Snow and ski - advice on board?

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advice on board?

Hello,
I just learned a little to snowboard after one week, needless to say I love
it.

Now off course I am thinking about next year season and I would like to buy
all the equipement.

boots, board, boot attachments, etc etc.

Is there a web site where I can check info of the choices I have:

How can I choose the most appropriate boot board attachement ? there are
many choices.

I have a show size of 13 very big, so I need a very wide board, what is a
very wide board and very good for free style.

I am 6'3" ( 1.91 cm) tall and weight 100 kilos what kind of bopard is best
for me ? feet distance ? feet angles ?

Please give me as much info on web sites that talk ot discuss about my
questions, what about online snowboarding equipment to be bought on web
sites ?

Thanks a lot,

Mario Desiderio

Mario wrote:
I just learned a little to snowboard after one week, needless to say I love
it.

Now off course I am thinking about next year season and I would like to buy
all the equipement.

Are you sure you want to buy with one week experience?

Have you found your own 'style' yet, the kind of snowboarding you would
like to keep doing? Tricks in the park, down the piste, through the trees,
carving? (The first things I can think of)

Anyway, the faq for this newsgroup lives at http://www.rssfaq.org/ .. have
a look there.

With a few weeks of experience (spread out one week per year, since
the nearest resort is a day driving away) I went to a snowboardshop
and they advised me to start with my own boots (which I got) and keep
renting boards until I was really confident that I found my 'own' thing
(I know what I like, pistes and sometimes an excursion through the trees
but I'm not very good at it ;)).

Koos van den Hout

--
Koos van den Hout, PGP keyid RSA/1024 0xCA845CB5 via keyservers
or DSS/1024 0xF0D7C263 -?)
Fax +31-30-2817051 Camp Wireless, wireless Internet access /\\
http://idefix.net/~koos/ at campsites http://www.camp-wireless.org/ _\_V

Mario wrote:
Now off course I am thinking about next year season and I would like
to buy
all the equipement.

boots, board, boot attachments, etc etc.

Is there a web site where I can check info of the choices I have:

For board review, try www.boardreviews.com, www.goneboarding.co.uk, and
www.outdoorreview.com for user reviews. You should ignore review by
people with less then 3-4 years experience and still take all reviews
with a grain of salt as people tend to rate all boards either as a 2-3
when they don't like them, or a 8-9 when they do like them. (BTW, where
do you live? UK? Europe? It will help me suggest companies that are
available to you)

How can I choose the most appropriate boot board attachement ? there
are
many choices.

There are several binding (aka boot board attachments) styles - straps
(most commons), step-ins (proprietary and require a compatible style
boot), and flow (hybrid). The main different in most of them is
convenience (performance is only slightly different). As someone else
already mentioned, you really should just choose you boot first and
then get whatever compatible binding system that goes with it. Your
boot is the most important thing for performance as it's the first
connection to your board. It doesn't matter if the bindings or board
are really responsive if you boots are mushy and slow. Try on lots and
lots of boots to see what fits you.

I have a show size of 13 very big, so I need a very wide board, what
is a
very wide board and very good for free style.

Let see, well you have you big brand board makers - I'm not a big fan
of most Burton boards, especially the Burton Canyon (the wide board
they make) because recent they downgraded it's construction quality to
make it cheaper (it used to be a Wide version of the Custom). I also
don't like Forum (which is now owned by Burton) their boards are too
soft for even lighter riders like me. I haven't ridden a K2 board in
over 6 years (Electra, which was decent), but I have ridden the Ride
(owned by K2) Timeless, which I like. Check out the Ride Yukon, which
is their wide version of the same board. Salomon snowboard is one of my
favorite brands, but I couldn't find a wide board in their line up
(maybe look for an older Transfer Wide). If you live in Europe...
definite check out Nidecker (Swiss) or Nitro (German) as they make
great boards. I've heard good things from Atomic (they owned Oxygen as
well).

For boards made by smaller companies (they cool thing is that you get
nice, handmade boards at decent prices with tons of customer service
and advice). I suggest the following

Neversummer (www.neversummer.com) - small company in Colorado, very
damp and stable boards. I have the Evo and it is a very nice park board
(not good for freeriding though) They make the Legacy as their wide
board here are some reviews
(http://www.boardreviews.com/Search.p...ummer&count=56)

Donek (www.donek.com) - another small company in Colorado (3 man
operation) that makes extremely good crisp, lively, boards. I have
their Incline which is a freeriding board. You should look at their
Sasquatck
(http://www.boardreviews.com/Search.p...Donek&count=29) as they
make a wide board specifically for size 12 feet. The regular Wide
model probably won't be wide enough.

Prior (www.priorsnowboards.com) - company based out of Whistler,
Canada. The make very damp, smooth board with a lot of pop. For you I
was suggest the 162W All Mountain Freestyle (AMF) or maybe the Khyber.
Check them out and just ask them... they will fall over themselves to
help you choose what board you want.
(http://www.boardreviews.com/Search.p...=Prior&count=4)

I am 6'3" ( 1.91 cm) tall and weight 100 kilos what kind of bopard is
best
for me ? feet distance ? feet angles ?

Please give me as much info on web sites that talk ot discuss about
my
questions, what about online snowboarding equipment to be bought on
web
sites ?

Thanks a lot,

Mario Desiderio

A 6'3', ~220 lbs, you are going to need a long board, in the 160-165 cm
range at least, maybe even up to 167 (depends on the stiffness of the
board). With size 13 feet you are going to need a wide board (I don't
like elevator/riser plates). An instructor once told me that a good
guess at you "feet distance" (aka stance width) is to take your pant
insteam length and multiply that by .6-.65 and that is about the range
you should start experimenting to see what fits you legs the best (I
have 31" inseam, which gives me a range 18.5-20.1" and I usually ride
19.5-20") again... that is just a starting point. For feet angles I
would suggest starting out was likt 15/0 and then experimenting (I
usually ride 18/3 or 21/6). The higher the angles, the more power you
get in turns, but the less stable you are on jumps.

There are a few websites you can go to for information (I've listed
like 6 of them). In my opinion... do NOT go to www.bomberonline.com for
what you want. They are alpine/carving/racing enthusiasts and while you
will get a few helpful suggestions I think most of them will either
complain about you looking for a freestyle board, or try to convince
you to get into hardboots and a alpine setup. They are decent people,
just very biased towards alpine gear and I think it will be a waste of
your time.
Good luck and email me if you have any more questions,
--Arvin

"Mario" wrote in message
m...
Hello,
I just learned a little to snowboard after one week, needless to say I
love
it.

Now off course I am thinking about next year season and I would like to
buy
all the equipement.

boots, board, boot attachments, etc etc.

Is there a web site where I can check info of the choices I have:

How can I choose the most appropriate boot board attachement ? there are
many choices.

I have a show size of 13 very big, so I need a very wide board, what is a
very wide board and very good for free style.

I am 6'3" ( 1.91 cm) tall and weight 100 kilos what kind of bopard is best
for me ? feet distance ? feet angles ?

Please give me as much info on web sites that talk ot discuss about my
questions, what about online snowboarding equipment to be bought on web
sites ?

Thanks a lot,

Mario Desiderio

I'd say be very careful about buying stuff after just a week. When you're
starting out, you definitely need a soft/flexible setup. After that, a lot
depends on what you want to do and personal preference. Maybe a good route
would be to buy boots but rent board/bindings. If you're set on freestyle,
you want to go for softer boots (which generally seem to be cheaper for some
reason). For board/bindings it can be such a personal thing I'd recommend
you try a few before you buy. My preference has been for soft boots, medium
stiff bindings and a medium stiff board but all my snowboarding friends have
completely different setups. One has alpine boots, soft bindings and a
medium board, another has a really soft board, stiff bindings and medium
stiff boots.

FWIW, my current setup is 32 prions, Burton P1mds and a burton custom board.
The boots are really a personal thing, go for softer for freestyle but
basically just get something that fits. The bindings are less important,
just go for medium stiffness unless you know better.
Burton/Drake/Ride/Salomon are all good makes. The only reason I'd recommend
Burton is that when bits fall off them (as happens with most bindings from
time to time) you can generally get replacements from the local rental shop
or if that fails direct from Burton. I know a lot of people in this ng hate
Burton but they've replaced a lot of stuff for me in the past and that
counts for something. As for boards, in the park today, Ride Timeless was
definitely the most common.. Never ridden it so I can't comment on how it
performs. Burton custom is fairly common but after that is just about
anything, including lots of strange makes I'd never heard of.

Jay

What everyone else said, w/a hard lean on "get good boots". Just keep
trying them until you find a pair that feels perfect. Then buy them.

When you are getting really comfy, check out some Flow bindings. They
are mildly controversial, but quite simply, they are the nicest thing
going. They do require setup, unlike straps where you just crank down
until you foot is tight. When you get the Flows set up properly, there
are not pressure points and your foot is glued to the board like a
suction cup.

A note. Not all boots work well w/Flow bindings. I've had very good
luck w/ the Salomons.

I guess I wasn't being clear. I've never had a problem w/Salomons. I
have the Malamutes. I can't say enough good things about them. Just
the little cam cleat that keeps the laces tight is reason enough to buy
them.

They (Salomon) work really well w/the Flows, as they are a "lower
profile" boot, unlike the Burtons.

Switters wrote:
On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 04:46:09 GMT, allegedly
wrote:

A note. Not all boots work well w/Flow bindings. I've had very
good
luck w/ the Salomons.

What's the problem with the Salomons?

I was trying boots on at the weekend, and it made me realise how
small my
old Dialog Sensifits are. Other boots are bigger, but one of the
Burtons
I tried was massive!

- Dave.

--
The only powder to get high on, falls from the sky.
http://www.vpas.org/ - Snowboarding the worlds pow pow -
Securing your e-mail

The Snowboard FAQ lives here - http://rssFAQ.org/

Yep, those cleats are fantastic, but the boots pack out too much really.

Agreed...

.... I found the key w/ my Malamutes has been to re-bake the liners when they
pack out too much. I think I did mine every 15 - 20 riding days or so and
it was effective right up to the point where the outer shell was breaking
down, I'm going to guess right around 100 riding days. I retired them to
eBay over the summer and have my backup pair of 01/02 Malamutes ready to
go.... I just haven't been out in softies yet this season... not enough snow
yet to go off the groomed.

Mike T

Mike T wrote:
... I found the key w/ my Malamutes has been to re-bake the liners when they
pack out too much.

For those of us without instructions, how do you do that?

Dean