new carver, need gear

[deeluxflow]

i am new to the carving world.
i have been snowboarding for 10 years, and i want to start carving, and possibly racing. my only problem is money. right now i am so broke that i am not eating lunch to save for my summer trip. i need to find gear, but i wont be able to spend much. it will be especially hard for me because I am 6'1", and i have size 15 shoes. finding boots is not going to be easy for me. if anyone has any idas for finding inexpencive, yet large equipment, please help!!!

p.s. i can probably wear anything from a 13 to a 15 shoe, if it is very wide at the ball of the foot.

[Jack Michaud]

Welcome Center (http://www.bomberonline.com/articles/welcome_center.cfm)

[AlpentalRider]

Right now you can find lots of gear at good prices on Ebay. For you're big feet I would try and pick up the 2002 Burton Speed 168 that skiadores keeps selling. I picked up 2 of them (one for me and one for my buddy) for around $130 shipped.

The good thing about that board is that it's waist width is 225mm, which is pretty wide considering most boards are between 180-195.

It would be hard to beat that price for a decent board like the Speed brand new and unridden.

[C5 Golfer]

Try Ebay searching for - hardboot, racing, carving, Bomber TD, Riachle. also, check classified here at Bomber Forum. Do a WTB classified listing and see what others can offer.

[Randy S.]

Good luck finding boots for those gunboats! 13 is about the biggest I've seen. You might want to call Fin and see what they have laying around at Bomber. You could try them on (Heads are supposed to be wider than Raichle/Deeluxe). If you can get close, you could probably get a good bootfitter to punch them out for you. Otherwise you are looking at using some huge ski boots or having Dale Boots (http://www.dalebootusa.com/) custom make you a pair that will have a very long sole length. A wide carving board is definitely in your future unless you like 70 degree binding angles.

If you work it out, post back here with your solution, we get people asking about this on occasion.

[Mike T]

Originally posted by C5 Golfer
Try Ebay searching for - hardboot, racing, carving, Bomber TD, Riachle. also, check classified here at Bomber Forum. Do a WTB classified listing and see what others can offer.
alpine, race, carve, deeluxe are good keywords too!

[Gtanner]

Check this site out. At the top there is the ebay search button, it'll check out all of Ebay in the states and Canada for any carving gear: Raichle, Bomber, Catek, Head...the works.

--Gord

[Pre School Rider]

One possibility is to go with a stiffer BX board using plates,or running Lifters and a stiffer softboot binding(if it turns out no Hardshells in your size are to be found) such as Catek Freeride or Burton Mission GT (there are others,btw,and a third strap kit can do wonders for turning performance). However I digress,the boards you'd want to keep an eye out for are Volkl's Cross,Nidecker Boarder X or Proto,Hayes Bros. "Hobie" model,Rad-Air's Reto or a Bigger Tanker,Oxygen's Supercross,or F-2's Eliminator or Boxer.Any of these "fat" boards will carve very well in plates or softboots.Most have waist widths in the 23cm-to-25cm range,which allow for moderate hadboot angles,even with large boots. [[ Keep this in mind with fitting your boots: having a good bootfitter take Thermofit liners and Mold them to you will likely reduce the shell sizing you need,so you may be able to slide into a size '13' shell,or at least a '14' without discomfort. For example,I wear a size 9-1/2 to 10 street shoe,but have been using size Mondo 26 (US men's 8) for many years,due in no small part to Thermofit liners,but also because I have good bootfitters in the area. ]]

[Marker]

Have you measured your feet in centimeters? This will give people a much better impression of just how big your feet are. Most snowboard hardshells are sized on a Mondo scale that is your foot length in cm.

[AlpentalRider]

^^^ he makes a good point. I wear size 10.5 -11 street shoes, and when I measured for hardboots, I realized i'm a 27 mondo (size 9 mens). If I would have used a conversion chart I would have mistakenly purchased a 28.5 mondo which would have been waaaay too big.

[Jagger]

Size 15 is going to be virtualy impossible to find off the shelf boots. When I was younger I had a buddy who wore size 16 and the only ski boots he could use were hansen rear entrys that ran to size 15 an at that time [early 80s] they had been discontinued for a few years and that played hell with him finding boots.

Oh and btw dont try to squeeze into boots that are too small, your toenails will fall off. Quite painfull!

[Speed Demon]

Try ebay when it starts up with the alpine again thats where i got my stuff although for your size im not sure...im new as well and i got my bindings for real cheap at a snowboard shop that was trying to get rid of them, thats about what i can tell you hope it helps somewhat:)
________
Peachy cam (http://camslivesexy.com/cam/Peachy)

[Randy S.]

Here's another option for custom-made very large boots:

Strolz.at (http://www.strolz.at)

They make a boot that interchanges intec heel/toe with DIN. They'll custom make boots to any size (I think). There are some threads on Extreme Carving (http://www.extremecarving.com) about them.