# First Time With My Own Equipment



## jardo56 (Mar 6, 2009)

A 155 is pretty big for your height for the park. That may not be the whole story, though. Board width and board stiffness might also be a couple other factors. Not sure about the sore ankles. I've never experienced sore ankles.


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## Airman Fisk (Mar 10, 2009)

I was guessing i need to break in the boots or something.. Idk, im not too happy with my $430 investment at the moment. (and that was half off )


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## legallyillegal (Oct 6, 2008)

Keep working on it, you're just not used to the Darkstar's sidecut (which is far more aggressive than a rental), or the new bindings, or the new boots.

Get the boots heat molded by a real ski shop.


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## Guest (Mar 11, 2009)

I was thinking about hitting up mt high to day but im kinda sick so i decided not to... but i guess it was a good idea if its all icy

Damn but only 3 times and your hitting boxes and rails??? ve been about 6 or 7 time and i JUST got toesidedown haha


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## redlude97 (Jan 9, 2008)

you mention hitting jumps and rails and whatnot, but not what type of terrain you can ride. Are you a park rat only? Unless you can carve blacks, then you still don't have the fundamentals, and were getting by on park stuff because its not really that difficult to turn on


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## Airman Fisk (Mar 10, 2009)

mcjsdaddy said:


> I was thinking about hitting up mt high to day but im kinda sick so i decided not to... but i guess it was a good idea if its all icy
> 
> Damn but only 3 times and your hitting boxes and rails??? ve been about 6 or 7 time and i JUST got toesidedown haha


yeah, all my friends are moderately decent, and so when i started i had to keep up with them. It helps because im a little ballsy, but sometimes i did the bigger jumps which i should not have done. Its okay in Big Bear where theres actually snow, but today on the slush, it hurt for a little fall.


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## Airman Fisk (Mar 10, 2009)

redlude97 said:


> you mention hitting jumps and rails and whatnot, but not what type of terrain you can ride. Are you a park rat only? Unless you can carve blacks, then you still don't have the fundamentals, and were getting by on park stuff because its not really that difficult to turn on


Basically what i did was, go up the lift. Make my way down, ooh that looks fun, attempt it. Lol Not the best idea, and yeah i need to get the fundamentals down, but i was doing a lot better last week than i did today, so that kinda bummed me out


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## w3iiipu (Feb 26, 2009)

legallyillegal said:


> Get the boots heat molded by a real ski shop.


is ti really necessary to heat mold it?

i was told by a sales person at the store that even when the boot is not heat molded, after u wear it on the slopes for a while, the heat in ur boot will automatically heat mold the boot for ya.

i kinda regretted that i didnt have my 32 lashed heat molded coz i was in a hurry =(
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## Guest (Mar 11, 2009)

Airman Fisk said:


> yeah, all my friends are moderately decent, and so when i started i had to keep up with them. It helps because im a little ballsy, but sometimes i did the bigger jumps which i should not have done. Its okay in Big Bear where theres actually snow, but today on the slush, it hurt for a little fall.


Im not that ballsy my boys i go with have been trying boxes and jumps the last few times we went up but i said forget that im gonna get down the necessities first, like turning and stopping :dunno: but ill be more willing to try park when I get that stuff down.


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## legallyillegal (Oct 6, 2008)

w3iiipu said:


> is ti really necessary to heat mold it?
> 
> i was told by a sales person at the store that even when the boot is not heat molded, after u wear it on the slopes for a while, the heat in ur boot will automatically heat mold the boot for ya.
> 
> i kinda regretted that i didnt have my 32 lashed heat molded coz i was in a hurry =(


What heat molding will do is eliminate the liner break-in time.


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## Zapatista (Jul 24, 2008)

I'm by no means an expert, but it kinda sounds like your bindings aren't setup optimally. I kinda went through the same thing with my new setup I bought for this year. I was so excited I kinda rushed it together not putting as much thought as I should have and had a pretty crappy first day out. I couldn't carve for anything, I thought I lost all the skill I acquired on my first season. But readjusting the bindings to a better angle, and narrowing up the stance made a night a day difference for me. I was rippin it up lovin my new setup.


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## Airman Fisk (Mar 10, 2009)

Zapatista said:


> I'm by no means an expert, but it kinda sounds like your bindings aren't setup optimally. I kinda went through the same thing with my new setup I bought for this year. I was so excited I kinda rushed it together not putting as much thought as I should have and had a pretty crappy first day out. I couldn't carve for anything, I thought I lost all the skill I acquired on my first season. But readjusting the bindings to a better angle, and narrowing up the stance made a night a day difference for me. I was rippin it up lovin my new setup.


Ill give that a try. I just dont know what would work best until i got out there. I tried to change it once, but that totally messed me up. Any suggestions on how to find the best fit for me?


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## Guest (Mar 12, 2009)

I had big problems with setup to begin with.

Do a Google search for "Snowboard Stance" or something like that and find out what the normal stance is that they set rental boards up with. Dial that in on your bindings and then move on from there a bit at a time.

You will find that people who do rails and park often push a "Duck" stance, which is where both feet are toes-out like this:

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But beginners and less park oriented riders push a stance where the back foot is more straight, and the front foot is toe out like this:

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Hopefully that terrible diagram helps make sense of it all.


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## Guest (Mar 12, 2009)

what board did you rent? i use a forum dw-153, its too hard to carve. and when i borrowed my friends rental board it felt so easy to carve and i noticed the flexibility of the board is way softer than mine.


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## DC5R (Feb 21, 2008)

At 135lbs, the 155 may be a little too stiff for you whereas rental boards tend to be considerably softer/more forgiving. Also, with only 3 days riding experience and a hyper-progressive sidecut on the Darkstar, you're definitely going to need extra time to learn to ride this board versus a rental.

As to your boots, give it a bit of time to break-in. My F20's were tight as hell in the toe box the first few times out, but now they're perfect.


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## Airman Fisk (Mar 10, 2009)

Alright thank you everyone who is giving me advice. it makes a lot of sense. And im hoping to gain weight  lol. Ill give those ideas a try. I just had no idea so that helped out a lot


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## jmacphee9 (Nov 11, 2008)

w3iiipu said:


> is ti really necessary to heat mold it?
> 
> i was told by a sales person at the store that even when the boot is not heat molded, after u wear it on the slopes for a while, the heat in ur boot will automatically heat mold the boot for ya.
> 
> i kinda regretted that i didnt have my 32 lashed heat molded coz i was in a hurry =(


alot of people will reccomend not heat molding your boots, they will naturally heat mold through riding and it maintains more strength.

imo your board is a good 3cm too big for an all mt board let alone park. i have a good 40 lbs on you and i felt like my 154 was too big for park, my 152 is perfect. bindings setup also sounds like a problem here..


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## Airman Fisk (Mar 10, 2009)

jmacphee9 said:


> imo your board is a good 3cm too big for an all mt board let alone park. i have a good 40 lbs on you and i felt like my 154 was too big for park, my 152 is perfect. bindings setup also sounds like a problem here..


Curse you people are Sport Challet!


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## Guest (Mar 14, 2009)

i would have to agree with binding setup also. 

i just changed my binding angles from 15/-15 to 18/-9 and then i saw the LIGHT! i played around with my bindings alot and couldnt find the optimal angles until today. also found out 25" width is way more comfy than 24".

i too was at mt.high today, icy and slushy as usual. although the lines were short and one more thing... magne traction ftw!


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