Let’s see,

hot girl with approach skis.
hippies in soft boots.
gear heads in hard boots.
My toys are better then your toys.

can we get a snowshoer in here to round it out?!?!

Tell that shit to Tom Burt!

But I do maintain, that these preferences usually are not based on experience: very few riders have actually taken the time, and made the effort, required to get a hard boot system dialed to perform optimally, as noted this level of performance is not available with off the shelf gear, it requires careful and considerable modification.

No worries Barrows. Maybe it’s time to start a new thread, because I want you to convince me what hardboot setup I should be riding. I did try hardboots and voile plates in the past, but I thought is sucked at descending. I also confess I probably didn’t dial it in/mod it in the way you reference here.

So convince me, the fastest lightest high performing on descents as well as touring setup. Please tell me there’s something better then voile plates though, I was very unimpressed with those when I tried em. Reply here (I’m gonna post this then start a new thread then edit it to include the link…)

Edit: Utah tells me voile plates rock, I’m open minded on that as well. I was pretty green when I dabbled in hardboots so maybe I didn’t have them dialed in like should have.

Dam Russman,

I’ve tried to be respectful this whole time. Now cross posting disses, that’s just lame. Go back and read the posts I’ve submitted over the years, I think you would find about 2% say anything related Voile. Here’s my connection to Voile. I ride two DIY splitties made with the Voile split Kit, I have multiple straps/scrapers/extra pins, mtn plates, I’ve managed to go through two pairs of skins over the last 10 plus years, and I I won a Voile hat at an old splitfest that Voile sponsored way back. But most importantly I know the history Voile and respect it. If you knew the history you would show a whole lot more respect for how this began and where it’s come.

How can a guy who’s every post is an ad campaign for product not yet on the market make such a comment that’s just laughable man. When you used your TR as another add campaign you opened yourself up for this, you talked about an evolution my reason for using the Voile name so much was to make the point THEY WERE THE EVOLUTION. They started it all, show some respect, You don’t have to buy there shit.

Edit to add: My love of splitboarding goes way beyond gear. It’s the story, the history, the culture, the people, the art, the science,the spirituality. I’ll try to post up something that tries to makes sense of this but honestly and thanks to PJ for the comment if you don’t understand you just won’t understand.

@russman wrote:

I’m pretty sure Utah WORKS for Voile. Every post he submits praises the almighty.

UTAH doesn’t work for Voile, just like (I’m guessing) you don’t work for Jones. Although honestly (as someone else already pointed out) a casual observer would think that you do work for Jones… Does this entire dust up make a little more sense in that context? :scratch: Just ask’n

Sorry dude. My use of the emcon was supposed to be kinda funny in that Russ’ previous post and use of the emcon was baiting and argumentative, like Zach used to be.

I’m all for the banter but definitely think it gets a little old when folks don’t self-reflect and defend their point no matter how wrong they are. That’s a sure sign of summer.

Honestly, I just wish there was more midget wrestling in my town.

@UTAH wrote:

Be more clear Eco I’ve already PM’d a couple people about posting icons that make no point. It’s weak in my opinion. I remember Zach and his passion for arguing for approach ski’s on the splitboard website. I don’t make the connection between what I’ve written except that we had to give that guy a bit of a history lesson. Everyone one that has made comments on this post has bitched in some way, don’t make me the easy scape goat. I remember when a group of you had the balls to put up a post to tell people how they should write TR’s, now that’s just stupid.

If you write a TR be ready to be challenged whether it’s justifying why you rode a line or backing up what you write. It’s just how it is don’t be super sensitive and as someone said in another stupid post “get over it”.

Seriously Utah, can we give it a rest?

I was done Russ until you low blowed me. I don’t pretend to be well versed in how the internet works maybe these little games of insulting and goating people and when they respond telling them to give it a rest is the norm. Post TR that gives a false history lesson and then when someone gives different perspective lecture them about how lame it to give history lessons. Use a TR as an advertisement tool for your new binders and then lecture someone else when they throw a companies name out there. Weak in my opinion and down right bizarre. I guess you wanted to call me egotistical and pathetic and I am supposed to sit back and say to myself man the Russ guy is so wise. Don’t lecture me about being positive I was and am and have been on this site, this is the most pissed I’ve ever been and it’s mainly because I’m so dam confused by your contradictions.

To all the long time lurkers out there :nononno: . I think wev’ve managed to create a cool culture in the short time splitting been around. We all share a similar story and passion for mountains. I know when I started by only background knowledge was park laps, halfpipe sessions my only experience in the bc was short boot packs and building kickers. When I started I made some of the same stupid comments about skier being gay, you shoud straightline that, why didn’t that guy hit that 50footer, etc that’s so common these days. The more I got in the BC learned the unwritten rules and the history of some of the pioneers I got a new perspective. In the snowboard world it’s all about your line down. Sik videos out today but most of those guys couldn’t give a justification for why they
chose to ride that line and that day or a guide pointed and told them where to go. Splitboarding is different the line you put up is just as important as the line you put down, I hope we don’t loose this idea and instead instill that in the younger generations, including the over the weekender barney’s who find something new and cool and want to claim it as theres.

One more perspective. Heres a pick of Forrest Shearer, Chris Coulter and Bob Athey from a tour a while back. Bob may not be able to ski worth shit but he’s been skiing/splitting since th 70’s. He is a pissy old man who put’s together tours that could only be described as beautiful. He knows snow. Ask why he’s pissy and the story goes “in the 80’s someone told me the BC is getting crowded and that if I’m mean to everyone they might go away” I probably killed that but if you know Bob it’s funny as hell. I’ve run into him quite a bit one day was in the summer I came up on him and he was spacing off looking up at the mountains, I said what’s up Bob he responded by pointing the slope and saying” see there one guy died and over there another guy was buried”. Even in the summer and after 30 years he’s still out trying to learn. Another time I was on the up track with him when we came up on some guys using a slope meter Bob’s first reply to them was “33 degrees”.

I don’t expect people to think the story of Craig Kelly, Brett Kobernik, the Wizard, etc are as interesting as I think it is. I know it’s “egotistical and pathetic” to raise those guys on pedastool and demand that new comers at least consider there story along with Jeremy Jones and Travis Rice. It’s just a perspective.

Hey Russ, I’m not going to bash you as a person because I don’t know you. Your exhuberance for Jones and Karakoram is similar to my own for the swally. So I probably ought to have a bite or two of crow. That being said, we’ve probably both annoyed people and I for one own my exuberance.

Anyways, what I want to clarify is that UTAH is not an old wanker, nor does he ride a swally. In fact he is a very soft spoken young dude, whom I consider my friend.
I however am an old wanker and I ride a 195 swally. (or as so eloquently put in the climate change thread, “a pussy with a swallowtail up his ass”) [paraphrasing]

I take pride in exclusively riding a swally and of course we all get old, so the joke is on anyone who thinks they will forever remain young.
And in terms of a board, I can only sympathize with those that still haven’t found what they are looking for.

At any rate, its unfortunate that for all the internet’s possibilities, time and distance leave only our words from which to build relationships. And words absent emotion and inflection, or the expression of a face often leave us hurling angry bits of information at one another across wires.
:twocents:

I was gone for a week to come back to this 😯

I think the rider is as/more important as the gear (while the gear does improve the experience). Last season while I was running around tagging volcanos my gear was falling apart. My board had become a noodle and my bindings were held together by duct tape but that did not stop me from slaying some serious steeps. Looking back at then Yes it was dangerous as hell but my past experiences made all the difference and when riding serious steeps CONFIDENCE MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE.

For years I used the voile slider plates and that was all I knew until I got onto some fuses only 3 months ago. The fuses have finally given me a solid board feel and IN MY OPINION I would never go back to the slider plate. That being said I look forward to getting my hands on some Karakorums.

As for the issue of AT skiers and tele peeps having there gear dialed. They say the same thing about us in variable conditions. The past few weeks I have been doing week long traverses with a certain Hummel you speak of and YES I get insanely jealous seeing him traverse across a huge valley while I have to sidehill for miles at a time but would I change over NO . I love the mountains and more importantly I love snowboarding. People get stoked to see that a snowboarder can get this stuff done because it takes a lot of HARD work.

Sorry for my ramble.

Nice line Russ and I love your comments Ale. (lets get some pizza some time)

@Kyle Miller wrote:

I think the rider is as/more important as the gear (while the gear does improve the experience). Last season while I was running around tagging volcanos my gear was falling apart. My board had become a noodle and my bindings were held together by duct tape but that did not stop me from slaying some serious steeps. Looking back at then Yes it was dangerous as hell but my past experiences made all the difference and when riding serious steeps CONFIDENCE MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE.

For years I used the voile slider plates and that was all I knew until I got onto some fuses only 3 months ago. The fuses have finally given me a solid board feel and IN MY OPINION I would never go back to the slider plate. That being said I look forward to getting my hands on some Karakorums.

That perfectly sums up the equipment / rider issue for me.

A good rider can make bad equipment go, but good equipment will help an already good rider achieve a higher level of performance.

Advances in equipment are happening all the time and I am really excited to see new and innovative companies building split equipment. There is tremendous room for improvement. Certainly not all the new stuff will live up to its hype, but some of it will and we will be better off because of it.

Surfing on doors is a fun concept, but is not an example of the rider making all the difference. If they could do well in a pro contest on a door against other surfers on their incredibly refined surfboards, then that would be an example of the rider making the difference.