup is a pair of Insanos with Intuition SBC wrap liners.   That is my most comfortable softy set up but stiff quote stiff.   I also have a pair of K2 Thraxis with Intuition Power Wrap liners & those are the stiffest soft boot set up I have used.  They take a little while to get used to. 

 

Without riding them yet, what I like about the Edge Pros is super stiff shell/tongue, power strap, ankle harness for liner, lacing system is new to me, but seems good & the boa for the ankle hold.       

 

I do not like the liner!    It is quite soft & has a huge, padded tongue.   The tongue is so bulky that it prevents the outer/shell tongue from being pressed in tight against my shins.    I will try them out in the stock configuration, but will most likely get a pair of intuition liners for them.     

[John Gilmour]

Usually I’m trying to limit overlexig of the softboot …like with my 32 Binary Boa with booster straps.

‘but now I’m running 32 focus boas and even without the booster straps if I crank on the Boas on those boots they can actually get too stiff with the. union FC carbons …and kinda overpower the  slightly softer than medium flex Jones 156cm Hoovercraft. 
 

But they are just about right on medium stiff boards.

[Pontan]

On 11/18/2022 at 6:13 PM, piusthedrcarve said:

I went through this stiffest softboots that perform like hardboots road few years ago.   I went that direction to test Asian carving softboot boards and went thru +5 softboots (Insano, Malamute, Driver X, Helio, Trident, etc.).   As @JRAZZ, I agree with Flow/Nidecker boots are the one that I would recommend.  The reduced footprint and detailed features that satisficing carving specific are the reasons.  

Now, I'm back to hardboots. and use softer UPZ boots w/ custom liners on all my alpine, freeride, and pow boards.  Much comfy, faster reaction time, and less stuff to carry.   Think outside of the box. 

If you use hard boots on wide carv/freeride, pow boards what angles do you use?  I ride 30/11 on my soft boots for carving and I don't want to crank that angle up for stability reasons.  Is hard boot an option for me? Sean martin at Donek say no.