Ottawa 2011/12

[Ian M]

The Mont Blanc trip for tomorrow, Sunday the 5th is still on, but discussion to finalize rides has been moved to email. If anyone else would like to come, give me a shout! 613-322-3250

So far we're five; Chris, Tabby, Ryan, myself, and a skier friend.

Cheers

[nitros]

Hi Ian, It was a pleasure to meet you and your team today, special thanks to the BIG guy, Chris on his VSR, he is a nice guy.
Feel free to advise us in the QC side section for your next Mont Blanc snow session : )
sb

I hope you'll enjoy the north side

[Hilux]

Nitros, it was nice to meet you as well and we had a blast riding a new mountain. We'll hopefully make it up there a couple more times before the end of the season and we can get a QC/ON crew together. It's great seeing so many hardbooters!

[Ian M]

^ Agreed! It was great to meet you Steve, and to see so many carvers. We'll definitely let you know when we can come up again. There is some great terrain there, my favorites were Suisse, Panoramique, Chablis, and Mambo. It seemed pretty busy today, is it ever quieter on weekends?

Cheers!

[CaRtharsis]

Had a great time today. Looking forward to riding there again. Was great to see old faces and make the acquaintance of new ones. Next time we park on the North Side and hit those runs for the morning. That way if the lift breaks again we won't have to worry about making it back to the other side.

[GoofyFoot]

Gonna be there with my freeriding son (as long as he does not wimp out when I tell him how cold it is going to be tomorrow night).

I hope to see some other carvers there!

-Brian

[CaRtharsis]

Anyone riding tonight?

[Ian M]

(Cascades Wednesday night) I hope to see some other carvers there! -Brian

I'll be there, but will be ski racing Come say hi if you see me!
disclaimer... that's if I am well... feels like a bit of a cold setting in right now

[loopback]

Anyone riding tonight?

Was thinking Cascades or Pak tonight, will probably do Pak and try for Cascades tomorrow seeing as there looks to be a small group...

[CaRtharsis]

I'll be there, but will be ski racing Come say hi if you see me!
disclaimer... that's if I am well... feels like a bit of a cold setting in right now

Suck it up princess!!

I skipped tonight. I'm game for tomorrow night.

[Tabatha]

Hey ... it was great riding with everyone again. I learned a lot (as usual). I can't make tonight, but Thursday I will head to Vorlage for some decompression runs and then there is Sunday. Where are people headed? I am back on my Calabogie kick - what are others thinking? As an FYI ... I will probably head there anyway, but I am putting it out there should others feel they want to join me.

[graham p]

Hi All.
I managed to finally get out on my homey skulls board at fortune last night, all I can say is wow! the board worked! well! I took the time to adjust my bindings, do a couple of runs, adjust some more, and now my stance is dialed in.Now I need to work on my skills and technique. The board handled beautifully.

Lino thanks for the boots, I'm completely blown away at the difference between ski and snowboard boots, being the skepticle sort I assumed it was more marketing hype, and people justifying thier $600 expence, but they are night and day to the Dalbellos I tried earlier in the year. I will never go back to ski boots now.

Chris, my Cateks held together and show no signs of coming apart, but I probably didn't push as hard as you do. I will be looking them over fairly closely after hearing your experiance with them. I might not ride as hard as you, but I can crash fairly hard.

Brian, I need to talk to you about the intec step in parts you have, apparently I am not as flexable as I used to be, the kids on the hill already look at me and my board with odd expressions, I don't need to be flailing around on the ground in contorted positions trying to clamp in. Please send me and email or pm.

I'll probably not get very many more days this year out by myself, but maybe I'll be able to meet up with some of you at some point.
Later
Graham

[Ian M]

^ Great news, Graham! Congrats! I do hope you can come out to ride sometime

Calabogie on Sunday sounds good to me. Love that place.

I won't be out ski racing at Cascades tonight kids, my head is an exploding mucus factory and I'm not a very happy camper

[GoofyFoot]

Brian, I need to talk to you about the intec step in parts you have, apparently I am not as flexible as I used to be. The kids on the hill look at me and my board with odd expressions. I don't need to be flailing around on the ground in contorted positions trying to clamp in. Please send me and email or pm.

Graham,

Congrads on getting that homey board to fly!

Email sent regarding extra parts. Now you know why Chris and I love our step-ins .

Cheers,

Brian

[GoofyFoot]

[QUOTE=Tabatha I can't make tonight, but Thursday I will head to Vorlage for some decompression runs and then there is Sunday. Where are people headed? QUOTE]

Well, I did get out to Cascades last night with my son. I saw one other carver on the hill as I arrived but he was not there when I was ready to ride so I will assume that person was not a Bomber On-line subscriber .

Jay Peak for me this WE. They had ten INCHES of snow in the past week. Any one else wanna come?!!? I am leaving after breakfast Fri morn...

[CaRtharsis]

I was there last night from 7 till close. Spent most of the night on the far side carving up the steep bits. I saw one other carver on our last run up the quad but was on my way into the bar after that run.

Didn't see any sign of you Brian. You sure you were at Cascades.....? ;-)

[Tabatha]

I think the unknown carver was JP. He saw people off in the distance, but didn't make it over in time.

Anyone heading out tonight. I do want to head out, but am on the fence. A night home might be nice too ... Anyone up for a few runs?

[Keyser Soze]

they are night and day to the Dalbellos I tried earlier in the year. I will never go back to ski boots now.

Last season I tried ridding Kryptons I'd picked up at a killer price on TGR, and it was so painful that I had to call it quits after 3 runs. My feet were numb, yet somehow still in a considerable amount of pain. Just sitting on the chair had me feeling like I was never going to be able to use my feet again.

I recently went to get the intuition liners cooked by a guy named Chris at Kundstadt in Kanata. He also suggested I yank my footbeds, as the boots were a tight squeeze. I was previously riding in 27 Raichles and my foot was slipping around a bit, so I dropped to a 26.5 when I got the Kryptons and I can barely squeeze in/out of them. The bake, as well as the removal of the footbeds made a world of difference. I also snapped the buckles on the loosest setting to ride, and despite some heel lift on the back foot, everything was fine and very responsive. I'd read about riding with your buckles undone to improve, and I didn't really have any trouble with the loose setting on the boots, as they're naturally tight fit.

Also, the Kryptons were not as stiff as some make them out to be. I was reading about ski boots needing an F2 binding for some flex, but I had no issue with the Cateks I was running. I may need to punch out the toe box on my left foot, but everything else seems fine at the moment. Mind you, I'm still working these boots in.

All this to say that you might not want to forget about the Dalbellos right away. I was considering giving them up, but I'm glad I took the time to make a few adjustments. However, with the wider stance I've set on my board, snapping in at the top of the hill is annoying, and I'm worried I might get my pass pulled for muttering obscenities as I snap in AND try to push myself back up to a standing position so to start my run.

Step-ins seem nice, but I'm paranoid about release issues. However, Chris is a bigger guy than I am, so I'm assuming if everything's set-up correctly, that shouldn't be a concern. I'm sure that with every passing season, step-ins will seem far more appealing.

[graham p]

Hi Keyser.
The Dalbellos were quite comfortable to wear, they were hard to squeeze into and take off, but once on they gave me no pain during the four hours of riding. They seemed to have some forward/rearward flex but absolutly no lateral flex. My cateks were tilted and canted almost to the limits to put my legs where needed. cruising on the slopes was ok, but when I started traversing rough spots I found that I could not absorb more than one hit before being bucked off, two closely spaced bumps and I was on my ass.
The Raichles on the other hand seem to allow my lower legs to absorb the rough, or not even transmit the bumps further up than my ankles. I have been able to reduce the tilt and cant on the bindings significantly, and have been able to widen out to a 510mm width stance from a 480mm. Both feet at 55deg. I have thermal molded foot beds in the Raichles that would not fit into the Dalbellos, both boots are a 26, but like you found out, there doesnt seem to be room for a foot and a footbed in the Dalbellos.
Clamping in with both boots was an equally taxing experiance, I don't remember having that much trouble when I was a teenager! Looking forward to the stepins.
Chris's Catek experiance was not about being ejected, he actually had a sperical nut fail while riding, the power plate, and bails stayed with his boot, and the base plate and angle plate left with his board. Nothing he could have done to prevent that! Other Catek users i've spoken to have never had a problem. I think it may be prudent to disassemble and inspect this part on occasion.

[Ian M]

Graham, what made doing up the bindings so taxing? Just curious.

The only thing to be aware of before you switch to step-ins is that they are much stiffer laterally than 'standard' versions of the same bindings. I'm an advocate of fairly flexy boots and bindings. Are you looking to step-into your current Cateks?

[CaRtharsis]

Graham, what made doing up the bindings so taxing? Just curious.

The only thing to be aware of before you switch to step-ins is that they are much stiffer laterally than 'standard' versions of the same bindings. I'm an advocate of fairly flexy boots and bindings. Are you looking to step-into your current Cateks?

Depending on how you set up your bindings you can provide some degree of safe play in the interface.

The Cateks were nice for the adjustability. You can have most of that with the TD's, and the security of no single point failure mode. Once you have been riding a while and get most of that sorted out you really no longer need to play with them that much. Yes I am a big Guy. Yes I ride hard. I was bending my VSR today into about 4m circles. If you've ever seen it you would know that is no easy feat. Not once did the issue of binding failure cross my mind. I had more concern for how long my $6k engine build is going to hold together on the drive home. Just sayin.

[CaRtharsis]

Double post.

[graham p]

Ian, The fit between my bindings and Raichles is such that the toe block can be either slightly loose or slightly tight, I chose to make it slightly tight to err on the side of caution. It almost requires two hands to clamp down the toe lever, when sitting on the ground with both feet twisted at 55deg, both knees bent and one hand behind me holding me up I find I have a hard time geting the required leverage to clamp in with the other hand. It was a bit easier with the Dalbelo's as the blocks could be adjusted to a position that was not to tight or loose. I'm sure that with practice this will get better, but I like the idea of just stepping in and going. Like I said, I'm not as flexable as I remember!

[Ian M]

^ Right, that does sound difficult. I guess Bomber and F2 bindings have a better provision for sole length micro-adjust. You're wise to err on the tight side, I tried 'looser' one time on my Burton race plates, and when I crashed my front foot came out. Not cool!

^ Chris, I want to see those little circles! I'm finally starting to feel better today - it's been 24 hours since I began bombing my cold with the maximum RDI's of vitamin C and echinacea, and I feel way more human already.

[Hilux]

Yes I am a big Guy. Yes I ride hard. I was bending my VSR today into about 4m circles. If you've ever seen it you would know that is no easy feat. Not once did the issue of binding failure cross my mind. I had more concern for how long my $6k engine build is going to hold together on the drive home. Just sayin.

4m! That's VSR... 4m-12m

Speaking of circles, I was doing bottom of the run 360 carves the other night and one group of softbooters were waiting at the bottom at Vorlage (the boyfriends with no helmets were trying to teach their girlfriends with helmets) apparently watching me as I carved wide down the last pitch. Anywho, I did my first full 360* (usually I do 270's), just cranked it around tight, went to line up at the lift and one of the guys said, "DUUUUUDE! That was sick!". The rest of the night they were trying to do the same but would do these super wide 30m+ 180's...although one guy came close and the other kept nearly missing the fence by the lift. Funny to watch though, both the teaching of their gf's and attempts of softboot carving 360's. Snow was amazing btw.

[nitros]

Just advise you guys, small informal carver's gathering at Val St-Come, next sunday the nineteen. Nice mountain to know, pretty close to you. More infos, please check in the QC section, they call this ''rasemblement .....bla bla bla.'' I hope to meet you again. I will be there with my girl friend, Thanks again caRtharsis for the scoope about the new nirvana freecarving board , I received a mail with more specs details this morning. Seems to be a pretty neat board ; )

[Keyser Soze]

Hi Keyser.
The Dalbellos were quite comfortable to wear, they were hard to squeeze into and take off, but once on they gave me no pain during the four hours of riding. They seemed to have some forward/rearward flex but absolutly no lateral flex. My cateks were tilted and canted almost to the limits to put my legs where needed. cruising on the slopes was ok, but when I started traversing rough spots I found that I could not absorb more than one hit before being bucked off, two closely spaced bumps and I was on my ass.
The Raichles on the other hand seem to allow my lower legs to absorb the rough, or not even transmit the bumps further up than my ankles. I have been able to reduce the tilt and cant on the bindings significantly, and have been able to widen out to a 510mm width stance from a 480mm. Both feet at 55deg. I have thermal molded foot beds in the Raichles that would not fit into the Dalbellos, both boots are a 26, but like you found out, there doesnt seem to be room for a foot and a footbed in the Dalbellos.
Clamping in with both boots was an equally taxing experiance, I don't remember having that much trouble when I was a teenager! Looking forward to the stepins.
Chris's Catek experiance was not about being ejected, he actually had a sperical nut fail while riding, the power plate, and bails stayed with his boot, and the base plate and angle plate left with his board. Nothing he could have done to prevent that! Other Catek users i've spoken to have never had a problem. I think it may be prudent to disassemble and inspect this part on occasion.

Thanks for this, Graham. Out of curiosity, which Dalbello model are you talking about?

And you're right about the lack of lateral flex, but I don't tend to stray far from the groomed stuff.

[Ian M]

Just advise you guys, small informal carver's gathering at Val St-Come, next sunday the nineteen. Nice mountain to know, pretty close to you. More infos, please check in the QC section, they call this ''rasemblement .....bla bla bla.'' I hope to meet you again. I will be there with my girl friend, Thanks again caRtharsis for the scoope about the new nirvana freecarving board , I received a mail with more specs details this morning. Seems to be a pretty neat board ; )

Thank you for passing along the invitation Steve. I saw it on the QC board, but at 250km it's getting a bit far for a day trip. Maybe next year when there's no ECES? I'll travel farther in March too, after ECES when our local conditions deteriorate faster than the big hills...

[Tabatha]

Quite the crowd at Vorlage tonight! Apart from Ryan, JP and myself, we also met Michel from Button who is in town this week and trying to ride a few different hills. If you see a guy on a Burton chances are it is he.

[CaRtharsis]

Ian and I are heading to Cascades Thursday evening if anyone cares to join us.