Hey all,
Remember way back, when Hardbooter made that video about how to make riser plates to protect metal topsheet boards?
Some folks have requested that we put up some sort of template for them, so here it is: http://www.hardbooter.net/plate.pdf
Feel free to download, copy, sell, whatever else you would like to do with it.
The original post containing the “how-to” video is here: http://hardbooter.net/blog/?p=147
Enjoy….
Glad to see you here. I haven’t produced much content lately so I’ll update as best I can from the past few weeks. Happy New Year most of all to you. 2009 was a strange one for sure both personally as well as on the HB front.
I’ve been riding the hell out of metal product this season and there is a lot to compare and contrast from different manufacturers as well as within a single line of boards. I don’t have the board-feel of my Jedi Master Billy but I have learned a lot from him and others so I’ll give it a shot in my personal review to come of Kesslers, Sigi Grabner’s. For now, I’ll offer my take on the new F2 Speedster GS shape with metal. I’ve posted a few pics on our new HB photo repository at Smugmug. Please bookmark this as we’ll be uploading any and all photos as often as possible. It’s easier everyday to do so and I’ll get Billy, Skully and Will onboard to contribute. Any photo you see posted around the HB world, you may view in Higher resolution at the Smugmug site. (mostly. There may be a few stragglers.)
It’s great to get back onto an F2 and I believe that the new metal GS shape is a 
contender. I’m not really sure if the 183 is a course board but man o’ man is it a machine on the freecarve circuit. I believe there’s 170 cm plus running length out of this thing with the new hammerhead nose profile and the manufacturer claims 20 or so meters of sidecut. I’m not sure that the new stick falls this close to the Super G range of things but it’s all of 16 plus meters of pure rock fury. If I closed my eyes and didn’t know this was an F2, I’d say that this board came from F2. The familiar snap and feedback out of a turn is like an old friend from the late nineties to the early ott’s but with a nice clean Cadillac smoothness within the turn. It’s unbelievable how the Speedster munches up the terrain. I’m a pretty technical rider that likes to tighten up a board to spec on the sidecut for as much feel as possible but I found that the more loose I got on this thing and the more I let it run out a bit, the better it performed. To me, this thing holds a turn all the way through only to release when firmly commanded unlike the likes of the Kessler which only takes the flutter of a nose hair to release the tail for some speed check and feathering. Billy and I love the feel of the Madd 180 and the wider Virus sticks at around the bill eighty length and personally classed them as “super board” when they were current. The F2 Speedster RS WC edition is my new Super Board but with new school shape and construction. The width let’s you stand up for more power with lower angles and let’s you actually drive the board around the hill with your legs rather than bending at the waiste on steeper angles that is necessarey to power up the nose on a skinnier board. I hadn’t detuned the board on purpose on it’s maiden voyage intentionally to compare turn release and engagement with some rounded edges at the tip and tail. As always, my findings were consistent with previous experimentation. Detune, detune, detune!! As I said before, the metal provides a dampness within the turn that smooths out the middle of a turn and let’s a rider reset to neutral, prepping for the optimal positioning of the next turn, making heel and toeside links appear flawless from the softie and two plank gawkers observing from the lift overhead, even on the hard blue’s to the black. I rode this board with F2 bindings and of course, my only go to for boots, the RC-10’s from UPZ. I will give a brief review of the ride down the line with an S-flex plate to complete the package from F2 and ride the way the board is meant to be set up.
Until then….
Good news! There’s finally enough snow in Utah to make it worth riding!!!
OK, so it hasn’t been absolutely terrible, but it was pretty sketchy up until the snow we’ve had in the last couple of weeks. I haven’t even been up for two weeks, so it’s nice to know that there aren’t any groomers that I need to avoid, everything has good coverage finally, and it snowed all day today…
In other news, I pried the new F2 Speester RS 183 World Cup Edition 
out of Dave’s hands for a few turns. Dave has posted some of his thoughts, and I believe is planning on posting more. My $.02 is: Holy Crap! Extremely damp, holds an edge like no other, and FAST. There aren’t many runs at The Canyons that allow a whimp like me to get a board like this going, but there are a couple. It kinda reminds me of the good old Madd 180, only better. If you like hip-draggin’, cheek flappin’ all out speed, this board is the one for you. A little more work than some of the other new-school metal boards that I’ve ridden, but definitely worth it.
Curt / Skully
After a weekend of not riding, we were down in LA for family reasons, Flavia and I finally got back on snow. On a side note, thanks to Neil and Loc for sharing a few beers, tequila shots, and many stories while we were in LA. 
While we were gone Utah finally got dumped on. Park City was super good over the weekend and now primed for next months (Thanks John for catching I said weekend and not month) WTC! I got to get out this weekend on a custom Kessler. Can’t remember who it was made for but I can tell you this was a nice ride. It really responded to being pushed hard. It was noticeably stiffer than the stock Kessler and rode accordingly. See you at WTC.
Wow what a bluebird day up at Park City. For the first time since 1992 I got out on a SL board. Billy and I traded Sigi SL and Kessler SL boards with Dave ripping on the F2 SL.
It was a fun filled slalom day for sure. Definitely took me a while to get used to being on such a short board. After years of riding nothing shorter than 180cm a 167 is a completely different beast. The new boards ride a lot different than I remember. I was never a big fan of slalom but these boards might make me change my mind as it felt more like a mini gs turns at ¾ the speed. Give me a few more days like today and maybe, just maybe, I will start to like slalom a lot more. Also Billy gave Flavia a few pointers and she is making some improvements. It always amazes me that when I tell her something she ignores me but if Billy tells her the same thing she pays attention. Must have something to do with she is used to ignoring me most of the time haha. On our last run down we hit the NASTAR course…ask Billy who won. Anyway after a great day on the hill we hit Squatter’s for a beer and some food. If you are in the area and you like a dark beer 
make sure and try their new Outer Darkness brew, it’s a very tasty beer for sure. Looks like 7 out of the next 10 days are calling for snow so should be real good up there so get up there and make some turns.
Here is the video for the Kessler. Sorry for the shaky cam. The next one will be better. I hope you all enjoy it anyway.
While Dave, Billy and Will were out riding the GS gear, I was able to mount up a new F2 Speedster 163. This little rocket is built with F2’s “Worldcup” construction, which as far as I can tell, essentially means titanal. A glance at the sidewall shows my uneducated eye what looks like 2 layers of titanal. One layer underneath the topsheet, and one 
layer just above the base / edges. F2 has incorporated a decambered hammer-head style nose, and slightly decambered tail, and a bit of taper, like many other new-school 
boards. I didn’t break out the tape measure to get measurements, but the taper is visibly apparent. I’m not sure of the exact specs as far as sidecut radius, either as it looks like F’2’s website does not have this latest board listed…
The 163 is the shortes metal board I have ever ridden. I basically traded an old Rossi 190 for an old Burner 162 over the spring / summer, and have been riding the Burner a bit this year, so I was ready to try something metal in the same length range. I wasn’t actually able to get on snow until a while after lunch, so the conditions were perfect for trying out a new metal board.
As far as the ride goes… After getting off of the lift, I spotted an opening, pointed it to pick up some speed and pitched it into a heelside, and was in love from the first turn. This little guy holds an edge wonderfully, and is damp enough to eat up all of the afternoon chop as if it were first tracks. I felt confident cranking turns on steeper pitches where there was nothing but afternoon scraped, man-made snow (what we call ice here in UT, but the east-coaster just laugh at.)
This board likes to be ridden centered, like Will has mentioned in some of his posts about the Kesslers. Weighting the nose going into turns doesn’t make a lot of difference, it hooks up great with either riding style. It’s still got some pop off of the tail, though nothing compared to my old glass RS.
All in all, this has got to be the best F2 board I have ever ridden. We’ll have to see wait and see what the reports are from Dave, Billy and Will after they give it a go. I have no desire whatsoever to go back to riding my old glass boards at the moment… 
Curt / Skully
Finally after a few seasons of listening to the hype about Kesslers I got the chance to use a 185 (thanks Billy and Dave at Hardbooter.com). My first reaction by the time I got down to the lift was “Holy Hell!” Here are my stats so you can gauge this review. Riding alpine for over 20 years, 5’8”, 165lbs, goofy foot, with angles of 55 in the front and 50 in the back. I have raced at all levels but much preferred to freeride. I used to get anywhere from 250-300 days a year on snow but now down to about 50 depending on work. The board was set-up with a Vist plate and F2 bindings.
Now on to the important part: the review. I have been riding this board now for about 6 days on snow and this is a beefy, powerful snowboard. Carving performance was unreal, to say the least. Power, energy, no speed limit. For those who are looking for tremendous “pop” from the tail then this isn’t for you but if you really load up the tail then you do get that sensation, just not like an old school glass board. I am not a huge fan of “popping” off the tail and getting sent into the woods so I like softer tail that gives some forgiveness. This is a straight up race board but not like the old race boards that kicked your ass every time you weren’t spot on, it is very forgiving. This combination of power and forgiveness lets you ride anything with confidence. On the first day it was perfect groomers and this board I could relax, or be aggressive, and it responded well to both styles. We ripped race inspired GS turns top to bottom and even through in some Eurocarves for good measure…not to mention some switch riding. The problem with such perfect conditions I can’t fully put this through the paces and it left me wishing that I was back at Whiteface on a blue ice day. On New Years Eve we got up to Snowbasin, which is usually perfect but that it definitely wasn’t that day. My friends from out here said they hit some ice but I just called it good ole hardpack. Coming down the “iciest” part of the run this Kessler didn’t skid a bit, made me feel like Jean Nerva in Chill “you carve, you carve, you carve, you carve…no skid even if it’s icy”
If I hade to have one board this would be it, no doubt. This is especially true with the Vist plate on it. I am going to throw that Vist plate on a Prior very soon to see exactly how much of the feel is influenced by it. I know some freeriders don’t want to ride the Vist or Hangel due to the weight or for whatever other reason but I can tell you that I love the Vist (easier to move from one board to the next) and don’t want to ride without some type of plate system.
This weekend I will be shooting some video to go along with this review and a Park City Mountain Resort review. I was supposed to get some videoing done last week but that didn’t work out. Look for the video being posted over at the Hardbooter.com blog site plus I will try to post it here. Again, a huge thanks to Dave and Billy. See ya on the snow.
For the last two seasons I have been riding a slew of different boards like Virus, Prior, and even a pre-KST Kessler. With all the hype surrounding Kesslers I have been dying to get my hands on one to put through the paces, and finally yesterday I had my chance. The board is a new black top 185 that is mounted with a Vist plate and F2 bindings.
But before I breakdown the board let me give you some of my specifics:
Weight: 165lbs
Height: 5’8” (on a good day)
Stance: Goofy
Stance width: 20.5”
Front foot: 55o with toe lift
Back foot: 50o with heel lift
Years on hardboots: 20+
My first run was on a very easy trail and without much speed I was hesitant to how the board would react. Within a few turns it was evident that long gone were the days of forcing a board to turn. Unlike like some boards where you need to really move forward to initiate the turn you can just stay centered and let the board do the work. Back in the later part of the 1990’s my favorite board was a Rossi 193 but I remember how much fore movement was needed to initiate the turn. For me, the earlier and higher that I engaged the edge, the more that the whole board was pressured. Although I wasn’t lucky enough to have any ice to test this on there was plenty of inconsistent grooming. The suppleness of the Kessler combined with the lift from the Vist plate made for ride that felt as smooth as a Cadillac with the power and control of a Ferrari. No matter what type of snow or grooming I ran into this board had it for lunch. There was not one slip of the edge that I didn’t do on purpose. Even though we didn’t have any ice yesterday I could tell this board would rip through the bluest of blue ice days back at Whiteface. I couldn’t help but wonder what this board would do on Whiteface’s Mountain Run, Stowe’s front four, or Sunday River’s Obsession after one of the east’s famous freeze thaw cycles. The board railed turn after turn and asked for more. There wasn’t the need to make huge adjustments throughout the turn unless I wanted to or I got off balance. Again I just wish I had some blue corduroy to run this on. Overall, for pure carving, this is hands down the best ride I have ever had. I haven’t had enough time or variance of conditions to say if it is as versatile as the Prior (which I feel is the best all mountain race inspired board that I have ridden so far) but I am very impressed. For me the goal has always been to feel like water running downhill when I ride, finally I have felt that way. This board makes carving effortless.
FYI this whole set-up is now available at Hardbooter.com. If you are a weekend racer, an inspiring world cupper, or just someone who wants to ride what those girls and guys ride here’s your chance.