Alpina X5 Skiboard Ski Boots

[stevelaw]

Are the Alpina X5 Skiboard Ski Boots on SkiBoards.com any good? I just bought the Spruce 120 holiday package, and am looking for a cheaper pair of boots to get started. Any other recommendations, that aren't too expensive?

[valmorel]

take a look here

[Mr. Bluesky]

The Alpina R4s get mentioned a whole lot in that thread, and I'd be lying if I said they didn't look like an incredibly good option. The 40 flex concerns me, though. For someone who is 6'3" tall and primarily cruises groomers and steeps, would that hold me back at all?

[Bill]

The Alpina R4s get mentioned a whole lot in that thread, and I'd be lying if I said they didn't look like an incredibly good option. The 40 flex concerns me, though. For someone who is 6'3" tall and primarily cruises groomers and steeps, would that hold me back at all?

When that thread was current, I ordered a pair of Alpina RE's but had to return them for fit issues. If they had fit okay, the flex would have been a good thing, not a problem (I'm 6'4"). The 40 refers to fore-aft flex. For skiboards, we need good lateral edging (ankle) support but an upright stance and easy front-to-back flex is nothing but a plus. On top of this, they weigh practically nothing. Wendell picked up a pair and he likes them.

Folks on a budget (or even folks who are not) could do a lot worse than the Salomon RE boot models that Valmorel and Slow describe on that thread. They can be had on ebay for ridiculously cheap prices. I picked up a pair to check out this season on top of other, higher-dollar boots I have that are perfectly fine. The problematic thing is fit, as Salomon's sizing method is stupid. Slow put up a thread that addresses this. Offsetting is the fact that the RE system is pretty forgiving.