SteveInOregon
January 15th, 2010, 11:45 PM
As a beginning H-Boot'er, and a highly experienced S-Boot'er, ( riding since 88) this is my "1st Impression" of two things.
1) Hard booting > after *free carving in Burton Driver X on an old Morrow 176 * F-Carve board for years, I bought my 1st H-Boots and hard plate's
( old 2nd hand gear on E-bay of course ) last week.
&
2) Testing a brand new *Diablo brand carbon fiber laminate / composite boarder cross type carve board as I remember it was a 180cm ( a lot longer than my 176 ) with a shallow side cut , narrow width and , round tail with mild turn up in the tail, ( sorry about the lack of true measurements ) but the maker/ owner of Diablo who posts here often will give you all the particulars.
I was having my old Morrow drilled to accept the hard plates and the Owner of Diablo Eric was SUPER kind, patient & generous enough ask me if I wanted to ride a new board and volunteered to bolt my hard plates to his new long board demo and "let me loose"
1st ride Impression> WOW this is "da s*** !!! :eek:
The boots: ( clean old Reichle SBH & good condition Rossi bail style hard plates are love @ 1st ride !!!
I must have been asleep all these years !!! , the feel , the drive , the control and feed back , the snap turn-ability was 110 %` better than softies.
The Board: Man-O-man, the new long & narrow Diablo was WAY out of my league , it was much faster than mine, and it did not want to turn or even hook up unless you are going FAST ( and that was easy to do ) then all of a sudden WAM it comes alive and bites a tite line that you must drive into or it will throw you off like right now if you dont fully commit to staying in a carve at speed.
Sorry but I dont have enough H-Boot experience to give you a technical evaluation, only a newbee H-Booters 1st impression's.
The Diablo lulled me into an idiots false sense of confidence, because I love to bomb then pop up and carve a hard couple hybrid toilet butt & surf tube'er linked turns then tuck in for another 100 yards or so and do it again, but the Diablo with H-Boots made me feel , perform and look like a scared bar stool jockey on a real rodeo dull, I was just hanging on for dear life but I couldn't not stop because the sense of slick power was addicting.
This was on a just little shorty hill , LOL but in seconds flat the Diablo ate the hill and I was mesmerized so much by how knife like the Diablo was I would forget to slow down and I ended up making a few 20 yard long panic plow stops before I blasted into the lift line, because I got so into trying to handle the board that I would run out of hill, I knew I couldn't take this in the big mountain or I would end up having a 1 man yard sale , lol.
I brought the board back exhausted ( the bindings needed cant & different angles, but so what ) I told the owner/builder in the repair shack that this board is possessed it really is the Diablo :eplus2: the Devil and it tried to kill me all the time it was lying to me telling me I can handle it, lol , Diablo lied and I almost died, lol.
I'm HOOKED on hard boots, I now have a couple dozen night time steep intermediate bomb-carve runs on my old Morrow with the new ( 2nd hand ) hard boots and plates on it and its Sooooo much better because I know this board its not the Devil lol, its much more forgiving and "all mountain" oriented.
The Diablo is not "fancy" looking, it has a small label , plain black Ptex bottom, no racing stripes or cool color type splash just a nice modern metallic carbon fiber look, but the builder / owner agrees with that some retro 50's / 60's mucle car racing stripes or number plates would be cool to do some experiential stuff to ad visual appeal.
The Diablo seems to be made for a clean steep groom & long n real wide run's , also it seams to be made for an "advanced" carve-racer ( not me ) the Diablo is not suited to the typical ski'ed up ice chunk that I have to put up with.
Anyways with the hard boots & plates on I almost feel like a real carver, :)
That's my beginner HB'er impressions
1) Hard booting > after *free carving in Burton Driver X on an old Morrow 176 * F-Carve board for years, I bought my 1st H-Boots and hard plate's
( old 2nd hand gear on E-bay of course ) last week.
&
2) Testing a brand new *Diablo brand carbon fiber laminate / composite boarder cross type carve board as I remember it was a 180cm ( a lot longer than my 176 ) with a shallow side cut , narrow width and , round tail with mild turn up in the tail, ( sorry about the lack of true measurements ) but the maker/ owner of Diablo who posts here often will give you all the particulars.
I was having my old Morrow drilled to accept the hard plates and the Owner of Diablo Eric was SUPER kind, patient & generous enough ask me if I wanted to ride a new board and volunteered to bolt my hard plates to his new long board demo and "let me loose"
1st ride Impression> WOW this is "da s*** !!! :eek:
The boots: ( clean old Reichle SBH & good condition Rossi bail style hard plates are love @ 1st ride !!!
I must have been asleep all these years !!! , the feel , the drive , the control and feed back , the snap turn-ability was 110 %` better than softies.
The Board: Man-O-man, the new long & narrow Diablo was WAY out of my league , it was much faster than mine, and it did not want to turn or even hook up unless you are going FAST ( and that was easy to do ) then all of a sudden WAM it comes alive and bites a tite line that you must drive into or it will throw you off like right now if you dont fully commit to staying in a carve at speed.
Sorry but I dont have enough H-Boot experience to give you a technical evaluation, only a newbee H-Booters 1st impression's.
The Diablo lulled me into an idiots false sense of confidence, because I love to bomb then pop up and carve a hard couple hybrid toilet butt & surf tube'er linked turns then tuck in for another 100 yards or so and do it again, but the Diablo with H-Boots made me feel , perform and look like a scared bar stool jockey on a real rodeo dull, I was just hanging on for dear life but I couldn't not stop because the sense of slick power was addicting.
This was on a just little shorty hill , LOL but in seconds flat the Diablo ate the hill and I was mesmerized so much by how knife like the Diablo was I would forget to slow down and I ended up making a few 20 yard long panic plow stops before I blasted into the lift line, because I got so into trying to handle the board that I would run out of hill, I knew I couldn't take this in the big mountain or I would end up having a 1 man yard sale , lol.
I brought the board back exhausted ( the bindings needed cant & different angles, but so what ) I told the owner/builder in the repair shack that this board is possessed it really is the Diablo :eplus2: the Devil and it tried to kill me all the time it was lying to me telling me I can handle it, lol , Diablo lied and I almost died, lol.
I'm HOOKED on hard boots, I now have a couple dozen night time steep intermediate bomb-carve runs on my old Morrow with the new ( 2nd hand ) hard boots and plates on it and its Sooooo much better because I know this board its not the Devil lol, its much more forgiving and "all mountain" oriented.
The Diablo is not "fancy" looking, it has a small label , plain black Ptex bottom, no racing stripes or cool color type splash just a nice modern metallic carbon fiber look, but the builder / owner agrees with that some retro 50's / 60's mucle car racing stripes or number plates would be cool to do some experiential stuff to ad visual appeal.
The Diablo seems to be made for a clean steep groom & long n real wide run's , also it seams to be made for an "advanced" carve-racer ( not me ) the Diablo is not suited to the typical ski'ed up ice chunk that I have to put up with.
Anyways with the hard boots & plates on I almost feel like a real carver, :)
That's my beginner HB'er impressions