Softie Binding Angles

[Erik J]

Eric,

I take exception to one thing: softbooters don't need "toilet paper". remember, we can sit on a mogul. You can't !!

Sic

Sic - you're obviously in the highly evovled "one percentile"

I don't need toilet paper either, I wear Depends adult undergarments. I sport the black ones so that my wife still thinks I'm sexy.

[Guest qqac]

My soft setup is an old Burton Coil with K2 highback Clickers at steep angles, around 60/62.5. With size 9 softboots there is no overhang. I shift the highbacks as much as possible toward the heelside edge for leverage. The pigeon-toed setting on the rear keeps my rear knee from dragging on toeside turns. I find this setup carves pretty deep and is also versatile enough for bumps, trees and pow, being similar to a telemark or teleboard stance.

[Rob Stevens]

D-sub's short, first answer to your question hit it on the head. You're looking for zero overhang.

Where things get tricky is angles and bindings.

I'm not into high angles on soft gear at all. That's personal preference, of course, but if you go too high, I think you're going to limit your mobility and have toeside pressure and stance and balance issues.

Best to just ride the angles intended for the equipment.

That being said, I wouldn't go over 35 degrees in the front and no more than 20 degrees in the back.

Personally, I run 30, -5. I like the duck stance a lot since I switched from 0 on the back. Getting my toes out of the way allows me to get far lower to the board than I used to be able to pull off. Try bending your knees and ankles with your toes pointing straight ahead and then try it with your toes a bit duck. If you're like me, you'll be able to bend more deeply. Maybe this isn't that important in average turns, but it sure did help give me more "travel" in the suspension for landings.

Now for the binders... Getting 0 overhand on the toeside is usually not a problem, but as D-sub mentioned, many bindung have baseplate heel loops that stick out quite far, extending things enough that even if your boot heel isn't hanging over, the baseplate will be and you'll feel it when you tip over to a high degree. This really burns me, particularly with the Burton "C" series and P1 bind-me's. An amazing set up all around for support, comfort and stiffness / control, but a baseplate that adds about an inch of foot length isn't doing your riding any favours.

Last year, I actually cut the heel loop out and attached the highback directly to the side rails of the base plate. I couldn't fold the highbacks down anymore, but I didn't care... I could now get about another 20 degrees of edge angle before booting out. A laid heelside, EC style turn with my angles is turning out to be my holy grail. I can do them toeside at will, but I want the complete package without sacrificing my stability by going high angle.

Eventually, this set-up snapped and since then I have been on Bent Metal carbons (Mervin Manufacturing). This bindup has a high, thin aluminum heel loop that doesn't drag.

I have to say that after starting in softboots in 84, switching to hardboots in 89 and sticking with them until 95, I have since been in them only to teach our Canadian level 4 instructor course, or to conduct Alpine coaching courses. Otherwise, it's soft all the way.

I know what a carve feels like and if I couldn't retain most of the performance I was used to from plates, I might have gone grovelling back.

A final word: If you want to drop the whole angle / binding pretense altogether, shed them and go noboarding.

[Guest sierra]

Rob: What is your all-purpose freeride/softgear board of choice with that binding setup?? I'm curious about the waist width and your boot size with these angles as well.

Thanks

[snow|3oarder]

Have you tried a wider board? I have size 15's and I run 36/36. This year I was on an old Burton BMC Wide and a Donek Sasquatch in softies. Both allowed me to run the above stance.

hey phil...i have 15's too. what kind of soft and hard boots do you run? i run salomon f2os and head stratos pros.

[Phil]

UPZ hardboots and Burton softies.

[tufty]

I don't need toilet paper either, I wear Depends adult undergarments. I sport the black ones so that my wife still thinks I'm sexy.

Until she gets within "sniffin' distance" :)

Simon

[Dr D]

Recent statistics show that 99% of all softbooters have smoked crack, clubbed a kitten to death, don't brush their teeth, abuse the elderly, steal toilet paper, kidnap children for fun, sue their own parents, are racist, destroy the environment, never believed in Santa, rumage through other people's trash, mumble, eat whale blubber, have comitted date rape, think french kissing their siblings is OK, and worst of all (gasp) can't carve...

...I'm just the messenger

I knew we could get a "rise" out of someone:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[dantheman0177]

Thanks guys - And ya 3 weeks to late up here to try. Right now I'm set at 21/6 but I feel like there is some work needed on the rear to tweak the setup to my liking. think I might go 21/9 as an intermediate step followed by 30/15.

Any body using those Catek Freeride bindings??? I love my flows but those Cateks are slick!

Oh and those balls are a bitch to get out of the way in a heelside with my softie angles. Might need to try a high flouro paste wax on em ;)

~TG

I got the Catek Freerides this (northern) season and managed a couple of days on them before coming home. Great bindings, though just damned fiddly to get set up the first time around. Also, almost impossible to get hold of, but that is a whole different story.

I ride mine at 18/6 because that is what I have always ridden softies at. I have size 11 boots so I used to get a bit of grief carving through boot-out, but the risers in the cateks have definately helped. Mind you, I think any risers would help, but I digress.

The cateks are good for the ability to adjust angle and cant, and I have tried to get it similar to my hard boot set up in that regard. As a result I am definately carving better and deeper on this board now, to the point where I have the boot-out problem again. Only way to solve it is to up the angles (or get smaller feet). I am thinking of pushing up around 21/10 this winter to see how it goes, but will depend a bit on the conditions down here.