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open your eyes ..... the raceboarder is faster than the softboot loser....





burton

obviously not fast enough to beat soft boots for gold

the hard boot guys looked faster, but because of the jumps and such, the soft booters (well, the faster ones) were faster over the entire course (given that course).

if there were no jumps, the hard booters probably would have won.
but, that would have been pretty boring.

but, the one that the american is on actually looks like a snowboard. cannot say the same for the hard boot guy's board.

Interesting. On a track that rutted out, and with the irregular racing, I could see the hardbooters getting slowed down by having adversity translated so stiffly up through their system. Perhaps the softboots act as a better suspension for this kind of stuff.

Considering that the final heat was 50/50 hard boot/soft boot..... I think the only conclusimn you can draw is that both set-ups are entirely valid.

I, personally, have a suspicion that the skinnier boards make it harder to "work" the berms. (the skinnier the board, the more forward thte angle, and the less ability to sit down into the bottom of a turn while letting your board soak up into the berm)... but, that's really about 99% speculation.

I think the event showed pretty clearly that:
1. The particular skill of the rider is more important than what kind of gear they're on.
2. You can win races on either type of gear.

I predit that the hard boot riders will start using boards in the 23 to 24cm waist range, giving them more ability to absorb the track and load up in the corners... I;m not sure if this will equal more wins, dominance, etc... but, it just seems like an obvious evolution.

Zach

PS - When you stop worrying about what equipment other people use and just go out and ride, you'll have a lot more fun.

Over generalizations on both sides. I watched one of the heats where 3 of 4 were on hardboots and the softbooter got spanked. Banked slalom style tracks require less system stiffness than a typical flatter slalom course. The hard surface definatly favors narrower boards, a softer fresh snow course favors somewhat wider shorter boards. Jasey Jay Anderson of Canada usually races hardboots/race boards except on soft fresh snow courses where the wider board is faster. He and his board builder (Coiler boards/Bruce Varsava) have done back to back testing and have come to that conclusion. I personally have no problem with ruts in hardboots, except for the ones I leave!

There are some dumb threads on this site and this one of the dumbest I've seen.

hardboot v. softboot - in the Olympics???Boardercross??? WFC's

Was there a guy from Sandpoint, ID in this? how did he do?

FAST IS FAST!

Hey, we can never have enough threads about hardboot/softboots.

What else would be talk about?

It's cool to see boardercross in the OLY's. Although I dont' have cable so I ain't watching shit.

bcrider,

Put this guy on the payroll...

We need someone as obviously smart as him to let the rest of us know what we're interested in

Zach

I don't follow boardercross so maybe it's totally normal to see this during a race BUT the guy that won threw some sort of speed check (board went perpendicular to the line of travel) just as the hard-booter was about to pass him a couple turns before the finish. Then at the finish the winner drifted to his right and cut-off the hardbooter as he was about to pass for the second time.

Maybe blocking a faster rider is acceptable in boardercross but it's considered bad form in mountain bike racing and other events. I wish he could have won it a little more cleanly.

Kinda like the Steelers winning the Superbowl partially on account of some questionable officiating.

hmm...that is probably only cross-country mtb bike racing

have you ever watch car racing or the most comparable would be a dirt bike supercross event. I don't know about throwing a speed check intentionally to slow someone else up but if you're leading you have choice line pick where ever that may be.