Anouncing the Wasatch Trenchin’ Convention!! Official dates will be 5, 6 and 7 March at Solitude, Snowbasin and Park City Mountain Resort respectively. The tenative format will be a flash demo. We will have only boards available for trial so bring your boots and bindings to mount. Board sharing times will be in the respective parking lots from 0800 to 0900 and then sometime before and during lunch. The second demo time will be set in the morning on the day of said ride dates. Kessler’s, Priors, F2’s and of course some vintage rides will be available. We’re making this a very fluid event so send Billy, Curt and I any suggestions on layout. We’ll keep the blog up to date as well as the forum and facebook pages.
Posts Tagged ‘hardbooter’
Wasatch Trenchin’ Convention
Friday, January 22nd, 2010Kessler 185 PGS Review: First Impression
Thursday, December 24th, 2009For 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.
New Shipping policy
Thursday, August 27th, 2009We’re modifying our shipping policy a bit. We have sent out the first pair of UPZ boots without a secondary box. Looking back, we’ve wasted a lot of extra packaging with cardboard by trying to protect virtually indestructable Alpine Snowb…oard Gear with such a solid shipping company such as UPS. Look for gear coming to you in the stock box and if you have any issues, please, give us some feedback. We want to do as much as possible for the environment on this front.
As a side note, some customers may have noticed upon taking their box apart, if you have for some reason removed your UPS Shipping label, you might see a screen print from the Transformers movie or some random Barbie or Disney princess coloring book printout on the backing. We frequently rummage the recycle bin for viable shipping label stock.
Also, Hardbooter headquarters was probably the first local South Salt lake Biz to buy into the recycling program before it became free to all. If you see a way for us to feasibly improve our footprint, feel free to give a shout out.
20081221
Sunday, December 21st, 2008Had a day at Park City Mountain Resort today. The traffic was minimal comming in from Park City. Dressed up in the Parking Log and headed to Payday lift for some bomberson Treasure Hollow. Payday is still closed for a Slalom reace due to boney conditions on the Eagle Race Arena, so Treasure Hollow is the run of choice for the lower mountain. Snow awa pretty good, but with crappy snow status and subsequent run non-openings, traffic was significant, even early. Put in 2 runs and the hooked up with Billy for some turns on upper mountain. Assessment was set up nicely, and with the overcast conditions, the tree borders mad for nice light. Took a run down hidden splendor after spending aroun 10 minutes in line with the holiday masses. We had a relatively nice day for th conditions hoever, we’re hoping for much more snow in the near future. It’s in the forecast anyhow.