Fast freeride?

Ian wrote in message ...

Hey Mike, that's the same list I came up with, relatively stiff and a
longer than typical sidecut radius. All good boards with excellent
reputations. I'd add:

Nitro Torque
Steepwater Plow

I've ridden the Volkl Cross (167), Rad-Air Tanker (192), and the Prior
MFR (162 mine, 165 demo, 168 demo). The Prior is by far my favorite

How much use has your MFR had? Would you consider it to be pretty robust?

It probably has 30-40 days over the past 3 seasons (I'm riding carving
boards more and more these days). It's very robust, base is still
great and the topsheet is very durable. No signs of sidewall or delam
problems either. I ride it mostly with softboots but it's probably
seen 5 - 10 days with plates as well. F2s and Bomber TDs; if it will
stand up to Bombers, you shouldn't worry about durability.

Mark

On Tue, 27 Apr 2004 11:18:12 +0000, Switters wrote:

I'm on my second Sasquatch now, having moved from a Canyon. The extra
width works for me personally. They don't like the rocks much, and tend
to strip to the core easier than my other boards have done, but that's the
price you pay for a top performing board at an incredible price.

Where are you based Ian? Next time I go to a snowdome I could bring one
of them with me.

- Dave.

I'm in Leicestershire - about an hour from MK or Tamworth. so if you're
heading to either, give me a shout...

"Ian" wrote

I want something suitable for aggressive freeride (that's such a bull****
term, but hey...), so it needs to be good in powder, fast carved turns on
hard pack - oh yeah I also have size 11 feet (tried a K2 recon riser and
still got toe/heel drag, so needs to be a bit wider) and I weigh 85kg's.

I've been riding for 15 years, and reckon I'm pretty OK, so I don't need a
particularly forgiving board. I kind of like Lib Tech, K2 and Palmer, but
I'd really welcome any suggestions!

If you're a really muscular guy and like a bit of a workout, try Salomon
Fastback. I've became quite a board whore in the end of this season -
tried lots of boards - Palmers, Burtons, Prior, Salomon, Nitro..

I've tried this model year's 160 (or was it a 162?) and a next model year's
173 (hehe, getting pretty self-confident by the end of the season - I'm only
150 lbs).

The board is very stiff, and it has the best edge hold of all of the boards
I've tried so far. It still has this slight shade of plasticy feeling to it that
Salomon boards are known for, but I wasn't particularly aggravated
by that. Somehow I thought it's the most precise and "sharp" board
out of the ones I've tried, but it wasn't the board that is hardest to ride
out of that bunch.

The problem with 173 was that my boots and bindings were not stiff
enough and gave up much sooner than I needed them to to work this
board to its fullest potential... And I was on my 32's TM-One boots and
SP-4 bindings (TM-One's I HIGHLY recommend, excellent boots
especially once you heat-mold the liners) - not a very soft setup.

I think a Fastback with either Catek Freerides or better yet if you could
find a last year's SPX5 with winged highbacks would be a very cool
aggressive freeride combo. (haven't tried the Freerides, so I'm basically
just pulling this theory out of my arse - but I'm considering such setup
for the next year for myself).

Another suggestion: Palmer Carbon Circle - very good high-speed
performance, but the sidecut profile definitely is biased to boardercross
(narrow tail), so it's a bit too specialized to my taste (I have one). This
board wants to point downhill very much, and if you're okay with that
go for it (but get the risers, size 11 will have problems with deep carving
and heelside on steeps).

"Dmitry" wrote in message news:q%Xjc.9713$RE1.941986@attbi_s54...
"Ian" wrote

I want something suitable for aggressive freeride (that's such a bull****
term, but hey...), so it needs to be good in powder, fast carved turns on
hard pack - oh yeah I also have size 11 feet (tried a K2 recon riser and
still got toe/heel drag, so needs to be a bit wider) and I weigh 85kg's.

I've been riding for 15 years, and reckon I'm pretty OK, so I don't need a
particularly forgiving board. I kind of like Lib Tech, K2 and Palmer, but
I'd really welcome any suggestions!

If you're a really muscular guy and like a bit of a workout, try Salomon
Fastback. I've became quite a board whore in the end of this season -
tried lots of boards - Palmers, Burtons, Prior, Salomon, Nitro..


Two questions...

First, did you compare the Fastback to the Salomon Definition or AMP?
Was wondering how those boards compare.

Second, how do the ThirtyTwo Team One compare to your Salomon
Synapses? Did you try the Malamutes. I've been riding the
Dialogues/Synapses for three seasons now, but have found they pack out
too quickly and I either get heel lift or foot pain when I overtighten
the laces to keep my ankle down.

Thanks,
--Arvin

On Thu, 29 Apr 2004 11:40:09 -0700, Arvin Chang wrote:



Second, how do the ThirtyTwo Team One compare to your Salomon
Synapses? Did you try the Malamutes. I've been riding the
Dialogues/Synapses for three seasons now, but have found they pack out
too quickly and I either get heel lift or foot pain when I overtighten
the laces to keep my ankle down.

Thanks,
--Arvin

I've worn Malamutes for a couple of seasons now - for me they're perfect,
and as near to riding hard boots as a soft boot can be.

"Arvin Chang" wrote

Two questions...

First, did you compare the Fastback to the Salomon Definition or AMP?
Was wondering how those boards compare.

Sorry, no input on that one - I tried the Definition last year, but can't
remember what was the deal with it.

Second, how do the ThirtyTwo Team One compare to your Salomon
Synapses? Did you try the Malamutes. I've been riding the
Dialogues/Synapses for three seasons now, but have found they pack out
too quickly and I either get heel lift or foot pain when I overtighten
the laces to keep my ankle down.

Ok, this one's easy. TM-Ones have a much thinner sole and no "heel"
to speak of, which gives a very good board feel. Salomons have
those "spikes" on the sole plus the whole bottom part of the boot is
pretty thick.

That's one. The other very important (to me at least) difference is
that TM-Ones are much, much more communicative. They have
a sort of a "progressive" feel to them - they don't punish with stiffness
right off the bat, but on the other hand they do hold pretty well when
you press them hard. This makes it easier to feel subtle things that
are happening between the board and the snow.

Lacing... First I thoght is't terrible. It was such a chore to lace them up
compared to Salomons. But when I got used to it, I realized that their
lacing system is very robust and I actually had less problems with it
up on the mountain than I had with Salomons. A couple of minutes
of lacing at the bottom is a small price to pay for problem-free riding.

And of course they come with a full heat-moldable Intuition liners, which
is a must for me because once you've tasted them you will not want to
go back. I got the boots for $160 (?) off eBay, and earlier this season
I paid $180 for just the liners, so it was a killer deal. Heat-molded
them myself at home, worked out pretty well - I completely forget
about the boots after I put them on, which is the highest prase for
a boot there is.

Overall they have a very simple construction that relies on top-quality
basic materials rather than plastic boot skeletons and stuff like that,
which is a philosophy I'm very fond of.

Stiffness.. I think they are as stiff as Synapses, maybe a bit stiffer.

Overall, I wouldn't pay for them if I still had my Synapses (they were
falling apart after two seasons) and if I had to pay full retail, but for
$160 I just couldn't pass the deal.

"Dmitry" wrote in message news:g8fkc.17613$RE1.1508525@attbi_s54...
Overall they have a very simple construction that relies on top-quality
basic materials rather than plastic boot skeletons and stuff like that,
which is a philosophy I'm very fond of.

Stiffness.. I think they are as stiff as Synapses, maybe a bit stiffer.

Overall, I wouldn't pay for them if I still had my Synapses (they were
falling apart after two seasons) and if I had to pay full retail, but for
$160 I just couldn't pass the deal.

Why would you replace your old Synapses or pay full retail for the
ThirtyTwo boots? I thought you said there were very good boots. What's
wrong with them? Or are you the type that would never pay retail for
anything (waiting for a sale before buying).

"Arvin Chang" wrote

Overall, I wouldn't pay for them if I still had my Synapses (they were
falling apart after two seasons) and if I had to pay full retail, but for
$160 I just couldn't pass the deal.

Why would you replace your old Synapses or pay full retail for the
ThirtyTwo boots? I thought you said there were very good boots. What's
wrong with them? Or are you the type that would never pay retail for
anything (waiting for a sale before buying).

Err.. Ok, I'll try to be clear this time: the synapses are falling apart, and
I'm not sure they'll last another season. I thought about replacing
them before they fall apart completely (lacing and all the stuff around it
mostly), and this deal came up so I bit. Pretty happy that I did it - I can
now take the moldable liners out of my old snowboard boots and
put them into my new ski boots

"Dmitry" wrote in message news:r4Bmc.33690$IG1.1753519@attbi_s04...
"Arvin Chang" wrote

Overall, I wouldn't pay for them if I still had my Synapses (they were
falling apart after two seasons) and if I had to pay full retail, but for
$160 I just couldn't pass the deal.

Why would you replace your old Synapses or pay full retail for the
ThirtyTwo boots? I thought you said there were very good boots. What's
wrong with them? Or are you the type that would never pay retail for
anything (waiting for a sale before buying).

Err.. Ok, I'll try to be clear this time: the synapses are falling apart, and
I'm not sure they'll last another season. I thought about replacing
them before they fall apart completely (lacing and all the stuff around it
mostly), and this deal came up so I bit. Pretty happy that I did it - I can
now take the moldable liners out of my old snowboard boots and
put them into my new ski boots


Oops, I mean to say why wouldn't have you bought them. Are you saying
you wouldn't get two pairs of boots. It sounded like your happiness
with the thirtytwo boots was qualified with the fact that you Synapses
were falling apart and that they were on sale. I was wondering why.

"Arvin Chang" wrote

Oops, I mean to say why wouldn't have you bought them. Are you saying
you wouldn't get two pairs of boots. It sounded like your happiness
with the thirtytwo boots was qualified with the fact that you Synapses
were falling apart and that they were on sale. I was wondering why.

Yeah, I like Tm-Ones more than Synapses, but not THAT much better to
say dump your Synapses and get Tm-Ones..