First off, I have to say the Blunts are amazing. The performance in a 88cm board is very impressive. Drifting/Slarving and flat spins are super easy and yet it just as easily lays down tight carves. (Note: I always used risers. They might be more difficult to get on edge without them.) They have pretty decent float in powder for a medium sized rider, although some weighting of the tails are useful when you don't have enough speed or steepness of inclines. I also found it useful to lean back in the slushy chopped up stuff at A-basin yesterday, but didn't need to as much in softer chopped up snow from earlier in the year. Edge hold on ice is pretty good too. And they are so maneuverable and fun.
I think I'm just echoing everyone else's raves at this point, since so much has been said about how great they are. They really do live up to the hype. At their length I found there are more fore/aft adjustments needed by the rider, but only a little more than say a traditional 99cm skiboard.
I'm very happy with them - especially given their size. A true game changer in the sport. Thanks Greco!
Their size leads me to the second part of the review. I've always ridden releasable bindings because I have short legs and have worried about spiral fractures, but the appeal of snowboard boots was very tempting, and after riding the Blunts I felt comfortable giving non-releasables a try on such a short board. Enter the SBOL Modified Snowjam 540s.
I'd like to thank everyone involved in making this cool product a reality! I know Greco, Jack, and Bill had a lot to do with this and Bee at GGO has developed a similar product. I'm sure there are others as well. Thanks to Greco for always providing excellent customer service and for his commitment to the sport. He helped me out a lot as I ventured into this new territory as I had absolutely no idea how snowboard bindings worked.
After shopping the end of season sales online and trying a lot of different boots and sizes (Zappos worked out well for this with their free returns for my hard to fit short wide feet), I ended up with DC Ceptors. They are an 8 out of 10 on their stiffness scale. No boas, but that brought down the price.
I was so excited when I finally got to try out the snowjam bindings on my Blunts, and then . . . major disappointment. I didn't have the control I had with my old spruce risers with ski boots. I even fell on very routine actions. I thought I might end up missing out on the soft boot fun. However, I wasn't ready to give up the dream so easily.
I remembered just how much my stance was corrected by my bootfitter with custom inserts for my ski boots, which cost a lot but were definitely worth it for my crazy weird feet. When trying on boots I put my custom inserts into the snowboard boots and it did help my stance, but I found a pair of superfeet that seemed to be doing the job and were more comfortable, so that's what I rode on. So, the first step was to go back to the custom inserts.
The next issue to address - the medium snowjam bindings were very tight with my size 8 DC Ceptors at the hinge of the highback. My guess is that this is because DC makes a wider boot, which of course is why I bought them, and the shape of the snowjam highback makes it curve inward a little at the hinge. The fit of the boot in the binding was so tight that the only way to get the boots against the highback was to step back into the bindings and force them through the highback hinge. I think this worked okay in theory and on carpet, but on snow, I don't think I got them far enough back, and because of the tightness of the highback hinge, ratcheting down the straps didn't help. So, I got out my dremel and shaved off a few millimeters on each highback hinge so that the boot had room to move back, but the highback was still structurally sound.
Back to the slopes I went, thinking I addressed the issues. Nope. I fell right away.
I looked at my boards and the left board was still pointing inward, not as much as with the superfeet inserts, but still significant. I then adjusted the snowboard binding to a 2.5 degree duck foot stance on my left board. I also noticed that I was not getting enough support leaning back - more of an issue in the slushy chop than before - so I added more forward lean than I already had set. (Thanks Jack for the post about how to adjust the bindings and Slow for the duck foot thread.)
Given my history so far, I wasn't expecting much at this point, but those simple adjustments made a world of difference. I now had great responsiveness in a comfortable and light set-up. I was having fun on the Blunts again - even more than with my ski boots and spruce risers. Perhaps it is the "feel" that Jack talks about. Your feet are more engaged, but I think that also means that they have to work a little, while in ski boots, your feet don't do much (at least I don't think they're supposed to).
All that to say, I'm now totally sold on this combo - Blunts with snowboard bindings and boots. It took a bit of experimentation and tweaking, but it was well worth it - even more so when I was walking back to the car. As Greco says in the product description for the snowjam bindings, "The holy grail of skiing".
I think I'm just echoing everyone else's raves at this point, since so much has been said about how great they are. They really do live up to the hype. At their length I found there are more fore/aft adjustments needed by the rider, but only a little more than say a traditional 99cm skiboard.
I'm very happy with them - especially given their size. A true game changer in the sport. Thanks Greco!
Their size leads me to the second part of the review. I've always ridden releasable bindings because I have short legs and have worried about spiral fractures, but the appeal of snowboard boots was very tempting, and after riding the Blunts I felt comfortable giving non-releasables a try on such a short board. Enter the SBOL Modified Snowjam 540s.
I'd like to thank everyone involved in making this cool product a reality! I know Greco, Jack, and Bill had a lot to do with this and Bee at GGO has developed a similar product. I'm sure there are others as well. Thanks to Greco for always providing excellent customer service and for his commitment to the sport. He helped me out a lot as I ventured into this new territory as I had absolutely no idea how snowboard bindings worked.
After shopping the end of season sales online and trying a lot of different boots and sizes (Zappos worked out well for this with their free returns for my hard to fit short wide feet), I ended up with DC Ceptors. They are an 8 out of 10 on their stiffness scale. No boas, but that brought down the price.
I was so excited when I finally got to try out the snowjam bindings on my Blunts, and then . . . major disappointment. I didn't have the control I had with my old spruce risers with ski boots. I even fell on very routine actions. I thought I might end up missing out on the soft boot fun. However, I wasn't ready to give up the dream so easily.
I remembered just how much my stance was corrected by my bootfitter with custom inserts for my ski boots, which cost a lot but were definitely worth it for my crazy weird feet. When trying on boots I put my custom inserts into the snowboard boots and it did help my stance, but I found a pair of superfeet that seemed to be doing the job and were more comfortable, so that's what I rode on. So, the first step was to go back to the custom inserts.
The next issue to address - the medium snowjam bindings were very tight with my size 8 DC Ceptors at the hinge of the highback. My guess is that this is because DC makes a wider boot, which of course is why I bought them, and the shape of the snowjam highback makes it curve inward a little at the hinge. The fit of the boot in the binding was so tight that the only way to get the boots against the highback was to step back into the bindings and force them through the highback hinge. I think this worked okay in theory and on carpet, but on snow, I don't think I got them far enough back, and because of the tightness of the highback hinge, ratcheting down the straps didn't help. So, I got out my dremel and shaved off a few millimeters on each highback hinge so that the boot had room to move back, but the highback was still structurally sound.
Back to the slopes I went, thinking I addressed the issues. Nope. I fell right away.
I looked at my boards and the left board was still pointing inward, not as much as with the superfeet inserts, but still significant. I then adjusted the snowboard binding to a 2.5 degree duck foot stance on my left board. I also noticed that I was not getting enough support leaning back - more of an issue in the slushy chop than before - so I added more forward lean than I already had set. (Thanks Jack for the post about how to adjust the bindings and Slow for the duck foot thread.)
Given my history so far, I wasn't expecting much at this point, but those simple adjustments made a world of difference. I now had great responsiveness in a comfortable and light set-up. I was having fun on the Blunts again - even more than with my ski boots and spruce risers. Perhaps it is the "feel" that Jack talks about. Your feet are more engaged, but I think that also means that they have to work a little, while in ski boots, your feet don't do much (at least I don't think they're supposed to).
All that to say, I'm now totally sold on this combo - Blunts with snowboard bindings and boots. It took a bit of experimentation and tweaking, but it was well worth it - even more so when I was walking back to the car. As Greco says in the product description for the snowjam bindings, "The holy grail of skiing".
Comment