method9455

^ Thats why you shouldn't post with a tiny keyboard

Glenn, there was a time when they were the best selling binding in our shop for sure back when they hadvthe flight series. You couldn't go lower than the EX but at the time they were so much more solid than the Birton ones it wasn't even funny. And who else did you have, Drake? So I went through the first three pairs up there and loved them. Coming from skiing I liked the feel of the stiff back and big heelstrap. The only major weakness were the crappy ratchets and a thin toe strap. I mixed T9 MFM cap straps with Ride SPis for an epic binding. Their sales across the board started dropping off a cliff about 3 years ago. I defended them when we made our purchasing decesions but that ended up being a mistake. We then dropped everything but their bindings - which they really tried to prevent us from doing - but still lost money. We dropped them entirely this year. My girlfriend bought me the alphas last year for Christmas knowing I was bummed about it. They have a great frame and base plate, and great toe straps. But the heel straps just aren't the same. My previous Ride binding was the Team from a few years back and it feels better but is showing it's age. I do think the softer back is a plus but over 5 years Ride has been stagnant and even I an convinced Burton has moved way ahead. For me Salomon is the best value today, Rome feels like what Ride did a few years ago, and Burton leads the pack. Flow has great innovation at the high end but you can't buy their low end. T9 is great but a bit heavy in my mind. So long answer to say,yeah not many today like them but there was a time when many did.

The higher end ones are nice but the mid and low level ones are not as great. For your price point (which I think is the ideal price/performance point) Salomon, Burton, Rome, T9 are good. I am a huge Ride fanboy (with one of each EX, SPi, Teams, and Alphas that I love) but I find their $150 bindings have fallen off a cliff in the last few years.

I think it is in the Robot Food movie Afterlame, though I may be wrong, in which they are doing a session on a Planet Snow C box and the guy hits it and it deflects like 20 degrees and I always thought it was quiet strange until I hit one too. They're better than what Camelback had for sure, but the jibs made by MC, Boulder, and Bear Creek are definitely better.

I think the real sign of the season beginning is when they get the moguls out of storage, so far they have all the mogul forms still in the shed

Do you know what is available at your local shop? To me I don't see a clear winner among them so I would go by what you can get in your size at your local shop for the best price.

Well it is patented so that would be a problem. I can not comment on long term quality issues, they look quality at first glance and the people I know who have skied them have only demoed them so who knows from a demo you know?

I'm not insulting you, but you definately either missed my post or dismissed it. So I'll post it again below. You have probably snowboarded more days than me in a year because I usually aim for about 30, but realistically I've sold 200-300 snowboards and 150-200 pairs of skis to people every year for 5 years. I have seen a countless number of people just like you that think because they snowboard or ski A LOT they know about the gear, but the two are mutually exclusive. You could be completely hobbled by your gear and you wouldn't know because you obviously haven't crossed the bridge and seen whats on the other side. The reason why we are all dismissing you out of hand is because you are so off the mark as to what gear you need or what gear anyone needs. Boards that list at $400 are crappy boards, that is the bottom line. Any advanced board is going to be over $500, period. Just be glad you don't ski because skis all list for over $700 for anything decent.

I think they are equal to or better than regular skis based on what I have heard from those that have demoed them. I personally have not skied them. The difference between a regular pair of skis and a magnetraction ski is not as great as the difference between a mange board and a regular simply because skis do not suffer on ice as much as a snowboard, but they still interesting.

I use the R.E.D. wrist gaurds that are basically a mesh underglove with thin metal ribbons in them. They prevent you from over extending your wrist but they are not rigid like a roller blading wrist gaurd. Even though concrete is harder than snow, you have more force when you fall snowboarding. When you fall rollerblading, generally you are falling from a standing position. Even the smallest rail will add 2 feet to that, but a jump will add 10 as you are coming down. What could be absorbed by your arm before will now break it, so if you are looking to use wrist guards in the park, use the ones that will absorb some energy instead of just transfer it up your arm. For beginners, sometimes I will let them use the rollerblading ones because the speeds are low enough that it is much like the loads in rollerblading.

Don't worry that was tongue in cheek

I think Thanksgiving for Boulder and early December for everything else is realistic on a year in year out basis. Boulder can definately open Freedom faster than any other mountain due to its low vert and concentration of big guns, plus their little microclimate. Last year might have been a fluke, but if you look back they really didn't get any more open until Thanksgiving weekend anyway. The pictures I posted in the other thread of them making on the rest of the mountain were November 27th, I think by that time it was Freedom and one of the little trails next to it.

I haven't laid out for anything other than wrist guards and a helmet, but I've definitely had some hard hits to my tail bone too that end your day prematurely and might be avoidable with crash pads. Another good thing to do is just hit rails when it is warm. Sun will soften up the snow and your landing will be a lot less painful. I mostly rode after school in high school and learning to ride rails at night was painful since everything iced up so much.

Hmm, I was just thinking how good the battleship looked. Long, mellow, whats not to like?

Saturday Nov 15th looks like the weather changes a bit for the better. Looks like a front Saturday dropping the highs from 50s down to mid 30s, and lows from mid 40s to low 20s. We'll see if that is a real prediction or if the models just revert to the monthly averages farther out

Fyi stores are losing money when they sell last years stuff. The margin on board varies from 20 to 40 percent but never 50. So selling them for 50% off is a bad thing, but the alternative is never selling them. Either way you are writing off the loss it is a matter of freeing up cash that is stuck in depreciating inventory. People see it as a sign the boards are over prices to begin with but it is just what you have todo to survive. Look at Princeton ski shop closing as an example of what happens if you buy too much and have to keep dumping it at a loss. Just clarifying that point

Yea we just went through this in another thread. I agree with you on some stuff, but just as a side note, you will never find a Burton board marked off $200 for a $750 board, those boards are always brands people don't know. Burton stuff you throw on Ebay in april and people snap it up for 25% off like a bunch of suckers, while the good boards get 50% off stickers.

The boxes look nice, as does snowmaking. One of the most laughable things about Camelback in the past was their jibs so this is a step in the right direction. You know what is really funny, when you actually find a steel rail and hit it how much faster/smoother they jib, it feels like butter and almost takes you by surprise at first. No matter how good they make boxes they always feel more sticky. I found Mount Snow had a much higher concentration of rails than Blue/JFBB/BC/MC/Camelback but now that Boulder is building their rails who knows.

The board only feels your weight, not your height. The height between the nose and the eyebrow is a quick rule of them for day rentals when it doesn't matter, but for buying a board, follow the design specs. Truthfully the "adult" boards are not designed for adults, they are designed for teenage-20 somethings because that is 90% of the snowboard market. I'm 20, I am 5' 11" at 180 lbs. My freeride board is a 159cm and my park board is a 153. My brother is more your weight, at around 220 lbs and he rides a 163 cm. That kind of exemplifies how much of a range is possible, 6 cm range is perfectly fine for me between the two boards. A 151 would probably do me fine for the park and I've ridden my brothers board and I can ride that too. I don't think you have to worry about "breaking" any of them, the boards are really durable. Me landing a jump wrong at 180 lbs is going to put many more times of force than even a 400 pound person on my board, and it survives me casing jumps all the time. What you really want is to get an ideal weight for the flex of the board. Based on you saying that you like to carve fast and stay on the ground, bigger is better. The only time bigger isn't better is for spinning and jumping. On the ground, length gives you stabilty, edge hold, and speed. Stiffness reduces chatter so it is easier on your knees and you skid out less often. Especially if you are in fact riding the Burton Air, which is a generally soft board, I would say the max size is the right one for you. The really good news is that the largest sized boards are the ones least likely to sell during the season. Everyone picks up the small boards for park, and then there are just so many kids running around we clean out 151-157cm, but large boards like 159,161,163,165 are hard to sell. Both my 159 and my brothers 165 came out of my store at our tent sale. Mine was list $750 and I paid $200, his was list $650 and he paid $200, so large sizes are much better for deals and will fit you much better overall.

A different way to go about it is to buy last years gear and get a better selection of stuff. At this point in the year though, that is probably not going to happen. So I would pay for a good set of bindings, buy the cheapest board possible, and get a decent pair of boots. If you get a solid set of bindings they will last you for several years, my original pair or Ride SPi's worked for 3 years for me, and I gave them to a friend who is still using them 6 years later. I only replaced them because I could. On the other hand, my original board is now in more than one piece, and my original boots packed out after 2 years and had to be replaced. A beginner will trash the board, there is no doubt about it. Plus what you pay for in a board is stiffness, light weight, and base material quality. None of that matters for a noobie. When you are just pushing snow around, you can't feel the difference between one cheap board and another. Boots are more important than the board, if you have heel lift problems or pain they will detract from learning, but I find it easier to get a decent set of boots cheap than anything else. So I would go out and pick up a pair of Burton Custom, Ride RX, Salomon SP3? type bindings (~$150-$180). Stay away from the bottom level at ~$139, the $40 saved is not worth it. If I were to splurge on anything over your budget, this is it, up to $225 is reasonable for something divided over the next 3-4 seasons. Then sit down and try some boots in the $140-$200 range. There are plenty from Ride, 32, Burton, Salomon, K2 that are decent boots in this range but it depends on your foot so I won't make many recomendations. That means you are somewhere in the $300-480 range. Whatever money you have left over, pick your board. If you don't have enough to buy a board (it should be in the $200 range for a last years beginner/intermediate board), rent one for the year and buy a board next year. (Should be like $35-50 for the year). I know that isn't the answer people want to hear, they want to buy a new board becuase it is the most visible part. But the reality is that it is the LEAST important part for a beginner/starting to turn into intermediate. The first time I switched to real bindings having been on rentals for a season, it blew my mind. Switching boots made a solid difference too. Switching boards from a rental wood core biaxial fiberglass with extruded base board, to owning your own wood core bixaxial fiberglass with extruded base board is no change, except for the graphics.

True, but you have to buy in January-March for the next season so you have to make a pretty big guess as to what will happen. We ramped up for twins a little faster than we should and you buy for the next year before you see the full result for this one, so it is quite easy to make a 2 year mistake on over buying them and hoping the trend will materialize. We were going 70/30 regular/twin and it wasn't working out.

That is a good price, but not a GREAT price. Boards I have personally sold at 200 dollars the year after Ride Business (Normal price $750) GNU Altered Genetics (Normal price $650) Arbor Crossbow, A-Frame (Normal price 500+) etc. Lib tech riders choice (400 something) Lib tech danny kass (500 something?) 30-50% is normal for year old gear, greater than 50% off is rare but always something will sell that way. The Air normally sells at a shop for 350, and it is an intermediate board. That was the lowest rung on the Burton ladder we sold at our store, they we rented the Blunt which is lower. That said, I don't know if I'd call it GARBAGE, it is a decent board for what it aims to be, but it doesn't aim to be a really stiff board, but an easy turning board for groomers and what not. Based on what you said your riding style is in other threads it probably will be a good fit. Really you can't go wrong with a board that price, I've taken some boards I'm not huge on based off of price and they're good enough.

So I had a nice AK 16L pack from 2 years ago. Very simple bag, 2 shoulder straps, 1 chest strap, and 2 straps on the back for the board. There was a pocket for the board straps to go into so they didn't dangle around all day. The bag ended up ripping out in a spot that was unrepairable (I ski with it and use it daily when I bike to and from class so it gets a lot of use) so they sent me a new AK 23L pack from this year. It is a nice pack with better shoulder straps, more room, good materials etc, but damn does it have a lot of straps. 2 shoulder straps, chest strap, waist strap on the front 2 board straps on the back 2 shovel straps on the back 4 "cinch" straps to tighten things up 2 straps I can't even figure out what the hell they are supposed to be for All in all, I end up with like 3 feet of extra webbing doing nothing all day and no where to put it and it dangles around. Anyone have any suggestions on how to clean it up? I'm a bit wary of just cutting the straps to the lengths I want and sewing the ends over. I do that for my sailing and scuba vests but I wear the same thing with those all the time, this bag has to fit over a ski jacket all the way down to a t-shirt so sewing to length is not going to work. I was thinking electrical tape or something like that, but I must be missing something. Am I just a scrub or what?

The only problem comes when you try to sell all mountain twins to people who are not looking for park skis and they think that because they are twin they are meant to be park skis, but the reality today is that there are a lot of all mountain twins that are equal or better to the regular skis being put out there. At my shop we sold through our regular skis at a 90+% rate, and only about 60-70% on twins. For perspective, snowboards we usually hit about 80%. So people were definately over buying regulars and under buying twins out of fear. We usually bought about 70% regular and 30% twin thinking "this will be the year they finally catch on" over and over, and as of yet it just hasn't passed that mark. What I will tell you is that the guys who know what they are doing are more likely to come in and be open to buying a twin tip. I don't know if that is because if you are more serious you go through more skis so are willing to try something new, or what, but it is the case. The guys who come in and spend 1-2 weeks a year in Vail/Aspen are the least likely to buy twins and the most likely to buy a Volkl or Atomic ski that is way too stiff for them and pair it up with Lange boots that are way to stiff for them and pretend they are Bode Miller as they yardsale down the hill - but that is neither here or there.

2nd that. Though somewhat soured by their binding episode a few years back I still love that ski. I would put them as "I ski all mountain but dabble in the park" ski, more than a "I only ride park" ski. If they were your one ski I would put them over the chronics because I feel like the chronics are a one trick pony. The rossi scratch is a great option as well.