Shortline Record Tournament?

[VermontSkier]

Anyone have eyes on this? Is 41 going to happen for Howley?

[Horton]

He's got two more tries. it would be an understatement to say that he really wants it. we'll find out in a few hours

[VermontSkier]

thanks @horton fingers crossed!

[Horton]

one more try

[VermontSkier]

?

[david_ski]

Howley has an interesting binding setup. It requires an electric drill to get into and out of. Notice the band clamps on the hardshell cuff. there is no release from this.

 

 

[Horton]

nope.?

[VermontSkier]

Darn! Pulling for @JoelHowley and hope we see him again soon

[LK_skier]

bugger!! Would have been awesome to see...

[jjackkrash]

Close? Scores? I saw he got 3 first round.

[Than_Bogan]

Good luck Joel!

 

He actually talked about his binding setup at the last pro tour stop and it basically came down to "Don't Try This at Home." He's doing some aggressive experiments that may lead to running -41 and may eventually lead to some commercial boot designs. But right now he seems very aware that he is test piloting something rather dangerous.

 

It's hard to make big advancements in certain areas unless you have a few people willing to try something dangerous. So that's great, but us ordinary folks shouldn't be emulating any aspect of his setup just yet.

[Cooper_Trelawney]

Joel's back boot looks like a speed skating shoe or something. His front boot rightly gets a lot of attention but the whole set up is interesting.

[mmosley899]

@david_ski you can learn a lot by trial and error, but I prefer not to make a broken leg part of it!

 

[david_ski]

@mmosley899. I fully agree. Joel’s guidance is “don’t try this at home”. It was an observation that he is doing some very aggressive (and maybe very dangerous) experiments in his effort to push the envelope.

[MDB1056]

I'm a huge Joel Howley fan, and I'm confident we're all in agreement that experimentation is a key part of development, but what I'm not clear on in this case is what's the goal? It's obvious that running 41 can be done in rubber bindings or hard shells and all in between, which means shots at 43 have also been run in all the same. So it's a given you don't need a shin high boot to do either. I'm equally confident that Joel agrees that inescapable bindings tightened with a drill are not safe nor recommended. So again I'm back to what's the goal here? Again, if it's to run more buoys (41 & 43) it's already being done with safer proven methods.

[lpskier]

Jamie B designed a similar set up with the Stealth boot on a Fogman releasable plate. Notice the significant rear binding rotation.

 

@david_ski Do you have a picture of the tail of his ski. Interesting to know which tail he uses.