Hi again Matt. I will be giving you a lot of information very quickly,
so feel free to ask questions should you get confused. I will summarize
my points to start and then follow up with some of background
information that guides my opinions. I can't really solve the
conflicting advice thing, but for the most part everything I sat is
well accepted and a moderate viewpoint.

Boots
- soft-flex boots maybe comfortable like slippers, but aren't good for
performance like hiking boots
- stiff-flex boots give you performance, but you need spend much more
time finding a boot that fits you perfectly, otherwise it won't be very
comfortable
- always size down for boots, do not settle for an "ok" fit
- you don't need to go to super-stiff boots immediately, but you should
consider moving up to a medium stiffness boot soon

Board
- you need a board of sufficient stiffness for you weight
- longer boards within a particular board model line tend to be stiffer

- Burton/Forum models are very soft, so for you, you would need to ride
the longer models available (longer models are difficult for novices to
handle)
- Salomon, Donek, and Palmer have stiffer models made for bigger,
heavier riders
- stiffer models tend to be slightly less forgiving of bad technique,
so you don't want to go too stiff either when starting out.
- that being said, some of your complaints are unrelated to the board
and more just because you are still learning

Bindings
- again, you main complaints with your bindings (about strapping in
heelside and getting up on toeside) are because you are still learning.
- while I wouldn't get them to cover a personal techinque flaw, FLOW
bindings are more convenient and a lot of people like them
- other bindings bands that have a good price/performance ratio at
Ride, Salomon and Technine
- bring your boots to the store make sure you boots fit well (Salomon
boots occasionally don't mesh well with Burton bindings I've found).


Matt wrote:
So the questions just keep coming for me, I am seriously considering
ordering the Donek, but I have few more questions. My boots are
Solomon
symbios. This is a pretty soft boot, but I got them because they are
really confortable. I have recently demoed a couple of boards: 163

I like the stiff models in the Salomon lines (Dialogue, Synapse,
Malamute) and I haven't tried the Simbio, but I know it's on the lower
end of the line. Yes they are very comfortable, but it is very easy to
be comfortable in a soft-flexing boot, it's like wearing slippers...
but you don't want to run a marathon or go hiking in slippers. The
problem is that in order for a stiff boot to feel comfortable, it has
to fit you perfectly, otherwise it will pinch and pressure you all over
the place.

Stiffer boots tend to be more expensive, so I understand that you might
not want to buy them when you are starting out... but they are the most
important piece of equipment - high performing bindings and boards are
worthless if you have this super floppy, super loose pair of comfy
boots where you foot and shin can slide around inside without that
energy being transferred to the rest of the gear. As a compromise, I
just suggest that each time you buy a new pair of boots, slowly get a
higher end, stiffer pair of boots (that fit perfectly!) until you are
at least in the medium-high stiffness range. Super-stiff boots give you
more performance, but there a tradeoff point where you just might not
want that stiff a boot. However, you would really need to search and
try hard to find a boot that I would say would be too stiff in general
(especially at your size and weight). Snowboard boots are made for
snowboarding, not for walking, be prepared to walk a little funny in
them, if you can walk completely normally in a pair of boots (instead
of slightly on your heelsde), they aren't going to treat you well when
snowboarding.

A good fitting boot trumphs all other concerns - if the boot doesn't
fit you calf, ankle, instep, toes just right... you are going to pay
for it on the slopes (more so with stiff boots). So when you do decide
to upgrade your boots, much sure that you have the smallest boot you
can physically wear that is still not uncomfortable. This is because
the boot liners will expand half to fullsize after 5-7 days of use as
it sort of molds to your foot. US shoe sizes vary a lot so have you
foot measured in centimeters as most snowboard boots will use this
length as their sizing index. This will often leave you with a much
smaller size boot (like 1-2 size smaller) than your sneaker size. The
boots downright cozy, your toes touching the tips of the boots, but not
curling like a glove with no truly uncomfortable pressure points.
Salomon, ThirtyTwo, and some other brands make boots with heat-moldable
liners that are great for this.


Burton custom, and the 163 burton canyon. The custom felt like it
might have been a bit to soft, and the canyon definitely seemed a bit
loose, but I was happy with the fact that I could easily push out the
tail to absorb some speed. I was also frustrated by the fact that I
was really nervous riding flat because both of these boards seemed to
easily get shifted when which caused me a few nasty falls. I'm
hoping
you guys can help me figure out whether or not the Donek will work
for
me.

Yes, the Custom is a soft board and Canyon is wide and not very
torsionally rigid. I wouldn't recommend either for you... actually. I
wouldn't recommend ANYTHING in the Burton lineup and you are just
beyond the maximum recommended weight for all of their boards except
for the Baron 172 and the Triumph 173 and then you are at the very
limit of the range (check the Burton website). Longer board tend to be
stiffer within a particular model line (the 170 is stiffer than the
165, etc) but because Burton makes soft boards in general, you have to
go really long to get the proper stiffness to support your weight. With
other brands and other board models, you can ride a shorter board if it
is stiffer. Palmer, Salomon, and Donek stick out in my mind as stiffer
boards but there are other brands too (Prior can stiffen up a board,
but they make really expensive boards that rarely go on sale). Burton
and Forum (now owned by Burton I think) make very soft boards. The
boards you demo'd a really designed for someone 50 lbs lighter than
you. Sure they felt really easy to push around because again they were
so soft, but you aren't going very fast yet and once you get better
they are not going to be able to support you weight in a turn (it's
going to chatter and flap and bounce you around). Not to mention the
fact that at 50 lbs over the designed weight you are much more likely
to snap the board if you hit a bump or a rut and crash (think of trying
to cut a burnt steak with a plastic knife). Back to what you said about
being able to push the tail around. It is important to be able to do it
occasionally to control speed, but you don't want to be doing it every
turn (i.e. turing by pushing your back leg out left and right) - as you
get better you will learn to do this less. I'm not quite sure what you
were saying when you said that the snowboards "get easily shifted"
riding flat. If you mean they drift in a random direction when you are
trying to stay flat and pointed down the fall line, I am pretty sure
that is mainly because you are still learning and have quite gotten the
hang of flatboarding (it is rather hard to do starting out). Having
beveled base edges will help a lot in keeping you from catching you
edge while flatboarding (don't worry about base edges right now).

Again, you don't have to buy a super-stiff board immediately, but if
you want to progress beyond a novice level... you are definitely going
to have to get something stiffer than a Burton Custom/Canyon 163.
Whether you do that now or later is up to you. Some people like to buy
a board they can grow into, others like to buy a cheap beginnner board
and then switch in 1 year be reselling and buying again. I will
definitely warn you that a stiffer board like the Donek Wide 165 will
not be as "forgiving" for really bad technique (like excessive
man-handling of the board by pushing out the tail) and you will have to
deal with the bevelling the edges (just take it to a shop and ask then
to sharpen your edges with 1 degree base / 1 degree side, which is the
general standard) even though 98% of all snowboarder have no clue about
edge bevels. I would suggest the Wide 160 to start out so you are on
the higher end (but still not on the maximum limit) of the weight range
so it will be more forgiving. The Donek Phoenix 163W would actually be
the perfect choice for you (noticebly softer and more forgiving while
still stiffer than any Burton at the same length) but I hesitate to
recommend it becuase it is $100 more ($475). It is one of the best
designed boards and most versatile I've ever ridden though. AGAIN if
you buy a Donek, take it to a shop and have the edges bevelled,
otherwise it will toss you to the snow hard a lot (any board with
unbevelled edges will do this, but Donek is the only company that
doesn't bevel their edges at the factory).

My second question is about binding. Currently, I can't rock up onto
my board when I fall heel side, and If I have to sit down to strap in
then I need to flip over to toe side so I can stand up. These things
make the flow like binding systems really attractive to me, but I
wonder if they will work well with my boots, and possible board
choice
of Donek? If not the flows what do people recommend? I find all the
information a bit to much, and very contradictory. So please if you
can help me answer my questions I would be very grateful.

First, I would like to say that you will soon learn how to push
yourself up from your heelside, so I wouldn't buy gear just to be able
to get into your bindings from the toeside edge. That being said, FLOWS
are very convenient and hte higher ends are pretty good bindings and I
don't see any major problems with them and Donek boards. I think FLOW
should work decently with Salomons as they don't have a big chunky heel
(and get caught on the highback), but you should really just go to a
store with your boots and test if yourself. The K2 Cinch has a similar
idea, but allow you to strap in OR step-in. The Cinch's plastic is a
bit cheap and flexy though (not very good performance, questionable
durability). Other bindings that are good are Ride, Salomon, and
Technine - Burton and Drake make good high-end bindings, but they tend
to be very expensive and the cheaper models are not very good at all.