Cayman2

@jjr I have a new set of 12 LFF stealths. Let me know if you want them

Looks comfy! How did they work yesterday?

Hope they release off ski. If so, the angled relief under toe is very smart. Drastically shortens lever arm Achilles has to work against in a crusher. But one foot in-one foot out twister still an issue as with any non plate. Or bungy boot. Awful purty though. Need a light, cheap, unobtrusive, idiot proof system that covers crushers, twisters, one foot twisters AND let's you use boots of choice. You'd think with all the engineers on here spouting physics and mathy stuff somebody could come up with a clear winner. The market would be huge. Volumes would be in the tens! So let's just see here: what are the choices for an aging baller ........ OB4: not cheap not idiot proof. Not even MIT guy proof. Not unobtrusive. Theoretically suspect in crusher. Probably safest. Good twister and ofi-ofo Loose bungy boots: almost idiot proof(don't tighten them dumbass), about 8o% ok in all three fall types. Young strong guy will be fine. Wiley's: about same as loose bungy boots, but put your feet to sleep. Lace up rubber: suspect in all three falls, change perf with water temp, Stealth/fogman/ex:out of production. Good twister and ofi-off. Bad crushers. Reflex: can you say "torsional tib/fib fracture"? Front foot loaded twister a theoretical and proven disaster. And proven Achilles popper in crushers. Also some pretty egregious damage to rear shin in release. Not cheap. Not close to idiot proof. Annnnnd Hard shells on velcro: OMFG. Well... They are light. They are unobtrusive. They ski great. They are great in twister. Great in ofi/ofo. But, an older guy in a crusher is gonna need X-rays and time off. Not idiot proof. Retention changes with temp, number of releases. But, great for binding moves. Don't forget your rubber mallet! Gatormoded hard shells: seriously? LMFAO. So... All IMO. List is descending order of safety.

I never could get my '15 dialed. Made some ferocious turns, but never knew what was coming next. If I was very precise in body position into ball it was great. Unfortunately precise is not something I'm capable of. Gave up on it after a month. I'm a crappy ski tuner so probably somebody who knows what they are doing could get it to work. My big issue was sometimes it would not come back around after tipping it up on edge. Just kept motoring down the course. Every now and then it would come around hard and hook up quick.

@Ed_Johnson Cool. That course got me in some big trouble. Vaca with wife, first time in Kuai. All I wanted to do was ski that course when I was supposed to be gazing soulfully in her eyes over a fruity umbrella drink.

@klindy I agree the outbreak of "slalom ankle" is noticeably severe lately. I believe the epidemic is due to aging skier population and the proliferation of non-rubber boots that are not subject to any industry testing or even theory of operation review. I don't think jumping got any safer. Very few old guys jump, and everybody that does jump (almost) uses very old, but well understood binding tech. But we're off topic here. So......over and out.

@jimbrake I was a better slalom skier than jumper, but I only made it to nationals in jump. Love those three tries. I choke if I only get a practice session and a run on different water, dif boat, dif rope. My prob, nobody else's. But, that's why I don't ski much tourney since I quit jump. If the goal is qualify for nats, I'm not going anyway. Jump is like rodeo: not many people die, but most all participants get hurt pretty bad. It was a riot and rush while I did it ( till 35). But now at 56 I wish I'd never seen a ramp. I have no problem getting a young person into slalom. But, Like you say, I'd worry a lot about a kid getting hurt if I got him into jump. My kid hate skiing so I never faced your decision. But, overall, I think that's what happened to jump.

And run the two event (apologies to eleeski) with alternating trick/jump. Keep the spectators interested and hanging around for tricks.

And, run the 2 rnder as turn and burn. Twice the pulls in about 1.25 elapsed time.

Just schedule it. First 2 rounds are sl only, lumped into three days, other three days are two event using last round of slalom?

Hell. Maybe Bull riding?

Well, now I feel like a real horse's ass after all that stuff I said about gatormod. What's a couple of cut off fish poles compared to a half ton of analog instrumentation bolted to the front of your ski? @Wish maybe you ought to consider the tech approach to getting your head past your ankle injury.

Nope. Getting old.

Pain goes away it gets easier. Till then I can logic my way out of fear of re-injury, with varying degrees of success. Easiest is to convince myself a technology change will protect me. Then go buy new technology. Only works if I believe. Clearly not gonna be a science experiment gatormod for you. Next I try "rules of engagement" change based on circumstances surrounding injury: ie "no hitting balls, no skiing pissed". That approach kept me jumping for years but eventually the rules got so restrictive I could never jump. This one works pretty good too until you run out of loop holes in the rules. I have tried the statistics approach: been skiing long time, just got hurt, what are the odds it'll happen again. The smarter you are the worse this one works. Russian roulette is not a game enjoyed by our high iq citizens. Particularly when you have added another bullet in the cylinder by virtue of a weakened joint. Good luck. I've been toying with golf.

Agree with what mbabiash said. Plus, I find that if I stuff the nose it blows the tail in a weird and cool way. Instead of popping loose then catching in a sudden jerk it just kind of slides loose, then spins around the nose. Little risk. I doubt they designed it to protect me when I do stupid things, but, since I do stupid things, nice it doesn't hurt me when I do.